Abstract

This study investigated the effect of Project-Based Learning (PBL) on the academic achievement of students in Metalwork Technology in technical colleges. The persistent underperformance of students in practical metalwork trades particularly in arc welding, gas welding, sheet-metal work and fabrication has been linked to the continued dominance of teacher-centred, demonstration and lecture methods that offer limited opportunities for authentic, hands-on problem solving. A quasiexperimental pre-test post-test non-equivalent control group design was adopted. A sample of 120 National Technical Certificate (NTC II) metalwork students drawn from four intact classes in technical colleges was assigned to an experimental group (n = 60) taught with the Project-Based Learning strategy and a control group (n = 60) taught with the conventional demonstration method over a period of eight weeks. A 50-item Metalwork Achievement Test (MWAT), validated by three experts and pilot-tested with a Kuder-Richardson (KR-20) reliability coefficient of 0.86, was used for data collection. Three research questions were answered using performance-percentage analysis and descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation), while three null hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance using independent-samples t-test, Pearson product-moment correlation and simple linear regression. Results showed that students taught with PBL obtained a substantially higher mean post-test achievement score (M = 78.6, SD = 8.4) than those taught with the demonstration method (M = 63.4, SD = 9.7), and that the difference was statistically significant (t = 9.12, p < 0.05). A strong, positive and significant relationship was found between PBL engagement and achievement (r = 0.79, p < 0.05), and regression analysis revealed that PBL engagement accounted for approximately 62% of the variance in achievement (R² = 0.624, p < 0.05). The study concluded that PBL is significantly more effective than the demonstration method in improving student achievement in Metalwork Technology, and recommended its integration into the delivery of metalwork trades in technical colleges. Keywords: Project-Based Learning, student achievement, Metalwork Technology, technical colleges, welding and fabrication, TVET.