Nnadiebube Journal of Education

In this study, the researchers investigated the effect of problem solving method on students’ achievement in Economics in public senior secondary schools in Anambra State, Nigeria. To achieve the aims of the study, two research questions were asked and two corresponding hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. This study adopted the quasi-experimental design using pre-test and post-test with experimental and control groups. The population is 76,542 SS 1 – 3 students in all the 263 public secondary schools in Anambra State. The sample size is 85 senior secondary two (SS 2) students offering Economics using purposive and cluster sampling techniques. The instrument used for the collection of data for this study was a researcher developed achievement test titled, Economics Achievement Test (EAT) which contained 20 items of multiple choice questions. The instrument was validated by three research specialists. Reliability coefficient of 0.83 was obtained using Kudder-Richardson 20 statistic (KR-20). Research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that problem solving method is effective in the improvement of students’ achievement in Economics more than the lecture method in senior secondary schools in Anambra State. It was also revealed that the posttest mean scores of male and female students taught Economics using problem solving method do not differ significantly in public senior secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that teachers should incorporate activities that cultivate critical and higher order thinking skills in the students through problem solving method. This will help the students break away from the direct learning approach of memorization of facts and knowledge without real life applications.

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