The Teaching Methods Used in Universities in Rwanda and their Effect on the Students’ Academic Performance

Abstract

Over a long period, the education in Rwanda had been French. This has been changing systematically but with quality related challenges. The study was an experiment designed to test how teaching methods related to the academic performance at the universities in the country. The study employed an experimental design consisting of post-test control and treatment groups. The research was done over three semesters with MBA business statistics students and a sample size of 242 students. The teaching methods used included group discussions, interactive lecture as treatment and traditional lecture as the control. Data on students’ academic performance was collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test significant differences in the performance means between teaching methods and X2 (Chi Squared) was used to test the associations between teaching methods and grades attained at 95% confidence limit. The teaching methods used had significant mean differences in the students’ performance. Post Hoc differences analysis indicated that group discussion was the most superior method followed by the interactive lectures and the least beneficial was the traditional lecture method. The alternative hypothesis that the teaching method used had a significant effect on the students’ academic performance was adopted.