Browsing by Author "Adekoya, P. A."

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Development and validation of students' attitude to economics scale using item response theory
(Educational Assessment and Research Network in Africa (EARNiA), 2020-11) Adekoya, P. A.; Akorede, S. F.
As important as attitude scales are in the teaching and learning domain, scales on affective traits are relatively limited especially those developed by using IRT based models. This study developed and validated an instrument-the Students Attitude to Economics Scale (SATES), using the IRT model. At the initial exploratory stage, data obtained from a sample of973 high school economics students were subjected to parallel and full information item factor analyses with multidimensional graded response model. This was based on the number of dimensions identified under parallel analysis to identify the interpretable factors underlying the scale. A total of 14 items of the initial 55 constructed items emerged with four factors named; difficulty of economics, performance in economics, benefits of economics and pedagogy of economics. To assess the construct validity of the SATES, the differential functioning of the items on the scale, with respect to the sex of the respondents, were assessed. The results showed that all the 14 items had insignificant chi-square value (p > 0.05). Meaning that all the 14 items that survived item analysis functioned similarly among males and females, hence were valid items. To estimate the reliability of the 14-item SATES, the responses of the testees to the 14 items were subjected to empirical reliability analysis, an IRT based reliability estimate. The outcome revealed a reliability estimate of 0.75, 0.73, 0.84, and 0.79 for each of the four factors respectively, hence 0.78 for the SATES. To cross-validate the 14-item SATES, it was administered to another sample of 1,274 high school economics students, and the invariance of the scale was assessed. To achieve this, response was subjected to multiple group multidimensional item response theory analyses. This provided evidence of the construct validity of the instrument, indicating that the instrument is a valid and reliable tool for measuring senior secondary school students' attitude towards economics.
Effects of two forms of experiential pedagogy and learning styles on senior secondary school (SSS) students’ achievement in economics
(Educational Assessment and Research Network in Africa (EARNiA), 2019-11) Adekoya, P. A.; Akorede, S. F.
A copious amount of studies have been done on ways to improve the teaching of economics in high school, but little in the area of bringing in experiential learning into the economics classroom. The researchers attempted this study to examine the effects of two forms of experiential pedagogy and learning style on students' achievement in economics. Six intact SSS2 economics classes were randomly selected from two randomly chosen local government areas of Ogun State. Three hundred and twenty-five SSS students participated in the study. A pre-test, posttest, control group design with a 3x4 factorial matrix was used for the study. The instrument used was an Economics Achievement Test (EAT); constructed and validated by the researchers using IRT methods (ER 0.87) along with the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (KLSI) version 3.1 (2005) (r= 0.77) to obtain data. Three null hypotheses were tested at 0.005 significance level. Analysis of data was done with ANCOVA. The result revealed a significant main effect of treatment (Experience Debriefing, Experience Dictation and Control) (F (2.300) = 186.699, p < 0.05 (0.000), partial ղ=. 554) on students' achievement in economics. To assess where the observed significance lies, bonferonni pair-wise comparison was conducted. The outcome showed that experience debriefing fostered students' achievement in economics most, followed by experience dictation, then control. The result also revealed no significant main effect of learning style on achievement in economics (F (3.300) = 0.943, p>0.05(0.420), partial ղ=.009). In addition, the study revealed no significant interaction effect of teaching method and learning style on students' achievement, (F(6300) = 1.245, p>0.05(0.283)).The researchers concluded that experiential learning approaches are effective and recommend that high school economics teachers should embrace this technique. In addition, they should note the diverse learning needs of students, and use it to plan their lessons.
Learning style preferences of senior secondary school economics students
(Faculty of Education, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana, 2020-09) Adekoya, P. A.; Akorede, S. F.
Despite the increasing number of candidates offering economics in senior secondary schools and the importance of the subject to entrepreneurship education, performance of students in public examinations, such as the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), in the subject has been low and oscillating between, below-average and average performance. The cause of this oscillating and sometimes poor learning outcome has been attributed to many factors; chief among them is the background characteristics of students- of which learning style is one. To the best of the knowledge of the researcher, few studies have been done in the area of learning style of senior secondary school economics students. This prompted the researchers to undertake this survey research- to investigate the dominant learning style of high school economics students; so as to assist teachers to put in place teaching methods/aids that accentuate teaching efficiency and better learning outcomes. The Kolb learning style inventory (KLSI) version 3.1(2005) was administered to a sample of 560 senior secondary 1, 2 and 3 students, from a population of senior secondary school students offering economics in Ogun state, Nigeria. The data obtained were subjected to descriptive statistics- frequency counts and percentages and chi-square tests. Findings of the study reveal an even distribution of the four selected learning styles, among the sample used for the study. However, Reflective learning style was the most prevalent style, (27%) followed by both Abstract learning style (25%) and Concrete learning style (25%), the Active learning style being the least, (23%). In addition, there was no significant association between class (X2t 0.384 and P=0.999), gender (X2, 0.220 and P=0.974) and subject area specialization (X2, 1.243 and P=0.999) of students and learning styles. It is recommended that teachers of high school economics adopt multiple teaching methods/aids so as to meet the diverse learning styles of students.