Effects of Constructivist Instructional Approach on Academic Performance of Motor Vehicle Mechanic Works Students in Technical Colleges of Gombe State

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the effect of constructivist instructional approach on academic performance of motor vehicle mechanic works students in technical colleges of Gombe State. Two specific objectives and corresponding research questions and null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted quasi-experimental research design. Specifically, Pre-test, Post- test, non-equivalent control group design. The study area was Gombe State, North East Nigeria. The population of the study was 107 NTC II Motor Vehicle Mechanic Works students. A purposive-convenient sampling technique was used to select two Government Science and Technical Colleges from the study area based on the availability of resources for the study which made them convenient. The instrument for data collection was Motor Vehicle Mechanic Works Achievement Test (MVMWAT) with forty multiple choice objective items drawn from NABTEB past extermination questions. Data collected during the research was analyzed with the help of Microsoft Excel. Mean was used to answer the research questions while z-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Some findings of the study include that the use of constructivist instructional approach for teaching some MVMW topics improve academic performance of students. The study also found that there is a significant difference in the performance of students taught control of camshaft floats using constructivist instructional approach and those taught with lecture method. Based on the findings of the study, these recommendations were made among others: training and re-training of teachers on the use of constructivist instructional approach as an activity-based method and student-centered approach will enhance students’ performance and there should be proper instructional supervision to ensure teachers employ the use of constructivist instructional approach in teaching MVMW students as it yields higher performance against the lecture method