IMPACT OF BLENDED LEARNING ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF BASIC SCIENCE STUDENTS IN OREDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EDO STATE

ABSTRACT

This study investigated Impact of Blended Learning on the Academic Performance of Basic Science Students in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. In the study, five research questions were raised and hypothesized, and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The research design was quasi-experimental pre-test, post-test, non-equivalent control group design. The population for the study comprised of 35,386 Basic-Science students in junior secondary school two (JSS2) Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. Stratified random sampling was used to assign the two school selected as experimental and control group from 124 schools in Oredo local Government Area of Edo State, there were two experimental groups; one public school and one private school. Also, two control groups (one public school and one private school). The variables of the study were students’ academic performance as dependent variable and teaching method (blended learning) as independent variable, sex, ability level and school type are the intervening variables. The participants were pre-tested before introducing them to Blended Learning method in the experimental group, while the control group was exposed to conventional method which they have been used to. The study lasted for five (5) weeks. Thereafter, a post-test was administered at the fifth week. The instrument that was used for data collection is the “Basic Science Achievement Test” (BSAT).The BSAT had two sections A and B. Section A covered student’s bio data involving Sex (male and female) and type ofthe school (public or private) while section B was made up of 30 multiple choice questions. To determine the validity of the instrument, both face and content validity was carried out and to determine the reliability, responses from twenty (20) participants was subjected to Kuder-Richardson formula 21 statistics, with a reliability coefficient of 0.82. Mean, standard deviation, t-test as well as Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that students taught in a blended classroom achieved higher than those taught using the traditional method; sex does not influence the achievement of students taught in a blended classroom; that ability level does not affect the achievement of students taught in a blended classroom further more, result shows that school type does not affect the achievement of students taught in a blended classroom; that there was no significant interaction effects of methods, sex and school ownership on students’ academic achievement. This means that achievement in Basic Science is not determined by sex or school ownership. On the basis of these findings it was recommended that Blended learning approaches should be properly integrated into the teaching of Basic Sciences in Junior Secondary schools; Curriculum developers, textbook authors and basic science teachers should encourage the use of blended learning in the xi teaching of Basic Science. Blended learning should be adopted for the teaching of both male and female students as well as in both Public and Private schools; while Basic science teachers should be trained and retrained to bring them up to date with the use of blended learning techniques to teach. School administrators should ensure that the technologies needed for effective blended learning is at the disposal in schools so that it can be used.