Abstract

• The major purpose of this research was to study the effects of Instructional aids on the science achievement of middle school level students. This study was conducted with both quantitative and descriptive research methods. For quantitative research, an experimental study was used to investigate the effects of instructional aids. In this experimental study, the subjects were Grade Seven students selected from BEHS-B Kyauk Chet and No (1) BEHS Pyinmana. The experimental designed adopted in this study was a true experimental design, namely, posttest only control group design. For this study, (120) Grade Seven students were selected from both schools by random sampling method. These students were divided into two groups: experimental and control group. The experimental group was taught by using instructional aids and the control group was taught as formal instruction. After that, a posttest was administered to two groups. Independent samples t-test was used to test whether there was significant difference between these two groups. Examination of the means and t-test at BEHS-B Kyauk Chet (t=13.85, df = 58, MD=16.84, p < .001) and No (1) BEHS Pyinmana (t=7.47, df=58, MD=11.37, p < .001) indicated that students who were taught by using instructional aids demonstrated significantly better than those who were taught as formal instruction. The descriptive data also supported the findings from the experimentation. For this research study, students from the experimental group from two selected schools were given a questionnaire. It consists of (16) items five-point Likert-scale. The results showed that the students expressed their willingness to learn science by using instructional aids and they had positive attitudes towards instruction by using instructional aids. Research findings proved that the use of instructional aids has positive contribution to the science teaching at the middle school level.