EFFECT OF SUGGESTOPEDIA INSTRUCTIONAL METHOD ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, INTEREST AND RETENTION OF METALWORK STUDENTS OF TECHNICAL COLLEGES IN LAGOS STATE

EFFECT OF SUGGESTOPEDIA INSTRUCTIONAL METHOD ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, INTEREST AND RETENTION OF METALWORK STUDENTS OF TECHNICAL COLLEGES IN LAGOS STATE

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ABSTRACT

 

The study was carried out to determine the effect of suggestopedia instructional technique on academic achievement, interest and retention of metal work students of technical colleges. Six research questions were answered while nine null hypotheses formulated were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted quasi experimental design and was carried out in Lagos State. The population for the study was 410 male and female students. The sample size for the study was 114 metalwork second year students which comprised 72 males and 42 females randomly selected from two technical colleges. The instruments for data collection were metalwork cognitive achievement test and metalwork interest inventory. To ensure content validity of the metalwork cognitive achievement test (MWCAT), a test blue print (Table of Specifications) was built for the test. The, MWCAT, metalwork technology interest inventory, suggestopedia instructional technique, metalwork technology lesson plan and the training plans for metalwork technology teachers and students were subjected to face validation by three experts. The MWCAT was trial tested for the purpose of determining the psychometric indices of the test. A total of 40 items of the MWCAT had good difficulty, discrimination and distractor indices. In addition to face -validation, the metalwork interest inventory was also subjected to construct validation using factor analysis. Out of 62 items, a total of 40 items were finally selected for the interest inventory. The Kuder Richardson 20 (K-R20) was employed for determining the reliability of the metalwork cognitive achievement test while Cronbach alpha reliability method was used  to determine the internal consistency of the metalwork interest inventory and 0.82 was obtained. The data collected were analyzed using Mean, to answer the research questions while analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the nine hypotheses formulated. The study found out that students taught metalwork with suggestopedia had a higher mean achievement score than those students taught using traditional teaching method in the achievement test, it was also found that students taught metalwork with suggestopedia had a higher mean interest score than those students taught using traditional teaching method in the interest inventory items and students taught metalwork with suggestopedia had a higher mean score than those students taught using the traditional teaching method in the test for retention of learning. There was a significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students taught with suggestopedia instruction technique and those taught with traditional method in metalwork. It was recommended that metalwork teachers in technical colleges should adopt the use of the suggestopedia instructional technique to teach metalwork trades to students. It was also recommended that facilities that could encourage the use of suggestopedia should be provided to metalwork teachers in technical colleges.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Metalwork has become a major essential technical trade in the curriculum of technical colleges in Nigeria. Metalwork technology is included into the curriculum of technical colleges to equip students with skills, knowledge and attitudes in welding and fabrication, foundry, forging, casting, riveting and machine shop practice. Metalwork technology according to Miller (2006) is the science and technology involved in the practice of metalwork trades. Shirley (2000) described metal work as the process of working with metals to create individual parts, assemblies or large scale structures. Metalwork technology in technical college therefore covers activities in welding and fabrication, foundry, forging, casting, riveting and machine shop practice. Fabrication pertains to working with sheet metals to produce articles like funnels, watering cans, containers of beverages, among others while welding deals with the joining of two or more metals together with the aid of heat and welding rod. Foundry concerns with melting and casting of metals into different shapes and sizes.

There is hardly any human activity where metalwork technology has not made impact. It is the art and act of using metals to produce useful products. Metalwork technology is one of the programmes of vocational and technical education. Acknowledging the importance of vocational education in the development of any society, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and International Labour Organization (ILO) (2002), recommended that all technical and vocational education (TVE) system in the 21st century should be geared towards lifelong learning. The expansion of learning opportunities in the world today has brought the need for a more robust instruction in education that requires critical thinking skills as well as technical competency to update necessary knowledge and applied skills in order to promote effective learning. Poisson (2000) stated that schools should, in addition to academic skills, inculcate workplace skills such as creativity; problem solving; collaborative skills and higher order thinking skills, in order to increase the students’ flexibility and job mobility. Hallak and Poisson (2000) stated that, this makes the students acceptable to the present and envisaged changes. In this context, Rojewskin (2002) noted that a shift from teacher-centred instruction to learner-centred instruction is needed to enable students acquire the new 21^st century knowledge and skills. These challenges, therefore, necessitate a shift from traditional methods of teaching to modern teaching methods of which the Suggestopedia Instructional Technique (SIT) is one of them.

