The effect of the demonstration method of teaching on students’ academic performance in agricultural science at one Secondary School in Guyana

This mini-research was designed to investigate the outcome of the Demonstration Method of teaching versus the Traditional Lecture Method of teaching on Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) students’ Agricultural Science performance at the Grade 10 level at one junior secondary school in region five, Guyana.  The findings of this research are specific to the 40 Grade 10 students who participated in this research at one junior secondary school in Region Five, Guyana. This research will add useful information that can provide guidance to teachers on the choice of a more effective pedagogy to teach the practical component of Agricultural Science and bears tremendous significance to the students in their improved performance in Agricultural Science. This research utilized a quantitative approach with the implementation of a Quasi-experimental Pre-test Post-test Control Group Design.  The two research questions and two null hypotheses that guided this research respectively were: - To what extent will the Demonstration Method of teaching affect students’ Agricultural Science performance when compared to the traditional Lecture Method of teaching? What is the difference in Agricultural Science performance of male and female students taught using the Demonstration Method versus the traditional Lecture Method of teaching? There will be no statistically significant difference in students’ Agricultural Science performance between the control and treatment groups. There will be no statistically significant difference between male and female students’ Agricultural Science performance between the control and treatment groups. The findings revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in the performance of the treatment group who were exposed to the Demonstration Method of teaching when compared to the control group with a p value of 0.016. There was a statistically significant difference between the performance of male and female students with a p value of 0.0007. The null hypotheses were rejected. The analysis of the data, established that the use of the Demonstration Method of teaching is effective in improving students’ academic performance in Agricultural Science.