Effect of General Computer Use on Secondary School Students’ Performance in Biology

Although knowledge of biology is important for the survival of humans, performance in the subject, both in pre-Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (pre-KCSE) assessment and national examinations in Vihiga county has always been below average. Several interventions have been put in place to rectify the situation but in vain. However, the effect of the general computer use has not been investigated. This study investigated the effect of the general computer use on secondary school students’ performance in biology. This study used descriptive survey research design. The target population was secondary school biology students of Vihiga county. Data collection was by use of questionnaires, interviews, and document analysis schedule. Sampling was by multistage sampling, purposive sampling, stratified sampling, proportionate sampling and simple random sampling. Sample size was 1003 students. The collected data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and means and inferential statistics such as Pearson’s r, using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The significance level of the difference between the data was done at the alpha value of 0.05. This study found that there is no relationship between the general computer use and performance in biology.