Suggestopedia is an instructional technique developed by the Bulgarian psychotherapist Georgi Lozanov. Suggestopedia had been called a pseudoscience which strongly depends on the trust that students develop towards the method by simply believing that it works. Lozanov (2006) described suggestopedia as a teaching and learning technique by which a skill is learned based on suggestion. Richards and Rodgers (2001) stated that suggestion involves the loading of the memory bank with useful memories. Brom and Yule (2005) described suggestopedia as one of the teaching techniques which focuses on tapping the learners’ abilities by counteracting the fears and inhibitions that are likely to improve skill learning among learners. In suggestopedia instructional technique according to Bowen, Madsen and Hilferty (2006) teacher serves as facilitator, gives guide and diverse of suggestions to students on how to achieve the stated instructional objectives. The use of suggestopedia instructional technique serves to focus on the learning environment.

Suggestopedia has been called an effective humanistic approach because it has respect for feelings and is derived from suggestology. Harmer, (2001) described  suggestology as a science concerned with the systematic study of the non- rational and non- conscious influences that human beings are constantly responding to involve loading the memory banks with desired and facilitating memories. Some of the key elements of suggestopedia include a rich sensory learning environment (pictures, color, music among others), a positive expectation of success and the use of varied range of methods, dramatic texts, music, active participation in songs and games. The intended purpose of suggestopedia was to enhance learning by tapping into the power of suggestion. Lozanov (2006) claimed that suggestopedia is a system for liberation from the preliminary negative concept regarding the difficulties in the process of learning that is established throughout life in the society. Suggestopedia, therefore, is a modern instructional technique that a teacher uses to optimize learning in an academic environment like schools where programme of study or activities are organized.

The types of activities that are more original to suggestopedia are the listening activities. These activities are typical in the first day of a new unit. The students first look at an object and discuss a new text with the teachers, in the second reading, students relax comfortably in reclining chairs and listen to the teacher. During the third phase reading, the material is acted out by the instructor in a dramatic manner over a background of the special musical. The teacher’s role in using suggestopedia as instructional technique is to show absolute confidence in the method, display fastidious conduct in manners and dress, organize properly and strictly observe the initial stages of the teaching and process, this includes choice and play of music, as well as punctuality (Maurica, 2006). When applying SII, the teacher must also maintain solemn attitude towards the session, give test and respond tactfully to poor paper. Lukesch, (2000) stated that there are assurances of progress in skill learning using suggestopedia as a method of teaching. In ideal situation, the experience of learning is totally positive and students also show surprising fluency and communicative ability in a short span of time.

Students in the traditional classrooms are often exposed to inadequate suggestions which prevent the learners from developing their full potentials (Kussler, 1998). Suggestopedia instructional technique according to Maurica (2006) is the best way to increase the learners’ receptive input and to lower the learners’ anxiety in skill acquisition. Meyers and Jones (1993) explained that traditional teaching methods have been shown to be inadequate in terms of promoting deep learning and long term retention of important technical and science concepts. Students in the traditional classrooms acquire most of their knowledge through lectures and textbook reading (Ozoagu, 2007). Traditional teaching methods are not students’ centered like suggestopedia instructional technique. The incorporation of SIT into vocational and technical education system therefore, is a new development because suggestopedia instruction requires thinking skills as well as technical competency in updating necessary knowledge and applied skills in order to promote effective learning. According to Slavin (1991), suggestopedia has been found to be an effective technique for increasing academic achievement of students in foreign languages in institutions that are not technical colleges.

Technical colleges are institutions where students acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes in various occupations. They are post primary institutions equivalent to senior secondary schools. Technical colleges according to Okoro (2006), are regarded as the principal vocational institutions in Nigeria that give full vocational training intended to prepare students for entry into various occupations, craftsmanship and advanced craftsmanship. Attama (2007) also explained that technical colleges in Nigeria are established to produce graduates with saleable skills. Ede, Miller and Bakare (2010) stated that technical colleges are institutions where vocational subjects are offered by students in order to acquire skills. Metalwork technology at technical college level is practical oriented and teachers need to use students’ centered instructional technique to teach the needed skills and knowledge to students. Technical colleges train both males and females in the metalwork technology.

