SOURCE:

Faculty: Education
Department: Vocational Education

CONTRIBUTORS:

Okeke, E. N.
Ibeneme, O. T.

ABSTRACT:

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of three methods of instruction on students’ achievement in practical electronics works. Seven research questions guided the study and four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The design of the study was non-randomized quasi-experimental. The population was 102 National Technical Certificate II (NTC II) students in year two offering practical electronics works and the sample was drawn from intact classes in technical colleges from three senatorial zones of Anambra state. The instrument for data collection was Practical Electronics Works Test (PEWT) containing 20 items and was used for both pre-test and post-test administrations. The instrument was validated by experts and has 0.71 reliability coefficient. The topic selected for the study was trouble shooting (Fault finding) in Television set. During the experiment, there were three groups namely visual projection group (AVPPG), guided discovery group (SDPG) and project – based method group (PBPG) while the control group (CGRP) was not given any experimental treatment. Pre and post-test were administered to both experimental and control groups and the achievement scores were subjected to statistical analysis in order to obtain answers to the research questions and hypotheses posed by the study. In answering the research questions, mean achievement scores of those in the experimental groups were used to determine the differential achievement while ANCOVA was used in testing the hypotheses. The following findings, amongst others, emerged from the study: project –based method of instruction yielded highest effect on the students’ achievement in practical electronics works; the mean achievement scores of NTC II students taught practical electronics works using visual projection and those taught using guided discovery methods of instruction did not differ significantly; and NTC II students taught using visual projection and those taught using project – based methods of instruction achieved equally in their mean scores and mean achievement of students taught using guided discovery and those taught using project-based methods of instruction indicated significant difference. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations among others were made: (a) practical electronics works instructors should adopt the best instructional method(s) and materials suitable for a particular topic unit in practical electronics works (b) to shift teaching from teacher centered to student centered, visual projection, guided discovery and project – based methods of instruction should be integrated into the curriculum (c) instructors of practical electronics works must always understand the background of their students and plan activities that will motivate and orient the students to the requirements and expectations of the project.