Facilitative Effect of Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) in Raising Retentive Ability of Senior Secondary School Students in Chemical Reaction and Equilibrium

Abstract

The adoption of Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) as a means of instructional technology in Secondary Schools seems to be gaining popularity though rarely used in chemistry especially chemical reaction and equilibrium(CRE) in Nigeria. In this study the researchers employed a pretest, post-test, non-randomized control group experimental design to find out effect of CAI on students’ retention in CRE. The study is comprised of 128 males and 112 female students (N=240). Chemical Reaction and Equilibrium Retention Test (CRERET) was used as study instrument. The student’s scores from CRERET were collated and analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while ANCOVA was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that there is a significance difference between the mean retention of students taught CRE using CAI and those taught using conventional strategy (F1, 239=331.942; P=0.000<0.05) as well as in mean retention of male and female students taught chemical reaction and equilibrium using CAI strategy (F1, 127=8.083; P=.005>0.05). Based on the findings, the study recommends that both NGOs and government should be encouraged to adequately fund educational sector so as to procure reasonable number of computer sets for Secondary Schools to enhance teaching and learning with CAI strategy which is gaining prominence in technology education especially in facilitation of retentive ability of learners.

Keywords: CAI, retention in chemistry, chemical equilibrium, effective teaching method, teaching chemistry