By Kazi, FK; Ariya, DA; Jacob, S (2024). Greener Journal of Educational Research, 14(1): 90-98.
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Vol. 14(1), pp. 90-98, 2024
ISSN: 2276-7789
Copyright ©2024, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
https://gjournals.org/GJER
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15580/GJER.2024.1.090824111
1,3 Department of social studies, federal college of education, Pankshin, Plateau state, Nigeria
2 Department of social science, University of Jos, Plateau state, Nigeria.
Type: Research
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DOI: 10.15580/GJER.2024.1.090824111
The study investigate the Effects Of Individualized Learning Technique On Achievement Of Upper Basic Social Studies Students In Pankshin Local Government Area Of Plateau State, Nigeria. The research employed quasi-experimental, non-equivalent pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental research design. The population consisted of 1,191 students of the public secondary schools. The population is presented in Table 2. It is made up of 663 male and 528 female. The sample was 153 Social Studies students in the intact classes. The experimental groups consisted of 44 males and 41 females while the control groups was made of 38 males and 30 females. The stratified sampling technique was adopted to select the sample for the study. This technique is deemed appropriate because the researcher intended to use students in urban and rural schools for the study. Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT), as instrument for data collection. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer all the research questions while inferential statistics specifically, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The use of ANCOVA helped to control any initial differences that existed between the group in the dependent variables and other extraneous factors that could affect the results other than the treatment. The findings revealed that The experimental groups have a mean score of 34.04 with a standard deviation of 10.21 in the pre-test and a mean score of 66.96 with a standard deviation of 10.15 in the post-test, higher than the pre-test mean score with a mean gain of 32.92. This means that there was an improvement in the achievement of students after treatment. The findings reveal that students in the experimental group had a higher achievement mean score (66.96) after treatment using individualized learning technique as against those in the control group (40.54) who were not given treatment, with a mean difference of 27.2. The study recommends among others that Educational authorities in Plateau State should consider integrating individualized learning strategies into the curriculum for Social Studies and other subjects. This can be done through the development of teaching materials that cater to diverse learning styles and paces.
Published: 02/10/2024
Felicia, K. Kazi
Email: feliciakazi@ gmail .com
Education is a cornerstone of human development that plays a pivotal role in shaping individuals and influencing the trajectory of societies. Education is not merely a process of acquiring information rather it is the process of acquiring knowledge. It is a dynamic force that cultivates intellectual curiosity, refines skills, and molds character. Education serves as a beacon of guiding individuals towards self-discovery and equipping them with the tools necessary to navigate the complexities of life. Whether through formal institutions or informal learning experiences (Agada, 2018). Education empowers individuals to unlock their latent potential, fostering a sense of self-efficacy and confidence. The influence of education extends far beyond the individual, reverberating throughout the broader societal landscape. A well-educated populace forms the bedrock of a thriving society, contributing to economic prosperity, technological innovation, and social cohesion. Societal progress is intrinsically tied to the collective intelligence and capabilities of its citizens, and education serves as the catalyst for the cultivation of these essential qualities.
In order to achieve its goals, education should provide opportunities for learners to acquire knowledge, values, skills, attitudes for future development as enshrined in the goals of secondary education in Nigeria. The federal government of Nigeria (FGN) in its National Policy on Education, (NPE) (2014) further states that Universal Basic Education (UBE) should provide the child with diverse basic knowledge and skills for entrepreneurship and educational advancement for future living, develop patriotic young minds well-equipped to contribute to social development and achievement of civic responsibilities, inculcation of worthwhile values, and to raise morally upright individuals capable of independent thinking among others. This is the gap social studies was introduced into the curriculum to fill as these educational goals can be realized through effective teaching and learning of social studies. It is for this reason that the National Council of Education (NCE) through Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) came up with curriculum of social studies having education related contents including values, attitudes, peace, human right, education, entrepreneurial skills (NERDC, 2014).
