EFFECT OF INSTRUCTIONAL SCAFFOLDING STRATEGY ON FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING STUDENTS' ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH-WEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of scaffolding instructional strategy on students' academic achievement in colleges of education in South-west, Nigeria. A quasi-experimental design was used for the study with a 2x2 factorial matrix. The population for this study consists of two thousand, two hundred and thirty-two (2,232) NCE II Business Education students in Colleges of Education in South-west, Nigeria. The study employed a simple random sampling technique in a multi-stage procedure to pick a sample of 268 students from their full classes of 75 and 196. A validated instrument, the Financial Accounting Achievement Test with coefficient of 0.92, was utilised for data collection. Data collected were analysed using the statistical measures of Mean, Standard Deviation, and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The study revealed that there was a significant main effect of treatment (with scaffolding instructional strategy) on students' academic achievement in financial accounting (F = 8640.30, p < 0.05) because students taught with scaffolding instructional strategy performed better than those taught using conventional lecture method (mean gain of E = 22.17 > C = 2.01). There was no significant effect of gender on students' academic achievement in financial accounting (F = 0.19, p > 0.05). The findings also indicated that there was no statistically significant interaction effect of treatments (scaffolding) and gender on the academic achievement of students in financial accounting (F = 0.29, p > 0.05). The study concluded that the scaffolding instructional technique is a valid and efficient teaching method for improving the academic achievement of both male and female students in Financial Accounting. Given the results, it is advised that business educators at colleges of education should also use scaffolding instructional strategies when teaching financial accounting to further improve students' academic performance.