COMPARATIVE EFFECT OF COMPUTER TUTORIAL AND SIMULATION ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND INTEREST IN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION IN TECHNICAL COLLEGES IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of computer tutorial and simulation on students’ academic achievement and interest in building construction in technical colleges in Rivers State. The achievement of students’ taught with computer simulation was compared with that of those taught with the computer tutorial. Six research questions guide the study while six hypotheses were formulated for the study. A quasi-experimental design, specifically, the non-randomized control group design involving four intact classes were used. The population was 143 National Technical Certificate (NTC) II building construction trades students of two technical colleges in Rivers State. These students in the intact classes were assigned ether to experimental group (Computer simulation) or control group (Computer tutorial). Building construction achievement test (BUCAT) and building construction interest inventory (BUCII) instruments were developed, validated and used for data collection. Reliability of the BUCAT was 0.79 while that of BUCII was 0.95. Arithmetic mean and standard deviation were used to analyze data collected in respect of the research questions while ANCOVA was used to test the hypotheses. Findings of the study revealed that computer simulation has significant effect on students’ achievement and interest in building construction. The interactive effect of computer simulation and gender in students’ achievement and interest in building construction was significant. It implied from the findings that there is need for building construction teachers to employ the use of computer simulation in teaching as it proved more effective in improving students’ achievement and interest in building construction. It is recommended that states and federal ministries of education including professional bodies  like  Nigerian Association of  Teachers of  Technology and  examination bodies like National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) should organize workshops,  seminars  and  conferences  to  train  and  encourage  teachers  on  the  use  of  this innovative technique among others.

Background of the Study

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

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Nations  of  the  world  could  be  considered  self-reliant  if  they  are  scientifically and technologically developed. This development can be achieved if the citizens of such nations are adequately equipped with the required knowledge and skills in the field of technology. Technology therefore can be said to be a pre-requisite for national development. It becomes obvious that Nigeria as a nation has to produce a pool of scientists and technologists who possess the requisite expertise necessary for technological development. Training relevant for the acquisition of technical know-how for technological development begins from technical colleges (Federal Republic of Nigeria, FRN, 2004). In Nigeria, technical colleges are regarded as the principal vocational/technical institutions that offer technical education. Technical education refers to those aspects of educational process which involve, in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences and acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding, and knowledge relating to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life (FRN, 2004).

The goal of technical education is to give training and impact necessary skills leading to the production of craftsmen, technicians, and other skilled personnel who will be enterprising and self-reliant. Technical education is one such educational programmes that provide the youth with the opportunity to acquire skills and knowledge for effective nation building. This skill is acquired in technical colleges.

The range of courses in technical colleges includes wood trades, electrical trades, mechanical  trades  and   building  trades  (FRN,  2004).  Building  trades  include  building

construction, carpentry and  joinery, plumbing, painting and  decorating. The building trades

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courses among others are designed to make an individual to be employed or self-employed on graduation. Building construction as a course is taught in technical colleges for National Technical Certificate (NTC) I-III students. The course contents of building construction are designed to produce individuals in the society who  will be self-reliant possessing requisite saleable skills.

The building construction is designed to produce knowledge based and practically skilled individuals in building construction. They are further designed to provide training in residential buildings including maintenance and as well demonstrate the ability to excavate foundation, erect walls, roofing and drainage system. Building construction students in technical colleges on graduation provide middle level manpower in the society in areas of industrial and residential buildings. These students are expected to carry out the building construction and maintenance of residential, commercial and industrial buildings as well as repairs.

Building construction refers to all forms of building procedures involved in the construction of concrete, masonry and general building activities (Packer, 2002). The course contents of building construction trades are geared towards meeting the needs of the labour market in the areas of clearing, foundation, erection of walls and  repair of residential and industrial buildings or continue training at post secondary level (National Business and Technical Examinations Board NABTEB, 2006). Problems encountered in the teaching of building construction include insufficient instructional facilities, inadequate teaching staff, lack of workshops, lack of electricity supply to operate some electrically operated moulding machines and inefficient instructional methods and materials. Various practical studies are carried out to come up with different and efficient ways of teaching building construction. One of these ways is the use of computer assisted instruction.

With the advent of communication technologies, recent decades have seen an explosion in the classroom the use of technological tools as instructional materials. The explosion of the technological tools is literally forcing technical and other science educators to change the way they teach.  Recent  advances in  communication technologies and  their  uses  in science  and technology education provide an opportunity for educators to take a critical look at how these tools are being integrated into the classroom and laboratory.

