POWERED VEGETABLE DEHYDRATOR ON UNDERGRADUATESTUDENTS’ RETENTION IN WELDING AND SHEET METALFABRICATION

Abstract

The study was to determine the effects of a vegetable Powered Dehydrator on undergraduate Students‟ retention in Welding and Fabrication and Mechanical Drawing in North Central States Nigeria. The study was guided by one objective, one research question and one hypothesis. Literature related to the study were reviewed. The study adopted quasi-experimental design which consisted of two groups (control and experimental), which involved pre-test and post-test of selected samples for the study. A total of 63 undergraduate students drawn from Federal University of Technology Minna; University of Jos and Benue State University were used as the population for the study of this number, 17 respondents were used as control and 16 as experimental group respectively. Two instruments (welding and Sheet Metal Fabrication Retention Test (WSFAT) and Mechanical Drawing Achievement Test (MDAT) containing 30 multiple choice items put together were used for date collection. Each of the instruments consisted of four option; A- D covering the content area of Welding Processes, Fabrication Processes and Mechanical Drawing respectively. The test items were develop based on the content of Metal work Technology and Mechanical Drawing courses from the University Undergraduate curriculum. The data collection instruments were validated for face and content appropriateness by three experts in Metal work Technology (Two from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi and one from Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola. After retirement of the final version of the test instrument were pilot-tested an a ample of 10 Metal work Students from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Bauchi which was outside the study area; The test, re-test methods were used to establish reliability of the instrument whose analysis yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.70, 0.73 and 0.7, 0.74 for the two rounds of testing. Data for the study was collected by the researcher with the help of three research assistance and were analyzed using SPSS version 23. Mean and standard deviation were the statistical tools used in answering the research question while t-test for independent sample used for testing the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that the use of vegetable Dehydrator to teach had positive effect on undergraduate students‟ Retention in Welding and Sheet Metal Fabrication and Mechanical Drawing with a mean gain of 1.58, 0.41.The mean gain of those of those taught using the vegetable Powered Dehydrator was -0.88 as against those taught using lecture method was - 0.94. The difference in Retention between those Students taught Welding and Sheet Metal Fabrication and Mechanical Drawing using the vegetable Dehydrator and those students taught Welding and Sheet Metal Fabrication an d Mechanical Drawing using Lecture Method (LM) was fond to ne significant at 0.05 level of significance. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommended that Universities and especially Technical, Vocational, Education and Training (TVET) teacher of Welding and Sheet Metal Fabrication and Mechanical Drawing should be encouraged to always get involved in searching Local Material for teaching Welding and Sheet Metal; Fabrication and Mechanical Drawing in their institutions in the dearth of needed materials for practical projects in North Central States Nigeria.