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IMPACT OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ON THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF BIOLOGY IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL

 

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                                            Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the impact of instructional materials on the teaching and learning of biology in senior secondary school in Enugu North Local Government Area. Four research questions guided the study. Relevant literature was reviewed in the areas of theoretical, conceptual framework and empirical studies. The descriptive method was employed in the design of the study. Five hundred and fifteen (515) Students were drawn randomly from ten schools in the study area. The study revealed that students taught using instructional materials achieved better than those taught using the conventional methods. The following recommendations were made, instructional media; computers, slide ,televisions ,projectors and others are recommended to be made available in the school to make teaching more effective and result oriented. Government should encourage and sponsor in-service educational opportunities for interested biology teachers to learn the basic skills of producing video-taped instructions and other instructional materials.

 

 

 

                                        CHAPTER ONE

                                      INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Biology as a subject that explains the characteristics of living things needs to be taught more practically for it to be functional and to lay basic foundation needed for science and technological development. Therefore, best teaching methods must be applied order to enhance effective teaching and learning of biology concepts in secondary schools. Consequently, the need to employ the use of teaching aids otherwise referred to as audiovisual resources to enhance effective teaching and learning.

Instructional resources according to Dike (2010) do not only increase the motivation of the teachers and learners. They add clarity to the topic taught and make learning more interesting. Permanent learning according to Ahmed (2010) is the goal of education in that the learner should be able to retain what is taught instructional materials make learning more permeant since they appeal to more than one sense research by Ode and Omokaro (2007) revealed that learners retain most of what they hear see and feel than what they merely hear.

According to onyedikachi (2011), in educational setting it is impossible to teach without tools. We use new tools to spice up the teaching and learning process to make it possible for students to teach themselves. This is why Ezekoka (2008) states that instructional materials constitute an important component in the teaching and learning environment. She viewed it as the vehicles that carry messages or information from a transmitting source (teacher) to the receiver (learner).

The teaching and learning of all science subjects in general and Biology in particular require a lot of instructional materials. These instructional materials are resources that a teacher uses to implement instructions and facilitate learning as they help to grasp student’s attention, sprout and stimulate their interest, it also help in making learning to become an enjoyable experience (Akoja & Ali 2012). The instructional materials are not available in many schools, where they are available; they are also grossly inadequate in supply. The scarcities of instructional materials in many schools today have resulted in ineffective teaching of Biology leading to poor achievement of students both in internal and public examinations. Eniayeju (2005) in support of this, reported that factors responsible for students’ poor achievement in science, technology and mathematics, are poor laboratory facilities, inability of science teachers to put across ideas clearly to the students and inadequate number of learning facilities in schools as against consistent increase in the number of schools students’ enrolment.

Since the objectives of any biology teaching determines the content, materials and materials needed for achieving such: objectives. The materials use for enhancing instructional effectiveness are aspect of media employed for achieving the instructional objectives recent emphasis on teaching and learning method is on that in which learners are made to have active  participation. Active participation of learners will increase motivation and also minimize abstraction associated with learning. Thus, increasing learning experiences (Afokloi and Adeleke, 2010:406). This can be facilitated by making use of instructional materials and resources which can minimize abstraction associated with learning. Teaching can only be effective when adequate and relevant instructional materials in teaching.

Teaching aids are important catalyst of social re-engineering and change in learners. The role of instructional materials or teaching aid to enhance teaching for desired social and behavioral changes cannot be fully accomplished without the use of instructional materials. In modern teaching and learning situation, the utilization of instructional materials have become prominent because several experts and scholars are of the view that teaching will be better done if teaching aids or audio-visual aids are used and skill, students learn better if they are exposed to use the teaching materials no matter how prototype it would be.

