CHAPTER ONE

                                     INTRODUCTION

1.1      Background to the Study

Instructional media are all the things the teachers make use of to aid the learners in their learning process; they are the means used to bring about effective teaching and learning. Obara and Okoh (2005) regard instructional strategies and materials as “all the things the teacher utilizes to interactively enhance, motivate and facilitate teaching and learning in an attempt to ensuring the achievement of a set objectives.” The effectiveness of instructional materials and strategies depends upon the manner and degree to which they meet the needs of the teacher and students. Instructional strategies and materials are selected based on the principles of provision of accurate materials that will enrich and support the curriculum, taking into consideration the interest, abilities and maturity levels of the students. Teachers should be encouraged in every way to use instructional strategies as it makes learning more concrete and meaningful (Buseri and Dorgu 2011).  Teaching brings about understanding; it involves a teacher, a learner and subject matter and teaching materials. Therefore to bring about learning, the teacher engages in certain activities such as talking, demonstration, and give instruction etc, all these are the various strategies to bring about learning (Adediran 2014).

        Different instructional media strategies need to be used by teachers to ensure students centered method in the classroom for creativity, innovative and critical thinking purpose in students. It is therefore important that, the major implications of instructional strategies be reflected in classroom practice. In recent times, emerging research findings seem to show that oriented instructional strategies are becoming increasingly popular in the teaching of various subjects in the secondary school level of education in Nigeria (Ogundare, 1985), (Osakwe 2009). These instructional strategies involve resolution of problems, active practice participations of learners in the teaching process and emphasis on process rather than products of learning. Some of these strategies and approaches according to Osakwe (2009) are categorized under conventional and innovative appraises, instructional strategies which are classified under conventional are mostly those routine, well-knowing ones which teachers use predominantly. They are usually teacher-centered with little or no activities for students. These include teaching method like lecture, story-telling, recitation, etc, on the other hand, the innovative strategies include those ones that are much more recent which are predominantly learner-centered. These include questioning, inquiry/problem solving, role-play and dramatization (Adediran 2014).

        The secondary school curriculum of education is so enormous that it prepare young people for full adults lives in the complex and dynamic world. This kind of preparation falls in line with, (2004), dispositive curriculum that the global requirements for education in recent times include promoting life-long education, re-emphasizing the quality of learner experiences, reorganizing subjects into key learning areas so as to develop broad knowledge base, and developing in the leaner the ability to think critically and be innovative. This kind of education, according to Enu and Esu (2010), afford the products of the system the ability to respond to social goal economic realities and future life-challenges. It is universally accepted that students needs the chance to develop faith, self-expression and confidence in them. They also need the ability and skill to learn about themselves; the societal problem and about the wider communities in which the live.

        Effective teaching in secondary schools should emphasize the use of activity-oriented method and instructional strategies that will make students achieve their learning objectives (Adediran 2014). The production of a functional and productive citizenry which is a major focus of secondary school education entails that secondary school education concerns itself with inculcating creative reflective, competence relational, analytic and decision-making skills and competence in the learner (Mezieobi and Mezieobi 2008). Teaching according to Kanno (2001) should not connote sheer passing on of, or imparting of desirable knowledge to a passive learners recipient who must or demand regurgitate the rote memory acquired and stored knowledge.

        Effective teaching in secondary schools should be predominantly students directed interactive learning achievement oriented activities inside and outside the formal classroom situation in which the learner actively participates and makes a conscious and deliberate effort to induce and acquire significant learning under the teacher serving as a learning collaborator, director, guide a catalyst, a helper. Hence, Kanno (2001) noted that teaching it helping other persons (the learners) to learn. The teacher in the teaching-learning setting is not a task master or an autocrat, dishing out encyclopedia knowledge. Meaningful leading according to Akinlaye (2002) is students activity headed such that the students is given a provide democratic latitude to learns by doing it himself through his activity participation commitment and display of his intellectual integrity and capacity for independent judgment.

        Educational researcher and developments according to Mezieobi and Mezieobi (2008) have unveiled a number of innovative instructional strategies in secondary schools which apply with equal facility in the classroom. A number of these strategies according to Bransford, Brown and Cockry (2000) as include: learning cycle-based instructional strategy, project-based learning approach, case-based teaching strategy, just-in-time teaching instructional strategy etc. all these strategies make students work through sequences of activities that involves complementary thinking and problem-solving approaches. In most of these instructional strategies, the different activities are designed to appeal to different learning style preferences when the teacher teach based on the strategies; all students are taught partly in a manner they prefer, which leads to an increased comfort level and willingness to learn.

