The effects of powerpoint as opposed to lecture presentations on content understandability in science education.

The purpose of the study was to assess and ascertain the effectiveness of simple text PowerPoint Presentations as compared to the traditional ‘chalk and talk’ methods preferred by tutors and lecturers of science education in primary teaching colleges through students’ scores of an achievement test after a treatment. This paper discusses the importance of an effective instruction delivery mode as evidenced by the decline in performance of newly deployed teachers in Zambian primary schools. Benefits of simple PowerPoint presentation in classroom instruction as a means to improve classroom teaching in Zambian Primary Colleges are also discussed. The effectiveness of Simple PowerPoint Presentation (PPP) and the traditional ‘chalk and talk’ methods for teaching Science Education concepts were determined using a pre - test-post - test, non-equivalent, non-randomized experimental group design. One hundred twenty 1st year students (59 male and 61 female) from Chipata College of Education formed the sample. The two classes were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught some selected concepts from Science Education using Simple PowerPoint Presentation (SPPP) while ‘Chalk and talk’ method was maintained for the control group. A validated Science Education Achievement Test (SEAT) comprising a 25-item multiple-choice test and an opinion Scale Chart containing 15 Themes were employed for data collection.
The study objectives were analysed using SD, z-test and t-test to find the associations between the two teaching modalities and students’ comprehension of science concepts. Results revealed that the students taught with Simple PPP performed better than their counterparts taught with ‘Chalk and talk’ method. The Simple PPP was found also to be gender friendly. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the use of Simple PPP should be encouraged in Zambian Primary Colleges.