CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Nigerian Educational System has gone through various developments and changes viz-a-viz curriculum issues. The dynamic nature of the curriculum process informs the concept of effective planning of integrated science curriculum in secondary schools. This is so because science education plays a vital role in the lives of individuals and the development of a nation scientifically and technologically (Aleboisu and Ifamuyiwa, 2008). It is widely and generally acknowledged that the gateway to the survival of a nation scientifically and technologically is scientific literacy which can only be achieved through science education. This starts from giving students a good foundation in integrated science from junior secondary level. But government in this direction can not be said to have yielded much fruits given the dwindling nature of student’s performance in integrated science in junior secondary school and the low rate of students offering science in senior secondary school as well as their performance in core science subjects. Disturbed by this ugly development, researchers in the field of science education in Nigeria embarked on series of studies to find the logic behind this ugly development.

They found that the problem stemmed from the first form of science a child comes across at the junior secondary school level that is integrated science. Integrated science provide students sound basis for further science education study, hence a child that is not well grounded in integrated science at this level would not show interest in offering core science subject (Biology, Chemistry and Physics) at Senior Secondary Schol level which are pre-requisites for studying science oriented courses at the Nation’s tertiary institutions. They also found that lack of qualified teachers, lack of practical work as well as lack of equipments and facilities for teaching, insufficient allotment of time for integrated science on the school time table and poor methods of teaching are the major factors militating against the successive implementation of the core curriculum in integrated science (Ajuwape and Olatoye, 2004). It is against this background that the researcher seeks to investigate the subject matter of this research: The impact of effective planning and curriculum development on teaching and learning of integrated science in secondary school.Lesson planning in secondary schools often require teachers to turn in their lesson plans and to complete them in a certain format, it is important not to fall into the trap of completing lesson plans simply to meet the proprietor or principal’s requirement. Rather, teachers need to plan their lessons in order to ensure that they are taking the most thoughtful approach possible to get their students where they wish them to be. Regardless of the particular format their district might require, they will need to be sure that they are making the format work for them, and that they are writing the plan not in order to meet a particular requirement but rather to ensure that their students actually accomplish the objective.Lesson plan is a written description of education process in which it is shown what, when, where and with which method learners should learn and how they should be assessed. Lesson plan is one of the key factors in the educational process.The importance of lesson planning has been over emphasized for professional development of teachers, especially in this current era of educational reform, largely because it can facilitate teacher learning (Ball 1996; Little 1993).

Lesson plan is a written description for this process; where the materials, the method, the time and the place of education as well as methods for evaluating the students are described in detail. According to Farrell

( 2002)who defined a lesson plan as “a unit in which it is a sequence of correlated lessons around a particular theme or it can be specified as a systematic record of a teacher’s thoughts about what will be covered during a lesson”(p. 30). Farrell further adds that a daily lesson plan is a written description of how students will move towards obtaining specific objectives. It describes teaching behavior that will result in the students’ learning. Shrum and Glisan (as cited in Farrell, 2002) point out that for English language lesson, the effective objectives of a lesson plan describe what students will be able to do in terms of observation, behavior, and using the foreign language. According to Amininik et al. (2000) who opined that Lesson plan preparation by faculty members is one of the appropriate ways for promotion of education quality; it can help the lecturers in teaching as guidance. According to Coppola et al. (2004) Lesson plan is main foundation of educational structure and it is core of education. Faculty members should not be present in class without a lesson plan because it is required for a successful teaching. Houston and Beech (2002) believed that since there were students with different characteristics and a range of abilities in a class, meeting the different learning needs of students can create several problems for teachers. As stated by kame'enuiand simmons (1999 as cited in Houston & Beech, 2002) the best source of action to meet this challenge is to design effective lesson plans.According to Clark and Peterson (1986), researchers have conceptualized teacher planning in two ways. First, based on the theories in cognitive psychology, planning is defined as a basic psychological process in which a person visualizes the future, inventories means and end, and constructs a framework to guide his/her future action. Second, from the descriptive approach, planning is defined as the things that teachersdo when they say that they are planning. Placek (1984) defines teacher planning as a teacher activity that precedes instruction, is concerned with how instruction will be presented, and is based upon anticipation or expectation of classroom events. From a system approach paradigm, Panasuk and Todd (2005) define lesson planning as a systematic development of instructional requirements, arrangements, conditions, and materials and activities, as well as testing and evaluation of teaching and learning.

1.2      STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Lesson planning over the past decades has been an important process in teacher trainees’ gaining experience since it forces them to reflect on what to teach, how to teach and how to evaluate. The lesson plan breaks the unit plan down into detail and is the direction for the class period. Learners appreciate instruction that is well planned and want to know the objective for the class period. Learners want to know what they will be able to do when the class ends and how it applies to their lives beyond the classroom. Writing a lesson plan requires thinking about the skills to be taught, the objectives, timing, and procedures for the class.

Unfortunately, there has been little research on pre-service teachers’ lesson planning experiences. Since there is limited attention in the literature on teacher trainees’ lesson planning skills, this study aims at gaining insights and attitudes about the strengths and weaknesses of business studies teachers in terms of applying and producing lesson planning and if their understanding and attitude might be moderated by variable as teachers' educational degree.

1.3      OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is to gain a better understanding of the learning process of business studies teachers regarding how to planning practice, the researcher intend to outline the following sub-objectives;

i)             To investigate the lesson planning practices among the business studies teachers in Shomolu Lagos State.

ii)           To ascertain if there is any significant difference between teachers' perception of lesson planning and students understandability.

iii)          To examine business studies teachers profile and interest in making lesson plan in Shomolu Lagos.

iv)         To suggest how business studies teachers could build and develop their professional skills into their lesson

1.4      RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This study is designed to answer the following research questions:

1. Is there any significant relationship between teachers’ attitudes towards lesson planning and their educational degree in Lagos State?

2. Does lesson plans help teachers achieve their goals and objectives appropriately as well as help them have great self-confidence and get rid of problems?

3. Does lesson plan help business studies teachers manage their time, effort and resources efficiently in Shomolu Lagos?

4. What is the profile business studies teachers and interest in making lesson plan in Shomolu Lagos?

5. What are business studies teachers' attitudes towards the use of lesson planning in the class?

6. Is there any significant difference between teachers' views on lesson plan according to their educational degree in Nigeria?

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

H0: there is no significant relationship between teachers’ perception of lesson planning and students understandability in Lagos State

H1: there is a significant relationship between teachers’ perception of lesson planning and students understandability in Lagos State

H0: lesson plans doesn’t help teachers achieve their goals and objectives appropriately as well as help them have great self-confidence and get rid of problems

H2: lesson plans does help teachers achieve their goals and objectives appropriately as well as help them have great self-confidence and get rid of problems.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The research is carried out to know the problem that business teachers encounter as a result of feeling reluctant about lesson planning and how the problem could be solved. The research findings will give in details the impact of lesson plan on the teachers/student’s relationship and academic performance, it will reveal also how the level of exposure of teachers to lesson planning and how it helps in improving the academic performance of business studies students. By the end of this research work we shall also understand perfectly the role of the federal government of Nigeria towards bringing skilled and experience teachers with passion for the teaching profession into our schools in Nigeria. Finally, the findings of this study will serve as a reference material to scholars who intend to embark on a project of this nature in future.

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