Use of Computer Supported Instruction in Secondary School Science Teaching

Abstract

This study examined the chemistry test scores of senior high school students who had received computer-supported instruction (CSI). Additionally, the effect of gender on the performance of students exposed to the CSI learning environment was looked into. A control group design with a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest was used in the investigation. The study was guided by two research questions, and two hypotheses were tested for significance at the 0.05 level. A researcher-created Chemistry achievement test (CAT) was used to gather data for the study and compare the academic performance of students in the CSI group (the experimental group) with students in the Conventional Instruction Method group (the control group). Using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC), a dependability index of 0.76 was discovered. 100 Chemistry students from two public senior high schools in Rivers State, Nigeria made up the study's sample. The sample was chosen using a random assignment strategy between the experimental and control groups, using intact classes as the reference group. The gathered data were evaluated using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) for the research questions and inferential statistics (t-test) for the hypotheses. The study's findings demonstrated that kids exposed to CSI did better academically than kids exposed to CIM. Additionally, results show that male students outperformed female students in Chemistry, with the difference favoring the male students. Based on the results of the study, it was recommended that relevant CSI packages be developed for the teaching of sciences in Nigerian secondary schools.