Enhancing Voter Education Knowledge of Adolescents Through Social Interaction Instructional Models

The study determined the effects of group investigation and jurisprudential inquiry of social interaction instructional models on adolescents’ knowledge of voter education related contents in senior secondary school Government curriculum. The ultimate aim was to curb voter apathy among young citizens. The design was Quasi-experimental non-equivalent pre-test, post-test control group design. The sample for the study consisted of 165 SS II students drawn from public secondary schools in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu state Nigeria. Using a multi-stage sampling technique, the intact classes from the schools were assigned to the two experimental groups. Data collected using Multiple Choice Government Achievement Test (MCGAT) were analyzed employing mean and standard deviation for the research questions and ANCOVA for testing the hypothesis at P < 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed that group investigation and jurisprudential inquiry models enhanced students’ acquisition of knowledge in voter education related contents; although group investigation seemed more efficacious. There was also a statistical difference in the mean achievement scores of students with group investigation performing significantly better. These findings were exhaustively discussed with the far-reaching recommendations on how to improve voter education knowledge and potentials of young ones as future adult citizens.


Introduction
The incidence of low voter turnout in some democracies all over the world particularly in developing countries has remained a contentious issue to sustainable democracy and proper representation. The emergence of democracy in developing countries such as Nigeria was an aftermath of the decline of military rule and it is very sacrosanct in the right choices of the leaders by the people. Based on the right of eligible voters to perform their civic responsibility, one of which is choosing their leaders in elections, electoral commissions in Nigeria and elsewhere globally engage in awareness creation prior to general elections to enlighten the masses on the necessity of participating in electoral processes. It is expected that with proper awareness, citizens would perform their civic responsibilities (e.g voting in elections). Available evidence have shown a great decline in voter turnout between 1999 and 2015 in Nigeria. International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance [IDEA], (2018), analysis succinctly revealed that there is a wide margin between the voting age population and the number of registered voters. Thus while the voting age population remained higher than the number of registered voters across the election years, the turnout equally does not reflect the number of registered voters as it continued to retrogress. This could be an indication that the future of democracy in Nigeria may be bleak.
Studies have also shown that decline in voting is on increase among young ones (Blais & Rubenson, 2013;Danielle & Danielle, 2011;Smets 2012). This position suggests that perhaps this age bracket seem not to be acquiring adequate orientation and awareness on the essence of participation in electoral processes. Thus, lively discussions by several analytical studies reiterated that the most logical approach to active participation in political and electoral processes is effective dissemination of political contents at the school level (Journell, 2014;Ogujawa & Udoh, 2015;Dag, Sozer, & Sel, 2015). Similarly, Ohme, Marquart and Akristensen (2019) aligned with the views of other studies such as Eichhorn (2018), Keating and Janmaat (2016) that civic education could increase knowledge about political matters since adolescents have the propensity of more educational idea towards politics than adults (Keating & Janmaat, 2016) through classroom discussion (Galston, 2007;Levy, Solomon, & Collet-Gildard, 2016). This could be justified by the fact that education gives people the opportunity of empowerment and proper value orientation. Thus, it is not an only approach for encouraging participation but a fundamental paradigm shift for behavioural and attitudinal transformation. Therefore, democracy may not succeed unless citizens particularly young ones are educated to make wise political choices and decisions.
In view of the important role of education (via schools or other informal means) in upholding democratic values of the society especially in Nigeria, voter education related contents were incorporated into school subjects such as Government, with prescribed methods of teaching that are student-centred in nature. Prescribed instructional methods for effective teaching of Government include Discussion method, Fieldtrip, Inquiry, Debate etc (FME, 2007). Indeed, evidence shows that undue dependence on teacher-centred instructional methods tends to encourage passive learning among students (Nyamwembe, Ondig, & Kiio, 2012;Journell, 2014). Further studies also established that although the teacher-centred method may be suitable for large classes and quick coverage of curriculum contents, it has been found ineffective for students' meaningful learning (Ubulom & Ogwunte, 2017). This situation justifies the need for a paradigm shift from teacher-centred instructional methods (that allow teachers to dominate classroom activities, thereby discouraging students' active participation and interaction during classroom instruction) to learner-centred ones which encourage active participation and interaction of students in instructional activities and related experiences.

