EFFECTS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING STRATEGY ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT IN CO-EDUCATIONAL SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN BARINGO CENTRAL SUB-COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

History and Government is an important subject in the Kenyan curriculum as it has social,
economic and political impact in our lives. Despite its importance, students‟ mean score for
History and Government in KCSE nationally and in Baringo central sub county from the year
2016- 2019 is well below 50%. Performance by gender favors boys as has been noted over the
years. Quasi-experimental research design, specifically Solomon-Four Non-Equivalent Control
Group Research Design was used. The target population comprised of secondary school
students in Baringo central sub county while the accessible population was Form Two students
in co-educational sub-county public secondary schools in Baringo central sub-county was 1014
students. Purposive sampling was used to obtain a sample of four Co-educational sub-county
public Secondary Schools. Each school provided one Form Two class for the study hence a
sample size of 158 students. The instruments used in the study were History and Government
Student Achievement Test (HGSAT) and History and Government Motivation Questionnaire
(HGMQ). All instruments were pilot-tested in secondary schools within Baringo central subcounty but in a division that was not be included in the study with but similar characteristics as
the sampled schools. Using KR-21 formulae, HGSAT yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.871
while using the cronbach alpha, HGMQ yielded 0.716 which were above the recommended
threshold of 0.7. Data were analysed using t-test, ANOVA and ANCOVA. The findings
indicated that CLS was not gender discriminative since it enhanced both students‟ academic
achievement in History and Government regardless of their gender. This study therefore
recommends that History and Government teachers should blend the use of Cooperative
Learning Strategy together with conventional teaching methods and TSC to in-service
secondary school teachers on the use of CLS.