An Evaluation of the Academic Performance of History Students in Senior Secondary Schools in Ikere Local Government Area of Ekiti State
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
The major objective of the study is to evaluate the effects of class size on students’ academic performance in history in Ikere Educational Area, Ekiti State, Nigeria. More specifically the objectives of the study are:
- to find out the effects of class size on academic performance scores of SSS History Students.
- to find out the effects of class size on academic performance scores of male and female SSS History
- to find out the effects of class size on academic performance scores of rural and urban SSS History
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Theoretical Framework for the Study
Classroom are bound to encounter of different sizes from time to time. It will also have to handle students of different abilities. This study „evaluating the effects of class size on history students academic performance in senior secondary schools in Ikere local government, Ekiti State, Nigeria‟. Therefore, revolves round the philosophy of functionalism. Functionalism is itself an offshoot of pragmatism. The focus of this theory is that man is rational and would necessarily do those things that would be of benefit to his or her individual person. The theory was developed by American philosophers; Charles Sanders Peirce and William James in 19th century. The reasoning is the focus of practical application and scientific utility or knowledge to the benefit of the individual. They argued that pragmatism:
- Nothing is permanent that the only thing that is permanent is
- Values are
- Man has both biological disposition and social
- Man is very intelligent and makes use of his critical and intellectual
On this concept, man action are dictated by his rational mind and would rather do those things that will advance his development as a functional member of the society rather than concentrate on those things he consider as a waste.
Functionalism focus its examination of purpose of the mind and behaviour as they mental process of the individual. It dwells on the practical application of the mind. Its core idea is that mental state (believe, desire, being in pain or happy etc.) are constituted solely by their functional role that they are causal relation to other mental state, sensory input and behavioural output (Black, 2010). Functionalism as applied in this study is based on the principle that the secondary school students have preference in term of what they think would be of benefit to them. Therefore, they will pay attention if they consider what is understandable to them and that they would be benefit from the activities where this is not the case, it would be assumed that they will not pay attention and advise effect of such development could be envisage in term of poor performance. It would therefore be expected that the students would associate their attention. Therefore, the importance of interaction, participation and involvement for students learning are widely recognized as part of effective class room activities (Inamullah, Hussain & Din, 2010). This dependency could have adverse effect on students performance in schools. It would therefore help to improve students performance if they are verbally active in class despite their ability or size of the class.
Role of Evaluation in History
Evaluation aims at assessing the extent to which the anticipated outcome is achieved. It enhances a comparison between the actual outcome and expected outcome. Evaluation therefore has been defined as the process through which the performance of students, their teachers as well as the effectiveness of the programme is assessed.
In the words of Ogunsanya (1984) History evaluation therefore is “concerned with one‟s attempt to find out the extent to which the teaching and learning objectives of the subject have been met by the teacher and the students, but more importantly the latter”.
This goes to show that the primary aim of the teacher is to enable pupils to show and understand what they are taught rather than to fail or pass them. Evaluation should thus not end with grading the pupils performance because whether or not the pupils do well as expected, the teacher ought to ask himself why some of them perform very well and others perform badly. He should also find out whether or not he has contributed to the problems or success of the pupils as might be indicated by the evaluation results, and what has been the nature of his contributions. For instance, did he teach the subject well enough? Did he sufficiently motivate the pupils? did he take special care of individual differences in the class?.
However, Mangge (2003) opines that the current practice in evaluation generally and in the evaluation of History in particular tends to completely ignore the evaluation of the teacher himself and to concentrate on the learners. Kissock (1981) has this to say “evaluation presents students, teacher and curriculum developers with feedback on their success in achieving programme objectives and form the basis for making sound decision on which to modify and improve the programme”.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This study aims at finding the relevance of class size on history students academic performance among senior secondary schools in Ikere Area Ekiti State, Nigeria. This chapter discusses the procedure that was used in collecting and analyzing the data for the study under the following subheadings:
Research Design
The design of the study is quasi-experimental. It is an impact evaluation that assigns numbers to the treatment group and control group by a method other than random assignment (National Centre for Technology Innovation, 2007). Specifically the study used the non-equivalent pre-test comparison group designs. It is widely believed to be the most commonly used of quasi-experiment (Shadish, Cook & Campbell, 2002). According to Salihu (2015) the design requires a pre-test and post-test for a treated and comparison group. It is a design in which the effects of a treated on intervention are estimated by comparing outcomes of treatment group and comparison group but without the benefit of random assignment (Salihu, 2015).
The design of the study is illustrated in figure.
Key
EG = Experimental Group CG = Control Group
01 = Pre-test X1 = Treatment
X0 = Teaching method 02 = Post-test
Population of the Study
The population of this study covered all the SSS II students in public senior secondary schools students in Ikere local government Ekiti State, there was a total number of 5449 students comprising 3095 males and 2354 females spread across the 26 public senior secondary schools in Ikere local government. Table one (1) below indicates the population distribution of SSS II students according to schools.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSIONS
Introduction
This chapter discussed the analysis and interpretation of the data collected through the test administered from the control and experimental group. In the course of the analysis of the data, tables of frequencies and percentage were used. The demographic characteristics of the students were presented in tables of frequencies and percentages. The responses of the students who are the respondents to this study on several questions and testing of research hypothesis form the basis of the analysis in this chapter. Consequently, the analysis of data are presented under the following subheadings:
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
In this chapter, the summary of the problem statement concerning why the research study was carried out was made, the conclusions arrived at after the analysis of data were summarized and various recommendations were made. These recommendations included how small class-size in teaching strategies could be used effectively to encourage students to be motivated in learning history by doing things. This will help them to think about what they were supposed to do, applying concepts and exploring relationships between concepts thus encouraging positive attitude. The chapter ended with the highlight of the limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies.
