AVAILABILITY AND APPLICATION OF INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN FCT COE, ZUBA

Abstract

The study investigated the availability and application of interactive whiteboards for effective teaching of Social Studies in FCT College of Education Zuba, Abuja, Nigeria. Four research objectives, four research questions and four hypotheses were formulated. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population comprised of all the 17 lecturers in the Department of Social Studies in FCT COE Zuba, Abuja. Given the small population size, a census sampling technique was used, and all 17 Social Studies lecturers were included in the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire designed by the researcher and titled "Availability and Application of Interactive Whiteboards Questionnaire" (AAIWQ). The validity of the AAIWQ was established through face and content validity by experts in educational technology and Social Studies education. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, and a reliability index of 0.88 was obtained. Data collected were imputed into the SPSS (25) software package. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) was used to analyze the research questions while inferential statistics (t-test) was used to test the hypotheses at a 0.05 alpha level. The major findings among others were that IWBs are not available in Social Studies classrooms in FCT COE Zuba, Social Studies lecturers do not apply IWBs for effective teaching of Social Studies in FCT COE Zuba, which is attributed to the lack of availability. IWBs can enhance student engagement, make complex concepts easier to understand, promote collaborative learning, and make lessons more interesting and interactive. The researcher recommended among others that the management of FCT College of Education, Zuba, should prioritize the procurement and installation of interactive whiteboards in Social Studies classrooms to enhance effective teaching and learning and the College management should organize regular training and capacity-building programs for lecturers on the effective use of interactive whiteboards to boost their confidence and competence in integrating the technology into their instructional delivery.