The use of instructional materials may not be limited to a particular field of study. Effective teaching and learning of basic science at primary school level may depend to a large extent on adequate use of instructional materials. This is because children at this age level tend to learn better when taught with real objects that they can see and touch. However, available evidence indicates that, despite previous efforts and methods used in teaching, performance in basic science is still very low Hence; this study investigated the effect of computer assisted instruction (CAI) and gender as they predict primary five (5) pupil’s achievement in basic science. Pretest-posttest, control group quasi-experimental design study involving a 2 x 2 factorial matrix was adopted. Purposive sampling technique was use to select 40 primary five (5) pupils’ in two private schools in Ibadan north LGA, of Oyo state. Valid and reliable instrument of twenty-five 25 items on basic science test (p= 0.83) were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using Analysis for Covariance (ANCOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. While Sidak post hoc test was used to explain the direction of significance between the groups. There is a significant difference in the performance of experimental and control group after treatment on primary school pupil’s achievement in Basic science (F(1,39) =11.015 ; p< 0.5), there is no significant main effect of gender on basic science of participants ((F (1, 39) = .462; p< 0.5). Findings revealed that majority of boys achieve more in basic science when they use computers than the girls in school.
Keywords: Achievement in Basic Science. Number of word (260)., Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI), Gender
