EFFECTS OF REFLECTIVE LEARNING APPROACHES ON ELECTRICAL INSTALLATION AND MAINTENANCE WORK STUDENTS’ COGNITIVE ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION IN TECHNICAL COLLEGES IN SOKOTO STATE

Abstract

The study investigated the Effects of Reflective Learning Approaches on Electrical Installation and Maintenance Work (EIMW) Students Cognitive Achievement and Retention in Technical Colleges in Sokoto State. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. Relevant literature was reviewed in line with the objectives of the study. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design. The population of the study covered 70 Technical College Year Two (TC II) students offering EIMW in four Technical Colleges in Sokoto State for the 2023/2024 academic session. Purposive sampling techniques were used to group the four technical colleges into experimental groups I and II for the study. The instrument used for data collection was the EIMW Cognitive Achievement Test (EIMWCAT). The instrument was validated by three research experts. To ascertain the internal consistencies of the instruments, Kuder Richardson 21 (KR 21) was used for EIMWCAT and a coefficient of 0.90 was obtained. The data for research questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at p < 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that action-reflection and critical-reflection instructional strategies significantly increased the students achievement, and retention in EIMW, but the group taught with critical-reflection instructional strategy had the highest mean gained in the cognitive achievements scores of (18.67 > 16.55) than group taught with action-reflection instructional strategy, but the group taught with action-reflection instructional strategy had the highest mean gained in the retention scores of (1.72 > 0.81) than group taught with critical-reflection instructional strategy. The result of the hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance, with a p-value of 0.097 on EIMW cognitive achievement mean score showed that there is no significant difference in the cognitive achievement mean score, also with a p-value of 0.02 on EIMW retention mean score shows that there is significant mean difference in the retention mean score. Based on the findings, of the study, therefore, it is recommended among others that more attention should be given to the inclusion of modern instructional strategies such as action-reflection and critical-reflection for teaching EIMW in Technical Colleges in Nigeria.