Statement of the Problem
The reoccurring voter apathy in elections in Nigeria between 1999 and 2015 particularly among young ones remains worrisome to the future of sustainable democracy. Considering the role of youths in sustaining democracy, efforts have been made to streamline electoral contents such as voter education related contents into the school curriculum to enable young ones to acquire necessary knowledge that will enable them to participate actively in the political system. In a bid to ensure effective assimilation of the contents, the Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria (2007) prescribed student-centred instructional methods such as discussion, debate, inquiry methods among others for the teaching of the contents. Regrettably, studies have shown that teachers do not seem to employ the student-centred instructional strategies that encourage interaction, discussion and debate among students and between students and teachers in teaching political contents. This probably may be the reason for the persistent low performance of students in political-related contents as noted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) Chief Examination's report over the years (2015)(2016)(2017).
The poor performance of students was attributed to inappropriate instructional methods employed by teachers among other factors. This position, therefore, elucidates the rationale for this study. Furthermore, a large body of research has focused on the impact of civic education on political activities but not specifically on voter education contents of school curriculum using student-centred instructional strategies. Against this backdrop, the study sought to determine whether students' academic achievement in voter education related contents of Government curriculum could be enhanced using two social interaction instructional models, Group investigation and jurisprudential inquiry models.

Instructional Models
Given the constant emphasis on lifelong learning and the need for synergy between societal activities and the classroom learning experiences, it is imperative to adopt methods of instruction that give students the leverage of discussions and deliberations on societal issues while working in a group may improve better learning outcomes especially voter knowledge. Thelen (1960) developed models of instruction known as group investigation model while Oliver and Shaver (1966) also modelled instructional activities referred to as jurisprudential inquiry model. These models amidst other instructional models were categorized into a family of models by educational scholars such as Joyce and Weil (2000) and Joyce, Weil and Calhoun (2008) one of which is social interaction model. The social interaction model is a model that reflects a view of human nature, which gives priority to social relations and the creation of a better society (Joyce & Weil, 2000;Patel, 2013). It is regarded as a student-centred instructional strategy that facilitates group work, encourages interaction and meaningful dialogue among learners (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, 2011;Hurst, Wallace, & Nixon, 2013). Among the social interaction family are group investigation and jurisprudential inquiry models which could be referred to as debate method. Group investigation was propounded by Thelen following John Dewey's educational philosophy on democratic problem-solving. It is a model that encourages democratic classroom environment and enhances the development of skills for democratic participation through inter-personal social (group) skills (Joyce & Weil, 2000;Siddiqui, 2013). This type of instruction constitutes four basic features which include investigation, interaction, interpretation and intrinsic motivation, compared with teacher-centred instruction, for internalization and enhanced knowledge (Lazarowitz, Hertz-lazarowitz, Khalil, & Ron, 2013).
Application of group investigation model in the classroom requires the teacher to follow six stages which include; Grouping, Planning, Investigating, Organizing, Presenting and evaluating (Slavin, 1995). The first stage requires that students generate questions, after which the questions are sorted into categories. With the questions generated, the students then join the group of their interest. Secondly, a plan is made by the students on what to study and divide tasks among the individual member of the group. The third stage enables the students to seek for materials that provide answers to the questions raised by them in the group. Fourthly, the group determines the main idea in their findings and plan on how to present before the entire class. Evaluation is done after the presentation for the students to ascertain their performance in the group. These stages as pointed out by Sharan (1998) require that the teacher performs the role of a facilitator. The stages enable the learners to collaborate and interact thereby sharing ideas.
Jurisprudential inquiry model (JIM) as developed by Oliver and Shaver (1966) was basically designed to imbibe the jurisprudential frame of reference as a way of processing information and resolving social issues, emphasizes problem-solving technique that links knowledge and society and inculcate in students values and attitude via discussions, debates, and arguments over controversial issues, thereby developing citizens that are skilful in formulating social policy (Nwafor, 2014;Damanik, Degeng, Setyosari, & Dasna, 2016;Toyosi & Aminat, 2018). For effective application of JIM model in the classroom, the teacher follows the stages inherent in the model. These include orientation to the case, identifying the issues, taking positions, exploring the stance (patterns of argumentation), refining and qualifying the positions, and testing factual assumptions behind qualified positions (Achmad, Bundu, Suradi, & Jufri, 2018;Joyce & Weil, 2000a). Following the stages, the teacher first introduces the topic of discussion to the students and then arranges the students into teams with each team being assigned a side of the issue to represent in their respective group. Secondly, the students will work in their groups, gathering and analyzing facts about the issue. After gathering information, the students get back together as an intact class. At this point, the teacher will allow all of the teams representing the same side of the issue to get together to share information and prepare for the public discussion. Before the presentation, the teacher will select from the class those who will prepare questions to ask each of the presenters. Questions will also be asked to the selected members of the groups involved in the debate. The next stage is for the students to sit and debate on the issues. The teacher ensures that all views are respected, issues are thoroughly explored, and students clarify their arguments during a presentation in support of the side of the issue they represent (Nwafor, 2014). The knowledge acquired in this process could enable the students to lead or participate in activities in their communities such as participation in the electoral process (Bonnstetter & Pedersen, 2009).
In view of the above, the objective of this study was to determine the effects of group investigation (GIM) and jurisprudential inquiry (JIM) instructional strategies, on students' acquisition of voter education knowledge related contents of senior secondary school Government in Enugu State, Nigeria. Thus, the research questions raised were: 1) What is the mean achievement scores of students taught voter education related contents in senior secondary school Government using group investigation model and those taught the same contents using the jurisprudential inquiry model? 2) Which of the models is more efficacious in enhancing students' achievement in voter education related contents in senior secondary school Government? The study equally assumed that there is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students taught voter education related contents of Government using group investigation model and jurisprudential model.

