Extent of the Use of Instructional Materials in the Teaching of Social Studies

Extent of the Use of Instructional Materials in the Teaching of Social Studies

Chapter One

Objectives of the Study

This study was based on the following objectives which are to:-

Determine the difference in the mean of pre-test and post-test performance scores of JSS III students when taught Social Studies concepts with the use of instructional materials.
Determine the difference in the mean pre-test and post-test performance scores of JSS III students when taught Social Studies concepts without the use of instructional materials.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Introduction

In this chapter, an attempt was made to review the following: meaning, nature and scope of social studies, method, evaluation, resource materials and attitude, determined the effect of instructional materials on the performance of secondary schools in social studies in Kaduna North and South L.G.A of Kaduna state.

The reviewed related literature is done under the following headings:

Learning theories in the use of instructional materials in social studies classroom.
Intrinsic and extrinsic values of instructional materials.
types and nature of instructional materials
Availability of instructional materials in schools
And problems of using instructional materials in social studies classroom.

Learning Theories about Instructional Materials

Learning according to Kimble and Germezy (1991) is a qualitative permanent change in a behavioural tendency as a result of reinforced practice”. Learning as inferred state of the organism, should be distinguished from performance, on observed state of the organism. Learning events consist of stimuli, learner and responses. According to Mukherjee (1978), learning may be held to be an inference from some performance of the organisms manifesting a change of behaviour. But changes of behaviour can be brought about in an individual by the influence of drugs or tiredness. Such changes in behaviour are temporary and they do not imply any gain to the organism, for his survival, and hence they can be excluded as example of learning. To understand what psychologists mean by learning, one has to distinguish between the kinds of changes and their related antecedents, which are included in learning and the related kinds of changes, and their antecedents which are not included as learning.

There are a number of learning theories, these learning theories fall into two broad categories, namely; connectionist and cognitive theories. Under connectionists heading the researcher considers the explanation of Thorndike and Skinner, while under cognitive, Gestalt psychology was outlined and explained.

The theory of E.l.L Thorndike (1914-1949)

The Thorndike the basis of learning is an association of some sort between sense impression and actions, between stimulus(s) and response(s). His major theoretical statement as the law of effect. This is its simplest form stated that the setting up and strengthening of any association and connection between a stimulus and a response depend not only on their occurring together, but also on the effects that follow their occurring together. These effects may be satisfying and rewarding of annoying and punishing. He attempted to define these effects objectively and more in terms of behaviour that could be observed. By a satisfying state of affairs is meant one which the animal does nothing to avoid, often doing things which maintain of renew it. By annoying state of affair is meant one which the animal does nothing to preserve, often doing things which put an end to it. (p. 132).

Later, experimental work made Thorndike to modify the law of effect suggesting that reward is more important and effective than punishment in the learning situation. He retained the view that reward strengthens connections and associations, but now saw punishment as weakening them only indirectly. Punishment does its connection with the stimulus.

According to Thorndike‟s terms, what really happens when an operator learns an industrial task like drilling, where he picks up a component, places it in a jig, brings down the drill with a certain pressure, etc. The clearing processes here is seen as establishing a series of corrections between specific stimuli and specific responses, set up by the effects of reward and punishment on the occurring together or the stimuli responses. Thorndike emphases the relevance of an analysis at the level of the senses and the motor response mechanism of the effectors and muscles. This is an approach to the learning process in terms of determining the relevance stimuli and responses are common to connectionist theories, and has proved very useful in training

The Theory of B. F. Skinner

Classical learning theory was observed almost exclusively from studies of animal learning and its value within educational technology has probably been overrated. However, certain basic concept should be mentioned, the most relevant being secondary reinforcement. Stated simply, the assumption was that, animals would act in order to reduce the strength of an internal psychological need (primary drive). Primary reinforcement, as it was postulated, directly reduced primary drive (e.g longer or thins) while secondary reinforces were stimuli closely associated with this process. A classic demonstration was by Cowle (1973) who trained chimpanzees to use tokens in a vending machine to obtain food and subsequently to solve discrimination problems in order to obtain the tokens alone. It is still generally argued that most human learning is governed by secondary rather than primary reinforcement.

Skinner sees the organism as essentially active in the environment, emitting behaviour. Any aspect of that behaviour may be reinforced by the environment. The job of the trainer is to ensure current organization, structuring, programming in the training department, that the right bit of baheviour is reinforced. This amends that he needs to be clear as to what the right bits of behaviour is. The trainer according to skinner, must start with a precise statement of desired terminal behaviour. He must to also ensure that, the appropriate stimulus, the right type of behaviour and the reinforcement (mastery) are corrected in they individual‟s experience, programmed instruction attempts to do all this.

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

Introduction

The objective of this chapter is to describe the method and procedure necessary for conducting this study. The procedures includes the design of the research, population of the study, sample and sampling procedure, instrumentation, validity and reliability of instruments and statistical analysis.

Research Design

The research design used in this study was Quasi-experimental design. In this design the researcher used experimental and control groups to determine the effects of instructional materials on the performance JSS III Social Studies students in secondary school. Symbolically this design can be represented as shown below.

