TEACHERS PERCEPTION ON THE LEARNING OUTCOME OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS STUDENT IN INTEGRATED SCIENCE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Education has become a veritable tool for determining the level of development of any society. It is the instrument for human socio-economic development. Hence government made education a veritable tool for eradication of poverty, hunger and ignorance and for achievement of economic progress and overall improvement of quality of life of the citizens. In other words, the Federal Government reform agenda for the education system was triggered by the desire to achieve national development through attainment of the goals of Education for All (EFA), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS). The Nigerian education industry has undergone a number of educational reforms. This ushered in the Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme. The Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of president Obasanjo launched the Universal Basic Education scheme on September, 30th 1999 (FME 2000, Ada, 2010).
Integrated Science as a subject in secondary schools has received tremendous support across the globe, particularly by Nigerian Government after independence in 1960. Statement of the government intentions and input was documented in National Policy on Education (2014) which emphasized the need to maintain high level of scientific literacy, make science compulsory in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. In effect, the Nigerian child is exposed to science learning throughout the three levels of education (Isaiah, 2010). The essence of learning science at the various levels of education is to develop and improve the society scientific literacy. This can only be achieved when the students understand the nature of science which has to deal with the individual knowledge construction through hands-on and minds-on activities In the Nigeria’s philosophy of education, it was stated that education is an instrument for national development, and the instrument of persons and ideas are all aspects of education. For a nation to develop, her citizens must acquire scientific literacy through intensive pursue of credible science education for all citizens. Across the nation, the importance of science in life is far reaching, not only because we live in an age where every technological discovery and innovation has something to do with science but rather because sciences promote understanding of the world we live in (Abdulrahaman, 2014). To promote the understanding of the world, there is need to understand the nature of science as one of the goals of science teaching in Nigeria (FME, 2014) there exists a general agreement in the science education community that the major goal of science education is to enhance learners understanding of nature of science (NOS). This goal has been the focus of extensive research efforts for over 50 years (El-Khalick & Lederman, 2010)
The experiences a learner gets depends not only on what the learner is being taught but also on how the learner is taught, (Okebukola, 2011).The nature of integrated science teaching in our schools today has been revealed to be dominated by teacher centered approach. This approach as opined by Nwagbo (2013) has been ineffective at engaging students’ interest or making them develop conceptual understanding of the subject matter. These and several other reasons have made science educators to advocate for instructional procedures such as guided inquiry, problem solving, field trip, demonstration, project and discussion methods among others, Okebukola, (2012), Okafor and Okeke, (2016).The purpose of all teaching is to make the students learn what they are taught. That is, teachers teach to impact knowledge and skill to students. Integrated science as a science subject needs to be therefore taught using an activity based method of teaching such as guided inquiry which is investigated in this study in relation to students’ performance and attitude
Teachers can create a good deal of their curriculum by building webs made up of themes of interest to the children, with benefits for all. These benefits include more adequate coverage of curriculum, use of natural learning, building on children's interests, teaching skills in meaningful contexts, more flexibility, and an organized planning device (Krogh, 2011). Integrated teaching units work for children and teachers. Different approaches are being explored to "integrate" new ideas with the already effective teaching units. These integrated units allow the opportunity to make sure children are learning relevant information and applying that knowledge to real life scenarios.
Students' learning outcomes go beyond mere passing an examination or test but should reflect broad conceptual knowledge and adaptive vocational and generic skills. It should reflect essential knowledge, skills or attitudes and focuses on results of the learning experiences. It reflects the desired end of the learning experience, not the means or the process. Learning outcomes represent the minimum performances that must be achieved to successfully complete a course or program, and may be considered to be exit behaviors (Lesch & Brown, 2018). It can be inferred from the foregoing that students' learning outcomes refer to those observable and measurable knowledge, skills and attitudes of learners after a learning encounter. It does not necessarily imply students’ performance in a test because test performance is just an index amongst several others that can be used to assess the learning outcomes of learners.
