Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) and Senior Secondary School Student's Academic Performance in Economics in Kaduna State, Nigeria

The study investigates the effect of Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) on the academic performance of Economics students in Senior secondary schools of Kaduna State. One of the objectives of integrating ICT as a policy into education by government is to increase the number of graduates in the education system that are competent to compete favorably anywhere in the world and enhance sustainable national development. The objectives of teaching economics, amongst others, are to produce graduates with knowledge and understanding of economic principles, economic analysis, economic and financial institutions to make economic decisions that will contribute to positive national development and international relationships. Chief Examiners of WASSCE in 2019-2022 observed that most students who sat for economics performed at average and below average levels at best. Some key factors are inadequate content knowledge of the subject matter and inability to draw and label good diagrams on the part of the students were mentioned. These might result from ineffective teaching methodologies used by the teachers and poor understanding of the subject matter on the part of the students. TPACK theoretical framework was adopted because it captures the essential knowledge that teachers requires if they want to effectively integrate ICT facilities into their teaching and learning process. The research design is the 2 x 2 factorial pre-test post-test quasi-experimental control group designs. The targeted population is the sixty-two thousand and seventy (62,070) public Senior Secondary two (SS2) school students in twelve educational zones of Kaduna State. A stratified random sampling technique was adopted to draw out SS2 Economics students from the rural and urban centers of two educational zones in the State. An Economics Achievement Test (EAT) was developed and validated as a test instrument for data collection. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. One of this study's findings shows that if CAL facilities is effectively utilized by teachers, CAL can help students in rural areas compete favorably academically with their counterparts in urban areas. It was concluded that CAL significantly impacts students' academic performance in Economics. It was, however, recommended amongst others that if computer-assisted facilities are adequately provided by the government and utilized effectively by teachers in all schools, students in the remote areas will not feel disadvantaged due to their location and will compete favorably with their counterparts in the urban areas schools and hence, reducing rural-urban migration of youths.