Though gender issues has contributed to students’ achievement in metalwork technology, National Population Commission in Bakare (2009) found that gender imbalance in technical and vocational education is currently skewed against females who formed the bulk of the population of the nation. Gender is a sense of awareness of being male and female. Colman (2003) described gender as a behaviour pattern and attitude perceived as masculine within a culture. Gender schema tends to relate most of the vocational trades to the masculine than feminine gender. The females’ enrolment in technical college subjects/trades most especially in metalwork technology at technical college level, is significantly fewer than their male counterparts. Onele (2014) therefore explained that teaching and learning of metalwork technology at technical colleges also demands effective use of instructional techniques in order to maintain gender balance and good academic achievement. Students’ achievement in metalwork technology is not encouraging at technical college level.

Achievement is the action of accomplishing something. Achievement according to Bakare (2009) is the outcome of level of accomplishment in a specified programme of instruction in a subject area or occupation which a student had undertaken in the recent past. Academic achievement of students therefore is the translation of the students’ performance in achievement test into scores obtained in a cognitive test. Students’ academic achievement refers to students’ performance or attainment in a subject. Jimoh (2008) stated that students’ academic achievement connotes performance in school subject as symbolized by a score or mark on an achievement test.  According to Anene (2005) achievement is quantified by a measure of the student’s academic standing in relation to those of other students of his age. According to Nwagbo (2001), achievement in teaching/learning process has to do with attainment of a set of objectives of instruction. Atherson (2003) contended that students’ achievement is dependent upon several factors among which are instructional methods and learning environment. Jimoh (2008) stated that teachers with a demanding but good teaching method challenge students to work at higher intellectual level. Presently, conventional method is predominantly used to teach technical trades to students in the technical colleges. Meyers and Jones (1993) stated that traditional teaching methods have been shown to be inadequate in terms of promoting deep learning. The method is executed by example and activities by the teacher while the learners observe and listen (Ukoha & Eneogwe, 1996). Besides the use of good teaching method in the classroom, another important role of the teacher is to order and structure the learning environment.  Included in this role are all the decision and action required of the teacher to maintain order in the classroom such as laying down rules and procedures for learning and use of motivational techniques to secure and sustain the attention and interest of the learner (Moore, 1998).

Interest is a persisting tendency to pay attention and enjoy some activities. Interest has been viewed as emotionally oriented behavioural trait which determines a student’s vim and vigour in tackling educational programmes or other activities (Chukwu, 2002). Students’ interest and achievement in any learning activity is sustained by the active involvement of the learner in all aspects of the learning process. Ogwo and Oranu (2006) emphasized that unless the teacher stimulates students’ interest in learning, students’ achievement will be minimal. Hence, it is essential that technical teachers use teaching method which ensures students’ active involvement in learning and provide suitable learning environment to improve achievement and stimulate interest of students in metalwork technology. Okebukola (1996) stated that specific acts or strategies should be adopted by teachers to inject varieties in their teaching to stimulate and maintain the learners’ academic achievement, interest and retention. Instructional techniques are subsumed in teaching methods as ancillaries to ensure the effectiveness of the method in improving interest of the students.

Low academic achievement has been observed in metalwork. It is observed from the record of (National Business and Technical Examination Board, NABTEB) 2004) that the students of metalwork who sat for National Technical Certificate Examination and Advanced National Technical Certificate Examinations performed very low. This record further indicated 60 percent failure rate in metalwork. Also, National Business and Technical Education Board (NABTEB) May/June Chief Examiners’ report of 2002 indicated that shortcomings of using inappropriate teaching strategy partly accounted for the low academic achievement of students in vocational courses in the National Technical Certificate Examination. According to the NABTEB (2010), the performance of students in National Technical Certificate Examination was poor. The report showed that the low level of achievement in vocational courses was lower than expectation. The low academic achievement of students in metalwork might be as a result of not using modern instructional methods by the technical teachers. According to Boyle, Duffy and Donleavy (2003) the traditional methods are based on behavioural learning theory, emphasize knowledge transmission from teachers to passive students and encourage rote memorization of facts. Campbell and Campbell (1999) noted that when students are passive in the classroom, they become apathetic and repulsive to learning. The consequence is that students are unable to retain their learning and apply it to new situation (Roegge, Wentling & Bragg, 1996). The shortcomings of the present traditional teaching methods partly accounted for the poor performance of students in the National Technical Certificate Examination due to low retention of topics learnt.

