Influence of Deployment of Multimedia and Academic Performance of Primary School Pupils
Abstract
The study examined the influence of deployment of multimedia on academic performance of pupils in some selected schools in Eket Local Government Area. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were stated and tested at 0.05 alpha levels of significance. The population of the study comprised all primary three pupils in Eket Local Government Area of the 2021/2022 academic session. The sample size used for the study was one hundred students (100) drawn from four public schools in Eket Local Government Area. Basic Science Achievement Test (BSAT) was the instrument used to collect data for the study. Data obtained for the study were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test statistics analysis, findings showed that: that primary school pupils taught using multimedia perform better than those taught using the conventional lecture method. Also there is no significant difference in the academic performance of male and female students taught using multimedia. Based on the findings of the study it was recommended that basic science teachers should incorporate multimedia during lesson delivery in Basic Science; and that school principal should ensure that the subvention provided in schools is used in procurement of Basic Science equipment for used by teachers during lesson delivery in class.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Media can be conceived as any person, material or event that establishes condition which enables the learner to acquire knowledge, skill and attitudes (Jacob, 2002). Gagne (2011) defined education media as the physical means by which an instructional message is communicated. It can also be defined as all the methods and materials that can be used to support the learning process. Educational media is seen as objects that teachers use which are given to learners to use to achieve specific teaching and learning outcome. It goes beyond apparatus and pictures but includes many other types of learning experiences. The educational media are obviously indispensable tools in the hands of teachers who would want to exhibit knowledgeability and effectiveness in their lesson delivery.
Broadly, the educational media may be classified into four major groups, namely; visual materials consisting of projected and non-projected materials, audio materials, audiovisual materials, and lastly, individualized learning and interactive materials. The visual materials are those that readily appeal to the sense of sight. They quickly Create visual impression any moment they are presented in the class (Percival and Ellington, 1988). They include the following: Overhead projectors and transparencies, slides projectors and slides, filmstrip projectors and filmstrips, as well as the Opaque projector. Other non-projected visual materials which do not need electricity for projection include: Flat or still pictures, graphic illustrations such as charts, graphs, posters and diagrams.
Others are models, realia, bulletin boards, flannel boards, magnetic boards, flip charts and chalkboards (Cable, 1972). The audio materials are such materials that create aural impression thereby causing the receivers to listen with discrimination (Efi, 1988). These include audio recorders and audio sets, audio cards, radio, phonography records (record players), and the reel-to-reel tapes (Nacino-Brown, 2012). The third group which are the audio-visual materials are the aspects of instructional materials that have both an aural and a visual appeal. These include Cine-film projection (16cm and 8mm sound film projection), video-tape recordings, television and the sound filmstrip, as well as the synchronised audio-slide presentation (Cable, 1972).
Influence of Deployment of Multimedia and Academic Performance of Primary School Pupils
The fourth group, the self instructional and interactive media consist of the various devices and techniques by which an individual learner can learn on his own and at his own pace. These techniques and devices include the following: the use of computer in computer-Assisted Instruction, Programmed Instruction, teaching machine, and the interactive video.
Multimedia can serve a variety of roles in the teaching process. Their primary role is to help students learn and improve the teachers teaching skills and abilities. One way of doing this is by providing an information-rich environment (Newby, 2006). The educational media provide the teachers a clear and understanding picture of the subject to be learned and taught. The use of this educational media by teachers to teach and drive home their subjects’ points at the primary school level of our educational system is incontrovertibly a paramount important issue in practical classroom interaction and successful transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the learners. The facts is that this media used by the teacher ally their teaching in class tend to have a significant implications for pragmatic knowledge transfer towards the attainment of individual subject objectives as well as achievement of efficient teaching process among teachers (Ijaduola, 2019).
Multimedia represents the consolidation of all elements of technology as they combine sound, image, video, drawing and text with a high quality in addition to the interactive environment (Fouda, 2008). It can therefore be said that the use of multimedia in teaching entails inculcating still pictures, sound, music, video and animations into teaching in order to increase the chances of learning or in order to boost learning process. It is innovative and has changed the traditional method of teaching in classrooms.
Multimedia also offers new insights into the learning process of the designer and forces him or her to represent information and knowledge in a new and innovative way” (Neo and Neo, 2009). A teacher therefore uses multimedia to make a lesson student-centered and not teacher-centered. It creates opportunities for students to become creative and critical thinkers. With the influx of ICT into the environment today, traditional education is no longer sufficient and multimedia as an ICT tool can be used to improve the teaching and learning experience. When teachers adopt the memorization style, teachers only successfully send information to students, but adding multimedia to the teaching and learning process helps teachers retain information more effectively.
Multimedia has also been shown to produce the highest information retention rates and reduce learning time (Komiya, 2015). In other words, mere information and words in the classroom may not help students learn. Omagbemi, Akinola and Olayiwola (2004) help create a learning environment where access to multimedia information stimulates change and helps, making learning more meaningful and addressing learners’ regional and specific needs. Prior to the development of multimedia, in teaching primary school pupils could have been described as memorization, and the teaching and learning process was teacher-centric.
