EFFECTS OF BLENDED TEACHING STRATEGY ON SENIOR SECONDARY STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT IN HISTORY IN JOS SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Senior secondary school students have been performing poorly in history year after year. One of the factors responsible for this, is poor teaching strategies. This study examined the effects of blended teaching strategy on senior secondary students’ achievement in history in Jos South Local Government Area, Plateau State, Nigeria. The specific objective of this study, therefore, was to: determine the pre-test and post-test achievement mean scores of students in history in the experimental and control groups. The study adopted the quasi-experimental non-equivalent pre-test, post-test control group research design. One research question was answered and one hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population of the study consisted of 277 (122 males and 155 females) senior secondary II history students from two intact classes of two public co-educational senior secondary schools in Jos South LGA, Plateau State, Nigeria. One of the intact classes served as the experimental group, and the other as the control group. A sample size of 33 SS II history students were used as participants for the study. These consisted of 12 male and 21 female students. The experimental group had a total of 18 students (8 males and 10 females), while the control group had 15 students (4 males and 11 females) drawn through purposive and simple random sampling techniques. One instrument, History Achievement Test (HAT) was used for the purpose of data collection. HAT was validated by three experts and its reliability of internal consistency was established using Kuder-Richardson formula 20 (K-R-20) method which produced a reliability coefficient index of 0.883 obtained. The research question was answered using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses was tested at 0.05 level of significance using Analysis of Covariance. (ANCOVA). The statistical analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Service Solutions (SPSS) version 26. The findings of the study revealed that the experimental group taught using blended teaching strategy had a mean score of 54.89 with a standard deviation of 7.52 in the pre-test and a mean score of 64.89 with a standard deviation of 7.00 in the post test, higher than the pre-test score with a mean gain of 10.00.  It means that there was an improvement in the achievement of students after treatment. The control group had a mean score of 44.40 with a standard deviation of 5.14 in the pre-test and a mean score of 51.07 and a standard deviation of 6.76 in the post test, with a mean gain of 6.67.  The findings revealed that students in the experimental group had a higher achievement mean score (64.89) after treatment using blended teaching strategy as against those in the control group (51.07) with a post-test mean difference of 13.82 and a mean gain difference of 3.33. This indicated that blended teaching strategies did increased students’ achievement in history. It was recommended among others that blended teaching strategy should be adopted by history teachers in order to increase the engagement and achievement of students in history as a secondary school subject. In addition, government at all levels and parents should provide Information and Communication Technology gadgets and internet service connectivity in schools and at homes respectively to facilitate the integration of blended teaching and learning strategy in history inside and outside the classroom.