Relative effectiveness of peer tutoring and think-pair-share strategies in improving senior secondary School students' academic performance in chemistry in Osogbo

ABSTRACT

The study examined the effects of peer tutoring and think-pair-share instructional strategies in improving 

students’ academic performance in Chemistry. It also compared the effects of peer tutoring and think-pair-share 

strategies in improving students’ attitude towards Chemistry. These were with a view to highlighting which of 

the teaching strategies that can improve students’ academic performance in Chemistry. The study adopted a 

non-equivalent pre-test, post-test control group experimental research design. The population for the study 

consisted of all public senior secondary class one (SS 1) science students in Osogbo. Out of the two local 

government areas in Osogbo, Olorunda Local Government was selected using simple random sampling 

technique. Three senior secondary schools were selected in the Local Government Area and one intact class was 

selected from each of the schools using simple random sampling technique. The total sample size was 113 (38, 

37 and 38 from each of the three schools). The schools were randomly assigned to three groups (Peer Tutoring, 

Think-Pair-Share and Teacher Expository) using simple random sampling technique. Two instruments, the 

Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) and Questionnaire on Attitudes of Students towards Chemistry (QASTC) 

were used to collect data for the study. Data collected were analysed using Analysis of Covariance 

(ANCOVA).The results showed that, there was a significant difference in the performance of students exposed 

to peer tutoring, think-pair-share instructional strategies and those exposed to teacher expository teaching 

strategy (F= 28.970; p< 0.05). The results also indicated that, there was no significant difference in the attitude 

of students towards Chemistry when exposed to peer tutoring and think-pair-share (F= 2.865; p> 0.05). The 

Think-Pair-Share Teaching Strategy (TPSTS) had best significant effect on student academic performance than 

Peer Tutoring Teaching Strategy (PTTS) and Teacher Expository Teaching Strategy (TETS). Students exposed 

to TPSTS had a mean difference of 1.8904 when compared with PTTS and 4.1287 mean difference when 

compared with TETS. The study concluded that think-pair-share was a better teaching strategy in improving 

students’ academic performance in Chemistry than peer tutoring teaching strategy and the teacher expository 

teaching strategy respectively.