INFLUENCE OF HOME TELEVISION VIEWING ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF CHILDREN IN UPPER BASIC EDUCATION
Abstract
The study investigated the influence of home television viewing on academic achievement of children in upper Basic Education Level in Kaduna State. The study established the influence of televisions viewing on the pupils’ language development and achievement in basic science. The study also determines the influence of televisions viewing on pupils’ numeracy development and achievement in social studies. The study was guided by four research questions and four formulated null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of probability. The design of the study was an ex-post facto survey design. The area of the study was Kaduna State of Nigeria. The population of the study consisted of all the children in the upper basic level of education in schools in Kaduna State. Multistage and stratified random sampling techniques were used in selecting the 320 pupils that were used for the study. A researcher-developed instrument called ‘pupils television viewing identification questionnaire’ (PTVIQ). The instrument was face validated by three experts in the department of vocational Teacher education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The internal consistency reliability coefficient obtained using Cronbach alpha method was 0.67. Data were collected by recording the continuous assessment scores of pupils on Mathematics, English languages, Basic Science and Social Studies. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while t-test analysis was used in testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study included: that home television viewers scored higher than the non-television viewers on Basic English continuous assessment tests; the home television viewers scored higher than the non-television viewers on basic
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Television is an electronic device which transmits picture and sound. It is used for entertainment, information and commercials. With the advent of satellite and digital technologies, there are unlimited programmes on television. For instance, there are programmes on news, education, culture, weather forecast, sports, music and a plethora of both good quality and inappropriate contents (Santrock, 2005). Television combines the appealing features of the movies and radio and it is one of the most popular amusement devices during the childhood years. It may lure children away from other forms of play.
For the preschool child and even older child, television viewing is an added play activity, though, not a substitute for active play and other forms of passive play. For many children, it is more popular and more consuming of their play time than all other play activities. Television is still an important medium for children if it is used it actively. However, according to Livingstone (2002) children regard television viewing as a source of entertainment. In other hand, many parents often see television, particularly for young children as an important educational tool that can assist their intellectual development (Rideout, 2003).
