SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ATTITUDE TOWARDS DIVORCE: EFFECTS OF ACTIVITIES METHODS IN TEACHING FAMILY LIFE EDUCATION IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN KOGI STATE

Abstract

The study accessed activities method of teaching as against the conventional method in assessing the effects on family life education and attitude to divorce by junior secondary school students. As over time there have been degenerating family values in many societies, Nigeria inclusive, these problems had called for the introduction of family life and sexuality education in our national curriculum. The state of disorder among couples and family units and its embarrassing disintegration requires educational intervention. This study therefore attempted to examine the influence of family life education on secondary school students' attitude towards divorce using activities methods in social studies education in Kogi state. To guide the study, four research questions were raised and three hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The design adopted for the study was a quasi – experimental pretest and post-test non-equivalent control group. The research questions were answered using descriptive statistics of frequencies, percentage, mean and standard deviation, while the hypotheses were tested using students independent t-test. The findings of the study revealed that there was increase in the frequencies and percentages of students with negative attitude after treatment towards divorce, there was a significant difference in the mean scores of students between the experimental groups and the control groups. There was no significance difference in the attitude in the mean score of students based on sex and parental structure. It concluded that the teaching of family life education through activities method has a positive influence among students and thereby discouraging divorce. It recommends activities methods teaching such as role playing, dramatization, project methods and inquiry methods instead of the conventional lecture method.