IMPACT OF LEARNING ENVIRONMENT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS

This study examined the Impact of Learning Environment on the Performance of Students in Social Studies in Junior Secondary Schools in Taraba State, Nigeria. Four (4) objectives which include, to determine the impact of classroom building on the performance of JSS students in Taraba State and to determine the impact of the adequate class furniture on the performance of JSS students in Taraba State were formed to guide the study, four (4) research questions and four (4) hypotheses were formulated in line with the objectives. Population for the study comprised twenty five thousand three hundred (25, 3000) JSS students from two hundred (200) public secondary schools in Taraba State. Purposive sampling technique was used to select two renovated and two dilapidated schools. Thereafter, two large sized classes of JSS III were selected from two of the schools, another two small sized classes were selected from the other two schools, giving a total of 4 intact classes and students from these classes formed the sample size of 200 for this study. Quasi-experimental research design involving pre-test, post-test and non-equivalent design group was used for the study. The research instrument used for data collection was Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT) that contained 20 items and was adopted from Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination (JSSCE) conducted in Taraba State between 2008 and 2012. Independent t-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance, while mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the research questions. Findings from the study showed that all the hypotheses were rejected. The findings revealed that there was a significant difference in the performances of the two groups (Experimental and Control). This revealed that a classroom building; class with adequate furniture; class with small class population and the use of instructional materials were found to have positive impact on the performance of students in Junior Secondary schools in Taraba State. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher concludes that conducive learning environment is very essential for effective teaching and learning and recommendations were made among which includes, that government and other education stakeholders should make concerted efforts to build more classrooms in secondary schools that would help to reduce problem of overcrowding and create enabling teaching and learning environment; that adequate furniture should be provided and students should be oriented on how to maintain these facilities because most a times students destroy these facilities by themselves.

Education is the most important component of human resources development and is accorded a pride of place in many countries‟ developmental activities. There is no doubt that the importance of education cannot be underscored because there is no country that has succeeded without educating its people. Education according to Osokoya (2009) helps to improve security, health, prosperity and ecological balance in the world. It encourages social, economic and cultural progress, tolerance, national and international cooperation. Akomolafe (2009) describes education as a single most effective means of curbing population growth, reducing child mortality, eradicating poverty and ensuring democracy, peace and sustainable development.

Education is an instrument for the acquisition of appropriate skills, ability and competence both mental and physical also as equipment for individual to live and contribute to the development of his/her society (Lawal, 2003).