ABSTRACT

The study investigated the effect of Concept Mapping and Cooperative teaching strategies on Upper Basic II students’ academic achievement in social studies in Imo state. Four research questions were posed and answered for the study while four hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted quasi-experimental pre-test, post-test control group using 3 x2 factorial design. The research was carried out in Imo state.  The population of the study consisted of 34,460 Upper Basic II in government owned secondary schools in Imo State in 2018/2019 session.  The sample consisted of 110 Upper Basic II students purposefully selected from three co-educational schools in Owerri education zone. The Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT), marking scheme and lesson plans were used as instruments for data collection and were validated by three experts. The reliability of the instrument SSAT was determined using Kuder-Richardson (KR-20) formula to obtain reliability coefficient of 0.78.  Data for the study were collected in three phases of experimental procedures: Pre-test phase, treatment phase and post-treatment phase. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 significance level. The result revealed that there is significant difference in academic achievement of students taught Social Studies using Concept Mapping and Cooperative teaching strategies than those taught using Lecture teaching method. The result also revealed that gender is not a significant factor in the academic achievement of students using Concept Mapping and Cooperative teaching Strategies. The result proved that Concept Mapping and Cooperative teaching strategies enhanced Upper Basic II students’ academic achievement in Social Studies more than Lecture teaching method. It was recommended that efforts should be made by curriculum experts to incorporate the Concept Mapping and Cooperative teaching strategies into the teaching of Social Studies by teachers.