Social Studies is vital because it is an essential linking thread at all the levels of education in Nigeria. Social Studies is a compulsory subject in upper basic education in Nigeria. The National Council on Education (NCE) accepted and recommended it as the study of man as a biological, political, social, economic and spiritual being responsible for and responsive to nature in all its ramifications. The subject is also offered in schools in order to nurture responsible citizens to acquire new skills and knowledge for good and successful life.
From the foregoing, it will be right to declare that education and social Studies have many things in common. For instance, Ariya (2012) defines education as a lifelong process which transforms an individual from the helpless, dependent creature to a self-reliant, rational and skillful person who can contribute meaningfully to the development of the society. Since education is a way of making a better living through meaningful contribution of an individual, the concern of most educators, stakeholders and the researchers is how education could be effectively transmitted to individuals. Social studies on the other hand, has been variously defined as a spiral ecological study which starts from self to family, harmlet, village, district, local government area, town, state, country, continent, and world at large. (Kazi, 2017). Social Studies is an integrated study of man as he battles for survival in both the psychical and social environment. It is those portions of social sciences selected for instructional purposes which apply to anything pertinent to the immediate purpose of learning and adopted to the level of comprehension of students.
Social Studies is also viewed as an interdisciplinary approach to the study of human beings in groups or individuals with their inter-relationships within social and physical environment. Social Studies is an instrument for preparing and mobilizing learners for the purpose of enabling them to be aware and understand the tasks that would transform good citizens with competent skills and good moral values and attitudes to interact, interpret and contribute positively and cultural development of their society. Social Studies according to Section 19(c) and 24(a) of the National Policy on Education (2014) is a significant subject area that should be compulsorily taught to all primary and junior secondary school students’ because of its immense value of instilling attitudinal and intellectual worth in learners and at the same transform their reasoning and critical thinking abilities thereby enhancing their innate and creative skills capable of initiating technological awareness in them, leading to technological development in the society. The decline in academic achievement in Social Studies by students in upper basic education (UBE) has shown that in 2019 students achievement in BECE was a source of concern to parents teachers and all stakeholders in education.
In spite of the crucial role of Social Studies in contributing to the development of the spirit of patriotism, loyalty, spirit of fair play, justice, national consciousness, preserving the country’s national heritage and becoming useful citizens to the nation, students achievement in the subject has been low. There is steady decline in students’ achievement in Social Studies in upper basic education (UBE) in 2019 BECE in Plateau State. This is due largely to teaching methods employed by teachers, inadequate motivation of students, inadequate instructional materials, students interest towards the subject and wrong use of instructional materials (Agara (2010). The consequence of this is that there is perennial poor achievement by students in internal and external examination apart from the growing nepotism, corruption, religious intolerance, rape, abortion, drug addiction, insecurity and other such devices that the teaching of social studies is supposed to eliminate from the society.
Individualized learning technique gives students the opportunity to engage in the teaching and learning process by engaging in their own activities and at their pace. It helps in meeting the differences in individual learning style and rate. Individualized learning technique provides students the opportunity to grow in self-discipline, self-motivation and also presents occasion for genuine interaction between the teachers and students which is lacking in the traditional teaching.
Another variable of interest to this study is motivation. Motivating students to learn is very important and is a great concern for this study, because motivation brings about interest and concentration among students to learn in school. Motivation is an arousal of learning behaviour or action by an individual. Motivation is a important variable in teaching and learning Social Studies by students. It enhances academic achievement of students if properly employed by teachers and students of Social Studies through individualized learning technique.
Considering the other variables of the study and with some scholars asserting that female students achieve higher than males in Social Studies and vice versa, this study deems it fit to investigate whether gender could influence students’ achievement in Social Studies in Upper Basic II in Pankshin Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria when taught using Individualized learning technique.
