ABSTRACT
The purpose of
the study is to examine the availability, accessibility and utilization of
instructional material in teaching and learning of biology in Enugu South Local
Government Area of Enugu State. The population of the study consisted of the
entire 15 principals and 29 biology teachers, within the 15 public secondary in
Enugu South L.G.A. of Enugu State. The estimated population of the principals
and biology teachers in the study areas was 44 and therefore, there was no
sampling. Three structured research questions were used.
The instrument was validated by two specialists in test and measurement, and
one specialist in Science and Vocational Education Department of Godfrey Okoye
University Enugu. The questionnaires were administered to the principals and
biology teachers and were collected by the researcher. The data collected was
analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and frequency percentage. The result
from the analysis showed that, the availability of instructional materials in
these schools is poor, including the most important ones. Biology teachers do
not have much access to the available instructional materials. It is also
revealed that the extent of use of instructional material for effective
teaching and learning of Biology is very low. Some solutions include: the Government /Ministry of Education
should provide adequate qualified Biology teachers, and the ministry of
education should regularly supervise schools to make sure that they always meet
up the appropriate standard. Hence, there is much need for sufficient qualified
and competent biology teachers, adequate availability and utilization of
instructional materials for effective teaching and learning of Biology in all
the secondary schools in Enugu South Local Government Area.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the study
It
is no longer news that one of the most difficult job in the World today is
teaching. The challenges that inform this difficulty are numerous ranging from
poor remuneration of teachers, indiscipline among the learners, lack of
parental support, attitude of the learners towards learning, the challenges
posed by English Language as a second language, availability, accessibility and
utilization of instructional materials and other teaching facilities, the ability
of the teacher to effectively transmit the needed signal that will bring the
expected behavioral change in the learner, these and many more challenges are
the factors militating against teaching effectiveness. This research shall
place emphasis on accessibility, availability and utilization of instructional
materials in teaching and learning of biology in senior secondary school.What
then is teaching? How much importance has teaching to the existence of human
being and the society? Are there possible ways of combating these numerous
challenges bedeviling teaching and its effectiveness? For the purpose of
clarity and adequate understanding, teaching is a gradual process of
transmitting signals, ideas and information to the learner from the teacher
using some technique. Similarly, in the view of Atakpa (2000) teaching is
defined as a gradual process of transmitting new ideas from the teacher to the
learner through careful and selected techniques. In the view of Enekpa (2010)
teaching is said not to taken place unless the content of the phenomenon of
interest has been transmitted which in turn is expected to bring the expected
behavioral chance which distinguished human being from animals. Furthermore,
Abu (2000) opined that without teaching, every action of an individual is
ignorance. Teaching is therefore imperative and unavoidable if mankind must
live peacefully and maximize fully the real essence of existence.
Biology is a natural science that involves the study of life and
living organisms, including their physical structure, chemical composition, function, development and evolution. Modern biology is a vast field, composed of many branches.
Despite the broad scope and the complexity of the science, there are certain
unifying concepts that consolidate it into a single, coherent field. Biology
recognizes the cell as the basic unit of life, genes as the
basic unit of heredity, and evolution as the engine that propels the creation of new species. Living organisms are open systems that survive by transforming energy and decreasing their local entropy to maintain a stable and vital condition defined as homeostasis. See glossary of biology.
For
effective teaching and learning to be achieved, the teachers must employ many
techniques and diplomacy in such a way that the new idea to be learnt is well
communicated. One of the techniques in transmitting these signals is through
the use of instructional materials, methodologies of teaching, leadership style
at the classroom level, personality training and the ability to take care of
the individual differences among learning at all levels of learning. The
current study shall be particular about the importance of instructional
material, its accessibility, availability and utilization and its effects on
the academic achievement of the learners in senior secondary schools in
biology.
Instructional
materials can be described in the view of Ola (2000) as all those instructional
aides which can be visual, audio and audio visual provided in the teaching and
learning situation (real or improvised) to concretize learning and remove sense
of abstraction from learning. Agu (2011)
holds a similar view about teaching aid as any arrangement, object, material,
real or improvised brought into learning to enhance the understanding of the
learner other than the normal expression of the teacher in teaching and
learning. Categorically, we have three basic classes of instructional materials
namely: audio instructional materials, visual instructional materials and the
audio visual instructional materials.
