The Use Of Videos And Animations To Improve Learners’ Achievement In Namibian Senior Secondary Certificate Geography In Selected Secondary Schools In Ohangwena Region

Abstract

Multimedia usage as an instructional tool in education is an important way of communicating the 21st century language to the digital natives of the 21st century. Several models have been put forward to suggest how multimedia use in education may improve the learners’ academic achievements. However, little research has been done to investigate how multimedia influences the academic achievements of learners in Geography. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate whether the use of video and animations (multimedia) improves learners’ performance in Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate Geography in Ohangwena Region. The population of this study was all Grade 12 learners studying Namibian Senior Secondary Certificate Geography from all secondary schools in Ohangwena Region. A quantitative research design in the form of a quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test control design was used to collect primary data in order to answer the main underlying question for the study and to test the research hypotheses. A pre-test was given to all the participants, followed by an experimental treatment to the experimental group and then a post-test to both the experimental group and the control group. A t test was run to help in finding answers to the main underlying question. After the experiment, the results show that the experimental group performed slightly higher than the control group (Experimental group: M=19.33, SE=1.06; Control group: M=18.08, SE=.86). This shows a p > .05, thus no sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis. Overall, this study suggests that multimedia usage in education improves learners’ performance, although not significantly. Therefore, awareness of the power that the usage of multimedia tools in education has, specifically its influence on the academic performance of Grade 12 Geography learners, could provide a useful tool in increasing the likelihood that teachers and all

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the stakeholders in education can incorporate in everyday planning of what happens in classrooms to help improve the Grade 12 Geography results. However the results are contrary to what several authors who wrote strongly on the influence of multimedia on the academic performance of learners stated. Based on the results, it should however be borne in mind that this study was only conducted once and on a small group of learners over a short period of time. The results point to the fact that educators may not use multimedia as the only tool for teaching, but rather use it as a support and mediating tool only to complement their work.