Impact of Field Trip on Academic Performance of Technical Education Students in Colleges of Education (Technical) in South- South Nigeria

Abstract

Technical Education has been recognised as a tool for empowering people especially youths, for sustainable livelihood and social economic development. This study is set to investigate the impact of fieldtrip on the academic performance of technical education students in colleges of education (Technical) in South-South Nigeria. Three research questions guided the study while three hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey design was adopted in the study. The population of the study  consisted of all staff and students of School of Secondary Education (Technical) in two Federal Colleges of Education (Technical). The entire population of 190 lecturers and students was also used as sample for the study. A four point rating questionnaire titled “Impact of Field Trip on Academic Performance of Technical Education Students Questionnaire (IFTAPTESQ)” was used as instrument for data collection and it was validated by three experts. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha which yielded 0.90. Data was analysed using mean and standard deviation for the research questions while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed among others, that field trip impacted on the academic performance of technical education students. Also, field trip offered quality skills to technical education students. Based on the findings, it was recommended that regular and well planned field trip should to organised for technical education students so as to enable them gain first hand information and provide opportunity for them to see, touch and feel those things that were taught in the classroom. This will enhance their academic performance.