Effect of Reflective Inquiry Instructional Technique on Students' Achievement and Retention in Electronics Works in Technical Colleges in Rivers State

The study determined the effect of reflective inquiry instructional technique on students’ achievement and retention in electronics works in Technical Colleges in Rivers State. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted pre-test post-test non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental design. The study was conducted in Rivers State. The population for the study was 87 National Technical Certificate 11 students and it was a census, but purposive sampling technique was used for the selection of the two Technical Colleges offering electronics works in Rivers State. The instrument for data collection was a teacher made test titled, Electronics Works Achievement and Retention Test. The instrument was subjected to face and content validation by three experts. The reliability was determined using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient and found to be 0.73. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while analysis of covariance was used for testing the hypotheses at a significance level of 0.05. Findings from the study revealed that there was a significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students taught principles of radio transmission and electronic circuits with reflective inquiry instructional technique and those taught same topics with demonstration method. Also, the findings revealed that there was a significant difference between the mean retention scores of students taught electronics works with reflective inquiry instructional technique and those taught same subject with demonstration method. From these findings, the study recommended among others that reflective inquiry instructional technique should be used for the teaching of electronics works as this will enhance academic achievements and retention ability of the students.