Science and Technology occupy a central position in the school curriculum. They are important subjects from primary through junior secondary to senior secondary school levels of educational system (Hassan, Gimba & Chado, 2016). The important position occupied these subjects in the school curricula is role out of Science and Technology in scientific and technological development, as a necessary condition or requirement in national building. However, the teaching of these relevant subjects is surrounded by problems; such as the problem of inadequate and substandard learning materials, poor reading habit, class size, culture/belief, Science and Technology anxiety, and general attitudes of students (Hassan, 2016). The major problem that Nigerian secondary education is facing is the student’s poor performance in core subjects, especially English Language and Science and Technology. Researches of Kurumeh & Imoko (2008) revealed low academic achievement of students in Science and Technology at all levels of education in Nigeria from primary school (Basic education) to secondary school. Also, pupils and secondary school students complained about Science and Technology as being difficult. This entails that Science and Technology foundation in primary school level is very weak and is carried forward to Junior and Senior Secondary School levels which has contributed a lot to poor academic achievements of students in Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE). Science and Technology is not a single subject at any level of education. A student cannot be admitted into most science and technology courses at institutions of higher level in Nigeria, since Nigerians aiming of technological advancement and economic emancipation is being undermined by the continued poor Science and Technology achievement of secondary school students in both external and internal examinations. It is common knowledge that the economies of the industrialized nations are driven by science and technology. Hence, Nigeria’s vision to be among the top 20 world largest economies by the year 2020 (Vision 2020) justifies the emphasis placed on “science, technical and vocational education” (FRN, 2004).
For the fact that students in Nigeria are advised to offer science subjects, and one subject that cuts across all the sciences is Science and Technology. Presently, Science and Technology strategies are applied in most areas of human activities and as such they play a fundamental and major part in the development of the economy in any country. For Nigeria to meet-up with the predicted technological improvement, it needs better Science and Technology achievement for students at all levels of Education. The position of Science and Technology on any individual’s life in every country cannot be undermined because it occupies central position in the improvement of a country. In the study of (Betiku 2001) Science and Technology have been widely identified as the instrument for measuring the geo-political and socio-economic development of every nation. According to the (NPE 2004), Science and Technology is one of the essential subjects which must be offered by every learner in all levels of Primary and Secondary Education in Nigeria. We can then conclude that the knowledge of Science and Technology is important and necessary to every individual because of the mandatory nature of the subjects. If any country or nation is to train or produce engineers, technologists and scientists, the monitoring and accountability of these subjects must be of priority to them.
Obodo (2000) lamented that the causes of ineffectiveness in teaching and learning of Science and Technology in Nigeria is from various sources. It is therefore very sad that the performance of students’ Science and Technology in both the internal and external examination has continued to be deteriorating yearly despite the importance of the subjects. Amazigo (2000) stated that Science and Technology educators have been trying to pinpoint the main factors militating against the effectiveness of teaching and learning of Science and Technology in Nigeria.
Teachers perception of students effectiveness refers to how teachers see the activities of their students That is, it includes the degree to which students view the punctuality, teaching, behaviour, dressing and all other physical or observable activities of their teachers. A student may perceive a teacher as being effective or ineffective. This is because teachers are role model to students and their behaviour goes a long way to affect those of the learners. The quality of education depends on the teachers as reflected in the performance of their duties. Over time pupils' academic performance in both internal and external examinations had been used to determine excellence in teachers and teaching (Ajao, 2001). Both teaching and learning depend on teachers: no wonder an effective teacher has been conceptualized as one who produces desired results in the course of his duty as a teacher (Uchefuna, 2001). This study focused specifically on students’ perception of teachers’ motivational skills, students’ perception of teaching methods, students’ perception of teachers’ relationship with students, and students’ perception of teachers’ communication level, which have been explained below. Students' perception of teachers' motivational skills refers to how the students in a class, view the strategies employed by their teachers to make them willing to learning. A student can perceive a teacher's motivational approach as being good, fair or bad. They may also perceive such skills as being effective/positive, or ineffective/negative. Teachers' motivational skills refer to those techniques a teacher employs to keep learners happy, excited, make them ready and willing to learn. It includes the excitement in the teacher, his relationship with students, his comments to students' questions or answers to questions and many others. Teachers' motivational skills are the abilities to maintain the interest that brought students to the course in the first place (Obot, Essien & Akpan, 2014).
