Availability and Use of Instructional Material in Teaching of Basic Science in Secondary School
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are;
- Assess instructional technology tools available to teachers at secondary school in Igbo Etiti local government area of Enugu state.
- Determine instructional material used by teachers.
- Determine instructional material used by student in learning.
- Identify ways teachers used technology material for teaching of basic science in secondary schools in Igbo Etiti L.G.A.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
TEACHER MADE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
Teaching basic science in crisis situation means teaching and learning of chemistry or any of the basic sciences in austere economy. The austere condition may arise as a result of the following (i) war time (ii) population explosion in schools (iii) economic recession and (iv) high cost of science materials. Teacher made resource (instructional) materials refer to improvisation. Omiko (2007) stated that improvisation in austere period is very fundamental and crucial because it reasonably reduces cost of procuring new and imported materials. Students learn the working principles in the improvised materials they make or help teachers to make; it creates and develops technological awareness in the students. Owo (2009) observed that the quest for teacher made materials (improvisation) began in response to the scarcity and expensiveness of science equipment in Nigeria. Hence the improvisation of some of the science instructional materials from locally available material will help to get enough science teaching materials for the growing number of secondary schools in Nigeria. Omiko (2015) opined that many institutions of higher learning have set up Department of Educational Technology aimed at training teachers in the production and use of different software and hardware materials. In some cases the difficulties encountered in purchasing and improvising instructional materials make some science teachers to change their attitude and interest towards science subjects. Davies in Omiko (2015) and Owo (2009) noted that Educational Technologies normally concern themselves with the choice of designing and creating better in instructional materials which help science teachers to be more efficient instructional delivery. Brown (1969) and Okpala (1991) suggested that science teachers should not use inadequate instructional materials and equipment as an excuse to resort to poor teaching, instead they should learn to improvise the essential instructional materials required in teaching their subjects. Dike (1989) observed that the essence of producing instructional materials is to facilitate the teachinglearning process properly if science skills are to be acquired. The fact that science is a living subject and practical in nature coupled with the impact of population explosion in schools, information and knowledge explosion in science as well as demand for science education in the country necessitated huge material resource requisition for science teaching, Maduabum (1990). In this connection, the case of Nigeria’s Economic downturn and galloping inflation being the case, it will be very difficult to adequately fund the procurement of some of the high and heavy equipment like the electronic instruments (computers), and other expensive equipment for science teaching or replacement of the unsuitable and perhaps the unrelated sophisticated imported spare parts; this calls for urgent need to produce materials locally so as to save science and the nation’s economy from total collapse because of huge foreign exchange involved. Edger in Owo (2009) remarked that the need for innovative materials in schools is as result of great quest for education due to changes in the society. Some teachers instead of understanding that teaching aids are used for making teaching more effective believe that they make the teacher’s work easier. Some teachers see instructional materials as a decoration and not a too to be used in teaching, or are meant for teaching practice students only. Dienye and Gbamanja (1990) and Asiegbu (1986) stressing on the problems of effective utilization of instructional materials stated that in our present education system, untrained teachers are employed to teach in our secondary schools and colleges. Because of insufficient training many of the teachers do not recognise the potentials of many simple teaching aids available at very little cost or how to use them. The chemistry teachers ought to know the procedures for constructing alternative instructional materials with which they can help their students to visualize whatever topic they want to teach. Dike in Omiko (2015) noted that, if instructional materials are to be improvised, emphasis should be laid on using cheap and locally available materials. A chemistry teacher must be conversant with the types, characteristics and advantages of instructional materials before he/she could improvise.
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 sought to availability and use of instructional material in teaching of basic science in secondary school
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 availability and use of instructional material in teaching of basic science in secondary school. 200 staff of selected secondary schools in Etiti local government, Enugu state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
Sample and sampling procedure
Sample is the set people or items which constitute part of a given population sampling. Due to large size of the target population, the researcher used the Taro Yamani formula to arrive at the sample 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 on availability and use of instructional material in teaching of basic science in secondary school. 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 availability and use of instructional material in teaching of basic science
Summary
This study was on availability and use of instructional material in teaching of basic science in secondary school. Four objectives were raised which included: Assess instructional technology tools available to teachers at secondary school in Igbo Etiti local government area of Enugu state, determine instructional material used by teachers, determine instructional material used by student in learning, identify ways teachers used technology material for teaching of basic science in secondary schools in Igbo Etiti L.G.A. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staff of selected secondary schools in Etiti local government of Enugu 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 principals, vice principals administration, senior staffs and junior staffs were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
Finding from this study revealed that apart from two- dimensional instructional materials, most schools lack other valuable very important instructional materials for teaching and learning basic science. Most teachers hardly improvise instructional materials and that even when the instructional materials are available, teachers do not adequately utilize them in the teaching and learning of basic science
Recommendation
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made.
- There is need to re-orient the basic science teachers and indeed all science teachers on the provision and utilization of instructional materials. 2. Science teachers should endeavor to belong to professional bodies, attend seminar/workshops regularly e.g. Curriculum Organization of Nigeria (CON)
- Government should pay more attention to education and provision of instructional materials for teaching and learning
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