ABSTRACT
This research work aimed at finding out the problems militating against effective teaching and
learning of economics in secondary school in Ezeagu Local Government Area of
Enugu State. The purpose of the study is the problems militating against
effective teaching and learning of economics in secondary school in Ezeagu
Local Government Area of Enugu State. Descriptive survey research was used for
the study and the researcher sampled the opinions of the respondents with the
use of structural questionnaire. The researcher limited the research to Ezeagu
local Government area of Enugu state. The total population of the respondents
was 2000. Out of 2000 which is the overall population, the researcher used 300
respondents for the sample size of the study. The researcher used questionnaire
for data collection. The researcher, after due process wish to use the
chi-square statistics to analyzed the data. The researcher recommends that the
government should provide all the necessary equipment needed in the teaching of
economics in all senior secondary school, especially in Ezeagu local government
area of Enugu state. The government
should as a matter of urgency provide means of proper evaluation of the
teachers to ensure strict standard.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Teaching is an integral part of the
process of education. It is a system of actions intended to induce learning.
Its special function is to impact knowledge, develop understanding and skill.
In teaching an interaction occurs between the teacher and the students, by
which the students are diverted towards the goal. Thus the sole element of
teaching is the mutual relationship or the interaction between the teacher and
the students, by which students are diverted towards advances the goal.
Teaching can be considered as the art of assisting another to learn by
providing the information and appropriate situations, conditions or activities.
It is an intimate contact between a more mature personality and a less mature
one which is designed to further the education of later (Joyce 2011).
Teaching activities and instructional
procedure are performed by using maxims of teaching. The term Maxim of teaching,
according to Smith (2009), may be defined as rules for presenting terms and
concepts to make them easy to comprehend in classroom teaching. They are the
guidelines for teaching. The maxims of teaching are very helpful in obtaining
the active involvement and participation of the learners in the teaching - learning
process. They quicken the interest of the learners and motivate them to learn.
They make the students attentive to the teaching- learning process. According
to Kochhar (2014), a good teacher must be familiar with the general maxims for
effective teaching, some of which are the following: Proceed from the known to
the unknown, Proceed from Simple to Complex, Proceed from the Concrete to
Abstract, Proceed from Particular to General, Proceed from Psychological to
Logical, Proceed from Whole to Part, and from Analysis to Synthesis.
It must be accepted that in the
ultimate analysis maxims are meant to be our servants and not masters.
Moreover, by and large, they are interrelated. Different maxims suit different
situations. It is therefore essential that a judicious use be made of each
maxim. They are means and not end in themselves.
Teaching and learning process is the
heart of education. It is the most powerful instrument of education to bring
about desired changes in the students. Teaching and learning are related terms.
In teaching - learning process, the teacher, the learner, the curriculum and
other variables are organized in a systematic way to attain some pre-determined
goal (Bruner cited in Siaw, (2009).
It is informative to examine the
ideal teaching-learning process, as proposed by Laurillard (2010) who argues
that there are four aspects of the teaching-learning process namely:
discussion, interaction, adaptation and reflection. Discussion according to
Laurillard is between the teacher and the learner. Interaction is between the
learner and some aspect of the world defined by the teacher. Adaptation is of
the world by the teacher and action by the learner. Reflection is on the
learner’s performance by both teacher and learner. Laurillard considers how
different educational media and styles can be described in these terms. For
example, a textbook represents a one-way flow of knowledge from the teacher’s
conceptual knowledge to the student’s conceptual knowledge. A lecture or
tutorial may be seen the same way, but there is a possibility of meaningful
discussion between teacher and learner.
Education is a purposive,
conscious or unconscious, psychological, sociological, scientific and
philosophical process, which brings about the development of the individual to
the fullest extent and also the maximum development of society in such a way
that both enjoy maximum happiness and prosperity (Mill 2012). In Short,
education is the development of individual according to his needs and demands
of society, of which he is an integral part. The above remarks of different
educators highlight the following special features of education:
Adeniyi (2014) stated that “education is a method of
leading people out of ignorance through the socialization of human beings and constant
training of the child to adjust to the changing world. The definitions of
education above have several things in common, one of these is that, education
is a process, which starts at birth and continues for as long as the individual
lives. Secondly, the individual education enables developmental potentials that
give service not only to individual but also to the community at large,
Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme, therefore is an educational
programme or scheme fashioned out in such a way that the beneficiaries will
live up to the expectations of the society.
