Effect of service and collaborative learning strategies on students’ environmental knowledge in selected junior secondary schools in Oyo State, Nigeria

Though many strategies have helped in increasing students’ knowledge and awareness about environmental issues, yet, environmental challenges and problems are still on the increase in Nigeria. This may be due to the fact that environmental issues are controversial and require collaborative efforts of all citizens, especially school students. This study determined the effects of service learning and collaborative learning in social studies on Junior Secondary School students’ environmental literacy. It also explored the moderating effects of school location and gender. The study adopted a pretest-posttest, control group, quasiexperimental design. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed. Six (6) secondary schools that are co-educational from Ibadan were purposively selected based on presence of environmental challenges in their immediate environment. There were three (3) schools from Ibadan city (urban area of Ibadan) and three (3) from Ibadan less city (rural area of Ibadan). Seven hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Five research instruments were used for the study, these were; Environmental Knowledge Test (EKT, r = 0.76), Environmental Attitude Questionnaire (EAQ, r = 0.85), Service Learning Guide (SLG, r = 0.71), Collaborative Learning Guide (CLG, r = 0.66) and Conventional Learning Guide (CLG, r = 0.73). Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used in testing the seven formulated hypotheses. Scheffé Post-hoc analysis was carried out to determine the source of significant effect of treatment. Significant interaction effect was described using graphical representation. All hypotheses were tested at P.05, partial η2 = 0.00). Based on these findings, it was recommended that teachers should adopt service learning and collaborative learning strategies in the teaching of environmental concepts and problems in Social Studies in order to improve students’ performance in Social Studies. Teachers should facilitate the use of service learning and collaborative learning strategies in schools to improve students’ environmental problem-solving skills and their achievement in the subject. Teaching institutions should not only include service learning and collaborative learning strategies in their curriculum but should endeavour to provide practical experience for pre-service teachers to be well grounded and equipped on the use of these strategies

Effect of Service and Collaborative Learning Strategies on Learners’ Environmental Attitude

Environmental issues have become recurring phenomena at international forums. This empirical paper investigates the effects of service learning and collaborative learning on Junior Secondary School students' environmental attitudes. Learners are exposed to environmental studies through many school subjects, and learning strategies have helped to increase students' knowledge and awareness about environmental issues. However, environmental challenges and problems are still on the increase in Nigeria. The students are also culpable as their attitude does not reflect what they learn. This paper is premised on the cognitive dissonance theory. The quantitative study employed the multistage sampling technique. The results revealed that there was a significant effect of treatment (service and collaborative learning strategies) on junior secondary school students environmental attitude (F(2,582) = 1317.79; p<0.05, partial ?2 = 0.819). Based on this finding, it was recommended that teachers adopt service and collaborative learning strategies in teaching environmental concepts and problems to improve student performance and, more importantly, positively influence their attitudes. Teachers should use service and collaborative learning strategies to provide practical experience for students to be well-grounded and equipped to use these strategies