Effects of Contextual and Service Learning Strategies on Civic Attitudes of Junior Secondary School Students in Ijebu Land, Nigeria

Abstract

Despite the introduction of civic education in basic and senior secondary, and citizenship education at the tertiary education levels, there still exists a decline in expected social values among the youths. This has been partly attributed to the use of teacher-centred instructional strategies in the teaching of Civic/Citizenship Education, the consequent inability of the students to make connections between what they have learnt and its application within the society. There is dearth of evidence on the adoption of Contextual Learning Strategy (CLS) and Service Learning Strategy (SLS) on civic attitudes of students in Nigeria. This study therefore, determined the effects of Contextual Learning Strategy (CLS) and Service Learning Strategy (SLS) on civic attitudes of Junior Secondary School (JSS) students in Ijebu land, Nigeria. The moderating effects of gender and school location were also examined. The study adopted a pretest-posttest, control group, quasi-experimental design with 3x2x2 factorial matrix. Six JS1, three each were purposively selected from Ijebu-Ode and Ijebu North-East local government areas. Treatment lasted 12 weeks. Civic Attitude (r =.74) Scale and Instructional Guide for each of the strategies were the instruments used for the study. Data were analysed using Analysis of Covariance, and Scheffe Post-hoc test at 0.05 level of significance. Treatment had a significant main effect on students’ civic attitude (F(2,524) = 18.62; η2= .07). Thus, contextual and service learning strategies enhanced civic attitudes of junior secondary school students in Ijebuland, Nigeria. Both strategies are recommended for use in the teaching of civic education to promote civic attitude.