Factors Associated With Mass Failure of Students of Biology
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
The general objective of this study is to know the factors associated with the mass failure of students in Biology in primary schools. The following specific objectives are to guide the study:
- To examine the influence of cultural backgrounds on students’ performance in Biology.
- To identify the influence of teacher – student relationships on students’ performance in Biology.
- To determine the nature of the school environment where teaching is practiced about student’s performance in Biology.
- To examine the influence of the school management system on the teaching and learning process in Biology.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
It is evidently seen that there is poor performance in Biology among senior secondary school students as show in recent trends and reports. The causes of this problem are many and cut across all stakeholders in education. In other words, the causes of poor performance in Biology among senior secondary school students emanates from the schools, students, teachers as well as the government itself. But in the past many efforts were made to bring a lasting solution to this problem. For instance, Umameh, (2011) stated that events like the comparative Education Study and Adaptation Centre (1976) that took care of the secondary level Biology syllabus, the Benin Conference (1977) and The National Critique Workshop at Onitsha as well as recently The National Biology Centre, all did a lot in ending the problem of poor performance in Biology.
Conceptual Review
Causes of Poor Performance in Biology among Senior Secondary Students
As said earlier, there are many causes of poor performance in Biology among senior secondary school students. Bakare, (1994) in Asikhia, (2010) categorizes factors militating against good academic performance into four principal areas which are:
- Causations resident in the child such as basic cognition skills, physical and health factors, psychoemotional factors, lack of interest in school programme.
- Causations resident in the family such as cognition stimulation/basic intuition during the first two years; type of discipline at home; lack of role model and finance.
- Causations resident in the school such as school location and physical buildings; interpersonal relationship among the school personnel.
- Causations resident in the society such as instability of educational policy; under-funding of educational sector; leadership; job losses.
Specifically, many studies and authorities presented many causes of poor performance in Biology among students. For instance, Vudla, (2012) in Tshabalala and Ncube, (2013) was of the view that shortage of well trained teachers, inadequate of teaching facilities, lack of fund to purchase necessary equipment, poor quality of textbooks, large classes, poorly motivated teachers, lack of laboratories and libraries, poorly coordinated supervisory activities, interference of the school system by the civil service, incessant transfers of teachers and principals, automatic promotions of pupils, the negative role of public examinations on the teaching learning process and inequality in education opportunities all hamper the smooth acquisition of Biology knowledge.
In addition to the above causes of poor performance in Biology, STAN, (2002) as cited by Ojimba, (2012) was of the view that prominent causes of poor performance in Biology are:
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The used in this study was a descriptive survey. This type of design was used because it allowed the researcher to study small sample and later generalized the findings to the whole population. Osuala, (2001) was of the view that in survey research small sample is studied and the findings generalized to the whole population. The Descriptive Survey Research Design was employed in the study as it also enabled the researcher to employ some descriptive statistics like percentages, frequencies, mode, and median to describe the situation of things as they are, with respect to the study habits of students in relation to their levels of achievement in Biology in the schools.
Scope of the Study
This study covers only secondary school students of all the schools in Logo Local Government Area of Benue State. Continuous assessment records, as well as the end of term promotion examination results of students’ academic session in this subject were used. Their study habits were collected on a random sampling basis, using a questionnaire instrument. All the secondary schools in the local government were classified into three major categories, namely:
- All the schools with a population of 1000 (one thousand) students and above were classified as grade A;
- Those with population between 500- 1000 were classified as grade B;
- Those with less than 500 students were classified as grade C.
This categorization was done with the hope of discovering if all the students exhibited the same study habits, irrespective of location. All the grades A, B and C schools are essentially Urban, Semi-urban and rural schools in the local Government Area.
Area of Study
Logo local government was created in December 1996 out of Katsina-Ala Local Government Area. The name is derived from the Logo stream which runs through the local government from the east to the West. Logo local government is composed basically of Tiv speaking people, the 6th most populous ethnic group in Nigeria.
The local government is inhabited by two dominant groups namely; Ugondo and Gaambe-Tiev, and shares federal house of representative seat with Ukum and Katsina-Ala local governments and has one state house of Assembly seat. Logo has a projected population of 120,000, according to 2006 population census report.
Population of the Study
Out of the 27 secondary schools in the LGA, 25 of them have existed for more than six years and have subsequently been taking part in both the Junior Secondary Schools Certificate Examination (JSCE), West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) of Nigeria conducted examinations. This implies that the schools have sufficiently come of age and the students can be used in investigating study habit patterns and achievements at Junior Secondary School Level.
The Total of approximately 14000 (fourteen thousand) students in all 25 secondary schools in the LGA, constitute the population of this study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Introduction
This chapter presents findings, which have been found through questionnaire, interview, observations, documentary review and focus group discussions. Questionnaires were distributed to Biology teachers, academic masters and head of schools. They filled and returned them to the researcher. Biology teachers were interviewed and they heartily participated in the interview session with the researcher. Student’s in-group of 15 from each was involved in a focus group discussion. The researcher also made some observation and documentary reviews in the schools he visited during data collection process.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
This chapter presents the summary of findings, conclusions and recommendations based on the result of this study. The study was done focusing on factors leading to poor performance in Biology subject. The study was done in Logo LGA involving four secondary schools as the sample of study among 14 schools in the district. Logo LGA was selected to represent other districts in Tanzania. It has schools located in rural and urban areas. The district had 14 secondary schools for which 4 schools were randomly selected. The participants of the study were the Biology teachers; head of schools as administrators and students from form one to form four.
