EFFECTS OF FIELDWORK ON STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN GEOGRAPHY IN ABIA STATE

By O. B. Aina, A. O. Ovute & O. Eluwa

Abstract: The study investigated effect of Field Work on Students’ Achievement in Geography in Abia State. The study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. A quasi-experimental research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 1,883 Senior Secondary III (SS3) students offering Geography in Abia State, from which a sample of 57 SS3 Geography students was selected using a multistage sampling procedure. Urban Land Use Map Reading Geography Achievement Test (ULMGAT) was instrument for data collection. The reliability of ULMGAT was established using the Kuder-Richardson 20 (KR-20), which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.88. Data collected were analysed using mean, standard deviation and ANCOVA for research questions and hypotheses. The findings revealed that students taught Map Reading using Field Work Method recorded the highest achievement, than those taught using Lecture Method, with a statistically significant difference between the groups. No significant difference was found between the achievement of male and female students’ taught map reading using Field Work Method. The study concluded that Field Work Method was the most effective instructional approach for teaching map reading than Lecture Method. It was therefore recommended that Geography teachers should incorporate Field Work approaches more extensively in teaching Map Reading to promote active participation, practical learning and improved learning outcomes among students.
Keywords: Field work, Students and Academic Achievement Geography