COMPARATIVE EFFECTS OF JIGSAW LEARNING TECHNIQUES AND CONVENTIONAL METHOD ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION

Abstract

This raising concern for persistent failure of students in business mathematics at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria prompted the researchers to investigate the effectiveness of jigsaw technique on students' retention and academic achievement in the subject. Quasi-experimental design that implies the used two groups of students (Experimental and control) was employed in the study. All the 217 students that offered business mathematics in 2011/2012 academic session were used as the population and sample size. Two instruments titled Business Mathematics Retention Test (BMRT) and Business Mathematics Achievement Test (BMAT) were used for data collection. The first and second diagnostic tests were administered to the students after exposing the experimental group to treatment. The scripts of the testes were collected and marked using the drawn marking scheme. Marked scripts were coded into Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) 18. The package was used to run t-test in testing all the four null hypotheses at significance level of0.05. The result of the study shows that students who learned business mathematics using jigsaw technique achieved better and have better retention ability than those in conventional lectures method. Based on the outcome of the study, the researchers recommended among others that, in skills related courses, lecturers should develop a paradigm that shift from teacher center to student center method of teaching.