Retention is the power of retaining and recalling past experience. Momoh-olle (1997) described retention of learning as a repeated performance by a learner, of behaviour earlier acquired, elicited after an interval of time. It is affected by degree of original learning, the method of learning and learner’s memory capacity, among other factors. In a study, Momoh-olle (1997) found that male generally outperformed girls in retention test in Physics while Haynie (2003) found a similar result in technology education. Suggestopedia instructional technique has been found effective in subjects such as foreign languages, psychology education among others. Deliahgi and Yildirum (2008) investigated the effectiveness of the use of suggestopedia instructional technique on retention in basic science in comparison with traditional classroom instruction to (lecture method and teacher dominated classroom) and SIT found very active. The SIT also improves students understanding in science subjects and enhances their interest while students’ interest in music was increased in other related studies. Oranu (2002) explained that most problems associated with teaching and learning of metal work at technical colleges is methodology of teaching the subject matter, inadequacy in structural facilities and the teacher inability to teach. Gall, Borg and Gall (2003) noted that education might be greatly improved if more efforts were made to match instructional methods and programs with the students who are best able to learn from them.

Metalwork technology is vast in nature, practical oriented and has continued to experience changes and improvement from time to time. The effect and contribution of metalwork towards economic development and society require investigation in order to proffer strategy for improvement. Hence, it is against this background to determine the effect of suggestopedia instructional technique on technical college students’ achievement, interest and retention in metal work technology.

 

 

Statement of the Problem

Metalwork trade is one of the trades offered by technical college students in Nigeria. In spite of the huge investment by successive government on technical college programme aimed at improving the image and academic achievement of technical college students, the academic achievement of the students in Metalwork Technology is still poor. National Business and Technical Education Board (2005- 2013) Chief Examiner reports indicate high percentage failure rate by metalwork students. The Federal Ministry of Education (FME) (2002) has observed that some of the factors responsible for the high failure rate of technical college students in the NABTEB examinations particularly in the metal work technology trade include poor quality of teaching staff and poor teaching methodologies in the technical colleges. Bakare (2009) explained that learning outcome of every student majorly depends on the type of teaching methods, teaching strategies, and instructional techniques or approaches employed by the teacher during instruction. Sonola (2007), also stated that traditional teaching methods such as lecture and discussion adopted for teaching in technical colleges by technical teachers are termed to be teacher centered instead of students centered and these methods of teaching technical subjects according to the author, discourage creativity and disallow students from thinking beyond what is presented to them by their teachers. Campbell and Campbell (1999), also explained that traditional method of teaching do not adequately equip teachers with contemporary views of students’ intelligence and their vast learning capabilities.

The metalwork craftsmen and master craftsmen are neither employed by relevant industries nor be self employed, because of the limited skills acquired which may be as a result of wrong teaching methods of teaching used by their teachers. It has been also discovered that the persistent poor academic achievements, low interest and poor retention of the students in MWT is as a result of the inappropriate teaching methods. It has also been observed that the lecture method and demonstration method are the main teaching methods employed by the technical teachers for implementing the curriculum. Obviously, the adoption of only teacher centered methods of teaching result into ineffective use of varieties of instructional method and facilities and inability of teachers to effectively implement the curriculum to naturally increase student’s interest and involvement in learning. The shortcoming in the teacher centered method of teaching could be responsible for poor academic achievement of MWT students in public examinations (NABTEB, 2013). Therefore, there is need for a change of method and technique in the teaching of MWT, so as to enable the students of technical college acquire adequate knowledge and skills for the world of work, hence, the problem of the study is designed to find the effect of suggestopedia instruction on academic achievement, interest and retention of (MWT) students in technical colleges

Purpose of the Study

The general purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of suggestopedia instructional technique on academic achievement, interest and retention of students in metalwork in Lagos State. Specifically, the study sought to determine the:

1. effect of suggestopedia instructional technique on the students’ academic achievement in metalwork
2. effect of suggestopedia instructional technique on the students’ interest in metal work
3. effect of suggestopedia instructional technique on the students’ retention in metal work
4. effect of suggestopedia instructional technique on the achievement of male and female students in metalwork
5. effect of suggestopedia instructional technique on the interest of male and female students’ in metalwork
6. effect of suggestopedia instructional techniques on the retention of male and female students in metalwork

Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will be of immense benefit to metalwork students, metalwork industries, metalwork technology teachers, technical education, researchers, administrators ,parents, textbook writers and curriculum planners.

The findings of this study if found to have positive effect and implemented will benefit the metalwork students. They will become creative, social, self-confident and self reliant. They will graduate with enough skills and knowledge in metalwork technology to set up their workshop and earn a living. Those who want to further their education will have abilities and knowledge to do so. These students will also acquire skills such as collaborative, problem solving, and higher order thinking skills require for job performance in 21^st century.