Summary
This study is evaluating the effect of class size on history students‟ academic performance in Senior secondary schools in Ikere local government Ekiti Sate, Nigeria. The major objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of class size on student‟s academic performance in history in senior secondary schools specifically. The objectives of the study are to;
- find out the effects of class size on academic performance in History of SSS II students in Ikere Education Area Ekiti, Nigeria
- find out the effects of class size on gender academic performance in Historyof SSS students in Ikere Education Area Ekiti,
- findout the effects of class size on academic performance in History of SSS students from different location in Ikere Education Area Ekiti,
The research questions guides the study;
- What is the difference in the academic performance scores of SSS history students taught in congested and incongestedclassroom?
- What is the difference in the academic performance scores of SSS male and female history students taught in congested and incongestedclassroom?
- What is the difference in the academic performance scores of urban and rural of SSS history students taught in congested and incongestedclassroom?
The following null hypotheses were raised and tested at a significant level of 0.05.
- There is no significant difference in the academic performance scores of SSS history students taught in congested and incongested
- There is no significant difference in the academic performance scores of male and female SSS history students taught in congested and incongested
- There is no significant difference in the academic performance scores of urban and rural SSS history students taught in congested and incongested
The target population of the study was all the public SSS II students in Ikere local government Ekiti State, Nigeria. Experimental research design was adopted and used in the study. The total population of the study was 5449 students comprising 3095 male, 2354 female and the sample size was 383 students who were involved. The research instruments history Students Academic Performance Test (SOSSAPET) comprised of 25 objectives question and 23 choosing true or false questions. Also, it comprised 2 template lesson plans using one topic from the SSS II scheme of work to teach and determine the performance level in history were used in collecting the data of pre-test and post-test respectively.
The data collected were analyzed using descriptive sta tistical method including independent t-test of confidence limit of pairwise 0.05 level of significance with different degrees of freedom were adopted for retaining or rejecting the hypothesis and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) as well as two way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Fishers Least Significance difference (L.S.D) test for multiple comparison where also used for the analysis.
The results for the analysis of data were therefore summarized thus:
It was found that there were 114 (29.8%) students in small class size, while there were 269 (70.2%) students in large class size. This indicated that the number of students in the large class size doubled the number in the small class size. (See Table 6).
It was found that there were 237 (61.9%) male students, while there were 146 (38.1%) who were female. This indicated that the number of male students is higher than the number of female students who took part in the study. (See Table 7).
It was found that there were 198 (51.7%) students from urban schools, while 185 (48.3%) were from rural schools. This indicated that the number of students from urban schools is higher than the number of students from rural schools who took part in the study. (See Table 8). This showed that the student‟s population increase on one hand, but building facilities did not increase to tally with the number of students.
It was found that the mean academic performance scores of students in small class size (M = 27.29, SD = 5.380) was higher than (M = 21.90, SD = 6.420) for the students in large class size. The mean academic performance was 5.886 in favour of students taught history in small class size. This indicated that the students that were taught in small class size performed better than those taught under large class condition. (See Table 9).
It was found that mean academic performance scores of male students in small class size (M = 28.47, SD = 5.503) was higher than (M = 26.59, SD = 4.995) for the female students in the same small class size. The mean academic performance scores of male students in large class size (M = 22.28, SD = 6.514) was higher than (M = 21.31, SD = 6.256) for the female students in the same large class size. The mean difference was 5.886 in favour of students taught in small class size. (See Table 10).
It was found that both urban and rural schools students performed better in small class size than those under large class condition. (See Table 11).
A significance difference was found between the mean academic performance scores of senior secondary schools students in history based on the class sizes.
There was no significant difference between the mean academic performance scores of male and female students taught history in small class size and those who taught in large class size.
There was no significant difference between the urban and rural student‟s academic performance scores based on the schools location in small class sizes and those in large class sizes.
Conclusions
The research study was on evaluating the effect of class size on history students‟ academic performance in senior secondary schools in Ikere local government Ekiti State, Nigeria. Based on the descriptive and statistical analyses of the data collected in the study that was presented in chapter four, the following conclusion arrived at from the findings:
Involving small class sizes is more effective in improving and promoting students performance. Also, providing proper utilization of the facilities provided for teaching and learning in history because it has a significant effects on the academic performance of students. Also, incongested classroom enhance the understanding of the subjects concepts and relationship which encourage student‟s positive attitude towards their study. However, there is also a need for a more empirical study to investigate the existence and importance of class size in teaching and learning on student‟s academic performance in different schools levels.
Contributions to Knowledge
This study establishes that:
- Urban and rural schools students performed better in incongested class size than those under congested classroom
- Congested class size obstruct classroom management as a result many students do not pay attention to classroom activities, and this disrupts effective teaching and learning of history.
Recommendations
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are offered:
Incongested class size in teaching enhances history learning
Therefore, students are encouraged regardless of gender and location.
Government should construct more classes and upstairs to decongest large class so as to tally with the standard of National Policy of Education (N.P.E) toget adequate seat and facilities for proper utilization which result in effective teaching and learning activities in history.
Suggestion for Further Studies
The researcher hereby suggested that similar studies be carried out on class size regarding gender and location in different level of educational system on student academic performance in the country, compared and a holistic action be taken by the government and other educational stakeholders in order to refine the various level of educational programmes to improve students standard of living which will enhance their academic performance.
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