EFFECTS OF JIGSAW AND THINK-PAIR-SHARE TECHNIQUES ON STUDENTS‟ EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE IN ACCOUNTING IN INSTITUTIONS OF EDUCATION IN NORTH-EAST, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the effects of the jigsaw and think-pair-share methods on students performance in principles of account in colleges of education in north-east Nigeria. The study has five objectives, five research questions were raised to guide the study while five null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. A quasi-experimesntal design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was 900 NCE business education students in colleges of education in north-east, who offered principles of accounts in 2015/2016 academic session. One hundred and twenty (120) students were taught in their intact classes.

The instruments used to generate data for the study was Principles of Accounts Achievement

Test (PAAT).  Mean and standard deviations were used to answer the stated research questions.  Simple Regression analysis was used to test null hypotheses one and two, while t-test statistic was employed in testing null hypotheses three, four and five. From the results of the study, null hypotheses three, four and five were retained while null hypothesis one, two were rejected. Based on the findings of the results, it revealed that Jigsaw and Think-pair-share methods had significant effects on students‟ academic performance in Principles of Accounts in Colleges of Education in Northeast, Nigeria. It was concluded that students taught with a jigsaw and thinkpair-share methods are capable of earning better results. Based on this, five recommendations are postulated, among which to include Curriculum planners should consider the jigsaw and think-pair-share methods as effective methods for teaching principles of accounts when designing a curriculum for accounting education.

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the study

The process by which people obtain knowledge, values, skills and attitudes, is called education. The most common way to acquire a sound education is to attend school. National Policy on Education (2004) emphasizes the goals of education in Nigeria to include inculcation of the right type of values, attitudes, communication skills as well as life-long skills. These goals are attainable through effective classroom interaction. Interaction occurs between the teacher and the learner through the process of teaching and learning process. Teaching, which is the primary function of a teacher; it entails giving instruction, imparting knowledge, facts, skills, attitudes, interests and aptitude.

Learning is defined as the act of acquiring new, or modifying and reinforcing existing, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preference which may lead to a potential change in synthesizing information, depth of the knoeledge, attitude or behaviour relative to the type range of experience (Ajoma, 2009). From this definition, it is observed that the teaching and learning are moving hand-in-hand and the central purpose of the process is to affect desirable change in the learners‟ behavior. In order to achieve this, relevant teaching methods must be adopted by the teacher. Therefore, different teaching methods can be applied during teaching and learning of Principles of Accounts in order to make students learn better.

Principle of Accounts is part of business education NCE minimum standard that students offer in colleges of education. Principles of Accounts are the measurement, recording, and communication of economic data. Economic data are information about an individual, firm or organization, which can be expressed in monetary terms. In order to achieves the objectives of Study Principles of Accounts in Colleges of Education, the National Commission for College of Education (NCCE, 2012), states the objectives of studying business education in Nigeria Colleges of Education is to:

1. Produce well qualified and competent NCE graduates in business subjects who will be able to teach business subjects in our secondary schools and other related educational institutions.
2. Produce NCE business teachers who will be able to inculcate the vocational aspects of business education into the society.
3. Produce NCE Business Teachers who will be involved in the much desired revolution of vocational development right from the Primary and Secondary schools.

In order to achieve the stated objectives by NCCE, Business Education teachers should be able to employ various teaching and learning methods in the classroom. The traditional methods which is confined to transmitting information and involves telling, reading, and memorizing, and the teacher adopting the “fountain of knowledge” approach, have failed to cope with the problems of Accounting knowledge needed for development

(Kohle, 2002). Appropriate methods need to be sought in passing the message of Accounting across to the learners. Ajiboye and Ajitoni (2008) observed that children learn best by being interested fully in their own work, by seeing themselves, doing themselves, by puzzling themselves, by verifying their own suppositions; by experimenting themselves, by drawing conclusions themselves on the strength of evidence which they have collected themselves. They should always make mistakes which they then should rectify themselves in the light of new information and evidence that they have uncovered themselves. This teaching methods should be participatory through social interaction, togetherness, and action-oriented communication. Jigsaw  and think-pair-share methods belong to these method. Jigsaw is a grouping strategy in which the members of the class are organized into “jigsaw” groups. The students are then reorganized into “expert” groups containing one member from each jigsaw groups. The members of the expert group work together to learn the materials or solve the problems, then return to their “jigsaw” groups to share their learning. Students work to obtain group goals that may not be obtained by working alone.

