Abstract
The civic competence of school age children has become questionable as a result of inappropriate leadership value manifestations. Active learning strategies have been suggested to serve as a panacea to this problem. However, the use of these strategies in the social studies and civic education classrooms are very rare in Nigerian secondary schools. This study, therefore, determined the effects of two modes of active learning strategies (case study and puzzle-based games) on school age children civic competence in leadership value concepts in social studies and civic education in Delta State, Nigeria. The study adopted the pre-test-post-test, control group quasi-experimental design. Junior secondary students in Delta state made up the population of the study. Multi-stage and simple random sampling techniques were employed in arriving at the sample. A total of two hundred and sixty – five students made up the study sample. Civic Competence Scale (r=0.68), Conventional Lecture Method Guide (r=0.78), Case Study Strategy Guide (r=0.60) and Puzzle-Based Instructional Games Strategy Guide (r=0.67) were used as instruments for data collection. Data were analysed using Analysis of Covariance, Estimated Marginal Mean and Scheffe Pair-wise Comparism at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that though there is a significant main effect of treatment on school age childrens’ civic competence, the puzzle-based games strategy enhanced their civic competence better than the case study strategy. Consistent exploration of these strategies in the social studies and civic education classrooms in Nigerian schools was recommended. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2016.v6n2p213
Highlights
The art of developing civic competent leaders is a process which requires careful acquisition of specific values which are taught not caught
Amosun and Ayo – Vaughan (2011) have pointed out that a good number of undergraduates who are well informed on issues of governance perceive of the state of leadership values in Nigeria as being weak and below standard the poor level of civic competence displayed by leaders
The main instrument used for data collection was the Civic Competence Scale (CCS) and the treatment packages of Case Study Strategy Guide (CSSG); Puzzle Based Instructional Games Strategy Guide (PBIGSG) and Conventional (Class) Lecture Method Guide (CLMG)
Summary
The art of developing civic competent leaders is a process which requires careful acquisition of specific values which are taught not caught. Amosun and Ayo – Vaughan (2011) have pointed out that a good number of undergraduates who are well informed on issues of governance perceive of the state of leadership values in Nigeria as being weak and below standard the poor level of civic competence displayed by leaders. The findings above indicate that the values of self control, care, maturity, loyalty, independent mindedness, honesty, integrity, self-control, positive role model and independence which are leadership oriented are lacking among secondary school students. This is in agreement with Enu and Esu (2011) that core values of Nigeria especially that of leadership over the years have been weakened and need be strengthened. Today’s children definitely cannot be the kind of leaders expected in future
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