EFFECT OF HEURISTIC TEACHING APPROACH ON SOCIAL STUDIES ACHIEVEMENT OF UPPER BASIC II STUDENTS IN KARU LGA NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

The study investigated the effect of the Heuristic Teaching Approach (HTA) on the Social Studies achievement of upper basic II students in Karu LGA of Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Two (2) research questions and its hypotheses guided the study. Quasi- experimental research design was employed, and upper basic II students were used as sample size of the study. The Social Studies Achievement Test (SOSEAT) was used as a data collection instrument. The SOSEAT was validated which yielding 0.82 validity index and 0.82 reliability index. The SOSEAT was administered and the data generated was analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer research questions, while ANCOVA to test the null hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that students exposed to HTA performed better than their counterpart students in CTM), and there is a significant difference in the achievement mean scores of males and females students exposed to HTA, and that of counterpart male and female students in CTM. It was concluded that students HTA achieved higher than male and female students in CTM. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Social Studies teachers HTA to teach, and trained on the application of HTA should organize by the authority of schools to improve students' academic progress in the subject.