ICT Competence and Science Teachers’ Instructional Effectiveness in Northern Cross River State, Nigeria

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) competence on science teachers’ classroom instructional effectiveness using teachers in secondary schools in Northern Cross River State, Nigeria. To achieve research objectives, three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A random sample of 193 science teachers was selected using the multistage sampling technique from a total of 371 science teachers in public and private secondary schools in the area. Two well validated rating scales, the ICT Competence Inventory (ICI) with a reliability co-efficient of 0.91 and the Classroom Instructional Effectiveness Scale (CIES) with a Cronbach co-efficient of 0.84, were used to obtained data. The data were subjected to t-test analysis using the SPSS version 23.0. The results of the study revealed that the level of ICT competence among the science teachers was significantly below the expected minimum competency level. Majority of the teachers were not competent in ICT. Male science teachers were significantly higher in their mean ICT competence than their female counterparts while science teachers, who are ICT competent, were significantly more effective in their classroom instructional effectiveness than those who were not ICT competent. It was recommended amongst others that school proprietors, government and non-governmental organizations should initiate practical and realistic programmes towards the training of science teachers on ICT while special preference should be given to the female science teachers during such trainings as this will ultimately enhance their instructional effectiveness.