The study examined the influence of fieldtrips and video technology on students’ interest in Social Studies in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of Rivers State. One research question and a corresponding hypothesis guided the study. The study adopted the quasi-experimental design which made use of pre-test, post-test, non-randomized, non-equivalent, control group design. From a population of 6, 240 Social Studies students which are made up of 2, 467 males and 3, 773 females of 13 schools in Port Harcourt LGA, 195 JSS II Social Studies students of three intact classes randomly drawn from three Government co-educational Secondary Schools constituted the sample for the study. The instrument for data collection was a researcher constructed questionnaire, titled, “Social Studies Students Interest Questionnaire (SSSIQ)” which was designed on a 4 point Likert like scale of VGE= Very Great Extent, GE=Great Extent, LE=Low Extent, and VLE=Very Low Extent, with 10 items statement, requiring the students to state their interest level on the instructional strategies before and after the instruction. The instrument was validated and had a reliability coefficient of 0.63 through Pearson Product Moment Correlation technique for a measure of its stability over time. The study was conducted for seven (7) weeks but, the main instruction lasted for four (4) weeks. The pre-interest score and the post-interest scores were then subjected to statistical analysis via Mean, standard deviation and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The results obtained showed that there was an increase in the level of students’ interest on both instructional strategies after been taught. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the interest of Social Studies students taught with fieldtrips and those taught with video technology. Based on the finding, it was concluded that both methods of teaching equally influences students’ interest in studying Social studies. Thus, it is recommended that educational policy makers should encourage the use of field-trips and video-technology which has the capacity of arousing students’ interest, and this will in turn facilitate learning that will promote academic success.
Keywords: Interest, Social Studies, fieldtrips, video technology
