A Rural-Urban Comparison of the Effectiveness of Think-Pair-Share (TPS) Strategy of Instruction on Senior Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievement in Geography

Abstract

The study compared the effect of Think-Pair-Share (TPS) strategy on academic achievement of urban and rural Senior Secondary School students in geography in Lagos State, Nigeria. A quasi-experimental design with four research questions and hypotheses was adopted for the study. Mean and standard deviation were employed to analyze and respond to the research questions, and an independent t-test with a significance value of 5% was used to analyze and test the hypotheses that were obtained from the research questions. Data were collected using Think-Pair-Share Geography Achievement Test (TPSGAT) with 50 Multiple Choice Objective Questions. A multistage sampling technique was adopted in selecting the schools and students involved in the study. In all, four senior secondary schools were selected based on location (2 schools from urban and 2 schools from rural areas). In each region, one school served as an experimental group and one as a control group. The experimental groups from both regions (urban and rural areas) were taught through Think-Pair-Share (TPS) while control groups were taught using Conventional Teaching strategy. Findings revealed that schools taught with Think-Pair-Share (TPS) strategy got better academic performance than those taught with conventional teaching strategy in both locations. Also, it was discovered that the performance of rural school students was better compared to that of urban school students with much statistically significant difference when exposed to TPS. The study therefore recommended among others, that: curriculum planners should ensure the inclusion of TPS among recommended strategy for teaching secondary school students of Geography irrespective of school location; curriculum planners should restructure Geography curriculum in such a way that it will accommodate the use of TPS on the school timetable, and that schools should ensure teachers are trained in the application of TPS strategy for teaching-learning processes.