Tag Archives: Learning

Comparison of JSS Academic Performance

Comparison of Junior Secondary School Academic Performance in internal and External Examination in Social Studies in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the Study

The parameter or yardstick in the measurement or determine into of one’s achievement, success or failure on an assigned duty, specific task, education and or, in a business Endeavour is by the evaluation of his/her performance in their various subjects of study in Nigeria is a thing of long time origin.  And the appraisal of student’s performance in social studies is not an exemption.  The importance of social studies as a subject taught in secondary school in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized.  It is in this vain that many researchers have studied our school system to identify the various means, channel and or, procedure of impeaching knowledge to our students especially through social studies.

This performance of students is a far cry based on the expected success of institutions of these kinds or nature.  A lot of reasons has been adduced for this inspite of the preparedness of teachers of those schools to deliver.  Some of the students absent themselves from schools for a long time.  This affects their performance because they have lost touch of the essence of regular practice and continuity in social studies.

Secondly, the students do not avail themselves with the use of books which supposed to enhance their performance this is further caused by poor reading habit of some of them and loads of domestic work which their parents engaged them in.

Learning has been so much associated with the school that some people almost think that learning goes on only in schools. This view of learning has been greatly reinforced by such reference to schools as institutions of learning and to Universities, Polytechnics and College of Education as institutions of higher learning (Okoye, 1987). There is no doubting the fact that much learning goes on in school. The school is particularly and specifically arranged so as to facilitate effective learning. Unfortunately the poor condition of our schools, particularly the secondary schools today in the nation raises a lot of anxiety. A cursory look at these schools in spite of government efforts reveals schools dominated by dilapidated buildings, school void of good furniture and equipment, schools where instructional materials are either not provided or are inadequate; school that are under-staffed; schools, where teachers’ salaries and allowances are not promptly paid, schools that have not been inspected for the last 15 years; schools where there are no discipline among other things.

The government, and especially the parents are very much concerned with the quality and volume of learning acquired by their children, wards and citizens as this is related to the quality and quantity of the contribution which the individual can make to his immediate family, community and the nation as a whole. (Thorndike, 1931).

Several studies by Sociologist, Psychologists and Educationists showed that the type of schools a learner attends has profound influence on his academic achievement. For instance, Bibby and Peil (1974) noted that children who attended private secondary schools performed better both internal and external examination than pupils in public secondary schools. This view is also supported by Lioyd (1966) as he contended further that the public schools which saw education as good thing, tended to leave the question of educational success or failure in the hands of the public and their parents. This implies that the business of education is not taken with all the seriousness it demands in the public schools. This of course is what may be regarded as the general apathy of the citizenry to government’s owned business or property. A situation that has resulted in lackadaisical attitude of government’s workers, including teachers in the public schools tend to believe that an intelligent child would succeed automatically at school without any active assistance coming from them.

In a study jointly carried out by the Federal Government of Nigeria, UNICEF and UNESCO in 1977 to monitor the learning achievement of secondary school students throughout the Federation, it was shown that most of the private schools had means in the three areas tested higher than the national means and that of their public counterpart.

Similarly, Yoloye (1998) while assessing the situation of education in Niger State compared the quality of education in five states of the federation namely, River, Imo, Enugu, Anambra and Bayelsa. He compared performance between urban and rural schools; private and public schools, as well as between male and female secondary school students. He concluded that while Niger State comes last in almost all the sub-sector analyzed, the only cheering exception is in the private schools where it performed better both in internal and external examinaton than other states and indeed exceeded the grand mean. He did not give reasons for low or high achievement.

The study therefore sought to find out if there is any difference in students’ academic attainment in internal and external social studies examination in  junior secondary schools in the said local government council areas in the study. It also highlighted the causes of such differences in academic achievement and suggested measures to rectify the differences so discovered.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

Academic performance of students in the Social Studies internal and external Examination has received much attention of late in the Nigerian educational system. At the beginning of every academic year when results are released, educational stakeholders raise a lot of concerns about the falling performance of students. In Nigeria, junior secondary Schools are three times better in internal examination than external examination. Schools provide quality education, have good supervision, high parental commitment, motivation and good methodology leading to the commitment of students in their education but the students do not have confidence enough while writing external examination and this could be as a result of strange face of the supervisor whom they are not familiar with, then this research work consider it more important to compare the relative academic performance of the junior secondary school student in both internal and external Social Studies Examination in Warri South Local Government Area.

