Abstract:
Christian Religious Studies (CRS) is purposely included in the Nigerian primary school
curriculum to expose pupils to moral instructions capable of developing positive values and
attitudes. However, there is a prevalence of social vices, immoral and anti-social behaviours
among pupils in Lagos State. This calls to question the effectiveness of the teaching methods.
Previous studies showed that CRS teachers use different methods like simulation and games,
dramatisation, interactive videos but less attention has been paid to digital storytelling
methods. This study, therefore, was designed to determine the effects of Teacher-led Digital
Storytelling Strategy.
(TLDSS) and Pupil-led Digital Storytelling Strategy (PLDSS) on primary school pupils’
value acquisition, achievement in and attitude to CRS in Lagos State, Nigeria. The
moderating effects of computer literacy skills and gender were also examined. Piagetian
Cognitive Theory served as the anchor, while the pretest-posttest control group quasi
experimental design of 3×3×2 factorial matrix was adopted. Three Local Educational Areas
(LEAs) in Lagos State were randomly selected, while three public schools with available
qualified CRS teachers were purposively selected from each LEA. Nine intact classes with
450 pupils were randomly assigned to TLDSS (147), PLDSS (149) and control (154) groups.
Treatment lasted 11 weeks. Instruments used were Pupil Value Acquisition (r=0.79), Pupil
Attitude to CRS (α=0.87), and Pupil Computer Literacy (α=0.74) scales, CRS Achievement
Test (r=0.82), and instructional guides. Data were subjected to Analysis of Covariance and
Bonferroni post-hoc test at 0.05 level of significance.
About half of the participants were boys (50.8%), 49.2 % were girls while 47.5% had
medium computer literacy skill. Treatment had a significant main effect on pupils’ value
acquisition in CRS (F(2;431)=65.02; partial η2=0.23). Pupils exposed to TLDSS had the
highest post value acquisition mean score (53.86), followed by PLDSS (52.55) and control
(35.86) groups. There was a significant main effect of treatment on pupils’ achievement in
CRS (F(2;431)=15.16; partial η2=0.07). Pupils in PLDSS had the highest post achievement
mean score (25.80), followed by TLDSS (25.22) and control (23.84) group. Also, treatment
had a significant main effect on pupils’ attitude to CRS (F(2;431)=505.33; partial η2=0.70).
Pupils in TLDSS had the highest attitude mean score (25.64), followed by PLDSS (25.61)
and control (17.11) group. Gender had a significant main effect on pupils’ attitude to CRS
(F(2;431)=6.46; partial η2=0.02) but none on value acquisition and achievement in CRS. The
boys scored higher (23.10) than the girls (22.47). Computer literacy had no significant main
effect on pupils’ value acquisition, achievement and attitude to CRS. There is a significant
two-way interaction effect of treatment and computer literacy on pupils’ value acquisition in
CRS ( F(2,431)=3.39; partial η2=0.03) and attitude (F(4,431)= partial η2=0.03) but not on
achievement, while the other two-way and three-way interaction effects were not significant.
Teacher-led and Pupil-led digital storytelling strategies were effective in enhancing primary
school pupil’s values, attitude and achievement in Christian Religious Studies in Lagos State,
Nigeria. Digital storytelling strategies should be adopted by Christian Religious Studies
teachers, particularly for the girls with low computer literacy skills.
