ABSTRACT
This study investigated the effect of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) instructional package on achievement of pupils with different learning styles in primary science. ICT facilities have been advanced as having the potential for enhancing achievement in learning. Learners have also been described as individuals with diverse learning styles. There is therefore the need to diversify instructional techniques to possibly address the learners’ needs in the process and achieve success in learning. The ICT instructional package used in this study consists of prepared lessons on the two primary science topics taught in the study. The package was designed taking advantage of the potentials of the computer and the contents stored in a compact disk (CD-ROM) and projected on a screen using a projector during the classroom instructional presentations. The study focused on two of the Felder-Silverman’s dimensions of learning styles (active/reflective and visual/verbal) which have link with the learning process in a classroom. The study also examined the influence of gender on achievement of pupils with different learning styles in primary science. Six research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. A quasi-experimental pretest/posttest non-equivalent control group research design was employed for the study. The study employed the multi-stage sampling technique and the selection of sample was based on subjects having clearly defined learning styles. A total of 177 primary five pupils who were clearly demarcated on the two dimensions of learning styles investigated and sampled from two schools in Nsukka urban within Nsukka Education zone participated in the study. Two instruments served the purposes of data collection in the study. The first was a learning styles instrument which is an adaptation of the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) questionnaire developed by Felder and Soloman (1996). The second instrument was an achievement test designed by the researcher and tagged pupils’ achievement test in primary science (PATIPS). Both the learning styles instrument and achievement test were validated by experts to ascertain their suitability for use in the study. The validated instruments were further subjected to reliability testing. The reliability of the learning styles instrument was established through a test retest of two weeks interval and the reliability coefficients obtained using Pearson Product Moment Correlation were 0.83 and 0.77 for the active/reflective and visual/verbal dimensions of learning styles investigated in the study respectively. The reliability of the achievement test was equally established through a single administration of the test instrument and the reliability coefficient determined using Kuder-Richardson (K-R20) formula was 0.71. Research questions one and two were answered using percentages and frequencies, research questions three to six were answered using means and standard deviations while all the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The results of the study indicated that the pupils made use of different learning styles during learning and that gender influenced the learning styles of the pupils. The use of ICT in the delivery of primary science instructions enhanced the achievement scores of pupils in primary science and there was a significant difference in the achievement scores of pupils with different learning styles. Gender did not significantly influence the achievement scores of pupils with different learning styles. Finally, the interaction effect of gender and use of ICT was not statistically significant in influencing the achievement of the pupils. The educational implications of the findings of the study were also discussed and the study recommended the need for teachers to be aware of the individual differences in their learner population especially, in the area of learning styles as such awareness will make the teaching/learning process more productive, that ICT instructional packages be adopted for instructional purposes and that male and female learners be given equal encouragement to study science among others. The limitations of this work were equally highlighted and suggestions made for further research.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study:
One major problem facing education all over the world is the challenge of making teaching and learning worthwhile. Researchers have pursued this challenge from various angles and learning styles researches have also emanated in response to the challenge. Learning styles depict differences in learners’ approach to learning. Even though learners are different in their approach to learning, educational systems lump them (learners) in confined settings called classrooms for purposes of learning and instruction. The classroom is an interactive learning environment where teacher-learner interaction goes on and culminates into learning experience especially for the learner. For the learning experience to be meaningful, the learners’ differences must be taken into consideration. Teachers need to be aware of and value these differences in learners in order to make the classroom environment conducive for all the learners to thrive. Keefe (1979) indicated that “an understanding of the way students learn is the door to educational improvement” (p.124). Similarly, Griggs (1991) opined that accommodating learners’ learning styles could result in improved attitudes towards learning and an increase in productivity, academic achievement and creativity.
