ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effect of Jigsaw cooperative teaching and learning strategy on secondary school students’ academic achievement and retention in Economics in Abia State, Nigeria. The study adopted Quasi-experimental non-randomized design, comprising two groups (experimental and control). The study reviewed related literature based on the major variables. The population of the study was 13,288 SS2 Economics students drawn from co-education public secondary school in Aba Education zone of Abia State. The sample size for the study was 96 SS2 Economics students comprising 38 males and 58 females. The experimental group was 50 students comprising 18 males and 32 females, while the control group comprised 46 students made up of 26 males and 20 females.  The instrument used for the study was Economics Achievement Test (EAT) consisting of 40 multiple-choice questions with four options (A to D) having one as the correct answer. The EAT was validated by three experts; one expert each from Economics Education, Department of Educational Management, Measurement and Evaluation from Science Education Department, both from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, and one senior Economics teacher from government secondary school Aba. The reliability of the instrument was established using trial testing method with 25 copies of EAT administered to SS 2 students of Government College Umuahia offering Economics which is outside the sampled schools. The scores obtained from the Achievement test were analysed using Kuder-Richardson (K-R20), the reliability index of 0.76 was obtained. Six purposes, six research questions and corresponding six hypotheses guided the study. Data collected was analyzed using mean to answer the research questions, while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was employed to test the hypotheses. Findings showed that the mean achievement and retention scores of experimental group were significantly higher than that of the control group. In terms of gender, findings revealed that there was no significant difference between the mean achievement and retention scores of male and female students when taught using Jigsaw cooperative teaching strategy. Therefore, the strategy is gender-friendly; it is recommended that Economics teachers should endeavor to employ Jigsaw cooperative teaching and learning strategies in Economics classes/lecture.