Research has shown that these technological tools can only be effective in promoting students understanding when used in a pedagogically sound way (Kulik, 1994). The use of interactive learning tools, such as tutorial and computer simulations can provide students the opportunity to more effectively visualize real-world phenomena and engage in the process of scientific and technological inquiry. In the same vein, educational technologists are of the view that video-taped instruction has high potential in the teaching and learning situation (Kozina,

1991; Abimbade, 1997, Abubakar, 2001). Curzon (1991) affirmed that video-taped instruction like  some other  audio-visual aids  can  multiply and  widen the  channels of  communication between the teacher and the students. Besides, video-taped instruction is often better understood by the learners who can review confusing segments right away. In addition, these visualization tools may provide the opportunity for students with diverse learning difficulties to learn building construction more effectively. There is need to improve the academic training for science and technology education, hence, the use of Computer-tutorial and simulation instructional strategies.

Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) is an automated instructional technique in which computer (electronic machine) is used to present an instructional programme to the learners through an interactive process on the computer (Ajelabi, 2000). Computer assisted instruction moves at the students’ pace and usually does not move ahead until the students have mastered

the  skills.  It  is  learner  centered  and  activity  oriented.  Bontempi  and  Hazlewood(2003) maintained  that  one  of the  most  powerful features of CAI  is  its  capacity to  individualize instruction to meet the specific needs of the learner.

Computer assisted instruction (CAI) consists of five models which are: tutorial, drill, problem solving, game and simulations (Sins, 1988). Tutorial mode of computer assisted instruction is the use of any computer application to present material to a student working alone or  in  a  small  group  independent of  time  and  space  constraints (Hardback,  Scheveitzer  & Pienkopioski, 2007). There are two types of CAI tutorial. One is the ready-made off the shelf package and the other is the self developed application. The former is a commercially produced educational package which has been prepared with all the possible students need in mind. These are stored in compact disc – read only memory (CD-ROM). The other one is to develop the package in line with the prevailing and immediate environment that makes possible students queries as obtained in day to day classroom interaction. The package is also stored in CD-ROM.

Compact  disc  read-only-memory or  compact  disc  read-only-media  (CD-ROM)  is  a computer storage medium similar to the audio CD which stores more than 600 megabytes of read-only digital information (Kaplan – Leiserson, 2006). The CD-ROM is based on the same technologies as the compact disc used for storing and replaying music. The use of a computer assisted instruction tutorial in a CD-ROM has been found by researchers to enhance students’ academic achievement and hence, should be compared with the computer simulation instruction.

Simulation mode of computer assisted instruction includes any near to real experience provided by a computer (Overbaugh, 1998). It is used where it is not practical or feasible to provide the learning in “real life”. Simulation mode of CAI may be used to present information and guide the learner and to test the students’ knowledge. Singh (2010) posited that employing

simulation mode CAI, the student learns by actually performing the activities to be learned in a context  that  is  similar  to  the  real  world.  Simulation  software  according  to  Communities Resolving Our Problems (CROP, 2008) can provide an approximation of reality that does not require the expense of real life or its risks.

There  are  numerous  methods  employed  by  teachers  to  direct  instruction  for  the acquisition  of  knowledge  and  skills  to  include,  but  not  limited  to  lecture,  questioning, explanation, discussion, role play, demonstration, and observation methods (Imarluagbe, 1994). These teaching methods are among those employed in the teaching of building construction in the technical colleges. Lecture method according to Nwizu and Nwobi (2006) makes instruction boring and the facilitator cannot guarantee carrying the boring audience. Discussion method is time consuming and is characterized with the problems of who to initiate the discussion. In role playing, learners are more often interested in the entertainment than its education aspect. These teaching methods are known as conventional or traditional methods. Conventional teaching method is a teaching method which makes the teacher more active and the learner passive in the teaching and learning environment.

The conventional teaching method being learner passive has contributed to the failure of students. High failure rates in main trade subjects in technical colleges have been associated with two factors: quality and quantity of teachers and qualities of teaching methods such as the conventional methods and facilities (Aina, 2000). Aina pointed out that over the years, records abound indicating that there is a sharp decline in the level of students’ performances in National Technical Certificate (NTC) examination. Aina further stressed that a close examination of the factors responsible for such poor performance indicates that technical college education is no longer attractive to youths because of poor teaching, inadequate instructional techniques and

scanty of infrastructural facilities. According to Chief Examiners Report (2005, 2006 and 2007), students performance in the NTC examination in the building construction for five consecutive years have been tremendously scandalous. There was poor performance of candidates in total academic performance noticed mainly in the areas of wall erection, foundation, floor finishing and wall finishing.

