Role of Examination in Shaping the Reading Culture of Students. (Schools in Ikorodu North as Case Study)
Chapter One
Research Objectives
The main objective of this study is to assess the role of Examination grade in shaping the reading culture of students in Tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
The specific objectives of this study are:
To determine the different reasons for reading that motivates students to engage or not to engage in reading.
To access the influence of examination grades on reading culture.
To ascertain the different reading materials students enjoy reading.
To identify the different interests of students other than reading.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
This chapter presents a review of literature on the reading habits
The chapter also presents some related findings on reading habits.
Definition of Reading
Reading came into being at the time written languages were used as a medium of communicating complex ideas to create a larger meaningful whole, be it scientific observation, artistic expression or religious truth. Such reading is a special activity, during which the reader consumes written material enabling him to achieve some goal, be they utilitarian enjoyment, personal fulfilment, or a combination of these three (Stebbins, 2013). He further indicated that, most people use their eyes to read, they can certainly realise many of these ends by consuming the relevant material aurally, by hearing words originally set out to be read, or tactile, by feeling text written in Braille. Modern reading consists of understanding more or less complex ideas expressed, at least initially, in written language.
According to World Book Encyclopaedia (2006) reading is the act of “getting meaning from printed or written words”. It is the foundation of the study and one of the most important skills in day-to-day life. Reading gives the clue to all sorts of information. It enables one to study how to improve or do things, to like stories, to find what other people trust, and to develop ideas and to put in place plans of our own. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English
(1995) also defines reading as “the act of or an instance of reading or pursuing reading or reproduce mentally or vocally the written or printed words of a book by following the symbols with the eye or by feeling embossed symbols with the fingers. For example, Braille design for the blind.”
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (2002) defines reading as the “process of recognizing written or printed words and understanding their meaning”. This type of reading often allows the reader to pay close attention to what he or she is reading, poses a series of mental questions to him-self as he reads along, and the answers to these questions will help him or her to better understand the text he or she reads.
Day and Bamford (1998) defined “reading as the construction of meaning from a printed or written message”. The interpretation of substance requires the reader connecting the information from the written report with foregoing apprehension to arrive at meaning or understanding.
Eskey (2005) referred to reading as a purposeful and creative mental process in which a reader gets the meaning from his background knowledge or the information in the text. Reading can therefore be seen as a procedure of proving a dynamic sense which may require an effectual way of communicating with the writer and the reader. It is sometimes difficult for an adult to develop a reading habit if this is not acquired during early teen age. Though, some people know how to read, they read very little.
Onwubiko (1985) summarised the intents of modern reading into four major parts which are reading for pleasure, leisure and relaxation, information, and knowledge acquisition.
Ely (2001) explained reading as a complicated activity requiring multiple skills, together with “letter and word recognition, grapheme and phoneme correspondence, semantic knowledge, syntactic understanding, comprehension and interpretation” (p. 432). Students needs to acquire and continue to practice what they are been taught alongside reading habits in order to achieve academic success. Generally, reading is understood to be a mode of obtaining additional information and understanding. It does not only give understanding but rather enables a person to become matured as well as broadens one‟s horizon on contemporary issues (Kim and Anderson, 2011).
Ogunrombi and Adio (1995) stated that habit can be explained as a learned stimulus-response sequence, therefore reading habit can be considered as a learned stimulus-response sequence on the part of the reader to understand a writer‟s message. They further explain that reading is an essential aid for accomplishing inner security, enjoying leisure, apportioning the hard skills which are met in books and for keeping level with the occurrences in the world at large. Reading habits according to Kaur and Thiyagarajah (1999) refer to a regular tendency to read. Reading habits is also explained by Sangkaeo (1999) as a behaviour that signifies the likeness of reading and tastes of reading. Shen (2006) asserts that reading habits denote how frequently, a type of material is read.
Importance and benefits of reading
„Reading plays an important part in the daily lives of most people. People read road signs, maps, and labels on medicine bottles, fill out forms, apply for jobs and so on. The capability to perform such actions is occasionally referred to as functional reading or literacy. Reading is also significant at school, at work and even during leisure time. Students also may read for information from a computer for a class project. Besides reading in the classroom and on the job, people read books, magazines and other printed materials for personal information and recreation. Many people also read to study more about their particular interests such as sports, science, current events and so on‟ (World Book of Encyclopaedia, 2006).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter describes the methodology, design and techniques used for the data collection. Design such as quantitative method and techniques such as sampling procedure, population for the study, instrument for data collection, and data analysis among others have been explained as well as the quantitative analysis technique that was used.
Research Design
Research designs according to Creswell (2014) are types of inquiry within qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches that provide specific direction for procedures in a research study. The design consist of a clear statement of the research question as well as plans for gathering, processing, and interpreting the findings intended to answer the question or objectives which some researchers refer to as a strategy of inquiry
The study adopted a quantitative survey method. A quantitative research involves collecting and analysing numerical data and applying statistical text. It is a means for testing objective theories by examining the relationship among variables. Relationships that exist among quantitative variables are usually depicted with graphs. Quantitative research is also a form of research in which the investigators use the correlational statistics to describe and measure the degree or association between two or more variables or sets of scores. The variables used can therefore be measured on instruments so that numbered data can be analysed using statistical procedures. Quantitative data usually includes closed-ended responses (Creswell, 2012, 2014, p.12).
Justification for Research Design
The study adopted a quantitative survey method for the following reasons;
- Quantitative research provides precise, reliable and numerical data that can be used to generalize finding.
- Quantitative data is collected and analyse at a lesser cost.
- Quantitative data provides better objective and accuracy of data
- It allows data to be gathered and combined with statistical information
- Quantitative research allows any phenomenon to be measured objectively.