Think-pair-share method is designed to differentiate instruction by providing students time and structure for thinking on a given topic, enabling them to formulate individual ideas and share these ideas with a peer. This teaching method promotes classroom participation by encouraging a high degree of student response, rather than using a basic recitation method in which a teacher poses a question and one student offers a response (Simon, 2013). Think-pair-share is a cooperative learning strategy that includes three components, namely, time for thinking, time for sharing with a partner, and time to share among pairs to a larger group. The use of the strategy unites the cognitive and social aspects of learning, promoting the development of thinking and the construction of knowledge.

Academic performance is the outcome of education. The extent to which a students, a teachers or an institutions has achieved their educational goals. In general terms academic performance refers to what students achieve in their studies and how they cope with or accomplish different learning experiences given to them by their teachers. The successes of an educational institutions are measured by academic performance or how well a student meets the standards set out by the institution. Northeast consists of six (6) states. They are Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe state respectively. Each state has a college of education.

It is based on the stated background that the researcher intended to find out the effects of Jigsaw and Think-pair-share methods on students‟ academic performance in Principles of Accounts in Colleges of Education in Northeast, Nigeria.

 

 

 

 

1.2        Statement of the problem

Accounting is a basic need of every business education students (Ibrahim, 2010). It is a discipline of study that all people, regardless of job position, should have some knowledge of, but despite the importance of accounting, it is unfortunate to observe that, a significant number of students cannot cope with the challenges of skills and technicalities in the subject.

This tends to affect students‟ interest in accounting education. Principles of Accounts is being offered as a major course for the attainment of NCE business education, but the issues of students failure have been at an alarming rate. The problems of massive students failure in accounting have been issues of discussion to accounting students, lecturers, and the society at large. Olowudun, (2010) observed that accounting education provided by Nigerian colleges of education is more examination oriented than of life‟s practical value, which thereby results in poor performance of students in examinations. However, it has been observed that the learning of accounting depends on the effective teaching of the subjects and available resources. Based on the data collected from the colleges visited by the researcher, the performance of students for the past five years were as: 60.2% failed in 2010,

53.6% failed in 2011, 57.0% failed in 2012, 56.5% failed in 2013 and 48.54% failed in 2014. However, the failure in Principles of Accounts was characterized by gender sensitive factors as observed by the researcher in the past three years stood as:

Table	2013	2014	2015
Male	21.33	22.40	33.89
Female	35.25	26.10	13.00

Source: Academic Planning of Colleges of Education, 2015

Therefore, the persistent increase in poor performance of colleges of education students in Principles of Accounts needs to be addressed. If it is not properly addressed this could affect the overall performance of accounting students in colleges of education in

Northeast. One way to do this is to employ an effective teaching and learning methods.

Therefore, this study was designed to see whether students‟ performance in Principles of Accounts could be improved when jigsaw and think-pair-share methods are employed.

This research study is therefore designed to determine the effects of the jigsaw and think-pair-share method on business education students‟ academic performance in Principles of Accounts in Colleges of Education of North East, Nigeria.

1.3      Objective of the Study

The major objective of this research work is to assess the effects of jigsaw and thinkpair-share methods on students‟ academic performance in Principles of Accounts in Colleges of Education in North East, Nigeria. The specific objectives of this study are to:

1. determine the effect of jigsaw method on the academic performance of business education students in Principles of Accounts in Colleges of Education in Northeast, Nigeria.
2. determine the effect of the think-pair-share method on the academic performance of business education students in Principles of Accounts in Colleges of Education in Northeast, Nigeria.
3. establish whether any difference exist between the academic performances of students taught Principles of Accounst using jigsaw method and that of those taught using thinkpair-share method in Colleges of Education in Northeast, Nigeria
4. determine if there is any difference in the performance of male and female students taught Principles of Accounts using jigsaw method in Colleges of Education in Northeast, Nigeria.
5. determine if there is any difference in the performance of male and female students taught Principles of Accounts using think-pair-share method in Colleges of Education in Northeast, Nigeria.

 

 

1.4     Research Questions

In line with the specific objectives, the following research questions were formulated to guide the study.

