Effects of computer simulation on Nigeria Certificate in Education students’ psychomotor achievement and interest in electronics technology.

Abstract

This study explored the effects of Computer Simulation on Nigeria Certificate in Education Students Psychomotor Achievement, and Interest in Electronics Technology. The study adopted quasi-experimental design. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study was made up of 75 NCE II students offering Electrical/Electronics courses in Federal College of Education (Technical) Bichi, Kano State. Two instruments; Electrical/Electronics Technology Psychomotor Achievement Test (EETPAT) and Electrical/Electronics Technology Interest Inventory (EETII) were constructed, validated and used for the study. The inter-ratter reliability of EEPAT was determined using Kendalls coefficient of concordance and it yielded 0.81. Cronbachs Alpha was used to determine the reliability of EETII and was found to be 0.86. Mean statistics was used to answer the two research questions and ANCO VA was used for testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. One of the findings of the study was that Multisim, a computer software for simulating electronic circuits, was more effective for teaching practical skills in Electronics Technology than Conventional Laboratory Method. The study also found that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of students in Electrical/Electronics Technology Psychomotor Achievement Test when taught with Multisim and those taught with Conventional Laboratory Method. It was recommended that lecturers of Electrical/Electronics Technology courses at the NCE level should incorporate computer simulation in the teaching of the practical contents in Electronics Technology.