Impact of Gender Streaming on Performance in English Language: A Case Study of English as a Second Language Secondary School Classrooms in Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of gender streaming on the performance of senior secondary school level students in English language in Niger State.  In the course of the work, the researcher compared the performance of students in single gender and mixed gender streams in English Language at senior secondary school level in Niger State. The population of the study was 53,468 from 248 schools of both single and mixed gender streams. Out of this, a total of one hundred and fifty-nine (159) students were sampled from three senior secondary schools, all in Minna metropolis. The researcher used quasi experimental research design. The instruments used for data collection were the NECO 2011 November/December past question papers which served as the test instruments, the curriculum content and prepared lesson notes used during treatment. Frequency counts and the Arithmetic means were used for descriptive analysis to answer the research questions. The t-test statistical technique was used for inferential analysis to test the hypotheses. This study is anchored on Bandura (1986)'s social learning theory. This theory emphasizes on the importance of biological, social and cultural impacts on human behaviour, development and learning, especially on gender and genders specific traits, bevaviour and roles. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between the performance of single gender and mixed gender stream students. The single gender students outperformed the mixed gender students. The result of the mixed gender stream students was generally poor. It was therefore, concluded that the single gender stream instructional environment was found to be more effective in enhancing better students' performance than the mixed gender streaming strategy especially in English language in Niger State. Consequently, it is recommended that the Niger State Government lends more support for the single gender streaming.