EFFECTS OF TWO METACOGNITIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES ON SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TO AND ACHIEVEMENT IN ECONOMICS IN DELTA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Learning Economics helps students understand and apply basic skills for sound economic decisions. Evidence from available records in Delta State shows poor performance in the subject, a trend that has largely been attributed to inappropriate teaching strategies. Past studies concentrated more on teaching methods which did not incorporate learning enhancement strategies. Thus, difficulty in learning persisted. Paraphrasing Teaching Strategy (PTS) helps a student to imbibe someone else’s idea and restate it without altering its original meaning. Through the use of imagery, encoding and retrieval cues, Mnemonics Teaching Strategy (MTS) help students to improve in both learning and recalling information. This study, therefore, was designed to determine the effects of PTS and MTS on students’ attitudes and achievement in Economics. The Moderating effects of verbal and numerical abilities were also examined. The Constructivist theory provided the framework, while the pretest posttest, control group quasi-experimental design using 3x2x2 factorial matrix was adopted. Three Local Government Areas (LGAs) were randomly selected from Delta Central Senatorial Zone from which three public senior secondary schools were randomly chosen, totalling nine schools. A school in each LGA was also randomly assigned to each of the PTS, MTS and control groups. An intact Economics class of SS II was selected from each school totalling 352 students. The instruments used were Economics Achievement Test (r=0.77), Students’ Attitude to Economics Scale (r=0.69), Verbal Ability Test (r=0.72) and Students’ Numerical Ability Test (r=0.76). Data were analysed using Multivariate Analysis of Covariance at α = 0.05. The metacognitive teaching strategies (MTS and PTS) had significant main effect on students’ attitude to Economics (F(2, 338) =13.372; η2=.073) and students’ achievement in Economics(F(2, 338)=43.816; η2 =.206). Students in mnemonics group had the highest mean score in students’ attitudes (𝑥̅=117.39), followed by paraphrasing (𝑥̅=113.19) and control (𝑥̅=110.36) groups. However, students in paraphrasing had the highest mean score in achievement (𝑥̅ =24.95), followed by those in mnemonics (𝑥̅ =20.10) and control (𝑥̅ =19.44) groups. There was no significant main effect of verbal ability on both students’ attitude and students’ achievement (F (1, 338) =1.849, η2=.005). There was no significant main effect of numerical ability on students’ attitude but there was on students’ achievement (F (1, 338) =13.844; η2=.039). There was no significant two-way interaction effect of treatment and verbal ability on students’ attitude (F (2, 338) =.492; η2=.003) and students’ achievement (F (2, 338) = 2.294; η2=.013). There was a significant interaction effect of treatment and numerical ability on students’ attitude (F (2, 338) =3.299; η2=.019) and students’ achievement (F (2, 338) =18.865; η2=.100). There was no three-way significant interaction effect of treatment, verbal ability and numerical ability on students’ attitude (F (2, 338) =.339, η2=.002) and students’ achievement (F (2, 338) =5.206; η2=.001). Mnemonics Teaching Strategy enhanced students’ attitude to Economics while Paraphrasing Teaching Strategy was more effective in enhancing students’ achievement in Economics. Economics teachers should be encouraged to apply both strategies to promote better learning.