Effects of Background knowledge Activation on Junior Secondary Students' Achievement in Reading Comprehension in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State

Abstract

Reading comprehension is a foundational skills underpins success in different facets of academic and social life of leaner(s). Despite it significance empirical evidences have shown poor students' achievement in reading comprehension in and outside school. This paper investigated the Effects of Background Knowledge Activation on Junior Secondary School Students' Ability to Answer Three Types of Reading Comprehension Questions in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State, Nigeria. Quasi-experimental design was used to ascertain the achievements of ninety (90) students who were selected as sample from two schools out of the 21 public schools in the study area. Data were collected using the model of Answering Three Types of Reading Comprehension Questions Achievement Test (MATTRECQAT). The research questions were answered and analysed using analysis of variance(ANOVA) while independent sample t-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance so as to compare the achievement of students in the experimental group and those in the control group. The results revealed a statistically significant difference in the achievement of the two groups, with students in the experimental group obtaining significantly higher scores than those in the experimental group. The findings showed that background knowledge activation is critical and effective for teaching reading comprehension in secondary school. The researchers recommended that the teachers should endeavour to make use of the various prior knowledge activation strategies to facilitate learning and serious attention should be given to the higher levels of comprehension by both teachers and leaners. This is because developing only the literal comprehension ability of students actually does not lead to deep learning.