Effects of discussion instructional strategy on achievement and retention of secondary school students in human geography in Minna, Nigeria.

Abstract

Geography is a diverse science or social science discipline that involves the investigation of man and its physical surroundings. Numerous reasons have been identified to have caused the poor performance of secondary school students in geography among which the use of appropriate instructional strategies or teaching methods is paramount. The study investigated the effectiveness of using discussion method on students’ achievement and retention in geography. The study adopted experimental research design. The sample for the study consisted of sixty (60) Senior Secondary School Class II students. The students selected were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups of thirty (30) students each. The instrument used for the study is the Geography Achievement Test (GAT) designed by the researcher. Two hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The data were analyzed using t-test statistics. The result indicated that there was no significant different between the pretest scores of control and experimental group (t (58)=0.217, p=0.829>0.05). There was significant difference between the mean achievement scores of control and experimental group (t (58)=-6.532, p=0.000<0.05) in favour of those taught using discussion method. Also, there was significant difference in the mean retention scores of control and experimental group (t (58) =-7.079, p=0.000<0.05) in favour of those taught using discussion method. It was therefore concluded that discussion method is more effective in improving students’ achievement and retention in geography than the conventional lecture method. It is therefore recommended among others that teachers should be encouraged to employ the use of discussion method in the teaching of human geography.