EFFECTS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The prevalent poor academic performance of secondary school students in their external examinations (WAEC and NECO) in Financial Accounting is becoming a source of worry. Sequel to this phenomenon, this study therefore, investigated the effects of cooperative learning on students’ achievement in financial accounting in Anambra State. Two research questions were raised and answered while two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Quasi experimental research design was adopted for the study. A total of 79 senior secondary students participated in the study. An instrument titled Financial Accounting Achievement Test (FAAT) was used for data collection. The instrument does not require validation and reliability test because it was modelled from WAEC past questions. The arithmetic mean was used to answer the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used in testing the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the study revealed that students who were taught financial accounting using cooperative learning performed higher than the students taught using conventional method at post-test. The outcome of the study also revealed that male and female students taught using cooperative learning were not significantly different in their achievement in Financial Accounting. It was therefore recommended that Nigerian government and other stakeholders should advocate the use of cooperative learning in teaching financial accounting, with a view to improving students understanding and achievement in the subject.