Specifically, the study sought to:
(i) To examine the influence of cultural backgrounds on students’ performance in Biology.
(ii) To identify the influence of teacher – student’s relationship on students’ performance in Biology.
(iii) To determine the nature of school environment where teaching is practiced in relation to student’s performance in Biology.
(iv) To examine the influence of school management system on teaching and learning process in Biology.
The study was done in Logo LGA. The research involved 4 secondary schools among 14 secondary schools. The respondents of the study consisted of 8 Biology teachers who were chosen through simple random sampling, 4 academic masters and 4 head of schools who were purposively selected. The other respondents were 60 students who were selected using simple random sampling technique as well.
Questionnaires were used in determining the teacher participants’ instructional strategy preferences and extent of use on various instructional strategies as well as the students’ instructional strategy preferences and perceived extent of use. Students’ performance was found to be related with the teacher participants’ instructional strategy preference specifically on demonstration, problem-solving, project and inquiry approach. When teaching methods does not make students understand the lesson they end up failing.
Results of the study also revealed that there was a significant difference between the teacher participants’ preference of instructional strategy and the student performance in Biology. Though teachers claimed to apply participatory and student centred methods, it was not there in actual practice. Teachers were exposed to number of workshops and attended many seminars, yet they didn’t bring any changes in students’ performance in Biology.
The researcher found that if each student could have his/her own books, other supplementary learning materials and practically learning they could perform to great grades in Biology.
Conclusions
Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that:
(i) Majority of the Biology teachers in selected secondary schools in Logo LGA mostly were female. As to educational attainment and length of teaching experience, highest educational attainments of majority of the teachers were bachelor degrees with a very good experienced in teaching Biology.
(ii) Student centred methods, discussion, demonstration; problem solving, project, inquiry approach; cooperative and use of audio-visual instructional strategies were highly preferred by the teacher participants. But this was hindered by the background of the students, nature of school environments, students’ self-effort and family economic status of the students. It end up teachers applying teacher centred method due to that students have a poor background in Biology.
(iii) Lecture methods, discussion, demonstration, problem-solving, project, inquiry approach, cooperative learning and use of audio-visual media instructional strategies were highly preferred by the student participants. They said that they understand when taught using such teaching methods. This means that students were missing something in their learning process depending on their background in Biology. The researcher had observed that such methods are not practiced as teachers are few, not well paid and time pressure as they have to teach many periods as one of the teacher said in an interview.
(iv)There was no significant relationship between the instructional strategy preference of teacher participants and their teaching performance. The preference of teachers on particular instructional strategies does not affect the level of their teaching performance.
(v) There was a significant relationship between the teachers’ use of the different instructional strategies and their students’ performance in Biology. For example, students doing problem solving, self practice, teachers demonstrating and students contributing in the teaching session what they know about the topic under study.
(vi)Teacher – student relationship has its motivation for both teachers and students. It motivates teachers to like attending classes as there is absence of hostility. Also it motivates students to like the subject as they don’t have negative attitude toward their teacher.
(vii) Biology department has a lot to help in ensuring students perform well in Biology. But this was hindered and it was not well functioning as there was no actual practice in division of power among head of schools, academics masters and what head of Biology departments to do.
Recommendations
Based on the results of the study, the following recommendations were made:
Biology Teachers
The researcher recommends Biology teachers to consider students cultural and learning backgrounds in choosing instructional strategies. It is suggested that they align teaching methods with the assessed learning needs and capabilities of students. Teachers may attempt to find a balance of teaching strategies rather than teaching student hence few understand the subject and at last many fail the subject. They may be able to realize the importance of recognizing learning styles, identify students’ differences, and adjust the teaching methods accordingly. By doing that, teachers would be able to deliver content clearly, making every student understand Biology, motivate students leading better performance in Biology subject.
Lastly, it is also suggested for the teachers to learn to formulate their way of teaching especially if their school do not have available facilities to support their teaching activity. They may learn to develop their profession and innovativeness in teaching in order to maximize the use of available resources of the school to improve students’ performance in Biology subject.
Students
The study highly suggest that students take in hand their perception and feedback towards their teachers’ teaching methods in order for the teachers to effectively bring into line their way of teaching to the students’ way of learning. It is recommended that for students to learn effectively, they need to be flexible by using strategies outside their preferences in order to meet the demands of the challenging environment. Students must be ready to be guided in Biology using learner centred methods, which is the very effective way of teaching. Student must not be lazy by not doing self-practice daily. They are also encouraged to actively participate in classroom activities in order to have an enjoyable and satisfying learning outcome.
School Administrators
For school administrators, it is recommended to ensure availability of the instructional materials and facilities for the execution of different teaching methods that are aligned with the teaching methods and students’ learning in classrooms. Effective teaching and learning cannot be achieved in the absence of those instructional materials.
It is also highly recommended that school leaders provide more in-service seminars, trainings and workshops for the teachers focusing more on how the teachers would enable them to align their instructional strategies they prefer and use to the learning preferences and capacities of the students. Furthermore, teachers should also be encouraged by the head of schools to pursue post graduate studies in order to upgrade their instructional competencies even if they have degrees in teaching profession. Lastly head of Biology departments must be empowered to manage teaching and learning in Biology. They must be provided with all guides and teaching resources.
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