Effect Of Instructional Material On Academic Performance Of Students In Agricultural Science In Secondary Schools

The study examined the effect of availability of instructional materials on student’s academic performance in agricultural science in Ilorin West Local Government Area, Kwara State. The population for this study comprised of all Agricultural Science Teachers and all SS II students who offered Agricultural Science in all secondary schools within the study area. A multi-stage sampling technique of stratified, purposive and simple random techniques was used to select 236 respondents for the study. A researcher structured questionnaire of Liker rating scale forma was used to gather information from the respondents. The instrument was validated by three experts in the field of measurement and evaluation in the Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin. The reliability of the study was established through test re-test method using pearson product moment correlation. A correlation of 0.75 was obtained. The instrument was administered by the researcher and four trained research assistants. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of frequency count and percentage for personal data of the respondents while inferential statistics of chi-square X2 was used to test the postulated hypothesis set for the study at 0,05 alpha level. The results of the findings revealed that appropriate utilization of instructional materials have significant effect on student performance in agricultural science, characteristics of instructional materials, importance of instructional materials and factors affecting the use of instructional materials have significant effect on student performance in agricultural science. Based on the findings of this study, the researcher recommends that Agricultural Science Teachers should endeavour to improvise instructional materials so as to enhanced students performance, school management needs to encourage Agricultural Science Teachers to always utilize the use of instructional materials for effective teaching and also to organize seminars and workshops for them in order for them to know the importance of using instructional materials o enhance students performance in Agricultural Science.