Available statistics from the educational resource center Jos revealed that students performance in Basic certificate examination BECE from 2016-2019 shows that students performance basic education certificate examination is low (BECE report (2019). Parents, teachers and students have continued to laments the poor performance of students in Social Studies. the (BECE) results reveals that students’ academic achievement in Social Studies recorded a decline from 2016 through 2019 the results show a 7% decline which indicates that only 58% of the population passed by scoring credit and above in 2016, likewise 42% passed with credit and above, while in 2017, 51% had distinction and above and 40% had ordinary passes. In 2018 there was a little bit of improvement with 60% credit pass but there was downward movement in 2019 with only 50% pass.
Some reasons that have been advance for students’ poor performance in social studies include; method of teaching used by teachers, attitude of students towards social studies, interest towards social studies, lack of instructional materials for teaching social studies among others. Efforts have been put in place to improve student’s achievement using different strategies. This include, preparation of students for the examination through extra lessons, training and retraining of teachers, used of new methods of teaching and organization of compulsory preps. The consequence of this is that students will not be able to read courses of their choice at the senior secondary school level and at the higher level of education. Individualized learning technique has been found to promote students deeper understanding or higher cognition and gives students the opportunity to engage in their own activities at their pace.
The aim of this study is to examine the effects of individualized learning technique on achievement of Upper Basic Social Studies students in Pakshin local Government Area of Plateau State, Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study are to:
determine the pre-test and post-test achievement mean scores of students taught Social Studies with individualized learning technique and conventional technique.
examine the difference in the achievement mean scores of male and female students in Social Studies after exposure to individualized learning technique.
determine the achievement mean scores of urban and rural social studies students’ exposed to individualized learning technique.
what is the achievement mean score of students taught Social Studies with individualized learning technique and those taught with conventional technique?
What is the achievement mean scores of male and female students in Social Studies after exposure to individualized learning technique?
What is the achievement mean scores of Urban and Rural school students in Social Studies Education after exposure to Individualized Learning technique?
There is no significant difference between the post-test achievement mean scores of students in Social Studies in the experimental and control group.
There is no significant difference between the achievement mean scores of male and female students taught Social Studies using Individualized learning techniques
There is no significant difference between the post-test achievement mean scores of urban and rural students taught Social Studies Using Individualized learning techniques.
The subject Social Studies is viewed by many authors or educators as civics or any of the social science subjects like geography or sociology. Peoples’ opinions about what Social Studies is vary from country to country and from individual to individual. However, Social Studies is a subject which deals with the network of relationship of man and with his social and physical environment. It is concerned with man’s surviving efforts in the society. Man relates with his environment, his environment influences him and he in turn influences his environment in an attempt to survive (Igba, 2004).
Udoko, (2012) defines Social Studies as an integrated study of the Social Sciences and humanities which promotes civic competence and helps young people to develop as citizens of culturally diverse, democratic society in an independent world. This means that, Social Studies which is seen as citizenship education focuses on positive socio-civic living by young people in the society. Thus, the study of the subject Social Studies in context and its application to daily living of an individual has made the society worth living in. Kazi (2017) define Social Studies as a subject that concerns itself with how people live, where they live, how they structure their society, how they govern themselves, how they provide for their material and psychological needs and why they love or hate each other, how they use and misuse the resources of the earth-planet.
Kazi (2017) defines Social Studies as a study of man as a biological, social, political, economic and spiritual being, responsible and responsive to nature in all its ramifications. In order words, Kazi sees Social Studies as an eclectic distillation of social phenomena for socio-civic living or behaviour in the society. The author asserts that Social Studies is both value-free and value-laden in nature which dispensers or teachers of the subject must be aware of how to produce effective citizens for Nigeria.
