Effects of Two Modes of Digital Storytelling Instructional Strategies on Pupils’ Achievement and Attitude Towards Social Studies in Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria

To a large extent, Social Study teaching has focused on teaching methods which are deficient in addressing the educational needs of 21st Century learners, such as the use of digital technology tools, resources, and online activities to improve learners’ achievements and attitudes towards Social Studies. Therefore, this study explored the effect of two modes of Digital Storytelling instructional strategy on the Social Studies of elementary pupils’ achievements and attitudes.The study adopted a pretest – post-test control group quasi-experimental design with a 3 × 2 × 3 factorial matrix. The study employed an intact class of 88 participants, restricted to three government-owned elementary schools in three district areas of Osogbo, Osun State, Brazil. Two treatments were used in the present study. They are Think-pair-share Collaborative Digital Storytelling Instructional Strategy (TCDSIS) and centralised video-based digital storytelling instructional strategy (CBDSIS). Data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire consisting of two sections: demographic information, Pupils’ Attitude towards Social Studies Questionnaire (PASSQ), and Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT). The collected data used Kuder-Richardson (K-R 21) to derive the level of difficulty and a reliability coefficient index of 0.71 and 0.81, respectively. Seven hypotheses were tested at a significance level of 0.05, and the collected datasets were analysed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA).Overall, there was a significant main effect of treatment on pupils’ achievements in Social Studies (F(2, 57) =8.15; P<0.05; ɳ2=0.22). The result reveals that pupils exposed to the Think-pair-share Collaborative Digital Storytelling Instructional Strategy (TCDSIS) had the highest adjusted post-achievement mean score (mean = 13.55), followed by pupils exposed to the centralised video-based digital storytelling instructional strategy (CBDSIS) ( mean = 12.41), while those exposed to the Conventional Instructional Strategy (CIS) had the lowest mean score ( mean = 9.40). There was a significant main effect of treatment on pupils’ attitude towards Social Studies (F (2,56)=4.54;P<0.05; ɳ2=0.14). The pupils exposed to (CIS) had the highest adjusted post-attitudinal mean score (mean = 39.23). Those exposed to (TCDSIS) (mean = 34.50), while the (CBDSIS) had the lowest mean score (mean = 34.26). However, there were no significant two-way or three-way interaction effects of gender and age on pupils’ achievement and attitude towards Social Studies.Therefore, this study concludes that digital storytelling is an effective strategy for enhancing elementary pupils’ achievements in Social Studies and their attitudes. It was recommended that teachers should be equipped with the right skill tools to integrate digital media into their lesson plans to help them decide the flow and pattern of digital storytelling appropriate for their learners.