Materials and Methods
This study was a non-equivalent control group quasi-experiment. It was carried out in secondary schools located in Enugu state, Nigeria that offer voter education related contents. The population of the study consisted of adolescents in senior secondary school students 11 that offer Government subject. The adolescent students are potential voters that require knowledge of voter education. Intact classes participated in the study. The same intact classes participated in the pre-test and post-test. Thus, a sample of 165 students participated in the study. The cognitive ability of the students was determined through an instrument developed by the researchers, with 50 multiple-choice questions, in which only one option was the correct answer while one point value was given each question. Table of specification was developed by the researchers to ensure the spread of the question items to the different levels of the cognitive domain.
To carry out the experiment proper, two lesson plans were developed by the researchers based on each of the models, GIM and JIM. The lesson plans focused on voter education related contents as enshrined in the senior secondary school Government curriculum. These contents cover election, suffrage, electoral system, features of free and fair election and electoral commission. The lesson plans were the same in content but differ in feature as each was prepared following the stages of each of the models.
Regular teachers conducted the experiment after they were given thorough training by the researchers. This was in a bid to avoid the hawthorn effect. However, the researchers monitored the experiment for the effective implementation of the steps involved in the instructional strategies. Before the commencement of the experiment, the instrument was administered to the students as pre-test. Kuder Richardson formular (KR-20) test statistics was used to analyze the data collected and a reliability index of 0.79 was established. After completing the experiment, the same instrument was immediately re-administered to the students as post-test. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Mean and standard deviation were used for measures of central tendency while the level of significance of P < 0.05 was adopted. One hundred and sixty-five students participated in the study. The students taught voter education contents with GIM had pre-test mean achievement score of 16.42 with a standard deviation of 4.52 and posttest mean achievement score of 36.54 with a standard deviation of 5.46. Similarly, the students who were taught voter education related contents using jurisprudential Inquiry model had pre-test mean achievement score of 15.84 with a standard deviation of 3.54 and post-test mean achievement score of 31.76 with standard deviation of 4.58. Mean gain scores of 20.12 and 15.92 for the students exposed to group investigation model and jurisprudential Inquiry model respectively shows that students exposed to group investigation model had higher post-test mean achievement than those exposed to jurisprudential Inquiry model. However, the result indicates that the two instructional models, GIM and JIM were effective as the mean achievement scores of the students in voter education related contents went from 16.42 and 15.84 in the pre-test to 36.54 and 31.76 for GIM and JIM in the post-test respectively.  Table 2 shows that the calculated value of F (57.587) for the effect of Group Investigation Model and Jurisprudential Inquiry model on students' achievement in voter education related contents had an associated probability value of 0.000. Since the probability value of 0.000 is less than the 0.05 level of significance, the null hypothesis was rejected meaning that there is a significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students taught voter education related contents using Group Investigation Model and Jurisprudential Inquiry model in favour of students exposed to Group Investigation Model.

