EFFECT OF CRITICAL THINKING STRATEGIES ON READING COMPREHENSION PERFORMANCE OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL YEAR II STUDENTS

(A CASE STUDY OF MINNA METROPOLIS, NIGERIA.)

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Author

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Department of Education

ABSTRACT
The study explore the effect of Critical Thinking Strategies on reading comprehension performance of Senior secondary school year two students in Minna Metropolis (Nigeria).The Purpose of the study was to investigate; Effects of Critical Thinking Strategies on reading comprehension performance among senior secondary school students. The variables investigated were based on genders (male & female) and among students in the experimental groups. Four research questions were set and answered and four hypotheses were postulated and tested in the study. The experimental research design of equivalent and randomized pre-test, post-test of experimental and control groups was used. The study area has a population of 11,124 Senior Secondary year two students for 2014-2015 academic year. A sample size of 120 year two students was sampled according to sample size table published by Curry in Yount (2006). Thirty (30) students from four (4) schools out of the population were sampled through simple random and purposive sampling techniques. Two researcher-designed instruments were used; the Critical thinking Instructional Guide (CTIG) and Reading Comprehension Test (RCT).The treatment procedures include six reading comprehension passages and the critical thinking strategies lessons conducted for six weeks. The statistical tool used for data interpretation was the independent t- test, tested at 0.05% level. The findings indicated that, there was significant difference between the performance of male and female students exposed to Critical thinking instructional strategies and those not exposed to treatment. Furthermore, the findings revealed no significant difference between the reading comprehension performance of male and female students in the experimental groups exposed to critical thinking strategies and those not exposed. However, the effect of critical thinking strategy training did not vary among different genders in the experimental groups. In addition, the findings provide empirical support for the facilitative effect of think pair share method and reciprocal teaching method on reading comprehension performance. The study concludes that the teaching of reading comprehension can produce positive outcome if relevant and appropriate critical thinking strategies are used in the teaching/learning process. It was recommended that English Language teachers should employ the Reciprocal Teaching Method and Think-Pair-Share Method in instructing learners in order to enhance their reading performance. Also teacher trainers, textbook writers, curriculum developers should teach, write textbooks and develop English Language teaching materials adopting and adapting the findings in this study.