EFFECT OF REGGIO EMILIA INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACH ON PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS’ READING COMPREHENSION INTEREST IN ENGLISH STUDIES IN ANAMBRA STATE

The study examined the effect of the Reggio Emilia instructional approach on reading comprehension achievement and interest of Basic school pupils in English Studies in Awka Local Government Education Authority, Anambra State. The study was guided by two research questions guided the study and three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. A quasi-experimental pre-test, post-test, non-randomised control group research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of 1,953 Basic Five pupils (1,006 males and 947 females) from public Basic schools in the Awka South Local Government Education Authority. The sample for the study consisted of 74 participants (33 male and 41 female), Basic Five pupils drawn using a multistage sampling procedure involving purposive sampling and simple random sampling techniques. An instrument titled Reading Comprehension Interest Inventory (RCII) was used for data collection. The instrument was subjected to face validation by three experts, two in the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education, and an expert in Measurement and Evaluation in the Department of Educational Foundations, all in the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University. The reliability of RCII was determined using Cronbach's alpha method, which yielded a coefficient of 0.82. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed, among others, that pupils taught reading comprehension using Reggio Emilia instructional approach had higher interest scores than those taught using expository teaching method. It was also found that there is no significant difference between the mean interest scores of male and female pupils taught reading comprehension using Reggio Emilia instructional approach. Further result showed that there is no significant interaction effect of gender and instructional strategies on the mean interest scores of pupils taught reading comprehension using Reggio Emilia instructional approach. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that English Studies teachers should use Reggio Emilia instructional approach in teaching reading comprehension to improve the interest of pupils.