PEER COLLABORATION AND PROJECT-BASED STRATEGIES: EFFECTS ON STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN POETRY AND PERFORMANCE IN BENUE STATE, NIGERIA
Keywords:
peer collaboration, project-based learning, performance, interest, strategyAbstract
This study investigated comparative effects of peer collaboration and project-based learning strategies on students’ interest and performance in poetry in Makurdi, Benue State Nigeria. The study adopted the quasi-experimental design, specifically the pre-test, post-test non-equivalent groups design. The population was 2005 SS2 students who offer Literature-in-English in the 89 government secondary schools in Makurdi. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. Purposive sampling technique was used to sample 111 SS2 students from two intact classes. The instruments used for data collection were Interest in Poetry Rating Scale (IPRS) and Poetry Performance Test (PPT). The instruments were validated by experts and subjected to reliability testing. Kuder Richardson Formula 21 was used to ascertain the reliability estimate of PPT; this yielded 0.81. on the other hand, IPRS yielded a coefficient of 0.88 using Cronbach Alpha. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). It was found that there was significant difference (p = 0.001<0.05) in the mean interest rating of students taught poetry using peer collaboration strategy and those taught using project-based strategy. There was also significant difference (p = 0.002<0.05) in the mean performance scores of students taught poetry using peer collaboration strategy and Project based learning strategy. Based on these findings, it was recommended that educators should adopt both peer collaboration and project-based strategies to determine students’ interest and performance in poetry.
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