EFFECTS OF PEER TUTORING AND SOCIAL SKILLS ACQUISITION ON STUDENTS’ LEARNING OUTCOMES IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper investigated the effects of peer tutoring and social skills acquisition on students’ learning outcomes in Social Studies in Benue State, Nigeria. The study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. The study is anchored on Albert Banduras’ social learning theory, Lev Vygotsky’s social interactions theory and Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory. The design for the study was quasi-experimental of non-equivalent pre test and post-test control group type. The population of the study consisted of 18,580 JSS 2 students from 152 public secondary schools. The sample comprised 196 JSS 2 selected using multi-stage sampling technique. Social Studies Performance Test (SSPT) with reliability co efficient of 0.75 was used for data collection. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Finding revealed that there is significant difference in the mean social skills ratings in Social Studies between students taught using peer tutoring and those taught using role play (P=0.00<0.05). The result further indicated that there is no significant difference between the mean social skills ratings of male and female students taught Social Studies using peer tutoring (P=0.53>0.05). Based on these findings, it was recommended that Social Studies teachers should employ peer tutoring in their classroom interaction since it has the capacity to improve students’ intellectual skills, interpersonal skill and their academic performance.