Effect of Project-Based Teaching Method on Academic Performance in Civic Education Concept among Senior Secondary School Students in Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of the project-based teaching method on students' academic performance in Civic Education in senior secondary schools of Adamawa State, Nigeria. The research was guided by two research questions and three null hypotheses tested at a 0.05 level of significance. A quasi-experimental design, specifically the pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design, was employed. The population of the study was 50,782 Senior Secondary School II students offering Civic Education across five education zones of Adamawa State. A sample of 265 SS II students (142 males and 123 females) was drawn from four intact classes using purposive and stratified random sampling techniques. The instrument for data collection was the Civic Education Performance Test (CEPT), consisting of 50 multiple-choice items adapted from WAEC Civic Education past questions (2020–2025). The instrument was validated through face and content validation by experts, and its reliability was established using Kuder-Richardson Formula 21 (KR-21) using the split-half method, yielding a coefficient of 0.82. The item analysis of the 50-item Civic Education Performance Test (CEPT) revealed difficulty indices (p-values) ranging from 0.33 to 0.80 and discrimination indices (D-values) ranging from 0.25 to 0.68, indicating that the majority of items were of moderate difficulty and had good to excellent discriminating power, with no items requiring major revision based on the established criteria. Data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer research questions, while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 alpha level. The findings revealed that: there was a statistically significant effect of project-based teaching method and conventional method on students' academic performance, F(1,262)=8682.93, p<0.001, with students taught using project-based method performing significantly better than those taught using conventional method; gender had a statistically significant effect on academic performance, F(1,140)=6.93, p=0.009, indicating that male students performed better than female students when taught civic education using project-based method; and there was a statistically significant interaction effect between teaching method (project-based and conventional methods) and gender on students' academic performance, F(3,260)=2918.11, p<0.001. The study concluded that the project-based teaching method has a significant positive effect on students' academic performance in Civic Education in senior secondary schools of Adamawa state, but male students performed better than female students when taught civic education using the project-based method. Recommendations include that Civic Education teachers should adopt project-based learning as an instructional strategy and design inclusive project tasks that equally engage both male and female students