ABSTRACT

This study investigated the Effect of Schema and Inquiry Instructional Approaches on Students’ Academic Achievement in Reading Comprehension in Imo State. The study which adopted a quasi-experimental, pretest posttest non-equivalent control group research design was carried out in three selected public secondary schools in Imo State. A sample of 130 upper basic II students that offer Reading Comprehension were drawn from three public secondary schools in the state using purposive sampling technique. One school each was used for experimental group and for control group respectively. Data were collected using a 35-item multiple choice Reading Comprehension Achievement Test (RCAT). The instrument was subjected to face and content validation by three experts, one each of Reading Comprehension teacher, Curriculum expert and one expert in measurement and evaluation. The Instrument was trial tested to other similar students in a secondary school in another local government of Imo State. The scores were analyzed using Kuder Richardson (K-R₂₀) formula to determine the internal consistency which yielded an index of 0.77 indicating that the instrument was highly reliable. The RCAT was used to collect data for the Pre-test, and Post-test. Six research questions and six null hypotheses respectively guided the study. 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 Schema Theory Approach as well as Inquiry Instructional Approach respectively had increasing effect on the students’ academic achievement in Reading Comprehension, having recorded higher mean gain than those in Control group. It also showed that Inquiry Instructional Approach and Schema Theory Approach had more increasing effect on the male students’ academic achievement in Reading Comprehension than on the female students. Based on the findings, the school principals and senior English teachers should regularly sensitize the young teachers on the need to use both the Schema Theory and Inquiry Instructional Approaches in teaching reading comprehension in schools.