Abstract:
The study compared the effect of activity-based teaching method on students’ academic performance
in metalwork trade in science and technical colleges in Gombe State, quasi-experimental was adopted
and a simple size of 84 technical colleges NTCII students participated in the study, Purposeful
sampling technique was used to select two intact classes of 71 NTCII metalwork trade students from
two technical colleges. A 40-item instrument known as metalwork trade performance test (MTPT) was
used to collect data on the students’ academic performance of metalwork trade. The reliability index
of MECPAT was found to be 0.71, to avoid bias the researcher prepared lesson plans that were used
for the teaching of the groups. A research assistant was trained on how to use the lesson plans and
instructional materials, so as to control variability in the instructional procedure in the study. Four
research questions and three hypotheses respectively were raised. The data was analyzed using SPSS,
mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while an ANCOVA was used
to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 significant differences. Activity-based teaching method improved
the mean achievement of students in metalwork trade, as seen in the post-test mean achievement of
77.89 as compared with pre-test mean achievement of 23.46 respectively, for the experimental group.
The study also found that there is no significant relationship between the post-test academic
achievement of students taught metalwork trade using activity-based and traditional (lecture) teaching
method. Few of the recommendation made included: Metalwork trade teachers should adopt activitybased teaching method; The Federal Government of Nigeria through the Ministry of Education and
Administrators should ensure that the science and technical colleges have adequate material and
teaching resources to enhance the academic performance of metalwork trade students and thereby
solving the problem of unemployment and drop-out from schools. |
