ABSTRACT
The study established the Effect of Computer Assisted Instruction on Performance of Senior Secondary School Students in Agricultural Science in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Four specific objectives and four research questions were stated, while four null hypotheses were formulated and tested for the study. The objectives included; to determine the effect of using CAI and conventional method for teaching Agricultural Science and to determine the effect of using CAI and conventional method for teaching Agricultural Science on performance in objective test in senior secondary schools in Kaduna state. The research design adopted for the study was quasi pre-test and post-test experiment. The population of the study was 1,521 first year senior secondary school students of the nine senior secondary schools that have computer laboratories in Kaduna state, offering agricultural science. Ninety senior secondary students from three selected schools in the three senatorial zones in Kaduna state were used as the sample. The experimental group was exposed to Computer Assisted Instruction package, while the control group was taught the same topic using conventional method. Twenty multiple choice questions and two essay questions in the Agricultural Science Achievement Test. Instrument with a reliability coefficient of 0.89 was used to collect data. Data were analyzed using mean, and standard deviation to answer the research questions and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses. Null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that, there was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test result in the objective test. Similarly, the study revealed that there was a significant different between the pre-test and port-test result of the essay test for agricultural science students. There was a significant difference in the post-test experimental group in zone II compared with zone 1 and zone III. It was concluded that Computer Assisted Instruction significantly enhanced the performance of students in Agricultural Science because those students taught using CAI performed significantly better than those taught using conventional teaching method in agricultural science. Among the four recommendations made was that agricultural science teachers should be trained in the use of computer packages in teaching agricultural sciences through workshops, seminars and induction courses to be organized by the Ministry of Education.