Instructional materials are concrete or non-concrete in nature which an instructor uses in a lesson for teaching. Such materials could be used to carry ideas, knowledge, information and message about what the teacher takes to his students (Amali & Adejoh, 2013). Akoja and Ali, (2012) posit that to enhance effective classroom communication, the teacher should employ different approaches and means which appeal to sense of the learners. Instructional materials in this regard are necessary in stimulating all the five senses such as hearing, touching, seeing, smelling and feeling (Isola, 2010). The research by Akoja and Ali (2012) shows that the use of instructional materials promotes a better retention of ideas, making learning more permanent and gives a high degree of interest to students. Non utilization of instructional materials as one of the factor that are responsible for poor achievement of students in sciences, technology and mathematics. This necessitates the present study to explore the use of instructional materials to teach Biology concepts and how this can impact students’ achievement in biology. It is against this background that the researcher deemed it necessary to investigate the impact of instructional materials on the teaching and learning of biology in senior secondary school in Enugu North Local Government Area.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The ultimate goal of any instructional activity is to facilitate effective teaching and meaningful learning and the teacher is responsible for the translation, and implementation of educational policies, curriculum, instructional materials package and assessment of a school outcome. Biology has application nearly in every field of life. In spite of the importance of biology for national development, the persistent poor achievement of students in biology in Nigeria at the Senior Secondary school level in the past decade has been a matter of serious concern to Educationist and other stakeholders. The WAEC Chief Examiner’s annual reports show that the failure indices are on the increase. The percentage of students that passed biology at the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) conducted by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) was 28.50 in 2009, 49.60 in 2010, 38.40 in 2011, 34.00 in 2012 and 33.90 in 2013. The number of students that passed biology at credit level (A1-C9) was consistently less than 50% in the past five years (2003-2009) in Nigeria. This may be that student are having difficulty in understanding and assimilating the Biological concept taught theoretically without the use of instructional media. Finding also show that female students’ achievement in biology is low compare to their male students’ counterpart. It is not clear if lack of utilization of instructional media by biology teachers is the contributing factor for this development. This necessitate the present study to determine the impact of projected instructional media on both male and female students’ achievement in biology in Senior Secondary schools. This study therefore pose a question, what are the effect of using instructional materials to teach biology in senior secondary school in Enugu North Local Government Area?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The general purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of instructional materials on the teaching and learning of biology in senior secondary school in Enugu North Local Government Area, but specifically the study will attempt to:

  1. To ascertain if teachers use instructional materials in teaching and learning of biology in senior secondary schools in Enugu North.
  2. Ascertain the extent to which instructional material help to facilitate effective teaching and learning and understanding of biology concepts.
  3. To ascertain the challenges hindering teachers from using instructional materials in teaching and learning process.
  4. To ascertain how effective teaching and learning can be achieved in the classroom situation by using instructional materials.

1.4 Research Questions:

The following research questions have been raised to guide the study:

  1. Do teachers use instructional materials in teaching and learning process in secondary schools in Enugu North Local Government Area?
  2. To what extent do instructional materials help to facilitate effective teaching and learning and understanding concepts?
  3. What are the challenges hindering teachers from using instructional materials in teaching and learning process in secondary schools?
  4. How can effective teaching and learning be achieved in the classroom situation by using instructional materials?

1.5 Significance of the Study

The study on the impact of instructional materials on the teaching and learning of biology in senior secondary school, will be of immense benefit to the following stakeholders of Biology education in Nigeria. The students, teachers, parents, educational administrators, curriculum planners and future researchers could benefit on the finding of this study.

The finding of this study will be of help to the students in leaning and acquiring knowledge and skills in biology. The study may also be of benefit if the utilization of instructional materials proved effective, as students’ achievement may increase. This is because instructional materials may integrate the cognitive, affective and psychomotor aspects of learning of biology and making teaching and learning attractive, inspirational and effective.

The finding of this study will encourage biology science teachers to make use of instructional materials in their teaching and learning process to facilitate their effective communication. This may consequently enable biology teachers to present biology concept to their students in the way they will understand, assimilate and retain the knowledge for high achievement. The implication is that the success will boost the biology teachers’ morale.

The findings of this study may also sensitize school administration to encourage Biology teachers to utilize instructional media by providing them necessary instructional materials for the teaching and learning of biology. The finding of the study will also be of benefit to biology curriculum planners; this is because they will systematically plan the curriculum alongside with the needed instructional materials to be used in order to facilitate students’ achievement in biology.

The finding of this study will be of benefit for government, to see the need to retrain biology teacher on the proper use of instructional materials.

The finding of the study also will serve as a guide for the government to provide the necessary instructional materials in the school to assist both the teachers and students in the teaching and learning of biology. It is hoped that the findings of this study will serve as a basis for further studies in the area of biological approach of teaching in respect to use of instructional materials.

1.6 Scope of the study

This study will cover all the public secondary schools in Enugu North Local Government Area in Enugu State, thus, investigating the the impact of instructional materials on the teaching and learning of biology in senior secondary school in Enugu North Local Government Area. The study will cover the utilization, functions and constraints, types of Instructional materials.


1.7 Operational Definition of Terms

Instructional materials –this are those channels by which information skills, knowledge etc. is transmitted to learners during –learning process and assist in achieving the stated behavioral objectives when evaluation is carried  out at the class or programme.

Academic Performance –this is a measure of success exhibited by the senior secondary school student in term of score obtained in a Biology Achievement Test administered.

Projected aids – are instructional media which is a device for transmitting photographic and other image in an enlarged form into a viewing screen.

Teacher – this is a facilitator for the acquisition of Biology knowledge and skills by the students in formal school setting.

Students – students here means learners of the last three years of secondary school education in formal schooling of 9-3-4 Nigeria Education programme.

 

 

 

 

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