On the whole, scholar of teaching methodology and instructional strategies (Oyetunde, 1990, Mezieobi 1994 and Mbakwem, 2001) are agreed that there is no best method of teaching an no singular method will be appropriate to all school subject, in all situations, Mabkwem (2001) was of the view that each teaching subject has its own peculiarities and emphasis procedures. In like manner, each school subject has its own declared objectives and expected outcomes which may be from other subjects.

1.2      Statement of the Problem

The transmission of facts, ideas and information from the teacher to the students in a systematic order or procedure is referred to as teaching. During this process instructional medial otherwise known as teaching aids meant to make instruction more meaningful, clear and much more interesting to students are brought in display. There is a general impression that science education is not achieving the desired objectives with high incidence of students’ poor performance in chemistry, Biology and Physics subjects at senior secondary certificate examination. This situation has assumed a precarious dimension in all secondary schools in Nigeria. The failure of educational system to provide adequate and appropriate teaching-learning aids in order to improve academic performance of students is of a great concern to government, educational institutions and other concern citizens. It is believed that if adequate instructional media are made available to schools and are used appropriately in teaching-learning process, a better performance could be achieved. Hence, this study seeks to examine the effectiveness of instructional media in teaching secondary school students in Nigeria.

1.3   Research Objectives

The general objective or main objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness of instructional media in teaching secondary school students in Nigeria. The specific objectives are:

i)             To determine the impacts of instructional media in teaching secondary school students in Nigeria

ii)           To establish the reasons for the use of instructional media by teachers in secondary schools in Nigeria

iii)         To identify the challenges facing the use of instructional media for effective teaching and learning in secondary schools in Nigeria

1.4   Research Questions

The following are some of the questions which this study intends to answer:

i)             What are the impacts of instructional media in teaching secondary school students in Nigeria?

ii)           What are the reasons for the use of instructional media by teachers in secondary schools in Nigeria?

iii)         What are the challenges facing the use of instructional media for effective teaching and learning in secondary schools in Nigeria?

1.5   Research Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were postulated to guide the conduct of this study;

i)             There is no significant difference between academic achievement of students taught using instructional media and those taught without instructional media

ii)           There is no significant difference in the retention ability of students taught using instructional media and those taught without instructional media

1.6   Significance of the Study      

Findings from this study will be significant to students, teachers, curriculum planners, ministry of education and the society at large.  To the students, the effective use of instructional resources will enable them to effectively learn and retain what they have learnt and thereby advancing their performance in the subject in question because, 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 resources. The use of instructional resources will give the learner opportunity to touch, smell or taste objects in the teaching and learning process. Consequently, knowledge passed unto the students at difference levels of educational instructions should be well planned and properly allied with relevant instructional resources for clarity and comprehensibility. 

The study will enhance teachers‟ teaching effectiveness and productivity. The use of instructional materials provides alternative channels of communication which a teacher can use to compress information and make them more vivid to his learners. It also provides the teacher with interesting and compelling platforms for conveying information since they motivate learners to want to learn more and more. Also, by providing opportunities for private study and reference, the learner’s interest and curiosity are increasingly stimulated. As a result, teacher who makes use of appropriate instructional materials to supplement his teaching will help enhance students’ academic performance. Finally, this research work will contribute to knowledge as a reference material for scholars in the research field.

1.7   Scope of the Study

This study is designed to assess the availability and use of instructional media on the academic performance of secondary school students in Nigeria. The study aims at finding whether variable like; instructional materials, teachers’ improvisation and use of instructional media are related to students’ academic performance.

1.8   Limitation of the Study

The Major Limitations of the study are:

Cost Limitation: There was a cost limitation. This means that we could not offer any gift or monetary incentives for the respondents to answer the questionnaire. This might have resulted in certain prospective respondents choosing not to respond to the questionnaire. This might not have created a motivation among respondents not to take a chance to give opinions. Time Limitation: There are two types of time limitation faced during the study. The study was done for a period of four weeks. Hence the results would reflect the impact of the time constraint. The insights of the employees were observed during the period of study. A more extensive study conducted over a larger time period or during a special period of time like when there were higher numbers of issues, can include insights from employees over a broader time period and can bring in further depth into the research.

1.9   Definition of Terms

The following terms were used in the course of this study:

Instructional resources: the tools used in educational lessons, which include active learning and assessment. Basically, any resource a teacher uses to help him teach his students is an instructional material.

Learning:  is the act of acquiring new or modifying and reinforcing existing knowledge, behaviours, skills, values, or preferences which may lead to a potential change in synthesizing information, depth of the knowledge, attitude or behaviour relative to the type and range of experience.

Secondary school: is the next step up from primary school. Secondary schools are often called high schools in the United States. In Britain, secondary schools may be public schools, grammar schools or comprehensive schools.

Teaching: the process of attending to people’s needs, experiences and feelings, and making specific interventions to help them learn particular things.

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