Therefore, in addition to being a second language in Nigeria, it can be difficult to learn Primary schools and the influence of the first language can be significant. This is also the main reason for the large-scale failure in Primary schools when students have taken WAEC in the past. The use of multimedia in Primary schools education has recently had a positive impact on student learning. Multimedia includes video/audio production that enhances the interaction between learners and course materials by reducing the effort of bridging between learners and the information being processed (De-Sousa, Richter and Nel, 2017). From the above, it is important to note that multimedia supports student progress. It helps students become innovative, critical, and problem solvers. It also teaches students digital literacy.
Education encounters, in modern times, challenges in all aspects of social, economic and cultural life; the most important of which are over-population, over-knowledge, education philosophy development and the change of teacher’s role, the spread of illiteracy, lack of the staff and the technological development and mass media (Aloraini, 2015). This drove the teaching staff to use the modern teaching technologies to face some of the main problems, that education and its productivity encounter, by increasing the learning level which may be achieved through providing equivalent opportunities for all people whenever and wherever they are, while taking into account the individual differences between learners (Wilkinson, 2016).
Influence of Deployment of Multimedia and Academic Performance of Primary School Pupils
To improve the educational productivity, some of the teaching staff sought to mainstream technology within education, developing traditional techniques and using new educational methods (Al-A‟ny, 2016). Mainstreaming the technological media within what is called „„Multimedia‟‟ is the pattern that led to infinite applications of computer technologies. The concept of this technology came into being with the appearance of sound cards, then compact disks, then came the use of digital cameras, then the video which made the computer an essential educational tool. Nowadays, multimedia expanded to become a field on its own. The concept of multimedia technology is broad and it has infinite usage fields; it is a profound element as educational technology in addition to its use in medical and statistical domains and in establishing databases.
Moreover, the entertainment sector is one of the sectors that have the lion’s share in using this technology. Interaction is the main element in multimedia technology as most of its applications are characterized by interaction. Consequently, multimedia programs may provide a more effective and more influential experiment than using each technology separately. The researcher thinks that multimedia is one of the best educational techniques because it addresses more than one sense simultaneously, as it addresses the senses of sight and hearing. Multimedia programs provide different stimuli in their presentations which include a number of elements some of which are: texts; spoken words; sound and music; graphics; animations and pictures.
These elements were mainstreamed in a comprehensive presentation so as to provide effective education, which in turn will support the participation of the different senses of the learners in diverse syllabi (Hadmin, 2015). Multimedia support the user’s work and innovation, which makes the possession of a computer a necessity for both the student and the teacher. As a result of the efficiency the multimedia programs achieved in the educational domain, the researcher sought to subject these programs to research in order to find out the best style for presenting and applying them in a way that ensures their optimization in education. This then formed the background to investigate into the influence of deployment of multimedia on the academic performance of pupils in some selected schools.
Influence of Deployment of Multimedia and Academic Performance of Primary School Pupils
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Teacher-centered learning styles are still prevalent in a variety of elementary schools where the teacher leads the learning and the students are passive. This learning style can be the cause of poor performance on a variety of tests, especially among public elementary school students. Therefore, the use of multimedia in teaching and learning processes promotes creativity. Creativity is the ability to come up with new, original and unique solutions to problems or ideas. It uses divergent thinking, which solves a problem with many possible solutions, as opposed to convergent thinking, which solves a problem with one correct answer.
Indeed, cramming promotes convergent thinking. The use of multimedia cannot be overemphasized and has been proven to improve learning, so it is appropriate in this day and age to introduce multimedia into the learning process to motivate students to learn and effectively teach pupils in our schools. The research papers referenced so far have not explored the effect of multimedia on students’ academic performance in primary schools. This then motivated the researcher to investigate the influence of the deployment of multimedia on the academic performance of pupils in some selected schools
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study will be to investigate the influence of deployment of multimedia on academic performance of pupils in some selected schools in Itu Local Government Area. Specifically, the main objectives of this study are to:
- Determine the difference in the academic performance of students taught using multimedia and those taught using lecture method; and
- Determine the difference between mean academic performance of male and female students taught using multimedia and those taught using lecture method.
1.4 Significance of the study
The finding of this study will be useful to the classroom teachers, curriculum planners, students and parents. For the teachers, they will be better informed on how to help and guide their students in course of teaching them in the classroom. The study would be beneficial to curriculum planners who would design functional curricula by taking into consideration the relevance of educational media during the course of curriculum planning. The result of the study would provide information to researchers interested in working on related topics, this may help them to get more information on the efficiency of educational media during the course of the study. Parents would be encouraged on how to use educational media available to them to assist their wards at home.
Influence of Deployment of Multimedia and Academic Performance of Primary School Pupils
1.5 Scope of the study
The study was confined to the influence of the deployment of multimedia on academic performance of pupils in basic science in some selected schools in Eket Local Government Area. The researcher did not consider all multimedia used in teaching but only focused on audio and visual media. The study also studied the effect of gender on the academic performance of pupils that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, video and interactive content.
1.6 Research Questions
The following research questions will be formulated to guide the study:
- What difference exists in the academic achievement of students taught using multimedia and those taught using the lecture method?
- What difference exists between the difference between mean achievement scores of male and female students taught using multimedia and those taught using the lecture method?
1.7 Research Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study:
- There is no significant difference between the mean academic achievement of students taught using multimedia and those taught using the lecture method.
- There is no significant difference between mean achievement scores of male and female students taught using multimedia and those taught using lecture method.