Statement of the problem
The objective of secondary education as well as societal expectations, appear to have met some bottlenecks based on the poor learning outcomes of most secondary school students. In Cross River State, there is a high rate of misbehavior amongst students. Many secondary school students are performing below expectations in internal and external examinations. Some have developed disrespectful attitudes toward parents. There is also a high rate of involvement in cultism and other social vices by secondary school students. Such negative attitudes as stealing, smoking of cigarettes and/or Indian hemp and many others, are commonplace. In fact, it is no longer news to see secondary school students engaging in such unacceptable social menace in which the society frowns at. This is indeed a backlash given that, these students were supposed to be in school, learning and working hard to improve themselves, their families and the society in general. In the past, many students have attributed their unserious attitudes to be as a result of lack of parental support, peer pressure, low self-esteem, poverty and so on. However, several pieces of research have been conducted on all these factors, and recommendations which one expects should have been enough to address these issues, have been made. Parents, as well as the government, are making efforts each passing day to improve the quality of students produced through improved learning outcomes. The persistent increase in the poor performance of students especially in subjects like Economics and Mathematics is unacceptable and calls for urgent attention. It was on this note, that the researcher wonders what might be responsible for this issue and thus, sought to investigate whether students' perception of their teachers' effectiveness has any association with their poor learning outcomes.
Purpose of the study
The main purpose of the study is to find out teachers perception on the learning outcome of secondary schools student in Integrated Science in Ekiti State.
Specifically, the study sought to;
i. Find out the effect of teacher teaching method have effect on students academic performance
ii. determine the perceptions of teachers on the problem of effective teaching and learning of integrated science
iii. examine classroom interaction patterns on students’ academic performance in Integrated Science.
iv. Find out students’ cognitive styles on achievement in Integrated Science
Research Questions
Based on the above stated objectives, the following questions were formulated.
i. To what extent does teacher teaching method have effect on students academic performance?
ii. What are the perceptions of teachers on the problem of effective teaching and learning of integrated science?
iii. What is the influence of classroom interaction patterns on the mean achievement scores of students in integrated science?
iv. What is the influence of students’ cognitive styles on the mean achievement scores of students in integrated science?
Significance of Study
This study on perception of social studies teachers on Girl/child education in Junior Secondary Schools in Ekiti State is significant in a number of ways. Some of these are outlined in the section.
1. The study will provide valid research based data that will bring about improvement innovation into the programme. It is difficult to assert that a girl/child programmes is doing what is supposed to do when it has not been 9 formally assess. This study will determine the role of specialized social studies on girl/child education under the existing situation in Nigeria.
2. Motivate curriculum planners of junior secondary school integrated science to emphasize the use of guided inquiry teaching method in teaching various concepts in integrated science . This will help to enhance the performances of low achievers in integrated science thus reducing the rate of drop out in the subject.
3. Afford low achievers in integrated science the opportunity to learn by themselves with little guidance from their teachers hence affect positively their attitude to integrated science subject.
4. Textbooks authors should emphasize guided inquiry strategy as an instructional procedure that should be adopted for effective teaching and learning of various concepts in integrated science . As this method is activity oriented and would help low achievers in integrated science to learn meaningfully.
5. Students will also benefit when introduced to suitable method of instructions that will promote their performance in integrated science .
6. Provide a teaching method for teaching integrated science in order to inculcate in students the skills of diligent search and enhance positive attitude toward integrated science .
It would help fellow researchers, curriculum developers and educationists to be able to research further, based on the findings of this research work by using low achievers in other science subjects
Scope of the Study
The study on teachers perception on the learning outcome of secondary schools student in Integrated Science in Ekiti State will be carried out in selected junior secondary school in Ikere local government area of Ekiti State.
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