EFFECTS OF DECLARATIVE AND ENHANCED-DECLARATIVE KNOWLEDGE APPROACHES ON STUDENTS’ LEARNING OUTCOMES IN QUANTITATIVE ECONOMICS CONTENTS IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN OYO TOWN

Abstract

The low performance of students in public examinations in Senior Secondary School (SSS) subjects has been a source of concern to scholars and other stakeholders in education. Previous studies showed that quantitative Economics is difficult for students due to the teaching approaches adopted. Various research efforts geared towards improving students’ achievement, learning and assessment-mode’s attitudes towards Quantitative Economics through diverse instructional approaches have not achieved impressive outcome. Hence, there is the need for adopting teaching approaches that are both conceptual and experiential in nature to improve students’ performance, learning and assessment-mode’s attitudes in quantitative economics. This study was, therefore, designed to explore the effects of declarative and EnhancedDeclarative (ED) knowledge approaches on students’ achievement, learning and assessmentmode attitudes in Quantitative Economics contents in SSS in Oyo town. The moderating effects of numerical ability and gender were likewise examined. Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) and Gagne’s Systematisation theories guided the study, while a 3X3X2 factorial, non-randomised quasi-experimental design was adopted. The selection of three Local Government Areas and nine public senior secondary schools were purposively done while two hundred and nine from five thousand seven hundred and sixty-six SSS 2 students were considered. Data were gathered utilizing Quantitative Economics Achievement Test (r= 0.96), Economics Students’ Learning Attitude Scale (r= 0.82), Economics Students’ Assessment Attitude Scale (r = 0.89) and Numerical Ability Test (r= 0.81). Two teaching manuals used for the study were Declarative knowledge and ED knowledge. Descriptive analysis, Analysis of Covariance and Sidak post-hoc test were used to analyse at α 0.05. There were significant main effects of treatment (F(2,194)=19.66, η2 = 0.17), gender (F(1,194)=5.33, η2 = 0.03) and numerical ability (F(2,194)=17.57, η2 = 0.15) on students’ achievement in quantitative economics. Treatment, gender and numerical ability were not significant on learning and assessment-mode attitudes in quantitative economics. The participants in ED group had the highest adjusted mean score ( x=19.07) followed by the control group (x =15.98). Female students had the maximum mean score (x=16.88), while high ability participants had the uppermost mean score in numerical ability (x=17.19) followed by medium ability (x=16.20), and this implies that factor like gender can affect students’ performance with respect to their numerical ability levels. The two-way and three-way interaction effects were not significant on students' achievement, learning attitude and assessment-mode attitude in quantitative economics. Students with high ability in groups had the highest mean scores in achievement. The result of the mean score suggests that female participants performed better than male colleagues in the numerical ability test. Enhanced-declarative knowledge approach improved students’ achievement in Quantitative Economics, regardless of gender and numerical ability in senior secondary schools in Oyo town. This study further suggest that this knowledge approach is better when relevant examples are used in the course of teaching and learning of quantitative economics.Writers of Economics textbooks should explore modules of the teaching enhanced-declarative knowledge approach and come up with texts that will promote internalisation of quantitative Economics.