GUIDANCE DIMENSIONS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN BIOLOGY

GUIDANCE DIMENSIONS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN BIOLOGY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background to the Study

Guidance is the process of helping an individual helping to help himself and to develop his potentialities to the fullest by utilizing maximum opportunities provided by the environment. We need to understand the dimension of guidance in order to appreciate the attendance functions expected of counselors or guidance experts in schools. Mutic (2009) defined guidance as a learning-oriented process which occurs in an interactive relationship with the aim of helping the clients to learn more about themselves. Guidance is therefore aimed at bringing about maximum development and self-realization of human potentials for the benefit of the individual and the society. Gichinga (2008) observes that a guidance programme has had an impact on secondary schools in Nigeria by helping an individual student to choose and pursue available careers. Guidance programme has three major dimensions. These are the educational dimension, vocational dimension, and personal-social guidance.

        These three dimensions are not mutually exclusive but inter-related Ekanem and Eneh (2005). They are inter-related because any problem in one area may affect the other. For example, a personal-social problem can create an educational problem while a vocational problem may arise from an educational or personal-social problem. It is the individual who is at the center of all these. Denga (2012) puts it basically to all purposes of student counseling is the objective of the student’s total development. He further stated that educational guidance is mainly at helping students solve their educational problems. Such problems as listed by Denga (2007) include; how to make appropriate choices of subjects and educational programmes; how to develop effective study habits; how to make good grades in school; how to choose appropriate institutions for further studies; how to cope with examination anxiety and how to budget study time. In order to achieve the objectives of educational guidance, the counselor has to do. In conjunction with other school personnel, he should organize orientation for new students, have individual or group educational concerning with the students and assess students’ study behavior in order to identify effective study habit and consequently help remedy them.

        According to Makinde (2008) guidance programme is one of the roles for school counselor used to help students who have difficulties in making a career choice. This means that vocational guidance in school should be employed to assist students to make realistic and appropriate vocational decisions. Realistic decisions refer to those decisions that are not beyond the reach of those making them. This means that students should aspire to enter occupations that suit their interests, values, and abilities. Ekanem and Eneh (2005) stated that the third component of guidance and counseling in a school setting is personal-social and psychological problems most of which are of a privatized nature. Typical examples include interpersonal relationship problems, family problems, emotional disturbances, phobia, drug abuse, and sexual difficulties among others. These problems cut across academic performance and also provide a basis for failure in occupational pursuits.

1.2   Statement of the Problem

        Effective guidance is essential in every school. An organized guidance programme will offer the right environment for the growth and development of the educational system in our schools. Nwachukwu and Ugwuegbulam (2006) thus see the need for introduction of guidance in schools as to give students career information and to assist them to make appropriate and realistic educational, social-personal and vocational choices and to produce students who are properly adjusted socially and emotionally and who are mature enough to face the world after the completion of their secondary education.

The society in which the child grows is not immune from a number of disabling societal and individual problems. Such as lack of guiding values, lack patriotism, acrimonious inter-personal conflicts, and self-leadership.

Poor academic performance by students has been linked to lack of proper guidance by the parents and the teacher despite numerous ways in which government has facilitated the introduction of guidance programmes in school, still, there is the great height of indiscipline among students which contributed to their poor academic performance. In order to control this situation, guidance programs, therefore, have to be taken seriously through the employment of experts services to assist students overcome numerous challenges they experience at home and at school and other to yield a positive result in their academic achievement and performances.

1.3   Purpose of the Study

        The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of guidance dimensions and academic performance of students in Biology in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.

Specifically, the study intends to:

(i) Assess the influence of educational guidance on academic performance of students in Biology.

(ii) Examine the influence of vocational guidance on academic performance of students in Biology.

(iii)  Determine the influence of social-personal guidance on academic performance of students in Biology.

1.4   Significance of the Study

        The outcome of this research will help to educate and concomitantly serving as a guide to both parent and schools on the effect of guidance on the academic performance of students.  This research will also serve as a resource base to other researchers interested in carrying out further research in this field subsequently if applied will go to an extent to provide the new explanation to the topic. It will help the teachers and the guidance counselors to evaluate the students with special needs and difficulties. It will serve as an effective measure in addressing the challenges facing secondary school students in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area. It also is of help to school administrators in assessing their contribution to guidance programme in schools as they influence the academic performance of the student in their schools. When the guidance programme is well conceptualized by educational policymakers and implemented by the teacher counselor with the support of the school, the students will benefit by improving their academic achievements and self-ac actualization. The result of the study will also help the students to create a good and cordial relationship with their teacher-counselor. It will bring self-concept to the students that will help them understand himself/herself and regulate their behavior.

1.5   Research Questions

The following research questions were formulated to guide a study:

i.      To what extent does educational guidance influence the academic performance of students in Biology?

ii.      To what extent does vocational guidance influence the academic performance of students in Biology?

iii.     To what extent does social-personal guidance influence the academic performance of students in Biology?

1.6   Research Hypotheses

        In order to guide the study, the following research hypotheses are postulated:

i.      There is no significant influence of educational guidance on academic performance of students in Biology.

ii.      There is no significant influence of vocational guidance on academic performance of students in Biology.

iii.     There is no significant influence of social-personal guidance on academic performance of students in Biology.

1.7   Delimitation of the Study

        This research work focuses on the influence of guidance dimensions on the academic performance of Biology students in secondary school in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. This research work covers only public secondary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area. However, five public secondary schools were selected for the study.

1.8   Limitation of the Study

        The researcher encountered some difficulties in obtaining information for the study such as time-frame and the shortage of finance. The research was also limited due to the inability of the researcher to cover all the public secondary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State as the title suggest.

1.9   Definition of Terms

Academic performance: Refers to knowledge attained or skills developed in school subjects by test score or examination.

Biology: This refers to the study of science that deals with living and non-living things.

The dimension of the guidance: This refers to certain areas in which guidance program can be instituted.

Educational guidance dimension: This is assistance given to pupil individually and through the group, techniques to help them function more effectively in their school progress.

Vocational guidance dimension: It is the process of helping the individual to ascertain, accept, understand and apply the relevant facts about the occupational world which are ascertained through incidental and planned explanatory activities.

Social guidance dimension: This is meant to provide assistance in all problems which do not come within the purview of educational and vocational guidance.