ABSTRACT

This study determined the relationship between the accessibility and utilization of social media platforms and secondary school Economics teachers’ instructional effectiveness in Imo state. The study adopted a correlational survey research design. A sample of 252 Economics teachers in public secondary schools in Imo State was used for the study. Census sampling technique was used for the study since all the Economics teachers were used and the number was manageable. The instruments for data collection were Accessibility and Utilization of Social Media Platform Questionnaire (AUSMPQ) and Economics Teachers Instructional Effectiveness Questionnaire (ETIEQ) which were all developed by the researcher. The instruments were validated by three experts, two in Economics Education and one in Measurement and evaluation, all in the College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State. The internal consistency of the items in the instruments were determined using Cronbach Alpha statistic which yielded coefficients of 0.83 and 0.76 for AUSMPQ and ETIEQ respectively. Four research assistants helped in data collection. Out of the 521 copies of the two sets of the questionnaires administered respectively, 487 copies of each set representing 93% return were used for data analysis.  Pearson product moment correlation was used to answer the research questions raised for the study while linear regression analysis was used to test the null hypotheses that guided the study at 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed among others, that accessibility to Zoom and Whatsapp application significantly to a high and a very high extent relate to Economics teachers’ instructional effectiveness respectively while the accessibility to Google classroom and Instagram applications significantly to a moderate and low extent relate to Economics teachers’ instructional effectiveness respectively. Accessibility to Zoom application significantly to a high extent relate to Economics teachers’ instructional effectiveness. The results further showed that the utilization of Zoom and Whatsapp applications significantly to a very high extent respectively relate to Economics teachers’ instructional effectiveness while the utilization of Google classroom and Instagram applications significantly to a moderate and low extent respectively relate to Economics teachers’ instructional effectiveness. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that school administrators as well as proprietors of private schools should make social media accessible for teachers and as well map out strategies to motivate them in order to use social media in teaching Economics.