Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic on Practical Activities in Chemistry in Secondary School
Chapter One
Objective of the study
The objectives of the study are;
- To ascertain the effect of COVID19 in educational sector in Nigeria
- To ascertain the effect of COVID19 academic performance of chemistry performance
- To ascertain the challenges of teachers in teaching of chemistry during COVID19
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Insight about Coronavirus COVID-19
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. World Health Organisation has declared coronavirus as a global pandemic without cure or vaccine. Most people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover sometimes without requiring special treatment. Older people and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more likely to develop serious illness (Ukata&Onuekwa, 2020). The best way to prevent and slow down transmission is to be well informed about the COVID19 virus, it causes and how it spreads. The COVID-19 virus spreads primarily through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose when an infected person coughs or sneezes, so it is important that you also practice respiratory etiquette (for example, by coughing into a flexed elbow or handkerchief) (World Health Organisation, n.d). Most infected people will develop mild to moderate illness and recover without hospitalization. Most common symptoms are: fever, dry cough, and tiredness. Others are aches and pains, sore throat, diarrhoea, conjunctivitis, headache, loss of taste or smell and a rash on skin, or discolouration of fingers or toes. This pandemic has halted all global human economic activities and threatened with trembled the existence of man engrossed with fear because of the inexplicable high rate of transmissions and deaths recorded across the globe, Nigeria with her poor health system included. Across the nations, educators are responding valiantly to the unprecedented health crisis and its ramifications for students, educators, and communities. Leaders and staff are charting new course for this unique time. Educators’ efforts to navigate through this challenging situation and commitment to their students as an inspiration for success of their dreams, Nigeria cannot be exceptional(Ukata&Onuekwa, 2020). The COVID-19 virus spreads primarily through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose when an infected person coughs or sneezes, so it is absolutely impossible to carry on with the traditional classrooms management of teaching and learning of face-to-face interactions between teachers (lecturers and students, students and students), as well as the non-academic staff and management. As such, the urgent need for the application of ICT towards minimizing traditional classrooms challenges of teaching and learning during covid-19 pandemic in Rivers state tertiary institutions. The three approaches of ICT in education are the (1): form of lesson units or workshops for students and teachers, (2): ICT as a means of information storage and retrieval and a method of doing research, and (3) ICT as the channel for delivering and receiving instruction (Baydas&Goktas, 2016).
Analysis of the Current Educational Context during the Pandemic Caused by COVID-19
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the infection caused by the coronavirus COVID-19 had ceased to be an epidemic and had passed to the category of pandemic. As of 12 May 2020, according to data from the COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), more than 4.3 million cases of the disease in more than 212 countries with more than 292,000 deaths and more than 1.6 million cases of people recovered. By continent, as of 13 May 2020, Europe with 1,675,742 affected and 155,762 deaths and North America with 1,544,436 affected and 93,190 deaths are the continents with the highest figures followed by Asia with 701,532 infected and 22,851 deaths, and South America with 335,624 affected and 18,108 deaths [8].
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 impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on practical activities in chemistry 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 impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on practical activities in chemistry in secondary school. 200 staffs of selected secondary schools in Ibadan 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 impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on practical activities in chemistry 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 COVID-19 pandemic on practical activities in chemistry in secondary school
Summary
This study was on impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on practical activities in chemistry in secondary school. Three objectives were raised which included: To ascertain the effect of COVID19 in educational sector in Nigeria, to ascertain the effect of COVID19 academic performance of chemistry performance and to ascertain the challenges of teachers in teaching of chemistry during COVID19. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 selected staffs of secondary schools in Ibadan. 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, teachers and junior staffs were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
In general, chemistry teachers have responded to this online learning in the COVID-19 outbreak quite well. They had tried to utilize various technology platforms in conducting learning. Moreover, most of the teacher faced difficulty to arrange the lab-work activities and did nothing. Some teachers try to find lab-work multimedia instead of real activities. However, the multimedia commonly did not make students pertain the processes skills. Since the pandemic could not be predicted when it will finish, this is a kind of challenges and opportunities to think about implementing online chemistry learning from now and then. This study describes what chemistry teachers have done to respond to the implementation of distance learning from home. It is expected that this study becomes a reference for chemistry teachers and policymakers to improve the quality of chemistry learning and lab-work activities in the COVID-19 outbreak.
Recommendation
Ministry of education should provide necessary tools for teaching of chemistry practical, especially the technology equipment that will aid in teaching during COVID19
References
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