The relationship between instructional materials usage in teaching and learning outcome in history subject within secondary schools in Rwanda

The effective usage of instructional materials plays a significant role in promotion of teaching and learning outcomes. The usage of relevant material stimulates students to become more attentive and motivated in classroom setting. The purpose of this study was therefore to find out the relationship between instructional materials and learning outcomes. The study employed correlation research design. The target population was 621 respondents out of which 244 were used as the sample size. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were used in the study to obtain the sample size. Questionnaire, interview guide and desk review was used data collection instruments. SPSS was used in data management. The findings revealed that visual aids are used at moderate level at which 49.9% strongly agreed that instructional materials used are pre-determined 47.2% strongly agreed that teaching methods are well prescribed in the lesson planning. The study indicated that a big number of students got the grades lying in division IV and Division U (Unclassified). The study found that 81% of the respondents agreed that students participated in history lesson and 70.0% agreed that students understood history. Results also revealed that holding instructional material usage constant to a constant zero, attendance from Monday to Friday would be at .116 for lesson plan. An increase in instructional material usage stimulates adequate ratio by a factor of 0.11 standardized significance at learning process. The study recommended that the government should allocate sufficient budget that would be given to ameliorate libraries in secondary schools and laboratories. The government should find resource centers to facilitate teaching staff borrow instructional materials which cannot not available in secondary schools. Further, the government should conduct workshops, conferences and meeting to stimulate their skills on using instructional materials. School principals should follow up their teaching staff to be sure with the availability of instructional materials are effectively applied. The community should encourage parental involvement in providing instructional material usage in secondary schools in order to enhance learning outcomes. Keywords: Instructional materials, Teaching and learning outcomes and usage of instructional materials.