Individualized learning technique is a means or way of teaching in which content, instructional technology and pace of learning are based upon the abilities and interests of each learner (Dunn, 2015). The use of individualized learning technique in teaching of Social Studies is based on five (5) steps as: Setting clear and specific goals or objectives; making goals or objectives challenging and realistic; Making goals or objectives dynamic and review regularly; letting students or learners own their own progress; and; involving parents or guardians in the process. The implication of this is that, to individualized instruction in Social Studies education, students should be provided with learning experiences that are personal and meaningful thereby enabling them to move in the direction of goals or objectives that are believed to be important in ways that maximize their success and potentials.
The individualization of learning technique stresses independence and self-direction on the part of the learner with a lot of flexibility in which the teacher’s sensitivity to and caring about idiosyncrasies of individual student is critical. The teacher sees individual student rather than the entire class together. The teacher places greater emphasis on diagnosis not in the remedial sense but to find out the level at which a student is functioning. For this reason, the technique is not teacher-centered but student-centered. Individualized learning is highly flexible as it uses multiple materials and procedures in which a student is given a substantial responsibility for planning and carrying out his own organized programme of studies, with assistance of his teacher so that the student’s progress is determined solely in terms of those plans. Individualized learning technique is a total educational programme incorporating all useful concepts known to enhance the learning process. Its success depends upon an optimal balance between the student’s own self-appraisal and the teacher’s counsel – the student does not progress autonomously in his learning programme.
The Individualized learning technique as construed in this study is an approach that allows every student to learn at his/her own pace with minimal teacher’s direction. Devery (2015) explain some of the major benefits from individualized learning technique to include: promotion or development of individualization, which stresses independence and self-direction on the part of the learner with a lot of flexibility, development of research skills in which learners develop skills like reading, collecting, writing and reporting, also, it enhances the development of presentation skills where the students are involved in skills of describing, telling, illustration, exhibiting and dramatizing. The individualized learning technique promotes the development of creative experience which enhances writing, drawing, sketching, modeling, painting, constructing, singing and carving skills in the learners.
The effects of individualized instruction on achievement are varied. In others words effective individualized instruction uses different learning modes. Learning modes in individualized instruction allow for self-pacing. Thus, the individuals learn at their own pace, taking their time to understand difficult materials, ask questions, and make inquiry. This kind of learning raises the motivation in the learner since the understanding of one concept motivates them to learn the next related concepts as learning is in sequence and systematically planned. Consequently, this, positively affects students ‘achievement. Researchers and scholars: in Social Studies education like Jarolimek cited in Dewey (2015) stresses that individualized learning technique essentially develops independence and self-direction on the part of Social Studies learners where the teachers’ attitude of sensitivity to and care about the idiosyncrasies of individual learner is critical. At this stage, the teacher sees individual student rather than the class. He or she places emphasis on diagnosis and on how the student is working. To affirm this, Dunn (2015) found out that activity based approach in individualize learning technique has effective effects on social studies students on their imagination and activities like writing, drawing and reporting.
The research employed quasi-experimental, non-equivalent pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental research design. The design is appropriate since the school authority did not allow the randomization of subjects into experimental and control groups. The design involved experimental and control groups which participants were not assigned to group by the researcher, but pre-existing as intact classes.
The population for the study comprised all the 25 public Upper Basic Secondary Schools in Pankshin Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau State. The population consisted of 1,191 students of the public secondary schools. The population is presented in Table 2. It is made up of 663 male and 528 female.
The sample for the study consisted of four public Upper Basic Secondary Schools in Pankshin LGA. The four schools were having two control and two experimental groups. The sample was 153 Social Studies students in the intact classes. The experimental groups consisted of 44 males and 41 females while the control groups was made of 38 males and 30 females.
The stratified sampling technique was adopted to select the sample for the study. This technique is deemed appropriate because the researcher intended to use students in urban and rural schools for the study.
Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT) as instrument for data collection. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer all the research questions while inferential statistics specifically, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The use of ANCOVA helped to control any initial differences that existed between the group in the dependent variables and other extraneous factors that could affect the results other than the treatment.
Research Question One
What is the achievement score of students taught Social Studies with individualized learning technique and those taught with conventional technique?
