Effects of Project and Demonstration Teaching Methods on Male and Female Students’ Achievement and Retention in Basic Electricity in Technical Colleges

The study ascertained the effects of project and demonstration teaching methods on male and female students’ achievement and retention in basic electricity in technical colleges. Quasi-experimental design; precisely, pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test for non-randomized and unequal groups were used. Four research questions guided the study and four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Four technical colleges in Ebonyi State, each technical college offering basic electricity, were used. The population of the study comprised of 141 Technical College year II (TC II) students (85 males & 58 females). The project method instructional strategy group had 62 male and 13 female students whereas; the demonstration method instructional strategy group had 20 male and 46 female students. The instruments used in the study were Demonstration Method Instructional Manual (DMIM), Basic Electricity Achievement Test (BEAT) and Project Method Instructional Manual (PMIM), which were validated by three experts. The instrument (BEAT) was administered twice to twenty (20) TC11 students in Enugu State and Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation was used to obtain a reliability index of 0.89. Data collected for the study were analyzed using mean with standard deviation for research questions, while hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The study found that both the project and demonstration teaching methods improved male and female students’ performances in basic electricity. However, male and female students taught basic electricity using project teaching method had better academic performance and retention in basic electricity, indicating that project teaching method was more effective on male and female students’ achievement and retention in basic electricity than demonstration teaching method. The researchers therefore recommended project teaching method as a teaching strategy that could reduce the gender disparity in male and female students' achievement and retention.