- Collecting and collating data about groups can be quite revealing, providing insights that would not otherwise be apparent.
- It allows the researcher to pursue issues in a greater depth in more realistic situations.
- It allows fast data processing and analysis of huge amounts of data
- The population is widely covered when using quantitative research design.
- Finally, less time is used for data collection and analysis using statistical software (Black, 1999; Balnaves and Caputi, 2001; Panneerselvan, 2011; Sarantakos, 2013).
Population for the Study
A study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description (Prince Udoyen: 2019). The population of the study includes all the Schools in Ikorodu North. The researcher was anxious to find out the reading habits of the students therefore choosing it as a study area. The school was relocated to its present place after it had been in existence for some time and this was due to the initial land acquired for the school and also the area fast growing as residential area which was not conducive for academic work.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
Introduction
This chapter deals with the analysis of the data and discussions of the findings. The purpose of the study is to find out the reading habits and its effect on academic performance of students. The study was carried out using questionnaires as the main data collection instrument. Out of the 133 questionnaires distributed, 131 were returned translating to a 98.5% response rate.
DEMOGRAPHY OF RESPONDENTS
Demographic data collected included gender, level of education, and age of respondents. It is believed that parent‟s educational background usually has an influence on the reading habits of their children. Therefore, information on parent‟s occupation and level of education was also sought.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
This chapter is the summary, conclusion and recommendations. The purpose of the study was to investigate the reading habits and its impact on academic performance of students of St. John‟s Grammar Senior High Secondary School in Accra. The main objectives of the study are to find out:
The reading habits of students.
ii.The types of materials they read and their purposes for reading
iii. The perception of students on examination grade as the reading habits and academic performance and the factors that affects their reading habits.
Summary
Reading interest or habit of the students of schools in Ikorodu North
The study revealed that 68.7% of respondents read after class schedules.
It was clear from the study that 67.9% of the respondents perceive reading as interesting. Only 7.6% and 3.1% found reading to be boring and difficulty respectively.
The study further revealed that 62.6% of the respondents read daily, and 22.9% read weekly.
The study also found out that 47.3% and 27.5% of the respondents read between 1-2 hours and 2-3 hours daily respectfully.
Types of materials read
The types of materials read by respondents are storybooks, 72.5%; textbooks, 66.4%; class notes, 60.3%; newspapers, 31.3%; and magazines, 32.1%
It was revealed that the storybooks the majority of the students read are fiction and novel and this constitute 91.6% of the respondents, and only 8.4% do not read any storybook. The study further revealed that 17.6% read a book per term, 22.9% two books per term, 27.5% three books and 18.3% four books per term.
The students‟ sources of reading materials are from friends, school library and relatives.
The study also established that 69.5% of the respondents receive their reading materials from friends, 57.3% purchase them, and 49.6% borrowed them from their school library. Others are from relatives, 30.5% and the Public library 8.4%.
Purpose for reading
The findings of the study revealed that the students read for various purposes which include complementing their studies, for pleasure, to pass examinations and to improve grades. The findings revealed that, majority of the respondents, 70.2% and 71.0% read to learn new things and to acquire knowledge respectively. Over 66% read to improve their vocabulary. Over 63% of the respondents enjoy reading very much and 22.9% quite a bit. Only 6.9% and 0.8% indicated not much and did not enjoy reading at all respectfully.
Conclusion
This study was carried out to ascertain the reading habits and its effect on academic performance of students of St. Johns Grammar Senior High School in a subbed in Accra.
Based on the findings of the study, it was revealed that the perception that people of Africa have not cultivated the culture of reading is not entirely true since most of the respondents were found to read different types of reading materials such as fiction, novels, newspapers, magazines, etc., after their normal school schedules. Reading was also found to impact their academic performance in different ways including knowledge acquisition, improvement in their verbal and written English, grades, performance in their examinations, and broadening of
their horizons. They however encountered problems such as, lack of access to reading materials, lack of money to buy the materials, lack of interest in reading, lack of encouragement to read and lack of time to read which hindered their quest to develop the reading culture. It is important for stakeholders to work together to solve these problems for more impactful academic performance.
Recommendations
The following recommendations have been made based on the findings for the improvement of reading habits among the students of St John‟s Grammar School.
School Authorities
Some of the respondents indicated they needed to be encouraged to develop love for reading, therefore
- It will be appropriate for the authorities to at least add one lesson to the time table as a reading lesson.
- Awards could be instituted to award best students in reading comprehension and those who read the most books per year.
- School authorities should acquire relevant reading materials that may be of interest to the students.
- The school librarian should also assist the authorities to help instill the love for reading in the students as this is believed to be one of the keys to success in both academic and life.
- The authorities could also conduct a survey to find out the materials that the students will be interested in and acquire them for the library. The students can suggest materials to be acquired for the library and this will enable the library to have a balanced collection whose content can be attractive to its clientele.
Improving the library
The findings indicated that some of the books in the library are outmoded and respondents lack money to buy reading materials therefore it is necessary for:
- The school authorities to collaborate with the Parents Teacher Association (PTA) and other stakeholders to solicit for more current reading materials to stock the library. This will encourage the students to patronize the library and also having access to adequate reading materials.
- The school librarian should regularly weed out outmoded materials from the library‟s collection. When this is done, the students will be better encouraged to patronize the library.
- The school librarian should also introduce the students to the Public Library for access to more reading materials.
Parents encouragement
The parents of the students should be briefed about the benefits of reading during PTA meetings, so that they encourage their children to read more books to enable them form a habit of reading.
.They should also be encouraged to buy the needed reading materials for their children.
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