EFFECTS OF BUZZ-GROUP AND FUTURES-WHEEL STRATEGIES ON JUNIOR SCHOOL STUDENTS' LEARNING OUTCOMES IN PEACE EDUCATION CONCEPTS IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN OYO STATE

Abstract

Peace Education Concepts (PECs) are taught in social studies to equip learners with desirable Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) of peace in their environment. However, reports from schools reveal that many Junior Secondary (JS) students are deficient in KAP of peace concepts in Oyo town, Nigeria as evident in their involvement in several violent acts. Previous studies focused largely on teacher and student factors influencing learning outcomes in PECs in social studies, with little emphasis on the impact of intervention using active learning strategies. This study, therefore, was carried out to determine the effects of Buzz-Group (BG) and Futures-Wheel (FW) strategies on JS students’ learning outcomes in KAP in PECs in Social Studies in Oyo town, Nigeria. The moderating effects of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and School Location (SL) were also examined.

The study was anchored to Lev Vygotsky Social Constructivist Learning Theory, while the pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design, using a 3x3x2 factorial matrix, was adopted. The three local governments were enumerated in Oyo town. The purposive sampling was used to select six secondary schools based on frequent student violence and unrest. Six intact classes of Junior Secondary 2 (one per school) were randomly assigned to BG (52), FW (66) and control (73) groups. The instruments used were PECs Knowledge Test (r = 0.80); Student Attitude to PECs (r = 0.86), Student Practice of PECs (r = 0.76) scale and instructional guides. The treatment lasted 12 weeks. Data were analysed using Analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post-hoc test at 0.05 level of significance.

The participants were of 12.32±1.13 age and 59% females. The treatment had significant main effects on student knowledge (F(2,175); = 31.92; partial ŋ2 = 0.27) and practice (F(2,175)= 3.27; partial ŋ2 = 0.04), but not on attitude. The participants in BG had the highest knowledge mean score (13.64), followed by FW (12.58) and the control (8.32) groups. The participants in the control group had the highest practice mean score (56.44; BG, 50.79 and FW, 49.29), probably because practice does not rest only on teaching strategies but also on other factors like students’ home background, and pauses for direct oral questioning in conventional strategy.. The EI had a significant main effect on student attitude (F(2,175)= 3.71; partial ŋ2 = 0.04), but not on knowledge and practice. The SL had significant main effects on student knowledge (F(1.175)= 11.22; partial ŋ2 = 0.06) and practice (F(1.175)= 14.23; partial ŋ2 = 0.08), but not on attitude. The students from rural had a higher knowledge mean score (12.93) than their counterparts from urban schools. Treatment and school location had significant interaction effect on student knowledge (F(4,175)= 14.96; partial ŋ2 = 0.15) in favour of the students from rural in BG group. The two-way interaction effects of emotional EI and SL were not significant. The three-way interaction effects were also not significant.

Buzz-group and futures-wheel strategies enhanced student learning outcomes in Peace Education Concepts in social studies in Oyo town, Nigeria. The two strategies should be adopted in the teaching of PECs.