EFFECT OF VALUE ANALYSIS STRATEGY ON STUDENTS' ATTITUDE TOWARDS CHARACTER EDUCATION IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Recent experiences have shown that secondary school students in Osun State exhibit deficiency in character attitude as evident in such antisocial acts as bullying, examination malpractices, rape, dishonesty, fraud and cybercrimes. Previous studies largely focused on factors predisposing students to character deficits with little consideration for intervention with the use of innovative value-laden strategies for enhancing attitude to character education aspect of Social Studies. This study, therefore, examined the effect of value analysis on students' attitude to character education in Social Studies in Osun State, Nigeria. The pretest-posttest control group, quasi-experimental design using the 2x2x3 factorial matrix was adopted for the study. A multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted. Four schools were purposively selected in Osun State, Nigeria. The schools were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The participants were 239 Junior Secondary School II students (129 males, 110 females). Attitude towards character education (á=0.79) was the main instrument used for data collection, while Instructional guide was procedural instruments. Data were analysed using Analysis of Covariance at 0.05 level of significance. There was no significant main effect of treatment on students' attitude towards character education (F_(2,320) =7.48;  ç² =0.05). There was no significant main effect of academic ability on students' attitude towards 2 character education (F_(2,320) =5.50; ç² =0.03). Gender  had no significant main effect on attitude to character education. Values analysis strategy was effective in enhancing students' attitude to character education. Hence, it was recommended among others that values analysis and conventional strategies should be adopted in teaching character concepts in Social Studies to enhance attitudinal changes.