Audio
instructional materials are those materials that occur basically the auditory
sense. Examples of this type of instructional materials are radio, tape
recorder, speaker etc. Visual instructional materials are those materials that
occur only to the sight. Example of this type of materials are posters,
pictures, real objects etc. the audio visual materials as the name implies are
those materials that occur both to the sense of auditory and the sight.
Examples of audio visual materials are television, telegram, video etc.
Instructional materials play a very important
role in the teaching and learning process. It enhances the memory level of the
students. At this time that education has spread wide and entirely, oral
teaching cannot be the key to successful pedagogy; therefore the teacher has to
use instructional materials to make teaching and learning process interesting
(NIC hulls, 2003; Raw 2006) .
According
to Bina (2010), instructional materials are tools locally made or imported that
help to facilitate the teaching/learning process. Obanga (2005) view them as materials things
which are use to composed ported that could make tremendous enhancement of
intellectual use impact the instructional materials. Obanga opined that the use of instructional
materials can enhance the learning achievement since it removes the sense of
abstract and concretize ideas especially in biology which is more practical
oriented. Cronbach (2009) states the
important elements ofbehaviour that provides the base for learning theory
situation which consists of all the objects, persons and symbols in the
learning environment. Experience in
situation prepares a person to respond to similar situation in future. Use of instructional materials can appeal to
the individual attention by creating interest goal that will help the learner
achieve direct effort. Teacher’s problem of motivation is essentially one of
arranging situation with instructional materials in which the learner will see
goals he want to attain. Brown (2005) summarized the role of instructional
materials as follows:
Ø It
promotes meaningful communication and effective learning.
Ø They
ensure better retention, thus making learning more permanent.
Ø They
help to overcome the limited classroom by making the inaccessibleaccessible.
Ø
They provide a common experience upon
which late learning can be developed. They stimulate and motivate students to
learn.
Ø They
encourage participation especially if students are allowed to manipulate
materials used.
Osuala
(2010) in his own contribution said it does not only help to motivate and
develop interest on the part of the student, but also help to bring about an
enhance respect for teachers knowledge of the subject. Instructional materials
are also described as concrete or both to the sense organs during teaching
(Aginna-Obu 2000).
The
nature of the learning and the wide range of student’s abilities in the average
classroom necessitate a high degree of teachers and experience in the method of
presenting the subject matter. This has been truncated with the unavailability
of instructional materials in schools.
However, a common goal a teacher carries wherever he is, is to make
lesson presentation vitally fresh, stimulating and testing for their students.
This will help the teacher to individualize the learning method as well as the
content and also working according to the student’s need. This goal can be
reached most effectively through the use of instructional materials. The need
to emphasis on the use and importance of instructional materials in any
learning and teaching environment cannot be underestimated. For any learning to
take place, the teacher has to make use of these materials that would enable
him to teach effectively.
Equipment
and other instructional materials to some extent determine the method the
teacher uses in teaching biology. The method adopted could be demonstration,
experimental, discussion etc. It is
generally agreed by both teachers and school administrator that apart from the
chalkboard and textbooks which are often available for the teacher to use,
there are other materials that aid or are capable of complementing the
teacher’s effort in teaching/learning process. Those materials are commonly
called “instructional materials”. One of
the reasons why students in our secondary schools sometime find it difficult to
comprehend immediately what is being taught by the teacher is the non
availability of instructional materials that can easily convey the message of
the lesson to the learners.
Orji
(2000) asserts that instructional material is “the guidance of learning activities”
that “a teacher uses to motivate and arouse student’s desire to learn” From the
fore-going statement, it can be agreed that for effective learning to take
place, a student need to be properly guided by the teacher by way of employing
various method and means through which his teaching could be meaningful.
It
is however noticed regrettably, that in the Nigerian system of education,
little or no instructional material is made available. In rare cases when they
are available, they are not accessible, when they are accessible; they are not
properly utilized to best achieve the most desired goal of the teacher which
has to do with the academic achievement of the learner at any point in time.
This noticeable problems to the best of the knowledge of the researcher has not
been properly researched especially in Enugu South L.G.A of Enugu State, hence
the decision of the researcher to embark on the current study.
