342 JSSSH – An international online research journal in social sciences and humanities Effect of Scaffolding Learning Strategy on Social Studies Pre-Service Teachers’ Achievement in Cybercrime Prevention in Nigerian Universities Matthew Damilola Omojemite* E-mail: 2019515655@ufs4life.ac.za University of the Free State, South Africa Olugbenga Adedayo Ige E-mail: olugbengaige@gmail.com Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, South Africa Cias T. Tsotetsi E-mail: TsotetsiCT@ufs.ac.za Faculty of Education, University of the Free State, South Africa *Corresponding author Abstract This study examined the effect of scaffolding learning strategy on social studies pre-service teachers’ achievement in cybercrime prevention in universities in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The quasi-experimental design was considered appropriate for this study. The participants (213 pre-service teachers) for this study were selected using multistage sampling procedure. The instruments used in this study were Scaffolding Learning Strategy Guide (SLSG), Conventional Method Guide (CMG) and Pre-service Teachers’ Achievement Test (PTAT). The experimental procedures for this study were in three stages: the pre-treatment stage, the treatment stage and the post-treatment. The researcher used eight weeks altogether for the whole study.Inferential statistics such as Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and Estimated Marginal Means were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.The findings of the study revealed that there was significant main effect of Scaffolding Learning Strategy (SLS) on Social Studies Pre-service Teachers’ achievement in cybercrime prevention. Pre-service Teachers’ exposed to SLS had higher adjusted mean score than their counterpart in the control group. In addition, there was no significant main effect of Social Studies Pre-service Teachers’ gender on their achievement in cybercrime prevention. The study concluded that the use of Scaffolding Learning Strategy enhanced better performance of Pre-service Teachers’ achievement in cybercrime prevention than the conventional method. It was recommended among others the use of Scaffolding Learning Strategy (SLS) should be encouraged in teaching cybercrime prevention in tertiary institutions so as to enhance better academic performance of pre-service teachers. Keywords: Scaffolding Learning Strategy, Social Studies, Pre-service Teachers, Achievement, Cybercrime Prevention Introduction The myriads of crimes committed by some Internet users to other innocent users seem to be beclouding the immense benefits that the Internet has brought to humanity (Amosun, Ige & Choo, 2015). The advent of Information Communication Technology and its usage to accomplish the laid down aims and objectives in the general society, and also particularly at universities, is obsolete due to the unconscious involvement of users in cybercrimes that have resulted to exploration of the cyberspace to catch fun at the expense of other users’ cyber welfare (Tonhauser & Ristvej, 2019). Crimes perpetuated through the Journal of Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities http://www.jssshonline.com/ Volume 8, No. 3, 2022, 342-351 ISSN: 2413-9270