A SURVEY OF FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR STUDENTS’ POOR PERFORMANCE IN COMPUTER STUDIES IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATION (SSCE)
TABLE
OF CONTENT
Title page
Certification
Dedication
Acknowledgement
Table of content
Abstract
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Statement of the Problem
Significance of the Study
Purpose of the Study
Research Questions
Definition of
Terms
CHAPTER
TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The
teacher/principal factors
Teachers’ Qualification/Experience
Teachers’ Qualification/Experience
Teachers/Students Ratio
Students
attitude and commitment
Methods
of teaching computer
The
use of instructional materials in computer science
teaching
The
school environment factor
CHAPTER THREE
Research
design
Area
of the study
Population of the study
Sample
of the study
Instrument
for data collection
Validation
of the instrument
Procedure
for data collection
Data
analysis
CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary of
findings
Conclusion
Recommendations
Suggestions for further research
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
ABSTRACT
Computer science is intimately connected to daily
life and everybody’s life-long planning. Shut out computer science from daily
life and civilization comes to a standstill. It is in the light of this, that
the research seeks to build and elicit among students and teachers the proper
appreciation and interest in the value of computer science to the individual
and society. This is done with a particular focus on the senior secondary
schools in Ikere local government area of Ekiti state, Nigeria. The relevant data
and information was collected by the researcher through the questionnaire.
Simple frequency count and percentage were used to analyse the data. The
finding of this survey confirmed the fact that; the teacher factor, students’
attitude and commitment, methods of teaching computer science, use of
instructional materials and the school environment are to a great extent valid
factors that influences the students poor performance in computer science in
the senior secondary school certificate Examination.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
of the Study
Students academic
knowledge gain and learning performance is affected by several issues such as
gender, age, father/guardian social economic status, medium of directions in
schools, residential district of students, students schooling, tuition trend, study hour and accommodation
as hostelries or day scholar.
Vincent (2005) stated that
a student’s academic success contingent heavily on social status of student’s
parents/ guardians in the society. Zapala (2002) notices the same that parent’s
financial gain or social status positively affects the student test score in
examination. According to Michael (2007) “the education performance is relying
upon the educational performance of graduate students. Durden quoted Bratti,
(2002) observed that “the measurement of students previous academic outcomes
are the very important indicators of students future achievement, this means
that as the higher previous appearance, better the student’s educational performance
in future endeavors.
It is generally assumed
that the students who showed brilliant performance in the starting classes of
their studies will also perform better in future academic level. Everybody can
be surprised with this assumption if it could be proved scientifically. The
last two decades have been noticed significantly that there is great addition
in research literature and review material relating to indicators of academic
achievement with much emphasis on this discussion, whether traditional achievement
measures of educational performance are best determinants of future academic
gain at higher level or innovative measures. Parent’s
socio-economic condition, which such as parents’ academic and professional
qualification, income and occupational affiliation, is also associated with
academic gain of students. The results of several studies confirmed that
educational achievement of students is dependent upon parent’s socio-economic
condition. Therefore, the students belonging from higher social economical
backgrounds will perform better than other students associated with low social
economic backgrounds. “Social and economical status of student is generally
determined by combining parents’ qualification, occupation and income standard”
(Jeynes, 2002).
Education
is a continuous process which the society establishes to assist its members to
understand the heritage of the past and to participate productively in the
future. (Osokoya, 2008).
According
to Afe (2001), education is considered as a tool to be used for the integration
of the individual into the society to attain self-realization, develop national
consciousness, promote unity, and strive for social, economic, scientific,
political, cultural and technological progress. Education in science and
computer science therefore becomes bedrock and indispensable tools for
scientific, technological and economic advancement in any nation. It will give
the nation the capacity to apply technology for the exploitation of the
resources of nature. Such exploitation will depend greatly on computer science
for laying the foundation for political, governmental, military, civil,
scientific, technological advancement, socio-cultural, economic development and
environmental peace.
Osafeti
(2000) observed that the learning of computer in schools represent first, a
basic preparation for adult life and secondly a gateway to a large array of
career choices. From the societal perspective, competence in computer studies
is an essential for the preparation of an informed citizenry and for continuous
production of highly skilled personnel required for industry, science and
technology. The progress of any nation depends upon her scientific and
technological development which can only be made on a sound computer education
capable of making the citizens effectively useful in the natural and applied
sciences. The study of Computer studies therefore will go a long way to
“prepare students to live effectively in our modern age of science and
technology” (NPE 2004).
