Gender difference in undergraduates’ micro-teaching performance using Telegram and WhatsApp platforms in collaborative learning settings

Abstract

Gender difference has continued to influence achievement and retention of students due to inconsistencies in performance, which troubles researchers. This therefore calls for different approaches to ameliorate this problem by deploying the use of Telegram and WhatsApp in collaborative learning settings in order to bride those gender gaps since technology serves as a leveler. This study examined gender difference on achievement and retention of students in microteaching using Telegram and WhatsApp platforms in collaborative learning settings. A sample of 282 students enrolled on Telegram and WhatsApp from two universities in Gombe State, Nigeria, was purposively selected for the study, where the two sampled groups were assigned into two experimental groups. The instrument used in this study is the micro-teaching achievement test validated by experts in the field of educational technology and curriculum studies, where a split-half method of reliability was used to obtain a figure of 0.91 using Pearson product moment correlation. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while inferential statistics involving an independent sample t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that there is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught using Telegram platform (t=2.571, p>0.05); there is no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught using WhatsApp platform (t=3.671, p>0.05); there is no significant difference in the mean retention scores of male and female students taught using Telegram platform (t=5.274, p>0.05). However, there is a significant difference in the mean retention scores of male and female students taught using WhatsApp platform in favor of the female students (t=4.071,p<0.05). It is hereby recommended that lecturers should deploy the use of Telegram and WhatsApp platforms in collaborative learning settings during micro-teaching in order to bridge the individual differences occasioned by gender since technology has the potential to serve as a leveler and also be able to bridge gender differences.