Effects of the Collaborative Approach on Senior Secondary School Students’ Achievement in English Composition Writing in Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State

Abstract

Writing in general is a very important skill that needs to be properly developed in the students. This study investigated the effects of the collaborative approach in senior secondary school students’ achievement in English composition writing in Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State. The research was provoked by the continuous decline in students’ achievement in English composition writing. The study employed the quasi-experimental research design. Two schools were randomly selected from the 20 public schools in the study area, one of the schools used as experimental group and the other as control group. A sample of 78 students was used for the experiment from the entire population of 16,219 students. Four research questions and four hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Students Composition Writing Assessment Test (SCWAT) developed and validated by the researchers was used to collect research data. The data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test for independent samples. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean score achievements of the experimental and control groups in English composition writing. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that teachers should teach English composition writing using the collaborative approach and school authorities should encourage English teachers to attend workshops and seminars that will expose them to innovative teaching strategies like the collaborative approach amongst others.

Keywords: Collaborative approach, English composition writing, Secondary schools