EFFECT OF STUDENTS TEAM ACHIEVEMENT DIVISIONS ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING IN OYO STATE

Abstract

The issue of poor academic achievement among secondary school students in Financial Accounting has been of concern to stakeholders. The causes have been linked to the instructional strategy employed by the teachers. This study was conducted to determine the effect of student team achievement divisions (STAD) strategy on secondary school students’ academic achievement in Financial Accounting. The study employed a pre-test post-test quasi-experimental research design with a 2x2 factorial matrix. The target population was 12,567 SS2 Financial Accounting students in 629 public secondary schools across the 33 local government areas of Oyo State. Two pairs of schools (2 rural and 2 urban) were randomly assigned to the treatment and control group, with a sample size of 204 SS2 Financial Accounting students in their intact classes in four (4) secondary schools from two local governments in Oyo State. The Financial Accounting Achievement Test instrument was validated by three experts in the field, yielding a reliability coefficient of (r = 0.85). Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 significance level. There was a significant main effect of treatment (F = 2219.28, P < 0.05), and location (F = 54.71, P < 0.05) on students’ academic achievement. There was also a significant interaction effect of treatment and location (F = 37.62, P < 0.05) on students’ academic achievement in Financial Accounting. The study concluded that teaching Financial Accounting with STAD strategy enhanced students’ academic achievement rather than using the conventional teaching method. Hence, it is recommended that Financial Accounting teachers in secondary schools should employ the use of STAD strategy for teaching.