Effects of Active Learning Strategy Approach on Students’ Academic Achievement and Interest in Woodwork Technology in Niger State Technical Colleges

Abstract

The study investigated the effect of active learning strategy approach on students’ academic achievement and interest in Woodwork Technology in Technical Colleges in Niger State. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the investigation. A quasi-experimental design involving a non-equivalent pretest and posttest group structure was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of 65 TC II students offering Woodwork Technology across all Technical Colleges in Niger State. A simple random sampling technique was used to assign two colleges to Experimental Group I and the remaining two colleges to Experimental Group II. The instruments used for data collection were the Woodwork Technology Achievement Test (WTAT) and Woodwork Technology Interest Inventory (WTII). These instruments were validated by three experts from the Department of Industrial and Technology Education, Federal University of Technology, Minna. Reliability coefficients were established using appropriate statistical methods: KR-20 yielded 0.79 for WTAT, while Cronbach Alpha produced 0.86 for WTII, indicating acceptable internal consistency. The intervention lasted for eight weeks, during which five selected topics in Woodwork Technology were taught. A pretest was administered in the first week before the commencement of treatment for both groups. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 26. Research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, while the hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. Findings from the study revealed that both active learning strategy and conventional lecture methods improved students’ academic achievement in Woodwork Technology; however, active learning strategy proved to be more effective, recording a higher mean gain of 38.92. The study further indicated that active learning strategy positively influenced students’ interest in Woodwork Technology. Based on these findings, it was recommended that Woodwork Technology teachers in Technical Colleges should adopt active learning strategy to enhance students’ academic achievement and interest in the subject. In addition, the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) should integrate active learning strategy approaches into the Woodwork Technology curriculum to improve instructional effectiveness in technical education.