ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to determine the effectiveness of assertiveness and conversational skills training on the reduction of shyness behaviour among junior secondary school students in Itu LGA in Akwa Ibom State. The study adopted a quasi experimental non-randomized pretest, posttest, control group and design. The population of the study consisted of 476 shy Junior Secondary Two (JSS II) students in Itu Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State in 2020/2021 academic session. The sample size was 96 shy students (48 males and 48 females) assigned to three treatment groups and one control group. Eight research questions and eight null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study and the null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. A standardized research instrument namely: Cheek and Melchior Shyness Scale was adapted as shyness questionnaire for the study. The instrument was validated by three experts. The reliability index determined using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, while Cronbach’s Alpha reliability7 test was used in determining the internal consistency of the instrument. The study adopted a systematic procedure for data collection. Data were collected in four phases - pretreatment phase, treatment phase post treatment phase and follow-up phase. Assertiveness and conversational skills training were weaved into the counselling sessions and exposed to the subjects in the treatment groups in a total of seventeen sessions of approximately 45minutes each. The Cheek and Melchior Shyness Scale was reshuffled and administered at the post and follow-up periods. The control group was a waitlist control group. Data collected from the pre-test and post-test assessments were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for the research questions and t-test for the hypotheses. The findings revealed that intervention using assertiveness and conversational skills training therapy significantly reduced shyness among secondary school students in Itu LGA in Akwa Ibom State. The null hypotheses were rejected. There was a significant gender difference observed at follow-up. It was concluded that assertiveness and conversational skills training strategies were effective whether combined or used separately in the reduction of shyness behaviour among Junior secondary' school students in Itu LGA in Akwa Ibom State. Based on this finding, it was recommended among other things that: counsellors should utilize the assertiveness and conversational skills training strategies in assisting shy students; school administrators and Government should organize regular workshops for school counsellors on the effective use of assertiveness and conversational skills training strategies on reduction of shyness of students; teacher training institutions should adequately include in their curriculum those various strategies such as modelling, role play, rehearsal etc for the reduction of shyness among students and that counsellors should be encouraged to use each of those skills training strategies and their combinations since the results showed that they were highly effective on the reduction of shyness among students.