An Evaluation of the Effect of Instructional Methods on Student’s Achievement in Technical Colleges in Akwa Ibom State

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the differences in students' achievement in the construction of loadbearing walls, block-laying and concreting after they had been taught using scaffolding,demonstration, and conventional instructional methods in technical colleges in Akwa Ibom State. The study was quasi- experimental, using a sample of 90 subjects drawn through purposive random sampling technique from a population of two hundred and forty six senior technical two students offering Block-laying and Concretingin public technical colleges in Akwa Ibom State. The experimental and control groups were taught block-laying and concreting topics from NABTEB syllabus and tested by the research atendants. An instrument titled Block- laying and Concreting Achievement Test (BCAT) was developed by the researchers and validated by three experts was used for data collection. The reliability co-efficient indices of the instrument using Cronbach's Alpha were established differently for each task of the topics taught. All the research questions were answered using the descriptive statistics; while the hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance, using independent t- test and in the case of hypothesis 4, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The results show that: scaffolding instructional method can be used in teaching workshops-based subjects such as Block-laying and Concreting; Scaffolding instruction method has been found to be a useful teaching method for teaching Block-laying and Concreting and; Scaffolding and Demonstration Instructional Methods were found to be better teaching methods than conventional instruction method in teaching Block-laying and Concreting work. Based on the findings of this study, the researchers recommended among others, that: Technical Teachers Training Institutions should incorporate Scaffolding Instructional Method as one of the methods in their curriculum used