DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this work is the product of my own research efforts, undertaken under the
supervision of Dr. Macmillan M. Josiah and has not been presented elsewhere for the award of
a degree or certificate. All sources have been duly distinguished and appropriately
acknowledged

________________
TAIYE VICTORIA AJIBI
UJ/2018/ED/0708

CERTIFICATION
This is to certify that the project by Taiye Victoria Ajibi (UJ/2018/ED/0708) was carried out under
my supervision

______________. _________
Dr MACMILLAN M. JOSIAH. DATE
Project supervisor

_______________. __________
Dr PONFA M. JANTUR. DATE
Head of department

_________________. ___________
PROF. JOSEPH M. MUSA DATE
Dean, faculty of Education

_________________. __________
EXTERNAL EXAMINER. DATE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My immeasurable gratitude goes to God almighty, my ever present help who has been my
source of strength and success . It is by his grace and mercy that I am able to complete this
research project work. My profound gratitude goes to my project supervisor, Dr. Macmillan M.
Josiah for his constant understanding, for bringing the weight of his experience and knowledge
in this project in spite of tight schedule and engagement in the department, he guided me all
through the various stages of this project .
 My unreserved gratitude goes to the statistician at the ministry of education Jos, Mr Jugu
Henry for allowing me access to statistics necessary for the population of this research, to the
unrelenting and hardworking staff and prestigious lecturers in the department of science and
technology Education who had impacted my life positively, Dr Okolo A. Igonoh, a supportive
data analyst, Dr Irene Yakubu, a supportive level coordinator and to the lecturers in physics
Education unit Prof. Isa S. Usman and Mr David D. Tyos I am sincerely grateful.
My special gray goes to my entire family, first to my beloved parent, Mr & Mrs Sunday
Ajibi for the love support, prayers and tireless sacrifices toward the success of my education. I
also wish to extent my tanks to my ever supportive and loving sibling Damilola Ajibi, Kehinde
Ajibi and Testimony Ajibi for their love. My extended family here in Jos Rev. & Mrs Michael
Mana Oluwaniyi, Prof. & Mrs Akintunde, Dr & Mrs Wapwera for their constant prayers and
encouragement. To loving friends Charity, Blaise, Ephriam, Goodness, Dave, Israel, Ufulu,
Tolani, Confidence, members of Wewe and everyone who contributed to this study thank you all

DEDICATION
This project is dedicated to God Almighty and my Family.

TABLE OF CONTENT

CONTENT. PAGE
TITLE PAGE
DECLARATION
CERTIFICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
DEDICATION
TABLE OF CONTENT
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF APPENDICES
ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
1.3. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
1.4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.5. HYPOTHESIS
1.6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.7. DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
1.8. OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS
 CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. NATURE AND CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY SCHOOL PHYSICS IN NIGERIA
2.2. CONCEPTS OF OPTICS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
2.3. STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN PHYSICS
2.3.1. Gender and students achievement in physics
2.3.2. School type and student achievement in physics
2.4. METHOD OF TEACHING PHYSICS
2.4.1. The Guided Discovery method
2.4.2. Inquiry Approach
2.4.3. Project based method
2.5. COOPERATIVE LEARNING STRATEGY
2.5.1. Element of cooperative learning in physics
2.5.2. Types of cooperative learning strategy
2.6. SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER THREE
METHOD AND PROCEDURE
3.1. RESEARCH DESIGN
3.2. POPULATION AND SAMPLE
3.2.1. Population
3.2.2. Sample
3.3. SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
3.4. INSTRUMENT FOR DATA COLLECTION
3.4.1. Description of instrument
3.4.2. Procedure for instrument development
3.5. VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF INSTRUMENTS
3.5.1. Validity
3.5.2. Reliability
3.6. PROCEDURE FOR DATA COLLECTION
3.7. METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS

CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. RESULTS
4.2. DISCUSSION

CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1. SUMMARY OF FINDING
5.2. CONCLUSION
5.3. RECOMMENDATION
5.4. LIMITATION
5.5. SUGGESTION
REFERENCES
APPENDICES

LIST OF TABLES
TABLE PAGE
1. Schools sampling frame of secondary school in Jos North
2. Pretest and posttest Achievement mean scores of students in physics in the
Experimental and control Groups
3. Post- test motivation mean scores of senior two male and female students in physics in
Experimental Group
4. Post-test Achievement mean scores of SSII public and private school students in
physics
5. ANCOVA Results on post-test Achievement mean scores of Experimental and Control
Group
6. ANCOVA Result on post-test of public and private schools mean scores in Experimental
and Control Groups
7. Effect of Treatment and Gender on Achievement of students in Physics
8. Effect of Treatment and school type on Achievement of students in physics

LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURES PAGE
1 Interaction Effects of Treatment and Gender on Achievement
2 Interaction Effects of Treatment and school type on Achievement

LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX PAGE
A1: LETTER OF INTRODUCTION

A2: PHYSICS ACHIEVEMENT TEST (PAT)

A3: LESSON PLAN FOR EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUP

A4:SAMPLE OF PAT RESPONDED TO BY PRIVATE SCHOOL SENIOR SECONDARY TWO

B1: SSPS OUTPUT

ABSTRACT
The study carried out a review on the effect of Cooperative Learning Strategy on secondary
school student’s achievement in physics in Jos North Local Government Area, Plateau State.
Specifically, the study was motivated as a result of poor achievement of physics students in
both external and internal examination which was attributed to defective strategies of teaching
employed by teachers in secondary schools. To guide this study, five research questions were
considered and five hypothesis were tested at a 0•05 level of significance. This study employed
a Quasi Experimental research design. The population of the study made up of 22 public school
and 31 private school in Jos North Local Government Area,Plateau State. 60 students were
used as intact group from two selected secondary schools. The instrument used for the
collection of data was Physics Achievement Test (PAT). The data collected were analyzed
using descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, analysis of variance (ANCOVA). The
finding revealed that the students in cooperative learning groups achieved higher than those
taught using conventional lecture method, the male student achieved slightly higher than the
female students after being exposed to cooperative learning strategy, SSII physics students
taught physics concepts using cooperative learning strategy in the private school achieved
higher than those using the lecture method in public school, there is no gender influence with
respect to achievement of physics scores, there is need for all school type to adopt the
cooperative learning strategy. Based on the findings, it was recommended that physics
curriculum developers should include the teaching of physics using cooperative learning
strategy as part of the teachers education syllabus during the training of physics teachers. This
makes it part of the curriculum which may address the problem of low performance in the
subject. Teachers should be encouraged by educational stakeholders to use cooperative
learning strategy in teaching physics concepts.