EFFECT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-EMBEDDED INSTRUCTIONAL PEDAGOGY ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN CHEMISTRY IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ENUGU STATE

Abstract

This study examined the effect of Artificial Intelligence-embedded instructional pedagogy on students’ academic achievement in chemistry in secondary schools in Enugu State, Nigeria. The quasi-experimental research design was adopted. The study was guided by three research questions and three null hypotheses. A sample of 178 SS2 chemistry students was drawn from 4 public secondary schools in Enugu State using the simple random sampling technique. Data were collected using the Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT), which was validated by experts in Chemistry Education and Measurement & Evaluation. A reliability index of 0.81 was obtained using Kuder-Richardson’s formula 20, which shows that the CAT was reliable. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while ANCOVA was used to test the hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that Students taught Chemistry using the AI-embedded instructional pedagogy had significantly better performance than those taught with conventional methods. Moreover, no significant gender difference existed in the students’ academic achievement when exposed to AI-embedded instructional pedagogy. Furthermore, there was no significant interaction effect of methods and gender on the students’ academic achievement in chemistry. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the Enugu State Ministry of Education should partner with EdTech firms to train Chemistry teachers on AI-driven simulations, adaptive tutoring, and virtual labs like PhET and Labster to improve conceptual understanding and achievement of students.