EFFECT OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ON STUDENTS PERFORMANCE IN PHYSICS IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL

EFFECT OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ON STUDENTS PERFORMANCE IN PHYSICS IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL

CHAPTER ONE/INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Materials are classified according to many different criteria including their physical and chemical characteristics as well as their intended applications whether it is thermal, optical, electrical, magnetic, or combined materials can be anything consisting of pure or impure substance, a singular composite or a complex mix, living or non-living matter, whether natural or man-made, either concrete or abstract ideas. . Ibeneme (2000) defined teaching aids as those materials used for practical and demonstration in the class situation by students and teachers.

Instructional materials are essential and significant tools needed for teaching and learning of school subjects to promote teachers’ efficiency and improve students’ performance. They make learning more interesting, practical, realistic and appealing. They also enable both the teachers and students to participate actively and effectively in lesson sessions. They give room for acquisition of skills and knowledge and development of self- confidence and self- actualization. They are print and non-print items that impact information to students in the educational process. Instructional materials include items such as: kits, textbooks, magazines, newspapers, pictures, recording videos etc. Fadeiye (2005) saw instructional materials as visual and audio-visual aids, concrete or non-concrete, used by teachers to improve the quality of teaching and learning activities in Social Studies. Agina-Obu (2005) submitted that instructional materials of all kinds appeal to the sense organs during teaching and learning.  Instructional materials play a very important role in the teaching and learning process. It enhances the memory level of the students. At this time that education has spread wide and entirely, oral teaching cannot be the key to successful pedagogy. Therefore the teacher has to use instructional materials to make teaching and learning process interesting (NIC hulls, 2003; Raw 2006) .The Board is also responsible for the content of all instructional materials used in a classroom, whether adopted and purchased from the state-adopted instructional materials list, adopted and purchased through the District instructional materials program or otherwise purchased or made available in the classroom.

Orji (2000) asserts that teaching aid is “the guidance of learning activities” that “a teacher uses to motivate and arouse student’s desire to learn” From the fore-going statement, it can be agreed that for effective learning to take place, a student need to be properly guided by the teacher by way of employing various method and means through which his teaching could be meaningful.

Instructional materials and resources shall be provided in a variety of formats that are appropriate, timely, and essential to the attainment of specified educational objectives and are free of bias, stereotypes, distortions, and prejudices. These items may be provided in a variety of forms, bound, unbound, kit, or package form and may consist of hard backed or soft backed textbooks, electronic content, consumables, learning laboratories, manipulative, electronic media, and computer courseware or software. Instructional materials, including textbooks, educational media (library media print, nonpoint, and electronic resources), computer software, digital content, videotapes used by teachers to aid explanations and make learning of subject matter understandable to students during teaching learning process. The Board must either (1) adopt instructional materials selected from the state-approved materials according to the state adoption cycles, (2) adopt instructional materials pursuant to a Board instructional materials review program prescribed by this policy, or (3) a combination of both.

Isola (2010) also described instructional materials as objects or devices that assist the teachers to present their lessons logically and sequentially to the learners. Obanya (2004) asserted that several studies carried out in some areas in Nigeria indicated that the results of Senior School Certificate Examinations was completely bad in nearly all subjects offered by the students. He stressed further that only about 10% of candidates ‘meaningfully passed’ the examination. Abdu-Raheem (2011) asserted that non availability and inadequacy of instructional materials are major causes of ineffectiveness of the school system and poor performance of students in schools. Ahmed (2003) confirmed that in most secondary schools in Nigeria, teaching and learning take place under a most un-conducive environment without access to essential materials. Eniayewu (2005) posited that it is very important to use instructional aids for instructional delivery to make students acquire more knowledge and to promote academic standard.

The use of instructional materials can enhance the learning performance. Cronbach (2009) states the important elements of behaviour that provides the base for learning theory situation which consists of all the objects, persons and symbols in the learning environment. Experience in situation prepares a person to respond to similar situation in future. Use of instructional materials can appeal to the individual attention by creating interest goal that will help the learner achieve direct effort. Teacher’s problem of motivation is essentially one of arranging situation with instructional materials in which the learner will see goals he want to attain. Brown etal (2005) summarized the role of teaching aids as follows:

  • It promotes meaningful communication and effective learning.
  • They ensure better retention, thus making learning more permanent.
  • They help to overcome the limited classroom by making the inaccessible accessible.
  • They provide a common experience upon which late learning can be developed. ·They stimulate and motivate students to learn.

