EFFECT OF HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES ON PUPILS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN BASIC SCIENCE IN ILORIN EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, KWARA STATE

Abstract

This study examined the effect of hands-on activities on pupils’ academic performance in Basic Science in Ilorin East Local Government Area, Kwara State. The study adopts a pre-test post-test control group quasi-experimental design due to the suitability in establishing possible cause-effect relationship. The study was limited to four schools and factorial design of 2x2x2 was adopted to test the null hypotheses for this study. The research instrument used for data collection were Instructional Package for Basic Science titled (IPBS) and Basic Science Achievement Test which is specifically titled (BSAT) with reliability index of r=0.87. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistic (frequency count, mean and percentage) for demographic data and inferential statistics (ANCOVA) was used to test the formulated hypotheses which were all tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that there was significant main effect of hands-on activities on pupils’ academic performance in Basic Science (F (1; 72) = 10.253, P< 0.05). There was significant interaction effect of treatment and school type on pupils’ academic performance in Basic Science (F (1; 72) = 6.100; P < 0.05). Based on these findings the following conclusions were drawn from this study, it is evident that Hands- on activities has main effect on the academic performance of pupils in Basic Science. It was highly recommended that Nigerian Teachers in general and Basic Science teachers in Particular should adopt it in their classroom interaction. Through this, they will be equipped with more knowledge that will improve pupils’ academic performance in Basic Science.