Effect of Computer Assisted Instruction on Students' Performance in some selected concepts in Electricity and Magnetism: A Study at Winneba Senior High School in Ghana

The study investigated effect of computer assisted instruction (IWebP) on SHS students’ conceptual understanding and their abilities to solve quantitative problems based on qualitative understanding in Electricity and Magnetism. The study involved a whole class of Form Two Home Economics students in Winneba Senior High School, Winneba, selected through purposive and convenience sampling technique, totaling 48 students (46 girls and 2 boys). The students were taken through a series of six (6) Interactive Webquest Packages (IWebP) developed by the researchers with the help of software from SMART Technologies. Data was collected through the use of pre- and post- tests. A change or otherwise in the performance of their problem solving capabilities was ascertained through gain analysis adopted from Richard Hake and competencies gained monitoring form. The findings from the average normalized gain of the post and pre-test scores showed a gain of 0.47, indicating an effectiveness of the computer assisted lessons in promoting conceptual understanding. An independent sample t-test conducted showed that there was a significant difference in the pre-test and post-test scores (p=0.000 a=0.05). The findings further revealed that there was a positive correlation between the students’ conceptual qualitative understanding and their quantitative problem solving abilities with R2 of 0.969, predicting that about 97% of the students achieved quantitative problem solving abilities based on their conceptual understanding.

Keywords: Computer assisted instruction, Ghana, Science concepts, senior high schools (SHS), teaching.