Mastery Learning Strategy and Learning Retention: Effects on Senior Secondary School Students’ Achievement in Physical Geography in Ganye Educational Zone, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: In Ganye Educational Zone, it was observed that the performance of secondary school students in Geography examinations is continually on the decline. Studies have it that the instructional strategies adopted by teachers could influence students’ achievement. The need to alleviate the difficulties of abstraction and improve students’ achievement in Physical Geography informed this research. Aim: The study investigated the Effects of Mastery Learning Strategy and Learning Retention on Senior Secondary School Students’ Achievement in Physical Geography in Ganye Educational Zone, Nigeria. Methods: The study adopted the quasi-experimental non-equivalent pre-test, post test control group design. The multi-stage sampling technique at four levels was used to select four co-educational secondary schools in Ganye Educational Zone in Nigeria. The sample for the study was 218 Senior Secondary School two (SS II) students offering Geography from four intact classes in the four selected secondary schools. The instrument used for data collection was “Physical Geography Achievement and Retention Test” (PGART). The instrument was scrutinized and validated by experts in Geography Education. The reliability of the instrument was established using Kendall tau b statistic. This gave a reliability index of 0.74. Data collected were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U and t-Test statistics.   Results: The results showed that Mastery Learning Strategy has the potential to improve students’ learning retention and achievement in all spheres of cognitive domain in Physical Geography better than the Conventional Method. Conclusion: Since Mastery Learning Strategy was found efficacious in engendering students’ learning outcomes, it was recommended that Geography teachers should incorporate this teaching strategy during instruction so that learners would be guided to learn meaningfully and be assisted to retain content learnt in Geography.