EFFECTS OF STUDENT IMPROVISED AND STANDARD INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN PHYSICS
ABSTRACT
The study investigated the effects of students’ improvised instructional materials on students’ achievement in physics. Five research questions and five null hypotheses guided the study. The study employed a non-equivalent quasi-experimental research design. The sample for the study comprised 149 SSII students in Obollo Afor Education Zone of Enugu State. The instrument for data collection in this study was Physics Achievement Test (PAT). The instrument for data collection was both face and content validated. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Kudder-Richardson 21, after trial testing it with 20 SSII secondary school physics students outside the geographical area. The scores obtained from the test were used to determine the reliability of the instrument and it yielded reliability index of 0.98. Four intact classes were used for the study (2 classes for treatment and two for control). Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and the Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results of the study revealed that students taught physics using student’ improvised instructional materials performed better than students taught using conventional material; male students had higher mean achievement score than their female counterparts in physics; students in the urban area performed better than their counterparts in the rural area in physics. Results of the study showed that the interaction effect of instructional material and location on students mean achievement scores in physics was not statistically significant and that the interaction effect of instructional material and gender on students mean achievement scores in physics was statistically significant. Based on the findings and implications, it was recommended that teaching of physics in secondary school should be conducted in a manner that students will effectively understand and learn the concepts taught. It should be practical as the use of student’ improvised instructional materials play greater role in students’ achievement. Teachers should try to improvise instructional materials and encourage students to do the same. This will give students enough understanding of physics concepts as the child’s local environment will be used to source for the materials. There should be cordial relationship between policy makers and schools for the provision of the essential materials as resource materials and at the local education authority level, effort should be made from time to time to organize workshops for teachers on improvisation and the need for the use of instructional materials in teaching and learning. This is to compliment the efforts of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for re-training of Science teachers.