Pages: (47-57 )
Abstract
The recurring poor performance of students in the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) has become a national problem, hence the need to assess the influence of instructional material and teaching methods on academic performance in senior secondary schools' civic education. A survey research design was employed in the study. One hundred and forty-nine (149) students were sampled for this study. A self-designed questionnaire was the main instrument used for data collection, which was pilot tested through test-re-test and yielded a reliability coefficient (index) of 0.823. Two hypotheses were formulated and tested. Analyses of data was done using multiple regression statistical analysis fixed at the .05 significant levels. The findings from this study showed that 96.3% and 97.3% of the total variance in student’s performance in civic education in secondary schools is accounted for by instructional materials (R2 = 0.963, F (1,148) = 3873.041; p = .000 < .05) and teaching methods (R2 = 0.963, F (1,148) = 5424.512; p = .000 < .05) respectively. This study concluded that instructional materials and teaching methods wields significant effect on student’s performance in civic education in secondary schools. It is therefore recommended that Secondary school management should put up a monitory system in place to monitor the instructional deliveries periodically to ensure that appropriate instructional materials and teaching methods are deployed in teaching.
Keywords: Civic education, instructional materials, teaching methods, student’s performance,