ABSTRACT

The conventional teaching method being used in the business studiesclassroom often leads to poor performance. This study therefore investigated the effects of conceptual change (CCTS) and enhanced explicit teaching (EETS) strategies on students’ achievement in secondary school. A pre-test post-test control group quasi-experimental design was adopted. One hundred and ninety primary six pupils from three public Senior Secondary School Students in Ireole Local Government Area in Osun Stateparticipated in the study. Three instruments:Business Achievement Test (BAT), Operational Guide for Instruction (OGI) and Cognitive Styles Analysis (CSA) were used. SAT had average difficulty, discriminatory and KR-20 reliability indices of 0.49, 0.63 and 0.83 respectively while the test-retest reliability index for CSA was 0.91. Data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). All the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Conceptual change and enhanced explicit teaching strategies enhanced pupils’ achievement in business studies more than the conventional method. It is therefore recommended that teachers should adopt the CCTS and EETS in order to improve pupils’ achievement.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
• AIM AND OBJECTIVES
• RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• HYPOTHESES
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
• SCOPE OF THE STUDY

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

• CONCEPT OF BUSINESS STUDIES
• CONCEPT OF ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF BUSINESS STUDIES STUDENTS
• REVIEW OF CONCEPTUAL CHANGE
• DEFINITION OFCONCEPTUALCHANGE
• CHALLENGESWITHCONCEPTUALCHANGE
• EXTANT MODELSOFCONCEPTUALCHANGE
• ELEMENTS OF CONCEPTUAL CHANGE
• EXPLICIT TEACHING OVERVIEW
• THEROLEDIRECTINSTRUCTIONPLAYSINEXPLICITTEACHING
• EXPLICITINSTRUCTIONANDTEACHEREFFECTIVENESS

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

• RESEARCH DESIGN
• SAMPLE AND SAMPLING METHOD
• INSTRUMENTATION
• DATA ANALYSIS

CHAPTER FOUR

• RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CHAPTER FIVE

• CONCLUSION
• RECOMMENDATION

CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                                          INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Business studies could be referred to as that area of vocational education that offers to courses in economic, commerce, book keeping, accounts, business mathematic typing and shorthand.

The international dictionary of education (2019) refers to it as both commercial studies and business studies. The dictionary sees the commercial studies of education as the area that comprises such school subjects as typewriting, shorthand, book keeping and elementary accounting at defines business studies a studies of commerce and management subjects.

This definition however does not indicate the level of education at which the title should be used.

The difference in title is a matter of sentiment which does not in any way determine the content of the courses at the various levels of education.

In the secretary school in Nigeria the course is regarded as business studies but in the higher levels, in colleges and universities it is known as business education or management science which covers subjects as well as related courses like business law, business management, accountancy, marketing data processing and computer.

Under the new system in education, these subjects are not studies in isolation in the junior secondary school. Business is known as one of indispensable tool for self-employment which serves as tool for rapid development without which no nation can develop. Without business, a nation is considered backward and undeveloped.

Therefore, a nation which pays no attention to business will have to depend on other developed nations for the existence and comfort of its people.

In realization of this fact, some efforts are being made in Nigeria which are aimed at improving the quality of business education. For instance, the government has made business studies one of the core subjects in all senior secondaryschools in Nigeria. This is an acknowledgement of the fact that primary education is the foundation upon which further education is built. The Federal Government of Nigeria (2004) in the National Policy on Education further recommends that teaching and learning at the senior secondarylevel should be practical, exploratory and experimental. All these efforts reveal the fact that there is a growing awareness of the importance of the quality of business studies teaching in Nigerian schools.

This paperinvestigated the effects of conceptual change and enhanced explicit teaching strategies and learning outcome on students’ achievement in senior secondary schools. These strategies are believed to be superior to the chalk-and-talk strategy in that rather than promote rote learning, they could enhance deep understanding of business concepts. It is essential that students are encouraged to construct knowledge themselves rather than memorize facts as handed down to them by the teacher. Deep understanding of business concepts is of utmost importance, particularly at the secondary school level, because misconceptions as well as negative attitudes acquired at this level could translate into poor performance and create negative disposition towards learning the business studies. This probably explains why Nigerian students are exhibiting a dwindling interest in the business studies (Esiobu, 2015).

An individual’s cognitive style is his characteristic and consistent way of organizing and processing information (Liu, 2018).  As a result of this, Ma (2018) and Shi (2011) recommended that teachers should make use of teaching strategies that consider learners’ cognitive styles. Similarly, Arisi (2011) stressed the importance of selecting instructional materials based on students’ needs and experiences in order to avoid under-achievement. Japan is probably one of the world business country today because of her business-based programmes which are tailored more to students’ abilities (Roth, 2002). As Nigeria also aspires towards business independence, there is the need to shift focus to instructional strategies that are tailored towards individual learning needs. Ogunwuyi (2010) asserted that activity-based instruction is beneficial to students of all cognitive styles. Even though both strategies being studied are activity-based, students with a particular cognitive style may benefit more from one strategy than the other.