Statement
of the Problem
In
spite of the importance of instructional materials to academic performance of
students, it is observed that most students complain of being taught principles
that seem to be abstract in nature. It
was the Indian axiom that says ‘’What I hear, I may forget, what I see I may
forget but what I see, hear and touch I will never forget’’ the great problem
and question in the Nigerian educational system is, to what extent are
instructional materials made available? In cases where there are available, are
there sufficient and accessible? In situation where they are sufficient, are
they properly utilized? Report has proved severally from the results of WAEC,
NECO and other professional examination bodies on high rate of failure of
students in different subjects especially in the sciences and this again posed
many questions on the heart of the researcher as whether the teachers lack
proper skills and training in teaching or are instructional materials not
available enough? To what extent are the teachers using the available ones? To
what extent are they accessible? It is
on the strength of the above problems and questions, that the researcher deems
it necessary to investigate the current study to provide solutions to whatever
problems that might be associated instructional materials in teaching and
learning of biology in senior secondary schools in Enugu South L.G.A of Enugu
State.
Purpose
of the study
The
main purpose of the study was to examine the availability, accessibility and
utilization of instructional material in teaching and learning of biology in
Enugu South Local Government Area of Enugu State. Specifically, the study will
determine the following:
1. To
examine the extent to which instructional materials are made available to
biology teachers in secondary school.
2. To find out the extent to which teachers have
access to instructional materials in teaching of biology.
3. To
ascertain the extent of utilization of instructional materials in teaching and
learning of biology by the teachers.
The
Significance of the study
The study has both
theoretical and practical significance. Theoretically, it can provide support
and insight into the current cognitive theory of teaching and learning in
schools. Here the theory of Jean Piaget which states that learning takes place
in stages. Teachers can sequentially from simple to complex use instructional materials suitable for each
stage of learning for the students.
For the practical
significance, the findings of this study will benefit the followings: the school, students, biology teachers, government, biology text book
writers, and curriculum planners.
The school
shall use the findings of this study in making decisions on the importance of
making available and accessible of teaching aids in the teaching and learning
of biology in secondary school. The reason why the result of these findings
will be advantageous to the school is because the school is the centre of
learning that houses both the teachers, the students and other academic
activities.
The result of this study shall
expose the students to the need of learning with instructional materials and
invest more effort in acquiring them when need be. The students shall be
exposed to the need of seeing, touching and hearing practically the knowledge
that is to be learnt to remove sense of abstraction.
The biology teachers shall be
more exposed to the reasons why they should use teaching aids in dispensing
their knowledge. The teacher shall read from the result of the research the
needs to employ instructional material as it tends to reduce stress and energy
spent on explanation of an abstract phenomenon.
The government shall use the
findings of this study to make an informed decision on the types of
instructional materials to be supplied to schools at various levels, the amount
of money that should be allotted to education in the budget owing to the fact that
huge amount of money is required for the procurement of these instructional
material. It will also help the government to set up supervisory/monitoring
team to ensure that teachers implement what has been planned in the curriculum.
The authors who write books in
education shall use the result of this research to as a proper guide to bring
in instructional materials as a veritable tool that will enhance proper
understanding of what is to be learnt. Most teachers depends greatly on
textbooks for their research and preparation before going to the classrooms,
instructional materials at that point will help the teacher to easily
understand the phenomenon of interest.
The curriculum planners shall
greatly benefit from the findings of this research as it will help them in the
planning of the curriculum on the instructional materials that should be fixed,
how it should be used and who uses it. It shall also exposed the curriculum
planners to effectively help the teachers as teaching is only but the
implementation of what has already been written in the curriculum.
Scope of the study
This study shall cover the availability
and accessibility and extent of utilization of instructional materials in
teaching and learning of biology in senior secondary schools in Enugu South
Local Government Area of Enugu state. The scope of this study will alsoexamine
the instructional materials used in teaching and learning in biology
classrooms.
Research Question
The
following research questions guided the study:
1. To
what extent are instructional materials made available to biology teachers in
secondary schools?
2. To what extent do teachers have access to the
instructional materials in teaching of biologyin secondary schools?
3. To
what extent do teachers utilize the instructional materials in teaching and
learning of biologyin secondary schools?
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