The Ubuntu Classroom Philosophy and Language Arts Education Students’ Performance in English Vowel Sounds at the University of Calabar
Keywords:
Ubuntu, Classroom Philosophy, Language Arts Education, Performance and Vowel SoundsAbstract
The study investigated the effect of the adoption of Ubuntu epistemological and pedagogical principles on students’ performance in English vowel sounds. The quasi-experimental research design was adopted for this study. Two research questions and hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study was 324 students of the Department of Language Arts Education at the University of Calabar. The sample size was 80 sophomores studying AEE 222 (Oral English Pedagogy). Data were collected using teacher-made achievement test adapted from past West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE). Since WASSCE questions are standardized items, the study relied on the validity and reliability already established by the West African Examinations Council which conducts the final high school equivalent secondary school examination. Data obtained were analysed using mean difference and t-Test statistic of independent sample. Findings of the study revealed that the adoption of Ubuntu philosophies in the classroom impacted learning outcomes positively. It also revealed that both male and female students benefitted from the use of Ubuntu principles even though male students’ mean performance was higher than their female counterparts. Based on the findings, it was concluded that Ubuntu principles of language learning helped university students to learn English vowel sounds better than the conventional approach and that there was no much discrepancy in the performance of students in the Ubuntu classroom based on sex as such teachers of English language should always leverage Ubuntu as a more gender- riendly and inclusive pedagogical intervention to improve students’ performance in English vowel sounds. It is recommended among other things that ulturally compatible teaching and learning approaches should be adopted by teachers to enhance students’ performanceDownloads
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