Impact of teacher competency in ICT on students’ learning interest and achievement in science in public senior secondary schools of the FCT, Abuja

The study examined the impact of teacher competency in ICT on students’ learning interest and achievement in science in public senior secondary schools of the FCT, Abuja. The population for the study comprised of 17,729 SS2 science students in public senior secondary schools in the FCT, Abuja. A sample of 380 students were selected using Krejcie and Morgan table for selecting sample size. Data was collected using a self-developed questionnaires tagged Questionnaire on Impact of Teacher Competency in Use of ICT on Learning Interest and Academic Achievement (QOIOTECOLAC). In addition, Physics Achievement Test and Chemistry Achievement Test were developed for the study for the purpose assessing students’ academic achievement. To ensure validity of the instrument used, they were given to experts in educational research and measurement and evaluation for face and content validity. The experts subjected them to critical appraisal. Scores from the appraisal of experts were used to obtain consensus logical validity indices of 0.80, 0.72 and 0.76. The instruments were pilot tested on 30 students; the respondents were part of the population but not part of the sample for this study. Even though the instruments were standardized, they were still subjected to reliability in order to ascertain their degree of consistency. The data obtained from the pilot test was used to compute the internal consistency of the instrument using Cronbach’s Alpha reliability method. The analyses of the responses yielded reliability indices of 0.75, 0.78 and 0.74. Mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions developed for the study while t-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that: there is a significant impact of teacher competency in ICT on students’ learning interest in public senior secondary school of the FCT, Abuja and there is a significant impact of teacher competency in ICT on students’ academic achievement in public senior secondary school of the FCT, Abuja. Based on the findings, recommendations were made which among others include: conducting workshops and seminars in schools in order to train teachers in the use of ICT facilities to enhance students learning interest and supplying senior secondary schools with ICT facilities that can enhance students’ achievement in Public Senior Secondary Schools.