Constructivism as pedagogical framework and poetry learning outcomes among Nigerian students: An experimental study

Abstract

For poetry as a stand-alone subject, there is very scant empirical evidence that exist which estimates the impact of constructivism on its learning and teaching in Africa. There are, however, a number of existing studies in this regard in the Western context. This paper, using an experimental approach, examines the impact of constructivism on poetry learning among junior high school students in southeast Nigeria. Repeated-measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was employed to estimate the achievement level in poetry of a randomized selection of participants across control and treatment groups. Results show a significant effect for the constructivist method on achievement among students in the treatment group compared to the control group. They also show that the effect of the constructivist method on students’ achievement is not determined by gender. The implications for research and practice are discussed according to these outcomes. The study concludes that while constructivism may stimulate increased students’ learning outcome, more interaction time between students and teachers and related resource will be crucial in further driving the gains of constructivism in pedagogy.