ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effect of Polya’s problem-solving instructional strategy on students’ academic achievement and retention in Economics. The study which adopted a quasi-experimental, pretest posttest non-equivalent control group research design was carried out in Owerri Education zone 1 of Imo State. The population of the study comprised 31, 630 Senior Secondary School Two (SSII) Economics students in the 299 public secondary schools in the six Education zones of Imo State. A sample of 192 secondary school (SSII) students that offer Economics was drawn from four public secondary schools in Owerri Education zone 1 of Imo State using two-stage sampling. The sample was made up of 98 students in the experimental group and 94 students in the control group, with a total of 102 male and 90 female students. Six research questions and hypotheses respectively guided the study. Data were collected using a 40-item Multiple Choice Economics Achievement Test (MCEAT) Pre-test, Post-test, Retention test. The instrument was subjected to face and content validation by five experts. They included senior Economics teacher in Community Secondary School, Orishieze, Ngor Okpala in Imo State. Two experts in Measurement and Evaluation from the Department of Science Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike and the Department of Educational Psychology, Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri. Two Economics Educators  from the Department of Educational Management (Economics Education Unit), Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike and from the Department of Social Science Education, Imo State University, Owerri. The instrument was trial tested on SSII students in different school. The reliability was determined using Kuder Richardson (K-R₂₀) formula to establish the internal consistency of the instrument which yielded a reliability index of 0.82. Before and after the treatment that lasted for four weeks, 192 copies of the instrument were administered to the students by their regular Economics teachers. The data collected from the students were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results among others showed that Polya’s problem-solving instructional strategy has increasing positive effects on students’ academic achievement and retention in Economics that gender was not a significant factor on students’ achievement in Economics when exposed to Polya’s problem-solving method, and that gender and methods had no interaction effect on students’ academic achievement and retention in Economics. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that the use of Polya’s problem-solving instructional strategy should be encouraged during teaching and learning of Economics in Senior Secondary Schools since it enhanced students’ academic achievement and retention.