The average failure rate over the past ten years in the National Business and Technical Examination Board (NABTEB), National Technical Certificate (NTC) examination is extremely very  high  with  48%  in  engineering  trades  and  41%  in  construction  trades  (Aina,  2006). According to National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB 2006) out of the

218 students that sat for building construction examination in Rivers State in 2001 only twenty- five (25) students made A3 grades while 128 students representing 58.7% had F9 grade. In the year 2002 over 50% of the candidates had F9. In the year 2003 the failure rate was 54.24% the trend remained the same in 2004 and 2005 which recorded 52.10% and 56.16% failures and

4.8% and 5.2%A3 grade respectively. Besides, generally, there was poor academic achievement of students in the areas of walls, floor, wall finishing and foundation in the NABTEB examinations. With these failures in public examination coupled with unemployment and low technical development, there is need for teaching to be more effective to enhance student’s academic achievement and interest in the field of study leading to acquisition of new saleable skills that will make them self-reliant.

Nevertheless, some factors have been identified to account for students’ poor academic achievement  in  building  construction  trades  as  gender  and  interest.  The  issue  of  gender difference is a very strong issue in Nigeria culture. Among Nigerians there is a general belief that males are superior to females in terms of physical physique, cognition, and logical reasoning and

even superior in academic reasoning (Anigbogu, 2002).  Some factors have  been identified responsible for the differences in male and female academic achievement mainly sex role stereo- typing,  masculine  image  of  inability  to  withstand  stress,  and  female  socialization  process (Okeke, 1990). Sex-role stereo-typing seems to be the origin of the differences between males and females in science and technical education (Njoku, 1997). These stereo-types tend to place female students at a disadvantage relative to male students in science and technical activities. According to Ugwu (1993), Okeke (1990) and Nworgu (1986) males tend to perform better than females in science and technical activities.

Some studies have shown contradiction in students’ academic achievement in science and technical subjects due to gender. For instance, Anakwe (1997) and Olikeze (1999) observed that there is no statistical significant difference in the academic achievement of males and females in chemistry and biology respectively. The disparity in males and females achievement in science subjects for instance has shown that teaching methods and other factors apart from sex-role stereo-typing can influence students’ academic achievement by gender (Ifeakor, 2003).

Furthermore, Okpara (1995) stated that though students’ poor academic performance in school subjects may be related to lack of interest and commitment to their studies and above all inadequate support from their parents and even the government, all that teachers are used to the conventional talk or lecture method rather than strategies that involve students’ participation. Consequently, students lose interest in learning. Interest is believed to be an important variable because when one is interested in an activity, one is likely to achieve highly in that activity. According to Chukwu (2001), interest has been interpreted as determinants of success, second to intelligence. Interest is also seen as a more or less permanently enduring state of readiness of mental organization which predisposes an individual to react in a characteristic manner to any

situation with which it is related (Robert, 1987).  Olikeze (1999) posited that interest is referred to as persisting tendency to pay attention and enjoy some activities or content of interest if it is pleasing and engaging ones attention.

Interest can be expressed through simple statements made by individuals of their like and dislikes. It can be observed through overt actions or activities being performed by the subject, and the need to learn it well. Chanchan (1983) described interest as an activity that drives or motivates an individual for action. The question now becomes to what extent would student’s interest be sustained when taught building construction using computer tutorial or simulation? Would students prefer being taught building construction with computer tutorial or simulation instruction? This gap in knowledge underscores the need to examine the influence of computer tutorial and simulation on students’ interest in building construction.

There is need to investigate the effect of computer tutorial and simulation on students’ academic achievement and interest in building construction in technical colleges. Hence, a study of achievement and interest of students’ in this area appears desirable.

Statement of the Problem

Student’s learning is the primary purpose of teaching. It is expected that when students are taught well and have equally learnt well they perform creditably well in public examinations such as the  National Technical Certificate and  the  West  African Senior  School Certificate Examinations. Unfortunately, the reverse is the case as shown by the consistent failure year after year in building construction examination. It is expected that with the effort of the Federal Ministry of Education in training and re-training of technical teachers in the country, level of instruction would improve which invariably would enhance better academic performance of the students. Besides, governments at Federal and State levels have established vocational/technical

education boards to enhance teaching and learning in technical colleges. It is sad to note that despite these efforts, the result from the students do not give the impression that all is well with respect to the teaching methods employed by their teachers. Okebukola (1987) posited that poor teaching method like those of traditional or conventional method are the most contributing factors to student’s academic under-achievement.

This  unsatisfactory situation could  lead  to  break down in  the  economic,  industrial, technological and educational growth of a nation since the main goal of technical education is to achieve self reliance. The foregoing therefore underscores the need to explore other teaching approaches that would enhance and facilitate understanding and acquisition of knowledge of what  is being taught in building construction and  possibly encourages higher enrolment of students in the trade.

Therefore, the problem of this study is: how can Computer tutorial affect the academic achievement and interest of building construction trade students in building construction course as compared to classes using computer simulation.

