CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of
the Study
Education is an
instrument “per excellence” for eff ecting National development. This statement
indicates the importance of Education to every Nigerian citizen, which begins
at the primary level of education. This is the bedrock of education. She goes
further to describe it as a process that an idea passes through before meaning
is achieved while Trager (2001), describes language as a system of arbitrary
vocal symbols by means of which a social group co-operates. Language therefore
can be defined as a means of expressing thoughts and ideas between two or more
persons.
Language has
been a major factor for learning in Nigerian. The National Policy on Education
(FRN, 2004), recommended L1 and L2 as the language of
instruction for
both the lower and upper secondary school level. Manuel (1998), claims, that
for student to be able to understand, critique and learn from spoken
information, which is as necessary as the ability to read and write with
precision on daily basis, to interact with peers, decode and interprete complex
audio visual messages, greet and converse with people and deal with a lot of
challenges in their private and academic lives. Student at the upper secondary
school school level are now faced with the challenges of speaking, reading and
writing in the language they are not familiar with because the use of English
as a medium of instruction has adverse effect on teaching and learning
situation.
The implication
is that the, Nigerian school child is faced with problems of vocabulary
development and word recognition. Word recognition is the development of a set
of process by which words in print are recognized. It is an important factor to
reading development because before student can begin to read, they need to
understand the relationship between a combination of symbols and the sound they
represent and the ability to sound out or decode words is an important step to
reading.
The reason for
this persisting poor academic achievement and examination according to Okpara
(1995), could be that teachers are using conventional talk or lecture method
rather than the strategies that will involve the students in active
participation. Researchers such as Kolawole, Adepoju and Adelore (2000),
identified teachers choice of method as one of the main factors of poor
performance in reading. There is therefore the need to adopt a method that will
engage the student in active learning and participation and that is games.
It is expedient
to note that young student learn by doing things. It will be absolutely
difficult for them to remember what they are taught without practical
experience to demonstrate the ideas. They may hear but forget, they may see but
cannot remember, they may do things but cannot understand Harins (1984). Harins
further stated that there is need for practical demonstration and the essence
is to employ games for the teaching of reading. Games activity are natural to student.
All learning activities of student involve games, hence, game is used as the
central agent and motivating force for all aspects of student’s learning. Igboabuchi
and Azubuike (2006). In the light of Teoria (2007), games are indispensable
part of teaching materials. They are usually fun, and it is well known with
studies on the field of pedagogy most student learn better when they are having
fun. Games are activities carried out by a group of people which involve
cooperation in other to achieve stated objectives. According to Hartgill
(2008), games helps student develop reading skills that can be used for student
demonstrating reading difficulties or disabilities. Maduewesi (1990) cited in
Chukwu (2001), stated that games can be used to teach English, mathematics,
social studies among other. Therefore, if games can be used to teach reading in
secondary school schools, the students may likely do better.
Furthermore,
gender is a factor that has been linked to reading. It is a relevant variable
in the achievement of learners. Mboto and Bassey (2004) describe gender as the
behaviour expected of individual on the basis of being born a male or female.
Canadian council on learning (2009), opined that boys predominantly held
negative attitudes towards reading stating that reading is a feminine activity.
Nigeriama (1974) sited in Chukwu (2001), asserted that girls achieve better
than boys in general academic achievement. Gambell and Hunter (2000), on the
other hand, claim that boys do less well than girls in reading regardless of
the criteria used to assess competency. Okeke (1999) opined that some
socio-cultural impediment such as role stereotyping and the belief that reading
is a male gender subject pose obstacles to female students participation in
student assessment. So far, it appears that gender issues on performance are
inconclusive.
Secondary
school Education level is the formation stage of student and as such, it is
expedient for teachers in secondary school schools to device the adequate
strategy to improve learning situation in schools. As Adekpoju and Adelore
(2000), identified teachers choice of method as one of the main factors of poor
academic performance. Hence, this study is motivated by the desire to adopt
games in the teaching of student assessment in secondary school schools in
Oshimili South Local Government area of Delta State.
Statement of
the Problem
Student
assessment is an indispensable tool for learning and as such, it can only be
meaningful if it is understood. It is therefore important that every student
assessment activity student are introduced to must make sense in print. Student
need to understand the relationship between symbols and sounds they represent
which is an important step to student assessment. Observation has shown that
Nigerian secondary school education students read at frustration level and they
are still lacking literacy skills especially in student assessment. The reason
has been attributed to teachers use of conventional talk or lecture method
rather than the strategies that will involve them in active participation.
Several questions come to mind considering how student are taught using
conventional method, the students will not be able to experiment, practicalise,
construct and explore considering the fact that the national policy on
Education stipulated that in secondary school schools, teaching shall be by
practical, exploratory and experimental methods.
Games however
may likely be an effective teaching strategy and have been used in other
subjects whereby student participate actively. Although, literature abounds on
the use of games in teaching young learners, there are no literature to show
that such a study has been carried out within our cultural context especially
Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State. This study is therefore
concerned with teaching secondary school school students student assessment
using games. What then will be the effect of selected games on students performance
in word recognition.
Purpose of the
study
The purpose of
this study was to examine the perception
of secondary school teachers on the utilization of games and simulation for
instructional purposes. Specifically the study seeks to find out:
1.
Secondary school
teachers perception on whether there is significant difference in the mean
achievement scores of students taught student assessment using games and those
taught using conventional method.
2.
Secondary school teachers
perception on gender related differences in the mean achievement of male and
female students exposed to the use of games in student assessment
Whether there is interaction effect of treatment and gender on students
using games in student assessment.......================================================================
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