In most contemporary
educational systems of the world, secondary education comprises the formal
education that occurs during adolescence. It is
characterized by transition from the typically compulsory, comprehensive primary education for minors, to the optional, selective tertiary,
"postsecondary", or "higher" education (e.g. university, vocational school) for adults.
Depending on the system, schools for this period, or a part of it, may be
called secondary or high schools, gymnasiums, lyceums, middle schools, colleges, or vocational schools. The exact
meaning of any of these terms varies from one system to another. The exact
boundary between primary and secondary education also varies from country to
country and even within them but is generally around the seventh to the tenth
year of schooling. It is an established fact that education is the gateway to
the development of any society. It is a basic need that leads to the
development of all other sectors. In this case, no society can afford to down
grade its educational system as it has direct link with the overall advancement
of society most especially in secondary school level (Thomson 2011).
Economics is the science
that deals with production, exchange and consumption of various commodities in
economic systems. It shows how scarce resources can be used to increase wealth
and human welfare. The central focus of economics is on scarcity of resources
and choices among their alternative uses.
The resources or inputs
available to produce goods are limited or scarce. This scarcity induces people
to make choices among alternatives, and the knowledge of economics is used to
compare the alternatives for choosing the best among them. For example, a
farmer can grow paddy, sugarcane, banana, cotton etc. in his garden land. But
he has to choose a crop depending upon the availability of irrigation water.
Two major factors responsible
for the emergence of economic problems includes: i) the existence of unlimited
human wants and ii) the scarcity of available resources. The numerous human
wants are to be satisfied through the scarce resources available in nature.
Economics deals with how the numerous human wants are to be satisfied with
limited resources (Bradley 2012). Thus, the science of economics centres on
want-effort-satisfaction. Economics not only covers the decision making
behaviour of individuals but also the macro variables of economies like
national income, public finance, international trade and so on. For proper analysis of problem of teaching
economics in secondary schools various methods could be used depending on the
topic of study.
For example, the use of instructional material could be the
best method of teaching economics like graphs, charts, pie chart etc. this will
facilitate the easy method of teaching economic. Moreover, the use of life
instructional material or real object will equally help in teaching economics.
Also the use of dramatic method could be of great help in teaching Economics. Again
there should be excursion to various places in other to facilitate teaching and
learning of economics most importantly in Ezeagu local government area of Enugu
State. It is equally an important way of learning through practical aspects on
the whole most of the available economics textbook no longer meet in the
subject, all of which could result to economic failure of students in
examination.
Non-chalant attitude on the part of student to the studies
as well affect their academic performance, one cannot reap where he does not sow. Some students are so lazy that they find it
difficult to bend down and read. And when one lacks interest in studies the
next option will be failure as an ultimate goal (Kumar 2010).
Ismail (2010) highlights the problems associated with the
teaching and learning of Economics include; lack of motivation, breaking the
rules and routines, lack of infrastructure, insufficient time management,
ineffective
classroom environment, and lack of interaction in classrooms. More also, the causes of these problems
includes; place and structure of the course in the curriculum, classroom size
and lack of rules, lack of teachers’ management skills and students attitudes
as well as unavailability of instruction materials in teaching of economics.
Therefore this work intends to find out the problems
militating against effective teaching and learning of economics in secondary
schools in Ezeagu local government area of Enugu.
Statement to the Problem
Despite the programs to improve
student learning of economics by organizations such as the National Council on
Economic Education and the American Economics Association, we have just started
to understand factors that affects student learning and performance in
economics. Several studies investigate the teaching and learning of economics
by concentrating on backgrounds of students and personality type, the role and
gender of instructor, student expectations, math skill, absenteeism, and so
forth. However, there can be many other factors that have profound problems
militating against teaching and learning of economics especially in Ezeagu
local government area, such as the choice of textbook, choice of instructors,
choice of class time, students’ major, level of instructors, and a host of
other students attributes that have not been addressed in the previous study
(Ballard 2015).
One of the most functional subjects taught in secondary
school is Economics. Essentially due to the nature of this subject, it becomes
expedient that to make a good living one needs the knowledge of economics. But
differently, this subject when well taught in secondary school helps student to
adjust easily to changes in Economic state of the nation (Jarkins 2012).
Additionally the knowledge of economics and practices are well important
decisions in making important investment decision whether in the private or
public sector. That is more reason investigation to determine the effects of
problem of teaching economics in secondary school specifically in Ezeagu local
government area of Enugu State.
Studies investigating
factors contributing to student performance and success in economics identify
the following factors: gender, math skills, who is the instructor, teaching
methods, absenteeism, class size, student effort, employment, seating location,
and personality type.