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  • They encourage participation especially if students are allowed to manipulate materials used. Osuala (2010) in his own contribution said it does not only help to motivate and develop interest on the part of the student, but also help to bring about an enhance respect for teachers knowledge of the subject. Instructional materials are also described as concrete or both to the sense organs during teaching (Aginna-Obu 2000).The nature of the learning and the wide range of student’s abilities in the average classroom necessitate a high degree of teachers and experience in the method of presenting the subject matter. This has been truncated with the unavailability of instructional materials in schools. However, a common goal a teacher carries wherever he is, to make lesson presentation vitally fresh, stimulating and testing for their students. This will help the teacher to individualize the learning method as well as the content and also working according to the student’s need. This goal can be reached most effectively through the use of instructional materials. The need to emphasis on the use and importance

of instructional materials in any learning and teaching environment cannot be underestimated. For any learning to take place, the teacher has to make use of these materials that would enable him to teach effectively.

Equipment and other instructional materials to the some extent determine the method the teacher uses in teaching physics. The method adopted could be demonstration, experimental, discussion, inquiry-based method, explanation etc. It is generally agreed by both teachers and school administrators that apart from the most boards and textbooks which are often available for the teacher to use, there are other materials that aid or are capable of complementing the teacher’s effort in teaching/learning process. Those materials are commonly called “instructional materials. One of the reasons why students in our secondary schools sometime find it difficult to comprehend immediately what is being taught by the teacher is the non availability of instructional materials that can easily convey the message of the lesson to the learners. In addition, Ajayi and Ayodele (2001) stressed the importance of availability of instructional materials to achieving effectiveness in educational delivery and supervision in the school system. Ogbondah (2008) alerted on the gross inadequacy and under utilization of instructional materials necessary to compensate for the inadequacies of sense organs and to reinforce the capacity of dominant organs. He noted that school teachers should try their possible best in the provision of locally made materials in substitution for the standard ones to promote their lessons.

Abdu-Raheem (2014) encouraged teachers to improvise teaching aids because they are in great measure enhance learners’ full participation in the lesson, gives room for inquiry, problem-solving, discussion and clarification of issues and ideas among students and the teacher.

He suggested the needs for teachers to find necessary materials for instruction to supplement what textbooks provide in order to broaden concepts and arouse students ‘interests in the subject, attested that effective teaching and learning requires a teacher to teach the students with instructional materials and use practical activities to make learning more vivid, logical, realistic and pragmatic. Esu, Enukoha and Umoren (2004) agreed that instructional materials are indispensable to the effective teaching and learning activities.

Enaigbe (2009) noted that basic materials such as textbooks, most board and essential equipment like computer, projector, television and video are not readily available in many schools. In a town study, Olumorin, Yusuf, Ajidagba and Jekayinfa (2010) observed that instructional materials help teachers to teach conveniently and the learners to learn easily without any problem

 

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

One of the most problems facing Nigeria education today is poor performance in science education. The rate of student poor academic performance in physics is really disturbing, internal and external examination. The poor academic performance of students in physics has attributed to many factors which are lack of instructional material and skills needed for effective teaching and inability to provide or improvise material relative to the topic depending on the school type. Unqualified teachers and teacher’s attitude towards effective teaching and learning, lack of student interest in physics as subject. It is observed that most students complain of being taught principles that seem to be abstract in nature because materials such as textbooks, most board and essential equipment like computer, projector, television and video are not readily available in many schools. In Indian axioms that says, what I hear, I may forget but what see, hear and touch I will never forget. This is because physics teachers adopt the verbalistic and theoretical method as a way of teaching and learning of physics thereby making students to loose interest. In Nigeria, for example experience has shown that spoken words alone in the communication of ideas are grossly ineffective and inefficient in producing desired learning outcomes. One of the major problems facing education sector in Nigeria is the low level of the performance of secondary school students in both local and standardized examinations. It has become a great concern for researchers, educators and all education stake-holders over the years. It was observed that students usually fail in examinations owing to improper teaching methods and lack of essential teaching aids for instructional delivery. (Afolabi, 2009). This study therefore deemed it necessary to look specifically into the contributions of instructional materials to academic performance of secondary school students in physics. The reason for this could be ascribed to the fact that there are topics in Physics that pose serious problem of comprehension to students. These topics cannot be taught effectively without the use of relevant instructional materials to make the learning practical. However, the questions here are: does the use of instructional materials really influence student’s academic performance? Is teaching effectiveness enhanced by the use of instructional materials?  Could students learning be advanced by the use of instructional materials? Finding answers to these questions and more summarizes the entire problem of this study

