Improvisation of Instructional Materials and Its Effects on Students’ Academic Achievement in Resource-Constrained STEM Classrooms in Owerri Municipal Secondary School, Imo State

Abstract

The study examined the Improvisation of Instructional Materials and Its Effects on Students’ Academic Achievement in Resource-Constrained STEM Classrooms in Owerri Municipal Secondary School, Imo State. Three objectives, two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. Quasi experimental research design was employed to present one experimental and one control group. A sample of 77 students was drawn from a population of 3,579 students from the nine (9) public junior secondary school in Owerri Municipal of Imo State. The instrument used to collect data was a validated STEM Performance Test on Basic Science (STEMPTBS) with twenty-five multiple choice test items. A reliability coefficient of 0.83 was established for the instrument using Kuder-Richardson 21 formula. Experimental group was taught Basic Science using improvised instructional materials while control group were taught without improvised instructional materials. Analysis was done using mean, standard deviation and analysis of covariance at 0.05 significant level. The findings showed that students taught Basic Science with improvised instructional materials performed better than the students taught without improvised instructional materials and there is a significant difference in the performance of students taught Basic Science using improvised instructional materials and those taught without improvised instructional materials. It was also found that the male students who were taught Basic Science using improvised instructional materials out-performed their female counterpart in the same group and no significant difference exists in the performance of the male and the female students in the experimental group who were taught Basic Science using improvised instructional materials. Additionally, a noteworthy interaction impact between gender and teaching approach in Basic Science but it was not significant was demonstrated by the results. It was recommended amongst others that STEM (Basic Science) teachers should integrate the use of improvised Instructional Materials to teach STEM Subjects like Basic Science since it enhances teaching and learning (students’ performance) and also embrace the use of improvised instructional materials to teach STEM Subject (Basic Science concepts) because it has proven not to be gender biased with respect to performance.