Practical Teaching Method and Performance of Colleges of Education ICT Students in Volta Region, Ghana

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of demonstration teaching method on performance of Colleges of Education ICT students with different learning styles (active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global) in Volta Region. Quasi - experimental design was adopted, specifically the pre-test, post-test non-equivalent control group design was used. Sample size of 168 level 200 students drawn from two randomly sampled Colleges of Education in the Volta Region of Ghana was used. To direct the study, two research questions were formulated, and two null hypotheses. Frequency count, mean and standard deviation were used to answer questions from the study while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. The researcher adopted Two instruments tagged ICT Performance Test (ICTPT) and Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire (ILSQ) from Felder and Solomon (2004) to collect data. The instruments used were both subjected to face and content validity. The reliability co-efficient of test-retest was computed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficient. The result of this was a reliability co - efficient of 0.84 for CPT. The ILSQ was used for the identification of students’ learning styles. The internal consistency for each of the learning styles were determined with Cronbach Alpha the result of which a reliability index of 0.88 for active/reflective, 0.82 for sensing/intuitive, 0.85 for visual/verbal, and 0.79 for sequential/global learning styles. The findings revealed that there was no significant difference in the mean scores of students taught ICT using practical method. A significant difference was however found to exist in the academic performance of ICT Major students with different learning styles using demonstration and lecture, method. Based on the research findings, it is recommended that ICT teachers identify students' learning styles and use teaching strategies that support them, among others.