ABSTRACT

The research work critically examined perception of effectiveness ofutilization ofinstructional materials for teaching and learning of computer studies in secondary schools in Umuahia North LGA of Abia State. It aimed at identifying instructional materials required for teaching and learning computer studies, and also determined the extent the identified instructional materials are used. It equally considers challenges and proffer solutions to the challenges. The research work was guided with four research questions and hypotheses. The study adopted descriptive survey design. 1244 population was used for the study, consisting 1220 students and 24 teachers. Simple random sampling techniques, was used to select 130 respondents, consisting 118 students and 12 computer teachers. Descriptive statistics such as mean and mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions at bench mark of 2.50, while ttest was used to analyze the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significant. The findings revealed that projector, interactive white board, audio/visual recorder, textbooks and intemet/computer facilities are instructional materials required for teaching and learning computer studies. It equally revealed that these instructional materials have been used at a very low extent in teaching and learning computer studies in Umuahia North L.G.A of Abia state. The researcher equally proffers solutions to the challenges facing effective utilization ofinstructional materials in teaching and learning computer studies in Umuahia North. The recommendations and suggestion includes. Teachers should consider using instructional materials more frequently in teaching computer science. Teachers should also make their lessons interesting, participatory and students-centred. Government should provide adequate instructional media in secondary schools to enhance effective teaching and learning, seminars and workshops on the importance ofthe use of instructional media in teaching and learning of concepts should be organized for Computer science teachers with emphasis on the need of selecting relevant instructional media while teaching. Teachers should be encouraged to learn how to improvise an instructional media in the absence of one, supervision should be carried out on teacher’s performance on the use ofinstructional media at interval. Adequate power supply should be provided and this may be inform ofsolar system to both urban and rural schools in Umuahia North, adequate security should be provided for the ICT facilities in schools in Umuahia North, LGA. Students should be motivated on the importance of computer science in their day to day activities. This study could be replicated in other local government areas in Abia state. The study equally could be replicated in other states using another teaching subjects or variables.