Effect Of Teaching On Zoom Virtual On Secondary School Students’ Performance In History And Government During Covid-19.

Abstract

There was wide consumption of the Zoom platform for teaching both at secondary schools and higher institutions of learning in Kenya during the covid season.  This study evaluated the effect of teaching through the virtual zoom platform on the performance of public secondary school students in history and government subject in Naivasha, Kenya. The study's specific objectives were to: Establish the difference in academic performance between learners taught through Zoom Virtual Learning platform and those taught face-to-face and to assess if the such difference in performance depends on gender. The study followed the nonequivalent Quasi experimental design, with a sample of 256 Form 2 classes in four schools. 117 students formed the treatment group while the other group of   139 formed the control. In 2021 when students were allowed to return to school in January, with mask mandate the experimental group was taught for three weeks through zoom while the control group was taught face-to-face. The results returned mixed results with boys decreasing while girls got a higher mean scores in the post-test. The study also found a significant difference in academic achievement in History and government by gender between students taught through the Zoom Virtual Learning platform and those taught in face-to-face classes in favour of girls. Based on the findings, the study concludes that teaching through a virtual platform requires more care to know the most salient characteristics which create successful results. More research is needed to delineate the factors that ensure the effectiveness of virtual platforms for users and their implications for diversity in the classroom. Similar studies should be conducted to test these findings in other locations, contexts, and disciplines to overcome some of the limitations of this study.