Reducing Underachievement and Promoting Critical Thinking Skills in Computer Studies Through a Culturally Sensitive Instructional Method

Abstract

This study aims to determine the effectiveness of the Culturo-Techno-Contextual Ap- proach (CTCA) on students’ achievement and critical thinking skills in Computer Studies. The study was conducted in two phases. Phase one was a survey of difficult concepts in computer science/studies. While phase two explored the potency of the Culturo-Techno-Contextual Approach (CTCA) in breaking the barriers to meaningful learning of refractive indices. Results obtained from the survey in the first phase revealed 19 topics as a difficult topic among African secondary school students in computer studies. The second phase was guided by two research questions with two public junior secondary (JS) in Lagos State (Nigeria). About 38% of the respondents were males while about 62% were females. A critical thinking skills task (CTST), and an interview guide were used to collect data for the study. The data gathered was subjected to multivariate analysis of covariate (MANCOVA), and the results revealed a statistically significant difference in the methods used, multivariate F (Pillai’s Trace) was significant [F=17.67; p<.05], univariate ANOVA on achievement [F (2, 208) = 20.67; p<0.05]; and critical thinking skills [F (2, 208) = 15.14; p<0.05]. Within the scope of the study, it was tentatively recommended that CTCA should be adopted by computer studies teachers in the teaching of computer science/studies in secondary schools.