CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
to the Study
In the match towards scientific
and technological advancement, nothing short of good performance at all levels
of schooling is needed. Kneller (1971) in Wikipedia (2009) states that
Education in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative
effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual (e.g. the
consciousness of an infant is educated by its environment through its
interaction with its environment); and in its technical sense education is the
process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge;
values and skills from one generation to another through institutions.
Teachers in such institutions
direct the education of students and might have draw on many subjects,
including reading, writing, mathematics, science and history. The right to
education has been described as a basic human right: since 952, Article 2 of
the first protocol to the European convention on Human rights obliges all
signatory parties to guarantee the right to education. At world level, the
United Nations‘ International convention on Economic, social and cultural right
of 1966 guarantees this right under Article 13 (Wikipedia, 2009).
According to Henson (2001),
education is the process through which individuals learn to cope with life. On
his part, Ughamudu (1992) described education as a systematic development of
all the faculties of the individual members of the society in respect of the
physical, the emotional, the social and the intellectual. Explaining further,
Ughamudu noted that in the physical dimension, education promotes physical development
through sports and games, living in healthy environment and eating balanced diet. Emotionally,
education beings to nurture and moderate emotion such as love, hatred, anger,
ambitions and kindness among others. Intellectually, it helps the individual
improving his reasoning ability. This helps him to adapt to the ever changing
society and its values.
Inogie (2010) remarked that
education is the means through which the society perpetuates and develop itself
culturally, socially and economically. Fafunwa (1990) on his part defined
education as the aggregate of all processes by means of which a person develops
abilities, skills and other forms of behavior of positive (and sometimes
negative) values in the society in which he lives.
Thus to him education is not a
single process but a combination of processes. Looking at the dimensions from
which the term education can be viewed, Ukeje (2001). Identified three
perspectives, namely (a) as a process (b) as a product and (c) as a discipline.
Explaining further he noted that a process education is the means through which
men acquire past civilization so as to live in the present and plan for the
future. As a product, education means change in behavior. As a discipline,
Ukeje (2001) noted that education is a body of knowledge that deals with the
following questions:
(a)
What should be taught?
(b)
Why should it be taught?
(c)
How should it be taught?
(d) To
whom should it be taught?
All these phenomena show that
no society can or should afford to ignore education under any guise. In
recognition of the significant position of education in the life of individuals
and the society at large, the United Nations have attached some levels of
importance to the education of their citizens, and Nigeria is not an exception.
Secondary education is provided
to children aged between 12 to 17 years of age to prepare them for entry into
tertiary institutions. The focus is on cognitive development by introducing
them to scientific concepts and to especially prepare them to think for
themselves, respect others and respect the dignity of labour. This makes
learning meaningful in the life of students. Secondary education used to be a
five year programme until the late 70s with the introduction of the Universal
Primary Education (UPE) when it became six years of two segments, the Senior
and senior secondary schools under the 6-3-3- 4 system with the current reforms
however; the secondary education has further been fragmented. The Senior level
is merged with the primary education and is well supported by the Governments‘
effort under the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Scheme. This does not include
senior secondary education as the Education Reform Act (2004) of the Federal
Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Education does not seem
to touch the three years of senior secondary level. Consequently the reform
processes do not affect them.
Learning has many difficult forms and takes place
under many conditions. It involves a change in behavior. This is why in a
school environment, the curriculum is used to guide what students learn. The
curriculum is the arrangement of what the school wants the school wants the children to learn. There are many
definitions of the word curriculum but generally a curriculum is seen as a
document that includes all the learning experiences that are to be formally
provided for the learner for the purposes of achieving the objectives of the
activities. It also includes the materials and methods to be used as well as
evaluation as a means for determining the achievement of the objectives. In a sense,
curriculum means two things: (i) the range of courses from which students
choose what subject matters to study and (ii) a specific learning programme. In
the latter case, the curriculum collectively describes the teaching, learning
and assessment materials available for a given course of study. It can
therefore be described as a total and comprehensive instructional system. The
subject matter in the classroom is organized into fields of knowledge such as
mathematics, biology, chemistry, geography, English language, social studies,
economics government, Commerce and so on. It is through the curriculum that the
aims of education are achieved. As the aims and resources of education change
to keep pace with the needs of a changing the curriculum changes to meet the
needs.
1.2 Statement
of the Problem
Curriculum implementation is
the actualization of curriculum plans. According to Guga (2007), it is the
process of translating curriculum plans into reality. The manner in which a
curriculum is implemented determines the success or otherwise of a curriculum
plan. Notwithstanding how well articulated the philosophy and objectives of a
curriculum are, how well selected and organized the content, regardless of how
carefully selected the methods of instruction and instructional materials are,
if the implementation and its process are poorly carried out, the success of
the curriculum may remain a mirage.
