Appraisal of Instructional Material for Teaching and Learning Business Study
Chapter One
Objective of the study
The objectives of the study are;
- To explore the views of teachers and students on the extent to which instructional facilities affect student performance in Business studies.
- To examine the challenges that teachers secondary schools face in accessing instructional materials in Business studies.
- Assess the strategies that teachers use to minimize the challenges of attaining and using quality instructional materials in Business studies.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Theoretical Framework
Instructional Material Theories
Instructional material theories assume that there is a direct link between the materials that the teachers use, and the students’ learning outcomes. These outcomes include higher abilities to learn, quality strategies to learn and perform classroom activities and positive attitude towards learning. Further, these theories assume that instructional materials have the capacity to develop into students the highest order of intellectual skills as they illustrate clearly, step by step how to follow the rules/principles and elaborate on the concepts, all of which have positive impact on 16 solving new problems by analyzing the situation and formulating a plan (Gagné et al. 2005). According to Gagne et al, instructional material can be used to develop higher learning abilities to the learners through self-teaching or guided learning. This implies that the instructional materials mainly comprise “eliciting performance” and “providing feedback on performance correctness,” in addition to “providing learning guidance” for guided discovery learning. Many of Gagné’s 9 ideas have broad implications for secondary teachers in community secondary schools in Rombo district. Many of these ideas have capacity building undertones with themes of students’ acquisition of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. However, the theory does not relate to whether or not students can think critically in what aspects or how they can solve a particular problem by themselves. However, I have the opinion that the purpose of instructional materials or technology in education is to stretch students’ imagination and to encourage them to solve problems in their lives. Similar ideas are held by Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist who held a view that tools and signs, which are in a form of instructional materials, have the capacity to develop in students higher level of thinking, which is important in problem-solving activities. However, since they are considered to be domain-specific, the ways instructional materials can start cognitive development is yet to be studied with respect to classroom teaching. Thus, this study stretches these views.
Sociocultural Theory of Teaching, Learning, and Development
Sociocultural theory of teaching, learning and development is the second theory that framed this study. Largely inspired by the seminal works of Lev Vygotsky, this theory assumes that human minds do not develop by virtue of some predetermined 17 cognitive structures that unfold as one matures. Rather, this theory posits that human’s minds develop as a result of constant interactions with the social material world. According to Vygotsky, human mind develop through interaction with materials in the learning process where people learn from each other and use their experiences to successfully make sense of the materials they interact with. These experiences are crystallized in ‘cultural tools’, and the learners have to master such tools in order to develop specific knowledge and skills in solving specific problems and, in the process, become competent in specific profession. In the classroom, these tools can be a picture, a model, or pattern of solving a problem. Most often however, such tools are combinations of elements of different orders, and human language is the multi-level tool par excellence, combining culturally evolved arrangements of meanings, sounds, melody, rules of communication, and so forth. Learning by using such tools is not something that simply helps the mind to develop. Rather, this kind of learning leads to new, more elaborated forms of mental functioning. For example, when children master such a complex cultural tool as human language, this results not only in their ability to talk but leads to completely new levels of thinking, self-regulation and mentality in general. It is the specific organization of this tool (e.g., the semantic, pragmatic and syntactic structures of language) that calls into being and in effect shapes and forms new facets of the child’s mind. Importantly, cultural tools are not merely static ‘things’ but embodiments of certain ways of acting in human communities. In other words, they represent the functions and meanings of things, as discovered in cultural practices: they are “objects-that-can-be used- for-certain-purposes” in human societies. As such, they can be appropriated by a child only through acting upon and with them, that is, only in the course of actively reconstructing their meaning and function. And such reconstruction of cultural tools is initially possible only in the process of cooperating and interacting with other people who already possess the knowledge (i.e. the meaning) of a given cultural tool. This short account is presented here to illustrate the fact that the sociocultural approach, unlike that of instructional materials by Gagne discussed above, not only allows for a synthesis of teaching, learning, and cognitive development; it actively calls for it. This theory implies that instructional materials lead to cognitive development because they mediate learners’ thinking through the tools, and such mediation constitutes the very cornerstone of mental development.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we described the research procedure for this study. A research methodology is a research process adopted or employed to systematically and scientifically present the results of a study to the research audience viz. a vis, the study beneficiaries.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled. According to Singleton & Straits, (2009), Survey research can use quantitative research strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), qualitative research strategies (e.g., using open-ended questions), or both strategies (i.e., mixed methods). As it is often used to describe and explore human behaviour, surveys are therefore frequently used in social and psychological research.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), 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 constitutes of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried to examine appraisal of instructional material for teaching and learning business study. Selected secondary schools in Lagos state form the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the analysis of data derived through the questionnaire and key informant interview administered on the respondents in the study area. The analysis and interpretation were derived from the findings of the study. The data analysis depicts the simple frequency and percentage of the respondents as well as interpretation of the information gathered. A total of eighty (80) questionnaires were administered to respondents of which only seventy-seven (77) were returned and validated. This was due to irregular, incomplete and inappropriate responses to some questionnaire. For this study a total of 77 was validated for the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain appraisal of instructional material for teaching and learning business study. 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 challenges of appraisal of instructional material for teaching and learning business study
Summary
This study was on appraisal of instructional material for teaching and learning business study. Three objectives were raised which included: To explore the views of teachers and students on the extent to which instructional facilities affect student performance in Business studies, to examine the challenges that teachers secondary schools face in accessing instructional materials in Business studies and assess the strategies that teachers use to minimize the challenges of attaining and using quality instructional materials in Business studies. A total of 77 responses were received and validated from the enrolled participants where all respondents were drawn from selected secondary schools in Lagos State. Hypothesis was tested using Chi-Square statistical tool (SPSS).
Conclusion
Based on the findings of this study, it was concluded that level of availability and utilization of instructional resources for teaching of business studies is not adequate for equipping students performance
Recommendation
There should be training programmes and skill development for business studies teachers that will encourage them to have the requisite skills, competences and exposure to enable them to be more proficient in the utilization of physical facilities and equipment in teaching/learning of business studies.
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