Effect of Guided Inquiry Strategy on Academic Achievement among Social Studies students in Upper Basic schools in Edo State

This study investigated the effect of guided inquiry instructional strategy on academic achievement in Social Studies among Upper Basic School students in Edo State, Nigeria. Guided by three research questions and three hypotheses, the study employed a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design, arranged within a 2x2 factorial matrix focusing on instructional strategy and gender. The population comprised 49,796 Upper Basic 2 students enrolled in public secondary schools across Edo State. Using a multi-stage sampling technique, a total of 450 students (220 males and 230 females) were selected from the three senatorial districts: Edo North, Edo South, and Edo Central. Data were collected using the Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT), a 40-item multiple-choice instrument validated by experts, with a reliability coefficient of 0.87 determined using Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 (KR-20). Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, paired sample t-tests, and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at a 0.05 significance level. The findings revealed that students exposed to guided inquiry strategy performed significantly better than those taught using conventional methods. Additionally, male students in the guided inquiry group achieved higher posttest scores than their female counterparts, while females performed better in the conventional group. However, there was no statistically significant interaction effect between instructional strategies and gender on students’ academic achievement. The study recommended the adoption of guided inquiry strategy to improve Social Studies learning outcomes and the application of gender-sensitive approaches in classroom instruction.