Effect of the use of instructional resources on students’ performance in electricity and magnetism

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the use of instructional resources on the academic performance of students and also how these materials can motivate learners to learn Physics. The study was a quasi- experimental research design that employed pre-test, post-test, unstructured interview and observational technique. The population of the study comprised all Senior High School science students in the Nkwanta South District of the Volta Region of Ghana. The purposive and convenience sampling technique was employed to select the sample for the study. Form three (3B) science class which consist of thirty-seven (37) boys and three (3) girls was selected for the study. The total sample for the study was forty (40) form three (3B) science students of Nkwanta SHS. The data obtained was analysed using SPSS to find achievement mean scores. To see the treatment effect, the mean scores were computed to determine the average achievement on the variable of the pre-test and post-test. In addition, the significance difference between the mean scores was tested at 0.05 level by applying t test based on the pre-test and the post-test. It was observed that the mean score of the post-intervention test (Mean = 16.70, Sd = 1.977) is much higher than the mean score of the pre-intervention test (Mean = 7.22, Sd = 3.068). Also the total performance scores of the entire sample put together on the post-intervention test (668) was higher than the total scores at the pre-intervention test (289). This implies that there was an improvement in performance of 39.6% during the post-intervention test This study also showed that significant difference exists between the performance of students taught with instructional materials and those taught without instructional materials. It was recommended that stakeholder should ensure regular provision of instructional materials to the SHSs to enhance teaching and learning of Physics