Abstract
The study investigated the effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on
students' retention in Basic Electricity in technical colleges in Rivers State. The retention of
students' taught with ICT was compared with that of those taught with the Conventional Teaching
Method (CTM). Three research questions guided the study while three hypotheses were tested for
the study at .05 level of significance. A quasi experimental design, specifically, the non-randomized
control group design involving four intact classes were used. The population was 212 vocational
II Electrical Installation Works Department students from two technical colleges in the state.
These students in their intact classes were assigned either to experimental group (ICT) or control
group (CTM). Basic Electricity Retention Test (BERT) instrument was developed, validated and
used for data collection. Reliability of the BERT was 0.89. Mean and standard deviations were
used to answer the research questions while ANCOVA was used to test the null hypotheses.
Findings of the study revealed that ICT has significant effect on students' retention in Basic
Electricity as gender was found to be a significant factor in students' retention. It was
recommended that Basic Electricity teachers should employ the use of ICT facilities in teaching,
ministry of education at all levels including examination bodies like NABTEB, WAEC and NECO
should organize workshops, seminars and conferences as to train and encourage teachers on the
use of this innovative teaching technique.
Publication Date: 2016-12-14