Effects of Role Play and Adventure Digital Game-Based Instruction on Secondary School Geography Students’ Achievement in North-Central, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated effects of Role Play and Adventure Digital Game-Based Instruction on Secondary School Geography Students Achievement in North-Central, Nigeria. The study had four objectives. In line with the objectives, four research questions and hypotheses were raised. This study employed a quasi-experimental design. The population consisted of 698,480 secondary school geography students, from which a sample of 245 students was selected using purposive sampling, focusing on intact classes. Two experimental groups were created while a control group received conventional teaching. The instruments used for data collection were the Geography Achievement Test (GAT) and the Geography Retention Test (GRT) were validated by experts from the Department of Educational Technology at FUT Minna. Reliability analysis using Cronbach's alpha yielded a coefficient of 0.75 and 0.82. After the six-week intervention, the GAT was administered to assess students’ academic achievement, followed by the GRT two weeks later to measure retention. Data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while ANOVA and ANCOVA were employed to test the hypotheses. Findings revealed a significant difference in the mean achievement scores of secondary school students taught Geography using Role Play Digital Game-Based Instruction (RPDGBI), Adventure Digital Game-Based Instruction (ADGBI) and Conventional Teaching Method, F (2,243) = 10.304, P-value = 0.000 at P<0.05 with calculated effect size of , which signified a "high" effect. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Adventure Digital Game-Based Instruction and Role Play Digital Game-Based Instruction should be used for teaching Geography in secondary schools.