Cooperative and Self-Regulated Learning Strategies and Academic Performance of Senior Secondary School Chemistry Students in Rivers State

Abstract

This study investigated cooperative and self-regulated learning strategy and academic performance of senior secondary school chemistry students in Rivers State. The design of the study was quasi- experimental, specifically randomized complete block pre-test post-test design. A population of 150 Senior Secondary School two Chemistry Students from three Schools in the three Senatorial district of Rivers state were obtained through a stratified random sampling technique. The instrument developed to guide the study was Rate of Chemical Reaction Chemistry Performance Test, which consist of 20-item multiple choice questions used to collect data for both pre-test and post-test for the control and experimental groups. The instrument was validated by experts. The reliability coefficient of 0.74 was realized using split-half method. To guide the study two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated. Descriptive statistics of mean was used to answer the research questions while two-ways Analysis of Variance and z-test were used to analyse hypotheses at of 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the study revealed a significant difference between chemistry students taught rate of chemical reaction using cooperative learning strategy and those taught using self-regulated learning strategy. It was also revealed that there is no significant difference between male and female students when taught chemistry using cooperative learning strategy. Based on the findings, the study recommended that chemistry teachers should adopt cooperative teaching strategy so as to boost active student’s participation in scientific operations and that male and female students should be given equal consideration in learning.