Learning styles have been defined in different ways by different people. Dunn, Beaudry and Klavas (1989) referred to learning styles as biological and developmental characteristics that affect how people learn. Similarly, Higgins, Reading and Taylor (1996) have defined learning styles as significant personal characteristics, which help us to understand how people learn as well as a tendency in learners to adopt certain strategies or methods when learning. Learning styles have also been viewed as characteristic strengths and preferences in the ways students take in and process information (Felder, 1996). For Brown (1998), learning style is simply the way people come to understand and remember information and so on. In the context of this study however, learning style may be seen as a set of characteristic preferences or tendencies in learners’ behaviour reflected in the ways these learners input or take in information as well as process that information when confronted with learning tasks in a learning situation.
The merit of learning style researches lies in their ability to draw attention to the fact that learners differ and that there is need to take account of these differences in teaching. Thus a better understanding of learning style can help teachers minimize classroom frustration both for themselves and for their students (Reiff, 1992). Likewise, Keefe (1988) acknowledged that a knowledge of students’ learning styles can also show teachers how some of their own behaviours can hinder students’ progress. O’Connor (2005) was in agreement with the assertions made by Reiff (1992) and Keefe (1988) when he opined that:
The aim of learning style research is to find clusters of people who use similar patterns for perceiving and interpreting situations. Based on this information, we should be able to adjust educational environments to make them more efficient and successful places (p.1).
Suffice it to say that identifying individuals’ learning styles through learning styles researches affords teachers the opportunity of channeling learning experiences toward identified preferences for effective learning to occur. A situation where learning experience is targeted in the direction of some learners at the detriment of others (which is often the case in most classrooms) in a learning environment does not afford the different learners equal learning opportunity. For example, when learning experiences are limited to certain learning styles, learners who rely on other styles are bound to be less successful. O’Connor (2005) concurred that “limited classrooms are likely to inhibit one or more clusters of students whose preferred styles are not given the opportunity to be used (a problem that may be wrongly attributed to lower ability or motivation)” (p.2). This research effort therefore, is targeted at diversifying the instructional modes/techniques with the intention of addressing the learners’ needs in the process and possibly enhancing their achievement ultimately, hence the adoption of ICT instructional package in the present study.
When a learner is confronted with a learning task and the learner fails to perform, it is traditional to suggest that the learner has not studied hard enough or simply that he/she is not ‘smart’. But when this is pursued from the angle of learning styles, one may have to tackle the issue of whether or not instruction is in favour of the learner’s learning style. Learning style is said to differ from academic ability (achievement) in that, learning style “describes how a student learns, not how well or how much he has learned” (Hunt, 1979, p. 30). However, learning style and academic ability can be said to be related in that how a student learns will definitely determine how well or how much he will learn. Thus, learning styles have been found to be an important determinant of achievement in learning. This fact has been buttressed by studies of Dunn, Dunn and Price (1979); Griggs and Dunn (1984); Nebo (1990) and Nwalor (2002) among others. There are different models of learning styles in literature.
The present research is targeted at the Felder-Silverman’s learning styles model which identified learning styles on four bipolar continua or dimensions namely; active/ reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal and sequential/global learning styles. This model evolved from the syntheses of the results of a number of studies by Felder and Silverman (1988) who claim that the model is particularly relevant to science education. The active/reflective continuum addresses learners’ modes of internalizing or processing of information. This is achieved either by trying things out and working with others (active) or by thinking things through and working alone (reflective). The sensing/intuitive continuum addresses the forms that information should take for it to be readily perceived by learners. In other words whether learners prefer concrete and practical information oriented toward facts and procedures (sensing) or conceptual and innovative information oriented toward theories and meanings (intuitive). The visual/verbal continuum deals with perceptual modality or fundamental modes of inputting or taking in information by learners. This has to do with learners’ preference for pictorial representations of presented materials (visual) or written and spoken explanations (verbal). The sequential/ global continuum addresses the thought patterns or processes of learners when confronted with a learning task or problem situation. In this case, learners’ understanding is enhanced when the learning task is organized in linear, orderly and small incremental steps (sequential) or holistically in large leaps (global).