Another factor of interest is the
effect of mathematic skills on student performance in economics classes.
Although a superior math skill is perceived as an advantage to understanding
economics, the existing evidence is mixed. In an experimental study, Cohn and
Cohn (2011), looking at the accuracy of drawing graphs and its effect on
student performance, find that drawing accurate graphs helps students perform
better. Extending the experiments into following semesters, Cohn, Cohn, Balch,
and Bradley (2011) randomly place students into two sections of graph and
no-graph lectures. The authors were not able to find any significant difference
in the success of students.
According to Hill and Stegner (2013)
reports that students with a preference towards math performed better in of
economics classes, especially on graphical questions. Cohn (2014) examines the
students’ preferences towards graphs and reaches no definitive conclusion. And
Ballard and Johnson (2014) do find a statistically significant effect of math
skills on students’ success. They assert that dexterity of basic algebra skills
plays the most important role in introductory microeconomics class.
A third line of research focuses on
who is the instructor and what are their teaching methods. Generally, there is
a significant difference in the effect of instructors on student success and
learning; there also are measurable effects due to introducing new ways of
teaching with the advancement of technology (Goffe and Sosin, 2015).) The
difference in the performance is attributed to differences between the
instructors employed by the colleges and the universities. While the effect of
the instructor has a significant factor on student learning, the gender of
instructors does not seem to make any difference in student performance (Robb
and Robb, 2009).
Research examining attendance and
absenteeism finds a strong positive correlation between student attendance and
performance in economics classes (Durden and Ellis, 2015, Chan, Shum, and
Wright, 2017). Durden and Ellis (2015) report significant positive effects of
attendance on student success. Interestingly, missing up to four classes
throughout the semester does not have any effect on student performance;
attendance becomes a significant factor after four missed classes.
Class size is another variable of
interest when predicting student success in economics. Recent studies do
conclude that smaller classes are correlated with greater success (Aries and
Walker, 2014). The debate on the effect of class size and learning does not
seem to be settled. With respect to the effect of student effort on
performance, existing research also produces mixed results.
Above all, moved the researcher to embark on the study of
this nature in other to find out the problems militating against effective
teaching and learning of Economics in secondary school in Ezeagu local
government area of Enugu State.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study is to find out the problems
militating against effective teaching and learning of economics in secondary
school in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Specifically,
this study intend to:
i. find out if
teachers teaching technique affect teaching and learning of economics in
secondary school in Ezeagu local government area.
ii. to find out if
students learning
ability affect their understanding in teaching and learning of economics in Ezeagu local government area.
iii. to find out if
the school environment is not conducive for teaching and learning of economics
in Ezeagu local government area.
iv. find out the
solutions to the problems of teaching economics in secondary schools in Ezeagu
local government area.
Significance of the Study
A study such as this will be
significant in many ways. There is going to be a great improvement on the part
of the students who learn economics, and on the part of the teachers who teach
economics, which will now know the acceptable workload, which will be
reasonable enough to guarantee that every student receive the time and
attention needed for genuine improvement.
This study will be of great value to
schools and educational administrators in their educational planning and
reformations. Teachers in urban schools where there are a great number of
teachers would loose some to very remote towns where there are extreme large
classes but with a small number of teachers, and vice versa.
Besides, textbook writers will use
the findings of this study to update their work on the most recent
methodologies for effective teaching of economics. When the copies of these
findings are made available to schools through the school authorities, a sure
remedy shall have evolved in economics teaching.
Finally, the study is very important
as it might create jobs for unemployed Economics teachers. The government might
realize the needs for more hands with regards to recruitment of many economics
experts who would be deployed to areas of need.
Scope of the Study
This work emphasized in the problem militating against
effective teaching and learning of Economics in secondary school in Ezeagu local
government area of Enugu State.
This study shall be
restricted to the government owned senior secondary schools in Ezeagu Education
Zone. Seven schools are to be used by random selection for this study from
Ezeagu local government area.
Research Questions
In course of this study, the researcher formulated the
following research questions to guide the study. These research questions are:
1. To what extent
do teachers teaching technique affect teaching and learning of economics in
secondary school in Ezeagu local government area.
2. To what extent
do students learning
ability affect their understanding in teaching and learning of economics in Ezeagu local government area.
3. To what extent
do school environment conducive for teaching and learning of economics in
Ezeagu local government area.
4. What are the
solutions to the problems of teaching economics in secondary schools in Ezeagu
local government area.
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