Effects of Excursion on the Attitude and Academic Performance of Secondary School Students Studying Geography
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are;
- To know if there is a relationship between excursion and academic performance of geography students
- To know if excursion makes teaching of geography easy.
- To know if excursion is a cardinal area in teaching geography.
- To know if excursion has had the desired impact on students of geography.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Concepts, Nature, and Aims of Senior Secondary School Geography
Many authorities have attempted to define geography in various ways. To Abegunde (1988), geography is a practical and investigative science subject that deals with the world environment including all that are in it. Others define the subject as; the study of diverse features of the earth, their descriptions and interaction with man,( Buchanan, 1974; Terry, 2012) the study of earth’s landscape, peoples, places and environment, a discipline that attempts to explore how environments emerge by natural processes Kenzer, (1989) , how society influence the environment and how societies themselves are influenced by the environments in which they are located (Hartshorne, 1980), a subject that expresses the physical and cultural features within a place (BBC English Dictionary, 1992). All the definitions above carry some truths in them. However, the opinion of Hartshorne has a special thrust to this study. It could therefore be reasoned that geography looks at the spatial connection between people, and places of the earth. It is concerned with the description, locational or spatial variations of both physical and cultural phenomena of the earth which give them their distinctive character. All these are embedded in areal differentiation, areal organization, and areal relationship, of which geography is all about.
The Nature of Geography is usually associated with structural dimensions of the subject. Geography is one of the secondary school subjects classified into two broad domains – the Physical and the Regional aspects. The Physical comprises such themes like the solar system, latitude and longitude, World Time Zones, relief, Oceans, and so on, while the regional aspects include settlement, population, Agriculture, Transportation, Mining, Industry, Urbanization, among others (SSECG, 2007). Map reading (Practical geography) though touches on both Physical and Regional aspects, is subsumed under Physical geography. Emphasis on Physical or Regional, is in the spatial location of earth features (physical and cultural), interactions, their interdependence to each other and how they influence man’s life on earth.
The aim of the Senior Secondary School geography is designed to describe the areal differences of physical and cultural dimensions of the earth (Eya, 1988) including Nigeria. A cursory look into the Senior Secondary School Geography Curriculum (NERDC, 2007), reveals the following broad aims considered necessary for national socio-economic development.
Understanding the concept of differential character and spatial relationships of the surface features of the earth. The beauty in this subject geography is the way features of the earth (landforms, soil, settlement economic resources, population, level of development, vegetation, and so on) vary from one place (areal differentiation) to another in terms of size quantity, quality, functions and so on. Geography’s main concern therefore is to study those earth phenomena to determine where, why and how (areal organization) they affect man and the environment as they interact with one another (areal relationship).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study effects of excursion on the attitude and achievement of SSS II geography students
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information on excursion on the attitude and achievement of SSS II geography students. 200 staff of selected secondary schools in Lagos state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain effects of excursion on the attitude and achievement of SSSII geography students
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenge of excursion on the attitude and achievement of SSSII geography students
Summary
This study was on effects of excursion on the attitude and achievement of SSSII geography students. Four objectives were raised which included, To know if there is a relationship between excursion and academic performance of geography students, to know if excursion makes teaching of geography easy, to know if excursion is a cardinal area in teaching geography, to know if excursion has had the desired impact on students of geography. The total population for the study is 200 staff of selected secondary school, Lagos state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up principals, vice principals adm, geography teachers and junior staff were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
The study has shown the use of fieldwork teaching method aids students’ achievement and interest in Map reading. Students who were taught Map reading using fieldwork method recorded significantly greater achievement, and demonstrated significantly higher level of interest in Map reading than those taught with lecture method. Gender had significant influence on students’ achievement and interest in Map reading in favour of the male group.
Recommendation
Since the use of this fieldwork method has been found to be effective in enhancing achievement and interest in Map reading, it should be included in the Curriculum of the pre-service teachers of Geography so as to make it familiar with teachers and hence bring about more effective learning of Map reading.
REFERENCES
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