Comparative Effect of Simulation and Demonstration Methods of Instruction on Students' Academic Performance in Business Studies at Junior Secondary School Level

This study focused on the “Effect of Simulation and Demonstration teaching methods on Junior Secondary School Students’ Performance in Business Studies”. Five research questions were posed and th ree hypotheses formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study was quasi-experimental design. The population for the study consisted of all Junior Secondary School (JSSII) students offering business studies in the 15 government owned secondary schools selected in Isoko North Local Government Area. Purposive sampling technique was used to select two (2) intact classes amounting to 93 students, comprising 51 male and 42 females. The school were grouped into simulation and demonstration groups. A test was administered to the two groups which served as a pre-test. A demonstration teaching method was used for the demonstration group while students in the simulation group were exposed to the simulation method of teaching. A teacher made test was later administered to the groups which served as a post test. Data collected were organized in tables and analyzed using mean and standard deviation. ANCOVA was used to test the hypotheses.

The finding of the study shows that simulation method has significant effect on students performance in learning business studies. There was significant difference in students’ mean achievement score after using simulation in teaching business studies. The simulation group perform significantly better than the demonstration group. Female students perform better than their male counterparts showing a significant difference in their performance in business studies. The mean performance scores of students before and after simulation differed significantly showing that students performed better after they have been exposed to simulation method. One of the recommendations made based on the findings is that, business teacher should be encouraged to adopt the use of simulation as an alternative to demonstration teaching method in teaching business studies. Implications were drawn and areas of further research were highlighted.