Effects of Thematic Web Quest Strategy on Students Rention in Upper Basic Social Studies in Jos North, Plateau State, Nigeria

This research aims to determine the effect of the thematic web quest strategy on students' retention in upper basic social studies students in Jos North, Plateau State, Nigeria. The effectiveness of any instruction can be assessed by the extent to which concepts are retained and for which duration. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the investigation. A quasi-experimental, non-equivalent pre-test and post-test Quasi-experimental design was adopted. Two intact classes in two co-educational public schools were purposively selected and randomly assigned to experimental (n = 34) and control (n = 36) groups. The Social Studies Retention Test (SSRT) was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) were used to answer all research questions, while the inferential statistics (ANCOVA) were used to test hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The result indicated that students’ retention of concepts improved significantly in the experimental group, where students reported better learning experiences than their counterparts in the control group, and also that gender does not have a significant effect on the retention of students. This beneficial effect of a technology-integrated approach can be attributed to the use of various internet-based engaging contents carefully selected to fill the gap in teacher support known as the thematic web quest strategy. The research makes the following recommendations: Embed the WebQuest strategy into curriculum, classrooms, and teacher training while funding the digital tools that power it.