ABSTRACT

For many years now, performance of senior secondary school students in English language have been persistently poor in Nigeria. Despite the introduction and implementation of different teaching methods/strategies, the achievement of students remains below expectation, hence, the need to explore another instructional strategy. This study examined the effect of Jigsaw II method on senior secondary school students’ academic achievement and retention in reading comprehension in English language in Abia State with gender and retention as moderating variable. The design of the study is quasi experimental. The population of the study comprised 5, 459 senior secondary II (SS2) students in the government owned secondary schools in Abia State. Eighty six students from two intact classes from the two sampled schools were used for the study. Out of the 86 students, 49 students were males and 37 students were females. The reliability of the instrument was established using Kudder Richardson (K-R₂₀) which yielded 0.77. Six research questions were posed and six hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while analysis of co-variance was used to test the null hypotheses formulated at 0.05 level of significance. The instrument used was English Achievement Test (EAT). Findings also showed that there was no significant difference by gender in rate of retention of scores of students in reading comprehension when Jisaw II was used. The result showed that Jigsaw II method enhanced the achievement and retention of students in reading comprehension more than the lecture teaching method. The researcher recommends that teachers should be sent on in-service training on effective ways of using Jigsaw II in teaching English language. Also curriculum planners should include Jigsaw II method in school curriculum as well as the guide on how to use it.