JOURNAL OF EDUCATION (EKSUJOE)

EFFECTS OF COOPERATIVE METHOD ON THE ACHIEVEMENT OF JUNIOR SECONDARY STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION SKILLS IN JOS NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of Cooperative Method on the achievement of junior secondary students’ Reading Comprehension skills in Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design, specifically, the pre-test and post-test non-equivalent control group design. The population was 10,226 JS2 students in the 22 public secondary schools in the study Area for the 2023/2024 session. The sample was 93 students randomly selected from two intact classes of the two selected schools; one school had 50 students and was assigned the experimental group while the other had 43 students and was named the control group. The adapted instrument for data collection was Reading Comprehension Achievement Test (RCAT). It was validated by experts from both English Education and Measurement and Evaluation units. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The finding of the study showed that the use of cooperative method was effective in enhancing the students’ achievement in Reading Comprehension. The following recommendations were made by the researcher: Training courses should be organised for English language teachers/reading on the use of cooperative method to enable them improve students’ achievement in reading comprehension.