EFFECTS OF STORYTELLING AND DRAMA INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES ON PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS’ LEARNING OUTCOMES IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

Social studies is taught in primary schools to equip pupils with knowledge of and attitude to social values and moral conducts. Evidence has shown that pupils exhibit deficiencies in these outcomes in Ibadan. Previous studies focused largely on predicting factors influencing pupils’ learning outcomes in social studies using survey design with little consideration for intervention studies using literature-based child-centred instructional strategies (storytelling and drama). This study, therefore, was carried out to determine the effects of Storytelling Instructional Strategy (SIS) and Drama Instructional Strategy (DIS) on primary school pupils’ learning outcomes (achievement, attitude and social skills) in Ibadan, Nigeria. The moderating effects of learning styles (visual, audio and kinaesthetic) and school location (rural and urban) were also examined.

Experiential Learning and Vygostyky’s Socio-cultural theories provided the framework, while the pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design with a 4x2x3 factorial matrix was adopted. Four out of the existing 11 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Ibadan were randomly selected. Two public primary schools each from urban and rural areas were randomly selected from each LGA, and randomly assigned to SIS (49), DIS (80), SIS + DIS (46) and conventional (87) strategies. An intact primary IV class was used from each school. Treatment lasted 12 weeks. Instruments used were Achievement Test in Social Studies (r=0.72), Pupil’s Attitude to Social Studies Scale (r=0.77), Pupils’ Social Skills Observational Schedule (r=0.84). Gardner 1993-based Pupils’ Learning Style Questionnaire (r=0.74) and instructional guides. Data were analysed using Analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post-hoc test at 0.05 level of significance.

The participants were from rural (52.3%) and urban (47.7%) areas. Treatment had a significant main effect on pupils’ achievement (F(3,237) = 15.36; partial η2 = 0.16) but not on attitude and social skills. Pupils in SIS had the highest achievement mean score (17.64), followed by pupils in DIS (17.35), SIS + DIS (16.88) and control (14.71) groups. School location had a significant main effect on pupils’ achievement (F (1,237) =9.44; partial η2 = 0.04) but not on attitude and social skills. Pupils in rural schools had the higher post achievement mean score (19.09) than their counterparts in the urban (16.22); while learning styles had no significant main effect. The two-way interaction effect of treatment and school location was significant on pupils’ achievement (F (3,237) =3.59; partial η2 = 0.04) and attitude (F (3,237) = 7.29; partial η2 = 0.09) in favour of pupils in rural schools from SIS group but not on social skills. The two way interaction effect of treatment and learning styles as well as learning styles and school location were not significant. The three-way interaction effect of treatment, school location and learning style on learning outcomes was not significant.

Storytelling and drama instructional strategies enhanced pupils’ achievement in social studies in Ibadan, Nigeria. Therefore, combination of the two strategies should be adopted as modes of instruction particularly in teaching pupils from urban area.