Effects of Mastery-Learning-Approach on Performance and Retention in Islamic Studies Concept among Public Primary School Pupils in Katsina State

This study examined the “Effects of Mastery-Learning-Approach on performance and retention in Islamic Studies Concept among Public Primary School Pupils in Katsina State, “The study was guided by two objectives, questions and hypotheses. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design which included a pre-test, post-test and post-test. The study population included all 66,831 (31,735 boys and 35,096 girls) grade 5 pupils from 469 public primary schools in six (6) local government areas under the Katsina Zone Education Quality Assurance (ZEQA) State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB). The study sample consisted of 90 grade 5 primary school pupils purposively drawn from two intact classrooms in two sample schools. The instrument used to collect data was the Islamic Studies Performance Test (ISPT) and the Islamic Studies Retention Test (ISRT). The ISPT was validated by the experts and pilot tested, and the internal consistency reliability was 0.85. Two research questions were analyzed using the mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses tested using an independent sample t-test at a significance level of 0.05. The results showed that primary school students who learned Islamic studies using the mastery learning approach (MLA) performed significantly better than those who learned the same content using the conventional method. From the results of the study it was discovered that mastery-learning-approach help in enhancing students’ academic performance and retention in Islamic studies concept among public primary school pupils. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that education stakeholders and curriculum planners (in Islamic studies curriculum document) should place a emphasis on the adoption of the mastery learning approach in the teaching and learning process. Keyword: Islamic studies, mastery-learning-approach, conventional method, academic performance, retention.