Pre-test Post-test Control Group Design

G1. 1 0₂

G2. 2 0₂

G1.1 = JSS III Group 1 Pre-test and post-test (Experimental)

G1.2 = JSS III. Group 2.Pre-test and post-test (Control)

Population of the Study

Best and Khan (1989:11) define population as any group of individuals that have one or more characteristic common that are of interest to the researcher, it was all the individuals of a particular type of more restricted part of that group. The population for this study consisted of all the junior secondary school students in Kaduna North and South L.G.A. consisting of 600 students.

CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

Introduction

In this chapter, the researcher presented and analyzed data obtained from this investigation. The chapter covers the results and discussion based on the 234 sample used in the study. Data analysis was based on the scored received from sample in the study. The two null hypotheses were tested using t-test statistical method. The null hypotheses were tested at p≤0.05 level of significance. Tables were also used for the presentation of information derived from the analysis.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Introduction

This chapter dealt with the summary of the major findings of the study. It also puts forth the conclusions made and recommendations based on the findings of the study. It is the hope of the researcher that the recommendations made in this study will be implemented by those concerned with social studies education and other subjects areas in Kaduna North and South L.G.A in particular where this study is based and Nigeria in general.

Summary

This study is entitled: Effects of Instructional Materials on Performance of Social Studies Students in Junior Secondary Schools in Kaduna North and South L.G.A of Kaduna State. The study was guided two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 significance level. Quasi-experimental research design was adopted in this study. The target population of the study was all the JSS three students in Kaduna North and South L.G.A in Kaduna state. A sample of 234 students was drawn from the population of 600 through simple random procedure. The selection of the sample was based on the recommendation of Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table of determining sample size. A test items was used to obtained data for the study. Data collected from the study were analyzed using frequency, simple percentage, mean, standard deviation, and ttest. The study that found difference exists between the pre-test and post-test scores of the respondents in the experimental group which indicate that the performance of students improved when instructional material was introduced in the lesson.

Conclusion

Based on the findings of this study, the researcher drew the following conclusions;

It has been shown in this study that instructional materials have significant influence on the performance of the students in their academic work.
From the findings, it was established that lack of instructional materials and its usage in teaching and learning of social studies made students to perform poorly in their academic work.

Since it has been discovered from this findings that lack of instructional materials and its usage in teaching and learning of social studies is the major courses of the students poor performance in their academic work, so the State Ministry of Education, Education Board and the Local Government Education Authorities among other should consider the recommendations below, hence it is agreed that instructional materials plays a significant role in motivating the pupils to learn, interest them in the subject, yield better performance, made practicing teachers to have confidence in whatever concepts they wants to impact to the pupils, so the uses of such materials should be encouraged.

Recommendations

The findings of this study as enumerated above have made it necessary to make some recommendations of certain measures which will help in the supply, acquisition and enhancement of the effective use of these instructional materials in the secondary schools in Kaduna North and South L.G.A of Kaduna State and Nigeria in general.

Teachers/Students should improvise locally made instructional materials using resource from the school environment or raw materials from outside the school environment to be used in teaching of social studies.
The State Ministry of Education, Education Board and Local Education Authorities should employ competent teachers who can handle the subject very well, because most of the teachers teaching the subject are not qualified.
Parents should be encouraged to donate money through parent teachers association (PTA) for the provision of instructional materials for teaching and learning in the schools, government alone cannot shoulder all the responsibilities in the schools, there is need for the parents to help in running the schools. The money donated by the parents should be used for the purchasing of teaching aids.
The production of low cost instructional materials should be intensified by the board. The production of these materials can be of the Resource Centres, local raw materials can be effectively utilized in the production of the needed instructional media. This will reduce the cost of importing materials and equipment which have foreign background and may not serve the need of Nigerians. Any materials and equipment produced locally will be such that have the users needs as the focal point. Materials and equipments which could be used in the rural areas where there is no electricity would be produced locally at the resource centres, Thus, the constraints imposed by lack of electricity will be remove.
A miniature resource centre should be established in every secondary schools by the Ministry of Education and Local Education Authority, such a resource centre should serve the secondary schools in which it is established. Instructional materials should be produced, stored, maintained and others should go there to loan any materials or equipments which they need in teaching and return such a materials or equipment immediately after use.
Parents should help in the repairs of the damaged instructional materials in the various secondary schools in the state.
The State Ministry of Education, Education Board should release fund to the various Zonal Education Offices and Local Education Authorities and the principals specifically for maintaining and repairing damaged equipments. This method will remove the protocol of applying, filling forms and awaiting for approval before money is released for the repair of every minor damage done to an equipment.
Seminars, conferences and workshops on the relevance, production and improvisation of instructional materials should be organised during vocations by the State Ministry of Education and Education Board. These should be organized on Zonal Levels and Local Government basis to attract so many teachers as possible, because some teachers cannot operate some of the available instructional materials while some teachers do not know the functions of some instructional media.

The available social studies text-books in use in secondary schools in the state were not recommended for teaching-learning by the Ministry of Education. So recommended text-books should be purchased and supply to the secondary schools.

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