A Comparison of the Learning Achieved by Nigerian and English Children from Programmed Material

Abstract

A general science program comprising experimental worksheets and oral work was written in Nigeria with an accompanying criterion test. These were administered to a group of 81 Nigerian pupils in the first year of a secondary school along with four ability tests. After a slight revision of the program and the criterion test, the procedure was repeated in an English comprehensive school, the experimental group consisting of 79 first‐form pupils. In addition an attitude questionnaire was given to the two groups, which showed that the attitudes to seven aspects of the program were similar except for an indication that English children accepted “answers” and “experiments” more readily than the Nigerian children. Direct comparison of the Nigerian and English scores was avoided by comparing the correlation matrices calculated for the variables of criterion test gain score plus verbal, non‐verbal, reading and spatial abilities. For the English children the coefficients between criterion test gain scores and the four abilities measured were found to be significantly higher than the corresponding coefficients for the Nigerian children. This suggested fundamental differences between the two groups that would greatly reduce the efficiency of a program written for English children and used in Nigeria.