eCONFERENCING AND ePANEL DISCUSSION INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES, AND LEARNING OUTCOMES IN ENGLISH SUMMARY WRITING AMONG PUBLIC SENIOR SECONDARY STUDENTS IN OYO TOWN, NIGERIA

Abstract

English Summary Writing (ESW) is invaluable for academic success hence, it is expected to be taught with effective instructional strategies for students to excel. Reports have shown that many public Senior Secondary (SS) students in Oyo town, Nigeria exhibit poor learning outcomes in ESW, which partly accounts for their poor performance in English Language at public examinations. Previous studies focused more on school, home, and student-related factors influencing learning outcomes in ESW than on intervention using einstructional strategies. This study, therefore, was carried out to determine the effects of EConferencing (E--C) and E-Panel Discussion (E-PD) instructional strategies on students’ learning outcomes (achievement and attitude) in ESW in Oyo town, Nigeria. The moderating effect of Summary Writing Anxiety (SWA) and Mobile Phone Self-efficacy(MPSe) were also examined. The study was underpinned by the Technological Acceptance and Socio-cognitive theories, while the pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design with a 3x2x2 factorial matrix was adopted. The multi-stage sampling procedure was utilised. The three Local Government Areas-LGAs (Oyo East, Oyo West and Atiba) in Oyo town were enumerated. Six public SS schools (two from each LGA) were randomly selected. A total of 82 SS II students with android phones were purposively selected from the six schools to participate in online instruction. The schools were randomly assigned to E-C (28), E-PD (31) and control (23) groups. The instruments used were Summary Writing Achievement Test (r=0.83); Summary Writing Attitude (r=0.76), Summary Writing Anxiety (r=0.79), Mobile Phone Self-efficacy (r = 0.80) questionnaires and instructional guides. The treatment lasted eight weeks. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, Analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post-hoc at 0.05 level of significance. The age of the participants was 15.80 ±2.40 years and 54.9 % were females. The participants’ SWA(𝑥̅ = 2.94) and MPS (𝑥̅ = 2.90) were high, at a threshold of 2.50. Treatment had a significant main effect on students’ achievement in ESW (F(2;79) =27.10;partial 2  =0.48 ). The participants in E-PD obtained the highest post-achievement mean score (𝑥̅ = 15.87), followed by those in E-C (𝑥̅ = 14.74) and control(𝑥̅ = 11.21)groups. Treatment had a significant main effect on students’ attitude to ESW (F(2;79) = 10.392; partial 2 = 0.261). The participants in the E-PD obtained the highest post-attitude mean score (75.36), followed by those in E-C (67.18) and control (51.83)groups. The main effects of SWA and MPSe on achievement and attitude were not significant. The two-way interaction effect of SWA and MPSe was significant on achievement (F(3;77) = 2.72; partial Ƞ2 = .121), in favour of the participants with high MPSe from low SWA group, but it was not on attitude. The three-way interaction effects were not significant on achievement in and attitude. E-panel discussion and E-conferencing instructional strategies enhanced achievement in and attitude to English summary writing among senior secondary students in Oyo town, Nigeria. Teachers should adopt both strategies, with due cognisance taken of summary writing anxiety and mobile phone self-efficacy.