Appraisal of Woodwork Practical Skill Acquisition of Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) Technical Students in Niger State College Of Education, Minna

Abstract

The study evaluated the practical skill acquisition of Nigerian Certificate in Education Technical of Woodwork students in Niger State College of Education (COE), Minna. Specifically, the study determined the adequacy of woodwork tools and equipment, adequacy of time allotted for practical skill acquisition, teaching methods and instructional materials employed in teaching woodwork practical skills in the workshop. Three research questions were postulated to guide the study. The study was a descriptive survey research which adopted the use of a researcher-designed structured questionnaire for data collection. The questionnaire was content validated by two lecturers in the department of industrial and technology education Federal University of Technology, Minna. The reliability of the instruments was obtained using Cronbach alpha analysis that yielded co-efficient of 0.75 which was regarded as reliable according to Louis, Lawrence and Keith (2007) the Population of the study comprises of five lecturers and 65(3001evel) students in the woodwork technology department, school of technical education, Niger State College of Education Minna. The whole population were used hence there was no sampling because the population was manageable. 70 copies of the questionnaire were distributed with 96% return rate. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions and a radar graph was used to determine the similarity in the opinion of the respondents. Findings from the study revealed that practical lessons are not adequate, workshop attendants do not spend adequate time guiding the students during the practical skill acquisition lessons, the school workshop have the required tools but these tools are not sufficient to go round the students during practical work, among others. Based on the findings, it was recommended that there is need for The National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) to redesign the curriculum to allot more time for practical skill acquisitions in the NCE (Tech) programme, more tools and equipment should be purchased for practical skills acquisition by the Educational Stakeholders and the Institution.