 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study has both theoretical and practical significances. In the theoretical aspect, it is the use of Jean Piaget on the cognitive development and behavioral learning theory which center on the child development knowledge, intelligence and high level of thinking that allows the child to acquire problem solving skills by inventing or constructing reality out of experience and thus mix their observation with their ideas about how the world works.  It also provides individual with a certain behavioural management plan or change based on observation in the classroom. On the practical aspect, the findings of the study will benefit the followings, the students, schools, physics teachers, textbook writers, curriculum planners and government. Constructivist teaching is based on the belief that learning occurs as learners are actively involved in a process of meaningful and knowledge construction as opposed to passively receiving information. Through interaction with the physical situations, or concrete objects, a child’s physical experience accumulates and he is able to conceptualize, think creatively and logically. The child therefore develops skills to abstract problems. According to this theory, learners are the makers of knowledge and meaning Constructivists believe that “learners construct their own reality or at least interpret it based upon their perceptions of experiences, so an individual’s knowledge is a function of one’s prior experiences, mental structures, and beliefs that are used to interpret objects and events.” “What someone knows is grounded in perception of the physical and social experiences which are

Students: the study will change student attitude to learn physics since the use of instructional during teaching and learning made the lesson very interesting by having direct contact with the material by touching, smelling or tasting of the object thereby enhancing their performance in the subject in question. This is because according to Nwadinigwe (2000), learning is a process through which knowledge, skills, habits, facts, ideas and principles are acquired, retained and utilized; and the only means of achieving this is through the use of instructional materials.

School: it help the school have a well equipped laboratory and a good environment on production of improvised and standardize resource material suitable for teaching and learning without waiting for government tom provide it for them. It also helps know the number of student in the classroom and proper monitoring of teachers or student teacher on the use of instructional material.

Textbook writers: inclusion of instructional material needed to teacher the particular topic base on specific objectives.

Physic teachers:  The effective use of standardize or improvised material to make the teaching effective and productive base on observation and evaluation. This is in line with assertion of Ekwueme and Igwe (2001) who noted that it is only teachers who will guarantee effective and adequate usage of instructional materials and thereby facilitate success. He further says that instructional materials are of high value in importing information, clarifying difficult and abstract concepts, stimulating thought, sharpening observation, creating interest and satisfying individual difference.

Government:production and provision of resource instructional material to school base on the subject offered. Organizing  seminar and workshop on the utilization of instructional material especially in the area of science and technology. And parent teacher their children on how to embrace technology.

Curriculum planner: when developing syllabus and scheme of work, space for the provision of instruction material should be made with related topics and days of supervision of teachers with instructional material.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study is focused on investigating the effect of instructional material in academic performance of physics student in secondary school in Udi Local Government  Area of Benue State. It was carried in senior secondary school two (SSII) class public schools in Udi Local Government due to they have covered some topics in SS1 and are heading to exam class. but was restricted to five government sec limited to Katsiana-Ala of Benue state. Which are

  1. Community Scecondary Amozalla Girls
  2. Community secondary school Amoku Affa
  3. Community Secondary School Ogoh-Affa
  4. Community Secondary school Akpakume Nze

The topics are

  1. Electromagnetic induction
  2. Waves
  3. Electricity

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The main aim of the study is to critically analyze the Effect Of Instructional Materials On Students Performance In Physics In Senior Secondary School in senior secondary school in katsiana-Ala local government area of Benue state. The study tends to find out the following:

  1. The mean performance scores of physics students taught with instructional materials and those taught without instructional materials.
  2. Determine if such effect depends on gender (sex) of students.

Research Questions

In the field of physics, it has been observed that the use of instructional materials play a major role to the teaching and learning of physics. Based on the above observation, the researcher generated the following questions to guide the study:

  1. What is the mean performance scores of physics students taught with instructional materials and those taught without instructional materials?
  2. What are the mean performance scores of male and female students taught with instructional materials?

 

RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The following hypotheses were generated for the study:

  1. The performance mean scores of students will not be significantly different in the experimental and control groups.
  2. The performance mean scores of students in Physics will be significantly different based on gender.
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