 |
Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 10, Issue 2, Article 7
(Dec. 2009) |
Data analysis, results and discussion
Chi-square analysis was employed to test if significant relationships exist in respondents’ opinions on the impact of instructional technology and students’ academic achievements. The results of the chi-square analysis for the five variables tested are as shown in Table 1. The table demonstrates that there are significant relationships between the impact of instructional technology, usage of instructional technology and students’ academic achievement. Consequently, the null hypothesis is rejected. The findings of this study reveal that ICT, when applied to education, enhances effective knowledge delivery, enhances access to knowledge, produces richer learning outcomes, encourages effective critical thinking and generally improves the quality of teaching and learning. The results show that there is a positive and significant correlation between instructional technology and its effectiveness in augmenting educational offerings in higher education. The results thus confirm the observation made by Iloanusi and Osuagwu (2009) that ICT-aided teaching assists in effective delivery of knowledge and reaching educational goals in less time. However, Ololube (2008) and Ololube and Egbezor (2009) have argued that the diffusion of modern technology in teaching and learning depends on the degree to which a large segment of students and faculty have acquired the knowledge and skills required for the usage of ICT.
Table 1: Effectiveness of instructional technology in higher education
Variables
N
SD
Mean
X2
DF
Sig. (2-tailed)
ICT/Effective knowledge delivery
125
.69912
2.94400
27.080
3
.000
ICT/Access to knowledge
125
.83882
2.50400
33.375
3
.000
ICT/Produces effective learning outcome
125
.62238
3.08800
45.473
3
.000
ICT/Encourages critical thinking
125
.62816
3.02400
33.823
2
.000
ICT/Quality of teaching and learning
125
.71238
3.02400
37.460
3
.000
The findings of this study also suggest that faculty and student attitudes and anxiety towards ICT in teaching and learning relate to prior experience received during early years of high school education. We recognize that these facilities were not available to many students from day one of their educational endeavors (kindergarten). This data is in line with the findings of Bebetsos and Antoniou (2008), who suggest a correlation (85.2%) between the unpleasantness of prior experience and current attitudes and anxiety toward ICT usage in instruction. The result shows a positive relationship between prior experience with ICTs and attitude and anxiety and support the documented slow rate of use and integration of ICTs amongst Nigerian faculty and higher education students. Faculty and students with early access to ICTs do not have significant technology phobias. In general, female faculty and students (63%) had more negative attitudes and greater anxiety than did male faculty and students (37%) (see Figure3). This is in line with the studies of Parasuraman and Igbaria, (1990), Agnetha Broos(2005) and Igbaria and Chakrbarti (1990).
A t-test analysis was employed to test if there was a significant difference between female faculty/students and male faculty/students. The purpose of this analysis was to further verify the analytical information; the t-test analysis was aimed at determining if there are significant differences between respondents’ means. The result shows that there are significant differences in male and female attitudes and anxiety towards ICTs across all the variables. SPSS version 17 displayed it as p < 0.000 significance levels. This does not, however, mean that the probability is 0. It is less than p < 0.0005. The t-value for female was 35.12 while that for male was 39.29, Df = 124, p < 0.000 (see Table 2).
Table 2: Two-tailed test of difference between female and male faculty and students
Demographic Variables
SD.
Std. Error mean
T
Df
Sig. (2-tailed)
Female faculty and students
.87
.059
35.12
124
.000
male faculty and students
.67
.057
39.29
124
.000
More than 80% of respondents demonstrated lower academic achievement (amongst both faculty and students) when compared with their counterparts in the West where ITC usage and integration has existed for decades; the causes of this are not difficult to understand. A chronic absence of ICT instructional materials, ineffective policy implementation and a lack of other resources (infrastructure) to aid teaching and learning are responsible for the marked disparities. In essence, the study revealed that experience makes it easier to study with and exhibit greater proficiency when using ICT instructional material in the teaching and learning process.
One-Way analysis of variance (ANOVA) set at p < 0.05 was employed to test if significant differences exist in the opinions of the respondents from the two universities used for the study. The data obtained was computed and the results show that no significant differences exist in opinions across the two universities. (see table 3 for details)
Table 3: Analysis of variance for universities
Universities
Frequency
(%)
Mean
SD
F Ratio
Sig.
UNIVERSITY 1
UNIVERSITY 261
48.8
1.9235
.654
1.59
.342
64
51.2
2.0882
.671