Table 1: Pre-test and Post-test Achievement Mean Scores of students taught social studies in the Experimental and Control Groups
34.82
The result presented in Table 1 show the pre-test and post-test achievement mean scores of students in social studies in Pankshin. The experimental groups have a mean score of 34.04 with a standard deviation of 10.21 in the pre-test and a mean score of 66.96 with a standard deviation of 10.15 in the post-test, higher than the pre-test mean score with a mean gain of 32.92. This means that there was an improvement in the achievement of students after treatment. Also, the control groups have a mean score of 34.82 with a standard deviation of 10.38 in the pre-test and a mean score of 40.54 with a standard deviation of 10.92 in the post test, with a mean gain of 5.72. The findings reveal that students in the experimental group had a higher achievement mean score (66.96) after treatment using individualized learning technique as against those in the control group (40.54) who were not given treatment, with a mean difference of 27.2. This indicates that individualized learning technique does increase students’ achievement in social studies education.
Research Question Two
Table 2: Post-test Achievement Mean Scores of Male and Female students taught Social Studies Using Individualized learning techniques
Male
Table 2 shows that male had a mean score of 62.50 with a standard deviation of 9.27 in the post-test achievement of students. The females also have a mean score of 71.76 with a standard deviation of 8.85 in the post-test achievement of students. The findings shows that female students have a higher mean score (71.76) than the male students who have a mean score of (62.50) when exposed to the individualized learning technique with a mean difference of 9.26. This means that female students achieved better than male students in social studies in Pankshin LGA.
Research Question Three
Table 3: Post-test Achievement Mean Scores of Urban and Rural Social Studies Students in individualized learning technique
Table 10 reveals that students from urban schools had a mean score of 71.33 with a standard deviation of 8.03 in the post-test achievement of students in social studies. The students from the rural schools also have a mean score of 61.82 with a standard deviation of 9.11 in the post-test achievement of students. The findings shows that urban school students in the experimental group have a higher mean score (71.33) than the rural school students who have a mean score of (61.82) when taught social studies using individualized learning technique with a mean difference of 9.51. This is an indication that urban school students performed better than rural school students.
Hypothesis One: There is no significant difference between the pretest and post-test achievement mean scores of students in Social Studies in the experimental and control group.
Table 4: ANCOVA Result on Post-test Mean Scores of Students in Social Studies in the Experimental and Control Groups
25264.545
989.788
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to determine if there is a significant difference between the pretest and post-test achievement mean scores of students in Social Studies in the experimental and control groups. Table 14 shows that F (150) = 256.11, P< 0.05, since the P- value of .000 is less than .05, the null hypothesis was therefore rejected, it was concluded that there is a significant difference between the pretest and post-test achievement mean scores of Social Studies students in the experimental and control groups. The result further shows an adjusted R squared value of .631, which means that 63.1% of the variation in the dependent variable which is students’ achievement is explained by variation in treatment, while the remaining is due to other factors not included in this study. This means that individualized learning technique can help improve the achievement of students in social studies.
Hypothesis Two
Table 5: ANCOVA Result on Post-test Mean Scores of Male and Female Students in Social Studies Experimental and Control Group
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to determine if there is a significant difference between the post-test achievement mean scores of male and female students taught Social Studies using individualized learning techniques. Table 5 shows that the F-value for gender is 20.03 with significant P-value of .000 which is less than .05. The null hypothesis was therefore rejected, it was concluded that there was a significant difference between the post-test achievements mean scores of male and female students taught Social Studies using Individualized learning technique. The result further shows an adjusted R squared value of .191 which means that 19.1% of the variation in the dependent variable which is students’ achievement is explained by variation in gender, while the remaining is due to treatment and other factors not included in this study. Hence, individualized learning technique can help of improve the achievement of students in social studies in favour of female students.
