Effects of a computer aided instructional method on pupils' performance in agriculture: A Quasi experimental study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to experimentally test the effectiveness of computer aided instructional methods (CAI) facilitated through the use of CD-ROM in teaching Agriculture subject contents to Kgafela Primary School standard five pupils. A controlled quasi-experimental designed study was conducted to test the efficiency of CAI in teaching Agriculture subject contents to children. The following data were collected: (a) Performance in an aptitude test administered to both experimental and control groups prior to teaching using CAI and the traditional lecture methods, respectively; (b) Performance in conventional pre and post tests given to standard five pupils; (c) Pupils’ responses to Likert-type attitude questionnaires. Using hypothesis testing, the researcher compared CAI method with the traditional lecture method of teaching using experimental and control groups studied. The study tested four hypotheses, which included: (i) If the computer aided instructional method does not significantly influence the pupils’ performance in agriculture, (ii) if there is a significant relationship between gender and computer aided instructional method on pupils’ performance in Agriculture, (iii) if there is no significant relationship between pupils’ attitudes to computer aided instructional method and performance in Agriculture, and (iv) if accessibility or frequency of computer usage by pupils does not significantly affect their performance in Agriculture. Approximately fifty- seven (56.79%) of the children studied were males, ninety eight percent (97.53%) were in the age range between 10 to 13 years old and more than half (55.56%) of the children in the study did not attend pre-school. Fifty three percent (53.09 %) of the children as shown in Table 1 indicated non- availability of their parents’ computers at home, two-thirds (66.67 %) indicated availability of video games and eighty two percent (81.48 %) of the children indicated parental or relatives’ ownership of cell phones or mobile phones. In testing if computer aided instructional method using interactive CD-ROM had any significant influence on primary pupils’ performance in the subject of Agriculture, the results showed that there was an observed mean difference of -12.12500; the value of t was -5.008 at P < 0.005. The mean difference of-12.12500 between the pre-test and post test scores in the experimental group was statistically significant. Therefore, it can be inferred that computer aided instructional method of teaching had an effect on the performance of primary school kids in Agriculture. With regard to whether gender has significant influence or not on students’ performance in Agriculture, using the computer aided instructional method, it is found that gender does not have effect on the performance of pupils in Agriculture. Therefore, this means that both boys and girls in this study have an equal amount of contribution to the performance mean of pupils in Agriculture. The Pearson correlation was r - 0.101, which was a weak positive correlation; it indicates that for a single unit of increase in attitude, there was an equal single unit of increase in children’s performance in the test given. The results indicate that there was a weak positive relationship between pupils’ attitudes towards computer aided instruction and their performance. Frequency of use of computers has also been found not to have an effect on pupils’ performance in Agriculture.