The metalwork industries will benefit from the findings of the study if implemented. The industries will have technical college graduates who are skilled and knowledgeable in metalwork technology. That is if suggestopedia instructional technique is found to have positive effect and use to teach metalwork students, they will become skilled on graduation and metalwork industries will absorb them as technicians or craftsmen for better workplace performance.

The society will benefit from the study, as metalwork technicians who are skilled, competent and ready to find solutions to metalwork related problems will be produced. The crop of technicians that can set up their private metal workshops and produce all kinds of metal articles such as tunnel, spoon, forks file among others for the members of the society will be produced.

The findings of this study will provide the government and curriculum planners with the information which could lead to the recommendation of suggestopedia instructional technique to teach metalwork technology and other vocational subjects at various level of education.

There will be a little bit relief for the teachers in their multitudinous duties and responsibilities as the students will be only guided with suggestions on contents to be taught by teacher and learnt by students. Also, this study will serve as eye opener or provide information for metalwork teacher on how suggestopedia instructional technique can improve students’ achievement in metal work technology. Such information or knowledge will help the teachers to improve their instructional delivery by using appropriate techniques for teaching technical college students to acquire work place skills. This in effect, will result in the training of competent metal work technicians for nation’s industrial and technological development. Furthermore, the effect of using Suggestopedia instructions on students’ interest in teaching metal work is expected to provide the teachers with knowledge of suggestopedia instructional technique that will improve students’ interest in metal work technology. The knowledge provided will help the teachers in their instructional design and delivery with suggestopedia instructional techniques to improve students’ interest which is essential in metalwork and engineering programmes as a whole. Moreover, through training to be adopted with suggestopedia instructional technique, students will be able to learn metal works and other technical skills with greater efficacy as they would have attained the proper and efficient strategy in solving engineering graphics tasks or problem that are spatial in nature.

In addition, the effect of gender on achievement and interest of students taught metal work will also be of benefit to technical teachers. The finding will hopefully enable the teachers to be aware of gender effect on interest and achievement of students taught metalwork with suggestopedia instructional technique. The knowledge will help the teachers to improve their instructional delivery by using appropriate techniques to bridge the gap between achievement and interest of male and female students in metalwork technology. Furthermore, the findings on effect of suggestopedia instructional technique use on students’ interest in studying metalwork is expected to provide the technical teachers with information on the effectiveness of suggestopedia instructional technique on students’ interest. Lastly, this study will also serve as source of literature to scholars and educational researchers.

Research Questions

            The following research questions guided the study:

1. What is the effect of suggestopedia instructional method on students’ academic achievement in metalwork?
2. What is the effect of suggestopedia instructional method on students’ interest in metalwork?
3. What is the effect of suggestopedia instructional method on students’ retention in metalwork?
4. What is the achievement of male and female students’ using suggestopedia instructional method in metalwork?
5. What is the effect of suggestopedia instructional method on the interest of male and female students’ in metalwork?
6. What is the effect of suggestopedia instructional method on retention of male and female students in metalwork?

Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance:

1. There is no significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students taught with suggestopedia instruction technique and those taught with conventional method in metalwork trade
2. There is no significant difference between the mean interest scores of students taught MWT with suggestopedia instructional technique and those taught with conventional method
3. There is no significant difference between the mean retention scores of students taught MWT with suggestopedia instructional technique and those taught with conventional method.
4. There is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught MWT using suggestopedia instructional Method
5. There is no significant difference in the mean interest scores of male and female students taught metalwork technology with suggestopedia instructional method
6. There is no significant difference in the mean retention scores of male and female students taught MWT with Suggestopedia instructional method
7. There is no significant interaction effect of treatments and gender on mean scores in achievement test
8. There is no significant effect of treatments and gender on mean scores in the interest inventory
9. There is no significant interaction effect of treatments and gender on mean scores in retention test.

Scope of the Study         

This study covered only technical colleges in Lagos State and primarily focused on the effects of suggestopedia instructional technique on academic achievement, interest and retention of students in metalwork in Lagos State. The study focused on six topics in metalwork namely: marking out process, working properties of metals, forming cylindrical object, rivet and riveting process, soft soldering and soldering operation and heat treatment of metals. The study also focused on retention of students’ learning in metalwork. Metal work technology second year students in technical colleges in lagos State were involved the study.

 

 

 

 

 

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