Instructional Material Usage and Biology Teaching In Secondary School

Instructional Material Usage and Biology Teaching In Secondary School 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1Background to the Study

Generally, in the whole world, particularly in Nigeria, education has been considered to be the cornerstone for development. The teaching of Biology in Nigeria secondary schools needs to be properly handled. The material used by teachers to teach and drive home the subject point at the primary and secondary level of our educational system is inconvertibly a paramount important issue in practical classroom interaction and successful. Instructional materials are materials which assist teachers to make lessons explicit to learners. Instructional materials are the devices developed or acquired to facilitate teaching and also transmitting knowledge, skill, and attitude to the learners within an instructional situation Nwachukwu (2014).

According to Abdullahi, (2015), instructional materials are materials or tools locally made or imported that could make tremendous enhancement of lesson impart if intelligently used. Instructional materials include; visuals, audio, and audio-visual materials such as pictures, flash-cards, posters, charts, tape recorder, radio, video, television, computers among others. These materials serve as a supplement to the normal process of instruction. (Osafehniti, 2013), points out that concrete or physical object which provides sound, visual or both the sense organ during the teaching-learning process.

Teachers should use different instructional materials to motivate learners to learn more effectively. Cronbac (2015), opined that the use of instructional materials during teaching and learning process can appeal to the individual’s attention among students by creating interest in order to attain the goal for the learner. He also noted that the use of instructional materials can facilitate the decision of a person towards learning by taking the right actions. Learning is facilitated when learners make use of their sense organs for seeing, hearing, and touching. (Morenfolia, 2013) pointed out that instructional materials are normally chosen to meet the teaching requirements of an approved curriculum. Therefore, in the educational development, selection and acquisition of instructional materials in teaching Biology, the relevance of such materials for the contents of the curriculum must be ensured. However, students’ perception of the subject as being particularly oriented needed materials to be used in the teaching of Biology in secondary schools.

It is against this background that extents to which the use of instructional materials could advance the teaching of Biology within Ini Local Government Area.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

          In Nigeria, often times when the results of the public examination are release, these seem to have been a mass failure in Biology. The reason for this could be attributed to the fact that there are some topics in Biology that pose a serious challenge to the comprehension of the students. As such, there is a need for the use of instructional materials to teach the topics. This is because some topics cannot be taught effectively without the use of relevant instructional materials to make the lesson practical. Knight,(2015) stated that using the available instructional materials, a student is expected to get the greatest satisfaction in the classroom during teaching. Suddenly, it has been found that most Biology teachers have not been using the available instructional materials and as such, students are the worse heat in both internal and external examinations.

          It is base on the problems that the researcher’s interest is to find out the extent to which the instructional materials used could influence the teaching of Biology in Ini Local Government Area.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

          The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of instructional material usage in secondary schools in Ini Local Government Area.

          Specifically, the study sought to:

i.                                    Examine the use of visual materials in the teaching of Biology.

ii.                  Investigate the use of visual materials in the teaching of

          Biology.

1.4 Significant of the Study

          The instructional materials usage gives the learners an opportunity to; touch, see, and where possible smell or taste object in the teaching of Biology. Therefore, the study of this nature is significant to students, teachers and the government at large.

          This is 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 effective use of

instructional materials in the teaching of Biology. The study would help to enhance teacher teaching effectiveness and productivity.

            It will further help the teachers to teach effectively in the class by exposing them, to the real teaching objectives.

            Finally, the instructional material used in this study will enhance and have values in importing information to the learners, teachers, researcher and the government at large.

1.5 Research Hypotheses

            The following research hypotheses were formulated to facilitate the study:

i.                 Visual instructional material does not significantly influence Biology Teaching in Secondary in Ini Local Government Area.

ii.              Audio–Visual instructional materials do not Significantly influence Biology teaching in Secondary schools in Ini Local Government  Area.

1.6 Limitation of the Study

            This study was limited to a population which consists of nineteen (19) Biology teachers from eight (8) public secondary schools in Ini Local Government was purposefully selected. This was done to avoid error in generalization. Also, the time frame and financial constraint were the main problems of the researcher during this research work. A study of this kind requires a fairly long period of time and finance to aid the researcher to examine the various effect of instructional material usage which helps or mar the teaching of Biology in secondary schools.

1.7 Delimitation of the Study

             The focus of this study was to examine the effect of instructional material usage and Biology teaching in secondary schools. The scope if the study is delimited to secondary schools in Ini Local Government Area.

1.8 Definition of Operational Terms

            The following are taken as the definition to suit the purpose of this study:

Ø     Instructional materials: these are materials used in the teaching and learning which aid the teacher for easy demonstration and stimulate the sensory of the learners.

Ø     Teaching: this is the process by which information is transferred from one person to another in a classroom setting.

Ø     Learning: this is the process in which knowledge and idea acquired through the process of teaching.

Ø     Usage: this involves the proper utilization of materials.

Ø     Biology: this is the scientific study of natural processes of living and non-living things.