Purpose of the Study

The general purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of computer tutorial and simulation on students’ achievement and interest in building construction. Specifically, the study was set out to:

1)   determine the academic achievement of students taught Building Construction employing computer tutorial and simulation instructional techniques.

2)   determine  the  academic  achievement  of  female  and  male  students  taught  Building

Construction utilizing computer tutorial and simulation instructional techniques.

3)   determine  the  interactive  effect  of  gender  interaction  and  treatment  the  students’

achievement in building construction.

4)   determine the interest scores of student taught Building Construction Computer using

Computer tutorial and simulation instructional techniques.

5)   determine the interest of male and female students in building construction taught using computer tutorial and simulation instructional techniques.

6)   determine the interactive influence of gender and treatment on students interest in building construction.

Significance of the study

The result of this study will be of immense benefit to government, examination bodies, policy makers, curriculum planners, educators, teachers and researchers. The outcome of the study will benefit governments at different levels for it will enable them recommend the use of computer assisted instruction for teaching and  learning in their various schools to  improve students’ academic achievement.

If  it  is  found  that  the  computer assisted  instruction provides better  opportunity for improved academic performance on the part of the students, it inform the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to recommend the use of computer assisted instruction for the teaching of technical trades in all technical colleges. This will help to produce technical graduates, who will be self reliant and enterprising. Besides, this will motivate technical teachers who are computer illiterate to strive and equip themselves with the knowledge of computer usage in education, and above all to be abreast with technological developments world over.

The findings of this study in the first place will provide empirical evidence to policy makers,  curriculum planners,  educators  and  researchers on  the  effect  of  computer assisted instruction software on students’ academic achievement and interest in building construction. If the findings confirm that computer assisted instruction software boosted students interest, it will then mean that computer assisted instruction is a better instructional strategy than the conventional teaching methods that are prevalent in building construction trade classes. Then building construction educators and policy makers may wish to adopt computer assisted instruction teaching method as policy initiative in Nigeria as it is done in some developed nations.

Furthermore, it is hoped that the findings of this study will be beneficial to technical colleges administrators and policy makers. The school administrators and policy makers can articulate programmes specifically suited for building construction teachers to equip them with strategies for improving achievement of male and female students in the subjects. This package can be in the form of seminars, workshops and or conferences for the training and retraining to enhance the professional competence of the building construction teachers.

As the computer assisted instruction emphasizes the effective usage of computer in every lesson, if the findings of the study show that computer simulation is a superior technique, it would serve as a boost to technical teachers who could strive to obtain instructional materials from the appropriate authority and if possible improvise them, if need be. This will demystify building construction studies; remove all abstract and vague notions about building construction leading to real-life learning experiences to the students. This will arouse student’s interest highly and also ensure optimum academic achievement and acquisition of practical technical skills, and eventual breakthrough in the fields of building construction technology.

Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

1)   What is the academic achievement of students taught building construction employing computer tutorial and simulation instructional techniques?

2)   What difference exists in the academic achievement scores of female and male students taught building construction utilizing Computer tutorial and simulation instructional techniques?

3)   What  is  the  interactive  effect  of  gender  and  treatment  techniques  on  the  students’

academic achievement on building construction?

4)   What difference exists in the interest scores of students taught building construction using computer tutorial and simulation instructional techniques?

5)   What is the interest mean score of male and female students in building construction taught using computer tutorial and simulation instructional techniques?

6)   What is the interactive influence of gender and treatment techniques on students’ interest in building construction?

Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were tested in the study at .05 level of significance.

Ho1:    There is  no  significant difference  in the  academic achievement of students taught building construction employing computer tutorial and simulation instructional techniques

Ho2:    There is no significant difference in the academic achievement of female and male students taught building utilizing computer tutorial and simulation instructional techniques.

Ho3:  There is no significant difference in the effect of gender and treatment techniques on the academic achievement of students in building construction

Ho4:     There is no significant difference in the interest scores of students taught building construction using computer tutorial and simulation techniques.

Ho5:   There is no significant difference in the interest of female and male students in building construction taught using computer tutorial and simulation instructional technique.

Ho6:     There is no significant difference in the interactive influence gender and treatment technique on students’ interest in building construction.

Delimitation of the Study

The focus of this study was to ascertain the comparative effect of Building Construction computer  tutorial  and  simulation  instructions  on  students’  achievement  and  interest  in building construction trades. The contents for the study included foundations, walls, wall finishing and floors. The choice of these topics is based on the fact that they are aspects of the National Business and Technical Board (NABTEB) in building construction curriculum taught in national technical certificate (NTC II), in technical colleges during the period the experiment was carried out. The technical colleges involved were GTC, Ahoada and GTC, Port Harcourt.

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