Gender in Students’ Achievement in English Essay Writing Using Collaborative Instructional Strategy

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of gender using collaborative instructional strategy on students’ achievement in English essay writing. The design is a quasi experimental study of pretest post test non equivalent control group design. The sample of the study was 191 SS 2 students in four co-educational secondary schools in Abakaliki urban schools with population of 1,797 students. The instrument used was EEAT achievement test. Two groups of students were taught using collaborative instructional strategy for experimental group and the conventional method was used for control group. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyse the research question while ANCOVA analysis of covariance was used to test the hypothesis at an alpha of 0.05 level of significant. Results obtained indicated that males performed better than females in the experimental group but females performed better than males in the control group. Test of significance showed no significance. Hence, the hypothesis was accepted. The educational implications were that sex is not a barrier to attainment of a students’ desire in education. Instructional strategy that is gender sensitive but yields effective result for both sexes should be used with caution so that it will benefit both sexes.