Augmented reality instructional tool in enhancing geography learners academic performance and retention in Osun state Nigeria

The emergence of new technological innovations in classroom has brought about greater changes in pedagogy especially in concepts related to abstraction such as Geography. Geography teaching and learning particularly elements of physical Geography, is mostly approached in a conventional pedagogical manner even as the concept consist abstractions. Physical Geography comprise abstractions leading to students' conceptual difficulties, leading to poor academic performance and low retention. On this basis, this study engaged a visualisation technology; Augmented Reality Instructional Tool (ARIT) to examine Geography learners' performance and retention when they are exposed to its' use in learning Physical Geography concepts. Four research questions were answered, while, one hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. A mixed method research approach of an experimental and survey designs was adopted. A multistage sampled intact class served as the participants. Three test instruments: an open-sourced AR mobile application (ARSJA); an adopted performance and retention test on physical geography (PRTPG); and a validated 7-Item questionnaire with a reliability value of 0.82 were employed as the research instrument. A retention rubric adopted based on Brown-Peterson Task of Memory was used as the qualitative content analysis tool. The major finding of the study was that ARIT enhances learners' performance and retention, and equally embrace gender equality. The study concluded, that the teaching and learning of Geography can be enhanced with the use of ARIT.