Effects of Teacher-Fabricated Electric Furnace on Students’ Academic Achievement and Interest in Mechanical Engineering Craft Practice in Technical Colleges in Osun State

The study was carried out to determine the effects of teacher-fabricated electric furnace on academic achievement and interest of students in mechanical engineering craft practice in technical colleges in Osun state. The study adopted a quasi-experimental and Research & Development (R & D) design. The population for the study was 100 students. The instruments for data collection were the Mechanical Engineering Craft Practice achievement test (MECPAT) and the Mechanical Engineering Craft Practice Interest Inventory (MECPIT). The reliability coefficient of the instrument was .76 using Cronbach Alpha technique and the internal consistency of the MECPAT interest inventory. The data collected were analyzed using Mean and Standard Deviation to answer the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the three hypotheses formulated. The study found that students taught with teacher-fabricated electric furnace had a higher mean achievement score than those students taught using the discussion method in the achievement test, it was also found that male and female respondents taught with teacher-fabricated electric furnace and those taught using discussion method in the interest inventory items have interest in the usage of teacher-fabricated electric furnace in learning mechanical engineering craft practice. There were significant difference between the mean achievement scores of students taught with teacher-fabricated electric furnace and those taught with discussion method in mechanical engineering craft practice. It was recommended that mechanical engineering craft practice teachers in technical colleges should adopt the use of the teacher-fabricated electric furnace to teach mechanical engineering craft practice students for effective teaching and learning. It was further recommended that facilities that could encourage the use of the teacher-fabricated electric furnace should be improvised to mechanical engineering craft practice teachers in technical colleges for effective teaching and learning. Keywords: Teacher-Fabricated Electric Furnace, Academic Achievement, Interest, Mechanical Engineering Craft Practice, Technical Colleges