This study therefore sought to determine which of the strategies under consideration is most profitable for students.

1.2      Statement of the problem

It has been discovered that there has been a low achievement in business studies in senior secondary schools, low enrollment for business studies in secondary and tertiary institutions; as well as under-achievement in science subjects at the Senior Secondary Certificate level have been reported (Olatoye, 2012; Jegede, 2013; Ajagun, 2016). The root of this problem probably lies in poor business teaching at the foundational secondarylevel. Researchers have observed that business teaching and learning in Nigerian schools is mostly done by the chalk-and-talk method (Oludipe et al., 2010; Bada et al., 2012). This method has been found to encourage rote learning and regurgitation of facts. There is therefore the need to take a closer look at how business could be taught in senior secondary schools in a way that could enhance conceptual understanding as well as students’ achievement.

1.2      Aim and objectives of the study

The aim of this work is to study the effects of conceptual change and enhanced explicit teaching strategies and learning outcome in business studies senior secondary school students in Ireole local government area in Osun State. This study seeks to achieve the following objectives:

1. To investigated the effects of conceptual change and enhanced explicit teaching strategies on students’ achievement in business studies in senior secondary.
2. To determine the influence of cognitive style and gender on pupils’ achievement in senior secondary business studies.

• To investigated the effects of conceptual change (CCTS) and enhanced explicit teaching (EETS) strategies on students’ achievement in secondary school.

1. To make a comparative difference of conceptual change (CCTS), enhanced explicit teaching (EETS) and conventional teaching strategy.

1.5      Research questions

Specifically, the study sought to provide answers to the following research questions: –

• Which of the three teaching strategies (conceptual change, enhanced explicit teaching, and the conventional) will better enhance secondary school students’ achievement in business studies?
• Will the students’ cognitive style and gender influence their achievement in business studies?
• what is the effects of conceptual change (CCTS) and enhanced explicit teaching (EETS) strategies on students’ achievement in secondary school

1.6      Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.

HO₁: – There is no significant main effect of treatment on students’ achievement in secondary business

HO₂: – There is no significant main effect of cognitive style on students’ achievement in secondary business

HO₃: – There is no significant main effect of gender on students’ achievement in secondary business

HO₄: – There is no significant interaction effect of treatment and cognitive style on students’ achievement in secondary business

HO₅: – There is no significant interaction effect of treatment and gender on students’ achievement in secondary business.

HO₆: – There is no significant interaction effect of cognitive style and gender on students’ achievement in secondary business

HO₇: – There is no significant interaction effect of treatment, cognitive style and gender on students’ achievement in secondary business.

1.6 Significance of the study

This study will serve as a means of promoting rote learning which will later enhance deep understanding of business concepts. This study is essential in that students are encouraged to construct knowledge themselves rather than memorize facts as handed down to them by the teacher. Deep understanding of business concepts shall also be discussed which is of utmost importance, particularly at the secondary school level.

Scope of the study

The scope of this study cover investigating the effects of conceptual change (CCTS) and enhanced explicit teaching (EETS) strategies on students’ achievement in secondary school. A pre-test post-test control group quasi-experimental design was adopted in this study.

CHAPTER FIVE

5.1                                CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The finding that the conceptual change and enhanced explicit teaching strategies were better than the conventional chalk – and talk method for business teaching in enhancing student’s understanding of business concepts shows that when an activity – based teaching strategy (such as conceptual change teaching strategy or the enhanced explicit teaching) is used, students are active, and their interest is aroused and sustained.

Furthermore, the conceptual change teaching strategy was found to facilitate learning better than the enhanced explicit teaching. It therefore follows that teaching should start with the teacher encouraging students to make their own pre-conceptions known. The teacher then presents the learners with events which challenge these preconceptions (if wrong) and encourages the generation of alternative ideas.

5.2      RECOMMENDATION

The analytics were found to have performed better than the wholists both in achievement and business attitude in all treatment groups. Teachers should make effort to find out the cognitive style of the students’ in their classroom through appropriate psychological tests. The teacher would need to patiently help the wholists to identify patterns, trend and underlying principles which are not so obvious but are important for conceptual understanding. In order to help children to acquire the analytic rather than the wholist cognitive style it may be necessary to expose them right from early childhood to learning experiences which will promote analytic behaviour. This should start at home long before the child enters school. When buying toys for their children, parents should buy toys with which children can match, classify, measure, design, and construct. Children would also benefit from business which teach basic but simplebusiness laws and principles.