CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH DESIGNS AND PROCEDURES.

This chapter is organized under the following subheadings:
research design of the study, area of the study, population of
the study, sample and sampling techniques, instrument of the
data collection, validation of the instrument, methods of data
collection and method of data analysis.
DESIGN OF THE STUDY.
The design of this study is a descriptive survey. According
to Ogomaka (1992) says it involves the collection of detailed
information that describes an existing phenomenon. It is
involved in taking a representative sample of the sample of the
population gathering results of the entire population.
AREA OF THE STUDY.
This study was carried out in owerri north local
government area of imo state. Owerri north is a local
government of Imo state Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the
town of Orie Uratta. It has area of 198 square km and a large
population of 175395 at the 2006 census. Owerri North is a
semi urban government area which encircles Owerri municipal
like peninsular. It has more of secondary schools and the
people over there are businessmen and women. They train
their wards in private and public schools in the government
area.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY.
The population of the study is 2662 and is comprised of all
the public secondary school two (2) in Owerri north local
government area of Imo state. The population of students in
the secondary schools are shown in tabular form (see table in
appendix A)
SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE.
The sample of the study is 240. The researcher used
purposive random sampling and simple random sampling to get
the sample size. The researcher sample eight (8) schools which
is 50% of the total number of public schools in the local
government area. The researcher used ss2 students because
they are used to the school system while ss3 are preparing for
their external examination and about to leave the school while
ss1 students are new in the senior secondary school system and
may not know the principles of the school. The number of
sampled students and schools are illustrated in a tabular form
(see appendix B).
INSTRUMENT FOR DATA COLLECTION.

The instrument for data collection is the questionnaire

incorporated with the rating scales tagged: social media and
academic performance questionnaire (SMAPQ). The instrument
consists of two sections lettered A and B. Section A contains the
respondents bio data while section B contains the items in
questionnaire proper. The respondents were instructed to tick()
where appropriate. The questionnaire items were categorized
into four like T scale rating scale which are Always= (4), Often=
(3), Rarely= (2), Never= (1). The two ways grid table is a
response tagged YES/NO.

VALIDATION OF THE INSRTUMENT.

The instrument was constructed by the researcher. To

ensure hundred percent accuracy, the researcher gave out
copies of the instrument to two specialists in measurement and
evaluation, one specialist in educational technology and one
specialist in social science education department. The specialist
requested to check the stability of items, clarity of language,
the content coverage and appropriateness of items. Ambiguous
items were removed and some were modified. The
modifications were made on the instrument to ascertain its
face and content validity before it was approved.

METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION.

The researcher personally went to the school and made

use of the resident teachers who helped or assisted the
researcher in the sample school in distributing the
questionnaire to the students and collecting it at the spot. And
this exercise helped the researcher to recover the complete
research on the spot.

METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS.

For the data analysis, percentages mean scores, and

standard deviation was used to analyzing the data. Any score
with a mean score of 2.5 and above was regarded as significant
and any item below 2.5 was regarded as insignificant.
 APPENDIX A.
TABLE1: Showing the population of students in distribution
according to the public schools using ss2 students.
Names of schools male female Total
Naze secondary school 93 104 197
Comprehensive sec.school orji uratta 144 101 245
Community compr.sec.school egbu 128 117 245
comprehensive sec.school emekuku 65 33 98
Comprehensive sec.school agbala 86 54 140
Cassita maria girls secondary school - 199 199
Girls secondary school akwakuma - 432 432
Emekuku high school 76 - 76
Community secondary school emekuku 75 55 130
Development sec.school mbaoma 20 25 45
John kennedy inter school obibizena 35 30 65
Ogbeke obibi secondary school. 34 48 82
Emii technology secondary school 34 28 62
Compr.sec.school amakohia uratta 202 148 350
Uratta secondary school 65 73 138
Obube comprehensive sec.school 84 74 158
TOTAL 114 1521 2662
 1
APPENDIX B
SOCIAL MEDIA AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
QUESTIONNAIRE (SMAPQ).
INSTRUCTION: Please read the following and fill in the spaces
provided with the correct responses. Any information given
shall be treated as confidential and will be solely used for the
purpose of this research work.
SECTION A.
Socio Demographic data of respondents.
Please tick() where appropriate.
Name of school…………………….
State of origin……………………………
Gender : male() female()

SECTION B
CLUSTER A: To what extent does social media usage affects
student’s academic performance in economics?
Very high high extent Low extent Very low
extent extent
 CLUSTER B: What role do social media play on student’s
academic performances in economics?
s/n ITEMS YES NO
1 To communicate with friends
2 Promotes group discussion
3 Helps in making new friends
4 Helps in locating old friends
5 Promotes e-learning/tutorials
6 Creating group chats

CLUSTER C: How does social media affect the study

time of students in economics?
S/ ITEMS YES NO
N
1 When I use social media I don’t concentrate on
my studies
2 I spend so much time using social media
platforms
3 I browse on social media all day long
4 It does not encourage me to read my books
again
5 I always search for information using social
media
6 It lures me to search for new friends
 CLUSTERD: What are the effects of social media on the
academic performance of students in economics?
S/ ITEMS SA A D SD
N
1 It makes me perform poorly
2 It encourages poor grammar usage
3 Reduction in research capabilities
4 Leads to addiction
5 Leading to human contact
6 Procrastination is encouraged

CLUSTER E: How often does economics students use

social media in their academic work?
S/ ITEMS ALWAYS OFTEN RARELY NEVER
N
1 I use facebook more
2 I use whatsapp for my
academic work
3 I use youtube in my
research work
4 I do browse with
Wikipedia to get more
facts
5 I login with instagram
for more information
6 I use more of twitter
 for online learning

APPENDIX B
Table 2: showing the number of sampled schools and sampled
students in ss2
Name of schools Number of ss2
students
Naze secondary school 30
Comprehensive sec. school orji uratta 30
Community secondary school egbu 30
Comprehensive sec. school emekuku 30
Girls secondary school akwakuma 30
Emekuku high school 30
Emii technology secondary school 30
Uratta secondary school 30
TOTAL 240
 APPENDIX III
Department of social science education,
Faculty of education,
Imo state university, Owerri, Imo state.

Dear Sir/Ma
I am an undergraduate student from the above mentioned
institution carrying out a research on “social media and
academic performance of senior secondary students in
economics in owerri north local government area”.
I request your assistance in completing the instrument
attached to this letter. Kindly give me your sincere response to
the research question as every answer given would be treated
confidential and be used for the analysis of the data for this
research.
Thanks for your cooperation.
 Yours faithfully,
Oparanozie Michael .C.