Improving Students’ Mastery of Practical Skills in Blocklaying, Bricklaying and Concreting through Activity-Based Instruction in Technical Colleges in Gombe State

Abstract

The improvement of students’ practical skills in Block/Bricklaying and Concreting programme through activity-based instruction in Gombe State technical colleges is the purpose of this study. Two specific purposes were outlined to guide the researcher. A descriptive survey design was used where opinion of the teachers of Blocklaying, Bricklaying and Concreting (BBC) programme were sought on the use of activity-based instructional approaches in the teaching and learning processes. The population was made up of all the 41 teachers of BBC from the six technical colleges in Gombe State A structured questionnaire with 30 items was used as instrument for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts and Cronbach Alpha formular was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. The data gathered from respondents was analysed using mean and standard deviation. The following findings were made from the study: 19 activity-based teacher preparation that can improve students’ mastery of practical skills in BBC, in technical colleges, in Gombe State and 11 activity-based strategies that can improve students’ mastery of practical skills in BBC through activity based instruction in technical colleges in Gombe State. Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made- activity-based teaching methods identified in this study can be integrated into the curriculum of BBC and other related trades for training and ensuring students’ mastery of practical skills in Technical Colleges in Gombe State; workshop and seminars should be organized for BBC teachers on current pedagogies in BBC from time to time.