1. what is the effect of jigsaw method on the academic performance of business education students in Principle of accounts in Colleges of Education in Northeast, Nigeria?
2. what is the effect of think-pair-share method on the academic performance of business education students in Principles of Accounts in Colleges of Education in Northeast, Nigeria?
3. what is the differential effect between the academic performance of business education students taught using jigsaw method and those taught using think-pair-share method in Principles of Accounts in Colleges of education in Northeast, Nigeria?
4. is there any difference in the academic performances of male and female students taught Principles of Accounts using jigsaw method in Colleges of Education in Northeast, Nigeria?
5. is there any difference in the academic performances of male and female students taught Principles of Accounts using think-pair-share method in Colleges of Education in

Northeast, Nigeria.

1.5        Research Hypotheses

Based on the research questions, the following null hypotheses are formulated:

H0₁ Jigsaw method has no significant effect on students‟ academic performance in

Principles of Accounts in Colleges of Education in northeast, Nigeria.

H0₂ Think-pair-share method has no significant effect on students‟ academic performance in Principles of Accounts in Colleges of Education in Northeast, Nigeria.

H0₃ There is no significant difference between the performance of business education students taught Principles of Accounts using jigsaw method and those taught using think-pair-share method in colleges of education in Northeast.

H0₄ There is no significant different between the academic performances of male and female students taught Principles of Accounts using jigsaw method in colleges of education in northeast, Nigeria.

H0₅There is no significant different between the academic performances of male and female students taught Principles of Accounts using think-pair-share method in colleges of education in the northeast, Nigeria.

1.5 Significance of the study

The findings of this study are expected to be beneficial to Principles of Accounts teachers, parents, colleges of education administrators, society, business education curriculum planners, and tertiary institutions.

The findings of this study would benefit teachers of Principles of Accounts as it would help them in selection and use of appropriate teaching and learning methods that enhances students‟ performance. Parents would benefit from the study because the better teaching of Principles of Accounts should improve learning and performance of students. Also, colleges of education administrators will have an insight as to which appropriate methods they will advise for teaching Principles of Accounts at colleges of education.

The results of this study would be importants to the society, since the students are part of the larger society. Therefore, anything that affects the students would be of interest to the society. When students graduate and get employed they will contribute to the development of the economy.

Business Education Curriculum planners should benefit from the result of this study in the sense that, it would help them to adequately plan and suggest  relevant method of teaching Principles of Accounts. However, the study would expected to be used by further researchers as reference materials and empirical studies by other researchers in Principles of

Accounts.

In addition, the study should benefit students in tertiary institutions because, when the lecturers apply effective teaching and learning methods, business education students‟ performance will likely improve and this would consequently increase the students‟ performance in Principle of Accounts in colleges of education in Northeast.

1.7      Basic assumptions of the study

For the purpose of this study, the following assumptions were made;

1. Students‟ performance in Principles of Accounts will be enhanced by the use of jigsaw and think-pair-share methods in colleges of education in the north east, Nigeria.
2. Poor performance in Principles of Accounts is caused by ineffective teaching and learning methods used in the teaching and learning process.

1.8     Delimitation of the Study

The study was delimited to effects of the jigsaw and think-pair-share methods on business education student‟s academic performance in Principles of Accounts in colleges of education in Northeast, Nigeria. This is because they are not commonly used by the lecturers in teaching Principles of Accounts in colleges of education in Northeast, Nigeria. The study covered both state and federal colleges of education in the zone. Among the colleges of education, the study was delimited to Federal College of Education (Technical), Gombe. This college is purposely chosen because it is among the oldest college of education where business education training first started as its foundation in northeast, zone. The study covered relevant course contents in Principles of Accounts as trading account, profits and loss account and balance sheet. This is because it is one of the compulsory topics for NCE ONE according to NCCE minimum standard.

The study was delimited to NCE I business education students because at this level they are beginners with little or no previous accounting knowledge. Therefore, their behavior in accounting can easily be changed.

 

EFFECTS OF JIGSAW AND THINK-PAIR-SHARE TECHNIQUES ON STUDENTS‟ EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE IN ACCOUNTING IN INSTITUTIONS OF EDUCATION IN NORTH-EAST, NIGERIA