Abstract: | This study compared the effects of televised and programmed instruction on the achievement of students from secondary schools located in rural and urban areas in Kwara State of Nigeria. A total of 300 fourth form students taking geography in their West African School Certificate Examinations were used for the urban location study, while another set of 300 students studying the same subject in the fourth form were used for the rural location study. For each location, the students were divided into three ability groups, based on average scores of their continuous assessment records in geography. The research was of the pre‐test‐post‐test control group design (Campbell & Stanley, 1966). Results for the urban location group showed that students who studied through televised instruction performed better than those who studied with programmed instruction. For the rural location group results showed that televised instruction was more effective for high achievers while programmed instruction was more effective for the average and low achievers |