Effects of Cooperative and Individualistic Instructional Strategies On Students Problem Solving Abilities In Secondary School Chemistry In Ilesa, Nigeria.

This study investigated the relative effectiveness of cooperative and individualistic instructional strategies on students' problem solving abilities in secondary school chemistry. It made use of a 3 x 3 x 2 quasi-experimental, non-randomized factorial design. Two hundred and fifty (250) Senior Secondary two (SS II) chemistry students were purposively sampled from three public secondary schools in Ilesa Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria. Two research instruments: Researcher's Instructional Packages for solving Chemistry Problems (RIP) and Chemistry Performance Test (CPT) were developed, validated and used for the study. The reliability of the Chemistry Performance Test (CPT) was determined and found to be 0.62 using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation formula. Five hypotheses were raised and tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Two experimental groups (Cooperative Instructional group, Individualistic Instructional group) and a control group were used. The results of the analysis showed that there was a significant difference in the performance of chemistry students exposed to cooperative instructional Strategy, individualistic instructional strategy and conventional teaching method. Both the cooperative instructional strategy and individualistic instructional strategy improved the performance of the learners. The cooperative instructional strategy was found to be most effective in enhancing better performance of the learners. African Research Review Vol. 1 (1) 2007: pp. 121-13