ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effect of Cooperative learning and Advance Organizers strategies on senior secondary school students’ academic interest and achievement in Christian Religious Studies. The study which adopted a quasi-experimental, pretest posttest non-equivalent control group research design was carried out in Akwa Ibom State. A sample of 146 secondary school (SSII) students drawn from a population of 2311 was used for the study using purposive sampling technique. Data were collected using a 37-multiple choice questions titled: Christian Religious Studies Achievement Test (CRSAT) and a 10-item Christian Religious Studies Interest Rating Scale (CRSIRS). The instruments were validated by three experts. The CRSAT instrument was subjected to a reliability test analysis using Kudder Richardson (K-R₂₀) formula to determine the internal consistency which yielded an index of 0.78 while that of CRSIRS was tested for stability and internal consistency using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Cronbach Alpha statistic which yielded 0.83 and 0.86 respectively. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null-hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results showed, among others, that Cooperative learning and Advance Organizers instructional strategies had statistically significant and increasing effect on students’ interest and achievements in Christian Religious Studies than the lecture method. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended, among others, that teachers should use Cooperative learning and Advance Organizers strategies more regularly in teaching Christian Religious Studies to the students and de-emphasize the use of conventional lecture method all the time.