Discussion
The instructional strategies adopted in this study enabled students to enhance their knowledge in voter education related contents. The results presented in Table 1 revealed that for each of the groups (GIM and JIM), the post test achievement scores of students were greater than the pre-test mean achievement scores. This is an indication that the instructional treatment had a significant effect on the students. The findings further revealed that Group investigation model seems to have more effect on students' academic achievement in voter education related contents than jurisprudential inquiry model. While group investigation model encourages more interaction among group members, and also deals more on the collaborative efforts of the group members in finding solutions to problems, jurisprudential inquiry model, even though encourages interaction among members, seems more argumentative in structure. Hence, group investigation model may have given the students the opportunities of more interaction than jurisprudential inquiry model. The students' academic achievement improved using group investigation and jurisprudential models probably as a result of the features inherent in the models. Both models engage the learners in interaction, discussion, collaboration and investigating. Learning is facilitated because of the diverse input of the individual learners n their groups. The model considers the individual abilities of the learners thereby giving students the opportunity of impartation of knowledge and a launching pad for future independent decision making in electoral processes such as voting in elections.
The finding of this study corroborates the findings of Ohme, Marquart and Kristensen (2018) which found that civic education is important in youth political engagement. The findings of this study also aligns with Achmad, Bundu, Suradi and Jufri (2018);Adiansyah, Muh, Mansyur and Mu'nisa (2017) and Pitoyo, Waluyo and Suwandi (2014) which found group investigation efficacious. In addition, students are satisfied with GIM which makes them to work corroboratively. The findings of the study further coincides with the findings of Mehendale (2016); Farikah (2017); Yuliana, Sapri and Turdjai (2017) which found jurisprudential model efficacious instructional model although GIM proved more efficacious in this study. The findings of this study buttresses the views of Hackathorn, Solomon, Blankmeyer, Tennial and Garczynski (2011) which indicated that each teaching technique is effective for various levels of learning, but are dependent on the teachers' usage.
A study by (Borgonovi, D'Hombres, & Hoskin, 2010) in Europe found that education is positively associated with voter turnout and information acquisition about politics. Another study conducted by Adiansyah, Muh, Mansyur and Mu'nisa (2017) showed that students' critical thinking skills improved with GIM than conventional method. A study conducted by Achmad et al., (2018) showed that the post test scores of students significantly improved after using GIM strategy in elementary class. Girsang (2014) found that GIM improved students' achievement in reading comprehension. Another study conducted by Farikah (2017) in Tidar University found that JIM motivated students in learning. Furthermore, a study by Yuliana, Sapri and Turdjai (2017) in PondokKelopa found that application of JIM improved social skills and achievement of students. Another study by Mehendale (2017) found that students participated actively with the use of JIM. GIM may have enhanced students' academic achievement more than JIM for the reason that it gives learners opportunities of more interaction in group learning than JIM.
The findings of this study lay credence on social development theory of Vygostky (1978) which postulated that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of the learners' cognition. Furthermore, the results of the study also confirms Dewey's theory of progressive education which states that learning takes place more when there is interaction among learners. Thus, the results obtained in the present study are in line with the literature concerning the improvement of students' achievement using student centred instructional strategies. However, preparation and execution of lesson activities using student centred strategies such as GIM and JIM could pose some challenges both for the teacher and the learners. It may present the teacher with the challenge of coordinating all the groups, ensuring that all the groups are properly guided for effective execution of the tasks presented to learners and for persistent active participation of all group members. Further studies in the area are suggested, to research on factors that could increase participation in political/ electoral processes. In this way, there could be sufficient turnout in voting for true reflection of people's preferences and for legitimization of government.

Conclusion
Prior to this study, available evidence showed that teachers seem not to be engaging the students with students centred instructional strategies but rather focus on teacher centred instructional strategy. This may have led to students' poor achievement in voter education related contents of Government curriculum. Since evidence has shown persistent low turnout in elections in Nigeria especially among young ones, this study sought to determine how group investigation and jurisprudential inquiry of social interaction models could enhance academic achievement of secondary school students. Findings showed that both group investigation and jurisprudential inquiry models enhanced students' academic achievement although group investigation seems more efficacious in voter education related contents of Government curriculum.
This study contributes to the field of instructional strategies and electoral processes. First, the study show that student centred instructional strategies can have significant impact on how knowledge is assimilated, which is an indication that understanding of political contents can be enhanced using appropriate instructional strategies. Secondly, the findings suggest that with proper understanding of political contents, young ones can effectively participate in the electoral processes such as voting. In this way, the future of democracy in Nigeria and elsewhere globally can be assured. Thirdly, the finding creates more awareness on the extent to which voter apathy is increasing in democracies particularly among the young ones, which suggests huge challenges to the sustainability of democracy. The study therefore contributes to the body of knowledge on the essence of youth participation in electoral process, laying credence on the role of youths in sustaining democracy as the future adult citizens. Hence, if voter education related contents are properly taught using student-centred instructional strategies, knowledge gained in such instructional activities could be transmitted into real life experiences. This could be achieved by adequate and efficient monitoring of teaching and learning activities by stakeholders in schools management. Furthermore, youths are to be properly engaged in electoral matters while still in school through the formation of school clubs on voter education.
learning team and role playing on elementary school students' writing skills viewed from cognitive style.