Effect of Jigsaw Technique and Gender on Students’ Attitude to Ethnic Integration and Sustainable Development in Nigeria

Abstract

The growing spate of ethno-religious crises and insurgency that characterizes Nigerian polity has been traced toinadequacies in the integration policies of the government. These situations have resulted in loss of several lives andunquantifiable psychological and material damages. However, the situations could improve through the use ofeffective teaching strategy which could restructure the prejudiced minds of students and encourage respect for othercultures. Therefore, the Jigsaw technique has been identified as a useful cooperative learning strategy that could beused for promoting national unity through education. The use of Jigsaw technique could discourage discrimination andpromote mutual respect for other cultures. This study, therefore, examined jigsaw technique as an effective approachfor ethnic integration and sustainable development in Ogun state, Nigeria. Two null hypotheses were generated andtested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a pretest- posttest, control group, quasi experimental design. A30 item achievement test was administered on 126 junior secondary school students selected from two secondaryschools in the south-west region of Nigeria. Data were analysed using analysis of co-variance. The findings of thisstudy revealed that jigsaw technique benefited students who form jigsaw group (experimental group) than theconventional learning group (control group). Based on these findings, it is suggested that jigsaw technique should beused to complement the conventional lecture method as this could promote unity and peaceful co-existence amongstudents. This could further translate into better integration and sustainable development in Nigeria.