Hypothesis three
Table 6: ANCOVA Result on Post-test Mean Scores of Urban and Rural Students in Social Studies Experimental and Control Group
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to determine if there is a significant difference between the post-test achievement mean scores of urban and rural students taught Social Studies using individualized learning techniques. Table 16 shows that the F-value for the school location (urban/rural) is 21.42 with significant P -value of .000 which is less than .05, the null hypothesis was therefore rejected. With this result, there was a significant difference between the post-test motivation mean scores of urban and rural students taught Social Studies using Individualized learning technique. The result further shows an adjusted R squared value of .202 which means that 20.2% of the variation in the dependent variable which is students’ achievement is explained by variation in school location, while the remaining is due to treatment and other factors not included in this study. This means that individualised learning technique has an effect on the achievement of urban and rural school students in social studies. This implies that individualized learning technique can help improve the achievement of students in social studies in favour of urban school students.
The findings were that the mean achievement scores of students taught using individualized technique were higher than the mean achievement scores of those taught with conventional methods. Dunn (2015) found out that activity based approach in individualize learning technique has effective effects on social studies students on their imagination and activities like writing, drawing and reporting. Zywno and Waalen (2017) in their study found that individualized instruction increased students’ achievement and was significantly better than the conventional teaching lecture method. The effects of individualized instruction on achievement are varied. In others words effective individualized instruction uses different learning modes. Learning modes in individualized instruction allow for self-pacing. The findings is in line with those of Owoye and Yara (2011) who found that Social Studies students from urban schools performed better than those from rural secondary schools. Ezendu and Obi (2013) opined that both gender and location have effects on students’ achievement in Chemistry in secondary schools. Furthermore, Onukwo (2014) asserts that if a school is located at a noisy place like airport, market or factory with constant noise and vibration, they will disrupt teaching and learning thereby affecting academic achievement by the learners.
The study on the effects of individualized learning techniques on the achievement of upper basic Social Studies students in Pankshin Local Government Area of Plateau State, Nigeria, reveals several important findings. Individualized learning, which tailors instruction to the needs, pace, and interests of each student, significantly enhances students’ understanding and retention of Social Studies content compared to traditional, one-size-fits-all methods. Students exposed to individualized learning techniques demonstrated higher achievement levels in Social Studies. This suggests that when learning is personalized, students tend to grasp concepts more effectively. Individualized learning led to greater student engagement, as it allowed learners to explore topics at their own pace, which increased their motivation and participation in classroom activities. The technique enhanced critical thinking, problem-solving, and self-directed learning skills among students, essential for the comprehension of Social Studies content. Individualized learning effectively accommodates students with diverse learning abilities, ensuring that both high-achievers and slower learners can succeed.
Integration of Individualized Learning in Curriculum: Educational authorities in Plateau State should consider integrating individualized learning strategies into the curriculum for Social Studies and other subjects. This can be done through the development of teaching materials that cater to diverse learning styles and paces.
Teacher Training and Development: Teachers should be trained on how to effectively implement individualized learning techniques in the classroom. Workshops, seminars, and in-service training can equip teachers with the skills necessary to create personalized lesson plans and manage a differentiated classroom.
Provision of Learning Resources: Adequate resources such as digital tools, textbooks, and instructional aids should be provided to support individualized learning. Access to technology would be particularly beneficial in enabling personalized learning paths for each student.
Continuous Assessment: A continuous assessment model should be adopted to track student progress. This will allow teachers to identify areas where students struggle and adjust instruction accordingly, ensuring that all students benefit from individualized learning.
Further Research: Additional research should be conducted on the long-term effects of individualized learning on student achievement across different subjects and local government areas. Such research will provide a broader understanding of its impact and areas for improvement.
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Kazi, FK; Ariya, DA; Jacob, S (2024). Effects of individualized learning technique on achievement of upper basic social studies students in Pankshin local government area of plateau state, Nigeria. Greener Journal of Educational Research, 14(1): 90-98.
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