Therefore, Computer education contributes towards the
acquisition of these values: knowledge and skills, power and intellectual
habits, desirable attitudes and ideals that are indispensable tools for a
successful and balanced of human existence. During the last period there had
been unprecedented efforts in curriculum reforms in Computer studies in
Nigeria.
Similarly
workshops and conferences have also been held to salvage the situation and gave
a solid foundation to computer studies education, curricula developments and
implementation. To name but a few of such events are: The comparative Education
Study and Adaptation Centre that took care of the secondary level computer
science syllabus.
Statement of the Problem
Observations
and reports from examining bodies such as WAEC, NECO and JAMB stated that most
of secondary school students continue to perform poorly in computer science
examinations. Despite the laudable efforts at developing an acceptable general
computer science curriculum students’ performance in the subject appears to be
declining over the years. To alleviate the situation, the state and federal
government established computer laboratories in most of the schools. Chief
amongst its functions include:
1. To encourage and support activities
leading to the improvement of the teaching and learning of computer studies at
all levels.
2. To tackle national set goals in the
development of computer studies.
3. To inject computer education to the
rarefied area of computer science with a view to increasing the number of
computer scientists.
Yet
in the part of all these efforts the rate and degree of students’ poor
performance in senior secondary school examination in computer science must now
be a challenge of national concern. This sad situation is aptly described by
Adeniyi (2008) who rightly observes, that one’s involvement in the marking of
computer science for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is enough to
get anybody sorrowful at the state of Computer studies in Nigeria secondary
schools.
The
decline in the numbers of candidates opting to pursue the studies in the
sciences has become a matter of considerable societal concern and debate among
researchers (Jenkins, 2006). Consequently, the promotion of favourable
attitudes towards science and learning of Computer science is extremely
critical and important. However, the concept of poor performance in computer
science is rather ill-defined, often poorly expressed and not well understood.
Significance of Study
It
has been sincere hope of the researcher that by carrying out this study of the
factors responsible for students’ poor performance in computer science and
proffering solutions, the findings and recommendations would be of a great help
to all stakeholders who have anything to do with the success or failure of the
child in school; school administrators, psychologists, classroom teachers,
teacher trainers, theorists, curriculum designers, examination bodies and
professional associations.
It will sincerely guide and guard
government at all levels and ministries of education, school guidance
counselors and parents. It is hoped that this study will help in enhancing the
whole system in such a way as to induce better performance in computer science
examination at the secondary school level.
Purpose of the Study
This
study examines the factors responsible for the students’ poor performance in
computer science in selected secondary schools in Ikere Local government area
of Ekiti State.
Specifically, it will examine;
1. Teachers’ and students’ attitude to
teaching and learning of computer science.
2. The nature of school environment.
3. Teachers’ teaching methodology.
4. Teachers’ use of instructional aids
or materials.
Schools
have been established to accomplish specific goals and objectives and
incidentally one of the most common criteria of evaluating the effectiveness of
any school system is the extent to which the students perform in their
examinations.
Research Questions
To achieve the objective of the study,
the following research questions were formulated.
1. Does teachers’ attitude to the
teaching of computer science constitute a problem in the students’ performance
in the Computer science?
2. What is the nature of school
environment in which teaching/learning is done?
3. Does the students’ attitude and
commitment towards computer science constitute a significant problem in
performance in computer science?
4. Does the lack of instructional
materials, educational facilities and inadequate computers system in school and
supervision constitute a significant problem in students’ performance in
computer science examination?
Definition
of Terms
Factor: Means any
element, force, condition or circumstances that has a causal influence or can
contribute to the students’ performance in computer science.
Performance:
Achievement of specific goals, objectives or set mark in any academic
endeavour.
Curriculum: A
sequence of potential experiences, set up in the schools to discipline children
and youth in ways of thinking and acting whether it is carried out in groups or
individually, inside or outside the school.
Innovation:
is a way of changing and adapting for the purpose of attaining certain goals
and aspirations.