It is a common knowledge that
in all countries of the world including Nigeria the national curriculum is
universal though its implementation may differ from one institution to another
and from one school to the other as diverse methods and techniques exist.
In Benue state national
curriculum in most of the subjects taught in secondary school are known to be
implemented with some degree of reservation based on some ‗local
peculiarities‘. The curriculum of Biology falls in this category. This is
reflected in the yearly results of students at the Senior secondary school
examination. Questions are being asked as to the reason(s) for this. Could it
be that schools do not cover enough areas to enable good performance? Could it
be as a result of defective curriculum? Or is this resulting from poor
implementation of the enabling curriculum-the Universal plastic Education
curriculum? These and many more are the issues why this research work set Out
to assess Biology program implementation in selected public and private Senior
secondary schools in Benue State.
1.3 Objectives
of the Study
The study
aimed at assessing the implementation of biology curriculum in Senior secondary
schools in Benue State. The specific objectives are as follows:
1.
Determine the difference in the
perception of stakeholders towards the implementation of biology program in senior
secondary schools in Benue State.
2.
Ascertain whether or not students‘
perceptions differ towards the implementation of biology program in Senior
secondary schools in Benue State.
3.
Determine whether schools‘
administrators differ in their perception towards the implementation of biology
program in Senior secondary schools in Benue State.
4.
Determine the difference exists in
the perception of teachers towards the implementation of biology program in Senior
secondary schools in Benue State.
1.4 Research
Questions
This
research work was said to find answers to the following questions.
1.
What difference exists in the
perception of stakeholders towards the implementation of biology program in Senior
secondary schools in Benue State?
2.
What is the difference in students‘
perception towards the implementation of biology program in Senior secondary
schools in Benue State?
3.
What is the difference in school‘
administrators‘ perception towards the implementation of biology program in Senior
secondary schools in Benue State?
4.
What difference exists in the
perception of teachers towards the implementation of biology program in Senior
secondary schools in Benue State?
1.5 Hypotheses
On the basis of the research questions raised, the following
hypotheses are postulated:
1.
There is no significant difference
in the perception of stakeholders towards the implementation of the biology
program in Senior secondary schools in Benue State.
2.
There is no significant difference
in the students‘ perception differ towards the implementation of biology
program in Senior secondary schools in Benue State.
3.
There is no significant difference
in schools‘ administrators‘ perception towards the implementation of biology
program in Senior secondary schools in Benue State.
4.
There is no significant difference
in the perception of teachers towards the implementation of biology program in Senior
secondar schools in Benue State.
1.6 Basic
Assumptions
The
following assumptions are made for this study:
1.
Senior secondary schools in Benue
State are the same irrespective of ownership in terms of biology program
implementation.
2.
Students of Senior secondary schools
in Benue State may differ in their perception on the implementation of biology
program in Benue State.
3.
Schools‘ administrators share the
same opinion on the implementation of biology program in Benue State.
4.
Teachers in public and private Senior
secondary schools have similar attitude towards implementation of biology
program in Benue State.
1.7 Significance
of the Study
Curriculum is the backbone of
any educational system especially when properly implemented. This study will
therefore be of immense importance to policy makers in the education sector as
well as curriculum planners, educational administrators and teachers who can
have the insight for investment in the educational sector for profit, while
teachers will have solutions to problems of administrators in following
different strategies to assess the system thereby making how to implement the
school curriculum with ease and administrations will harmoniously work towards
achieving educational goal uniformly the relevant personnel alive to their
responsibilities. The research work is hoped to be significant to biology
teachers who are expected to implement policies formulated for biology
programmes. It is also believed that the teachers would be able to identify
some of the problems militating against the achievement of some aims, goals and
objectives of biology programme. Having first hand information from learners
will increase their resourcefulness, dedication and commitment to work thereby
make conscious of the desire to achieve the learners aim. Thus, is the goal of
the National Policy on Education.
The government will also find
this research work useful because it will point out the area where it has come
in, such as training and retraining of teachers and provision of
In the same vein, the
curriculum planners will benefit from the study in such a way that when engaged
in further review of biology program, other interested groups will be contacted
and made to play their role. It is also expected that biology students benefits
from the study when they find it necessary to consult in the course of their
studies. It is hoped that the research work will serve as an insight to
researchers who might consult it in the process of carrying out similar
research work in the near future. The study would further contribute to
knowledge as its findings would be found useful in Libraries, offices and even
homes as students tend to benefit from any improvement in the system as might
be discovered in the findings of the study.
1.8 Scope
of the Study
The study assessed the
implementation of biology program in Senior secondary schools in Benue State.
The scope of the study is limited to principals, teachers and students, even
though they are not the only stake-holders. The study is thus limited to biology
program even though, there are other subjects taught in the schools. The
variables in this research work are implementation (independent variable) while
physical health education curriculum (dependent variable).
================================================================
Item Type: Project Material | Attribute: 110 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Price: N3,000 | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment