EFFICACY OF SELF-DIRECTED AND COLLABORATIVE CONSTRUCTIVISM INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES ON JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' ENGAGEMENT IN BASIC SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN ADAMAWA STATE

Abstract

The study examined the effects of self-directed and social
collaborative constructivism instructional strategies on junior
secondary school students' engagements in Basic Science and
Technology in Jada Local Government Area of Adamawa State.
The population for the study consisted of 20,625 JSS II Basic
Science and Technology Students in Public Schools in Jada Local
Government Area of Adamawa State. A quasi-experimental
research design was utilized, conducted in field settings where
random assignment impossible or absent. Simple random
sampling technique was employed to select 105 Junior Secondary
School two students from three schools in Jeda Local
Governments, Adamawa State, Nigeria for the study. Participants
were randomly assigned to conventional lecture, self-directed and
social collaborative constructivism instructional activities. The treatment lasted for 8 weeks. Students' Classroom Engagement
Observation Assessment (SCEOA, r=0.84) was designed,
developed, validated and used by the researchers for the study.
Two hypotheses were raised to test the significant difference
between lecture, collaborative and self-directed constructivism
instructional strategies activities in Basic Science and Technology
and significant difference between gender and students'
engagements in Basic Science and Technology in selected
concepts. The two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of
significance. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation,
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and t -test analysis. The study
revealed there was significant effects in the students' engagements
between students exposed to lecture, collaborative and self
directed constructivism instructional strategies (F=37.33;
p<0.05). The finding also indicated that there was no significant
difference in the engagement activities of male and female
students (t=1.890; p>0.05) It was therefore recommended that
Basic Science and Technology teachers should be encouraged to
facilitate students' engagement activities using constructivism
based instructional strategies.