Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of teacher constructed furnace on students’ performance in metal work technology in technical colleges in Rivers state using four topics in metal work that require the use of furnace namely; heat treatment, soldering, forging and foundry. The study adopted research and development incorporating quasi-experimental design. It involved the use of control group, pre-test – post test design. The population of 194 students from four technical colleges in Rivers state were used for the study. The instrument for data collection was made up of Metal Work Achievement Test (MWAT) developed by the researcher. The achievement test consists of 200-multiple choice items with four options of A-D. The test items were identified and selected from the content of (NABTEB) syllabus on metal work technology. Test re-test method was used to establish the reliability of the instrument; the tests yielded 0.70,073 and 0.72, 0.74 for the first and second tests respectively. Four experts in metal work technology were involved in both face and content validity of the teacher constructed furnace and 200 multiple-choice test items. The results obtained from the test scores were compiled and analyzed using statistical tools such as; percentage, mean, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) in answering four research questions and testing four hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The teacher constructed furnace had positive effects on students’ performance in heat treatment 4.6, soldering 8.51, forging 8.99 and foundry 15.32. The difference in performance between those taught using teacher constructed furnace and those taught using conventional teaching aids was found to be significant at 0.05 levels of significance. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommended that government, technical college principals and the different agencies should provide fund to procure the materials and component for designing and constructing furnace by the teacher for teaching heat treatment in technical colleges in Rivers State. Also, constant power supply, generators, accumulators, soldering iron, solder, anvil, steel vessel, pipes and electric blower should be provided and distributed by the ministry of education to the technical colleges for construction of furnace for effective teaching of soldering and forging in Rivers State. The industries, government, non-governmental agencies and private enterprises and communities should provide components, consumable materials necessary for teaching foundry and supply the materials directly to the individual technical colleges in Rivers State.