In the present study however, only two out of the four dimensions, (active/reflective and visual/verbal learning styles) are addressed. The choice of active/reflective and visual/verbal learning styles over sensing/intuitive and sequential/global learning styles may be linked to the researcher’s interest in the learning styles that have direct bearing on the learning process in the classrooms where instructions are basically presented to the learners in words and pictures or diagrams and the learners are expected to absorb or take in these information and process them for learning to occur. Therefore, the adoption of these two dimensions of the Felder-Silverman’s learning styles model is in order since these learning styles dimensions (active/reflective and visual/verbal) aptly describe the learning process in a structured educational setting.
The learners’ responses on the instrument eliciting information on these two dimensions of learning styles will naturally form a profile of learners with different learning styles thus; visual-active learning styles, visual-reflective learning styles, verbal-active learning styles and, verbal-reflective learning styles. The visual-active category perceives information visually and processes same actively. The visual-reflective category perceives information visually and processes the information reflectively. The verbal-active category perceives information verbally and processes same actively. The verbal-reflective category perceives information verbally and processes that information reflectively. This profile of learners is the attention of the present study. In any case, only learners with clearly defined learning styles are considered in the study in line with the advice offered by Felder and Spurlin (2005) thus: “… when carrying out research on learning style differences in behavior and attitudes, the researcher would do well to examine only students with moderate or strong preferences”(p.105). Felder and Spurlin (2005) further stated that students with mild preferences would be expected to shift between categories readily, rather than consistently exhibiting behaviour associated with a single category, thereby masking style differences that might appear in students with stronger preferences.
Again choosing active/reflective and visual/verbal over sensing/intuitive and sequential/global learning styles may be explained in line with the fact that the instructional materials are presented in visual and verbal forms and considering that the research is targeted at primary school children and the fact also that learning style develops with age, it is assumed that the subjects involved in the present study may not have developed the mental capabilities required for appreciating conceptual and innovative information and also for being global in their thought processes. Consequently, the sensing/intuitive and sequential/global dimensions have been excluded on the premise that the subjects participating in this study may cluster at one end of the continua on both dimensions of learning styles.
This study also explores the potentials of the information and communications technology (ICT) in enhancing the achievement of the subjects of the study. The information and communications technology (ICT) is a concept that is currently making waves in the 21st century. It is not a new concept per se but with the advancement and boom in computer technology, the ICT has become a household name owing to its versatility in operation and application. There is no doubt that the ICT has permeated all spheres of human endeavour worldwide. The educational sector is not an exception. According to Kasakowski (1998) cited in Kalu and Ekwueme (2003) “most of the developed countries have exploited the potentials of ICT to transform their educational landscape at the tertiary, secondary and even primary school levels particularly the instructional process” (p.14). Thus, in the western world, the ICT has been exploited for the transformation of the classroom at all levels of education.
Unfortunately, Nigerian classrooms still thrive on the traditional instruction patterns at all levels with no form of innovation on the part of the stakeholders to transform the classroom even in the face of the present ICT age. The issue is that most Nigerian teachers are not even aware of the existence of ICT in some cases and in other cases, the use to which ICT can be put in order to transform the classroom and improve learning ultimately (Kalu and Ekwueme, 2003; Ebenebe and Ezenwosu, 2006). Realizing the importance of ICT in every aspect of human endeavour and in education in particular, the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN), through her National Policy on Education has mandated that ICT be integrated into the Nigerian educational system at all levels to aid instruction among other reasons (FRN, 2004). Therefore, the use of ICT in the form of instructional package in the present research is an attempt in the direction of classroom instructional innovation with the hope that such an innovation will make a difference in the achievement of learners of different learning styles.
The Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have been defined as a “diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store and manage information” (Tinio, 2002, p.4). The range of ICTs commonly used in education includes computers, the Internet, broadcasting technologies (radio and television) and telephony (Tinio, 2002). Of all the ICTs mentioned above, the computer is perhaps the most useful especially in classroom instruction. In the present research, an ICT instructional package is employed for classroom instruction. The ICT instructional package involves taking advantage of the computer programme to fashion instruction according to the content of some lesson plans and using additional visualizations where possible to further illustrate the content of the instruction. The finished package comes in the form of compact disk (CD) to be slotted into the computer and projected on a screen using the projector during the instructions.