1.3     Objectives of the Study

  1. To examine the academic performance of student`s by comparing the Social Studies internal and external Examination result of some selected secondary Schools in the said area.
  2. To investigate the factors accounting for the student’s performance in the Social Studies Examination in secondary Schools.
  3. To find ways to improve the academic performance in our secondary Schools.

1.4     Research Questions

Answers were provided to the following questions in this research work:

  1. Will there be any difference in academic performance between internal and external social studies examination in Warri South?
  2. What variables are responsible for this difference(s) in this said Town?
  3. What measures can be put in place to improve the situation?

1.5     Statement of Hypothesis

A hypothesis is a tentative statement linking two or more variable in a correlation to establish a relationship that, further subjection to test will confirm such relationship as either positive or negative. The following are the two hypotheses that are to be tested.                  

H0: Social Studies student does not perform significantly better in internal examination than external examination.           

H1: Social Studies student perform significantly better in internal examination than external examination.  

1.6     Scope of the Study

 This research work is aimed at the comparison of junior secondary school academic performance in internal and external examination in social studies in Warri south local government area. Due to current emphasis on education in the country by the government and in order to reduce the country’s academic degradation, in solving this problem, this study focused attention on this comparison and to suggest possible solution to the problem.

1.7     Limitation of the Study

The study is on the comparison of junior secondary school academic performance in internal and external examination in social studies in warri south local government area. This study is limited to government secondary schools in Delta State.

Despite the limited scope of this study certain constraints were encountered during the research of this project.  Some of the constraints experienced by the researcher were given below:

  1. Time: This was a major constraint on the researcher during the period of the work. Considering the limited time given for this study, there was not much time to give this research the needed attention.
  2. Finance: Owing to the financial difficulty prevalent in the country and it’s resultant prices of commodities, transportation fares, research materials etc. The researcher did not find it easy meeting all his financial obligations.
  3. Information Constraints: Nigerian researchers have never had it easy when it comes to obtaining necessary information relevant to their area of study from private and even government schools. The staffs in all these schools are finding it difficult to reveal their internal operations. The primary information was collected through face-to-face interview getting the published materials on this topic meant going from one library to other which was not easy.

Although these problems placed limitations on the study, but it did not prevent the researcher from carrying out a detailed and comprehensive research work on the subject matter.

1.8     Definition of Key Terms                                         

To make a research work such as this comprehensive to even an average reader, it became every important to define some salient features involved in the theme. These salient terms are defined as follows:

Curricular: It is the aggregate of courses of study given in a school, college, university, etc

Performance: Accomplishing or achievement of specific goals, objectives or set mark in any academic Endeavour. It is one of the most common criteria of evaluating effectiveness of schools.

Learning: the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught.

Education: Education in its general sense is a form of learning in which the knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits of a group of people are transferred from one person to another

Students Attitude: this refers to the opinions or feelings that students usually have about their studies.

Teaching: Teaching is simply referred to as the activities of educating or instructing.

Qualified Teacher: For this study a teacher who holds the following certificate is assumed to be qualified: NCE, B.Ed., B.Sc. (Ed), B.Sc. and PGDE

Innovation: is a way of changing and adapting for the purpose of attaining certain goals and aspirations

Challenges:  Challenges is seen as a call to someone to participate in a competitive situation or fight to decide who is superior in terms of ability or strength

 

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THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATION IN EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATION IN EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF BWARI AREA COUNCIL, FCT

ABSTRACT

Education being one of the pillars of development has a very important role to play in the lives of both the learners and the learned.  Teaching is an exciting adventure in which both the teacher and the students participate. The Teaching Philosophy includes basic communication approaches; (a) passion and communication. (b) Fairness: to understand students as individuals and students. (c) Critical thinking: as teachers should be challenged to try to deliver course materials in different ways and from different perspectives. (d) humour and fun; Pleasing students by being approachable will make them more determined to excel in their examinations. Little attention has been paid to student performances in public examinations, learning difficulties and teachers stimulating themselves in creating effective secondary schooling in Nigeria. This study examined the role of communication in effective teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools of Bwari Area Council. Effective communication skills are really important to teachers in their delivery of pedagogy, classroom management and interaction with the class. However, this study is about the fundamental role played between the academic performance of students taught with instructional materials and those taught without instructional materials by teachers in secondary school education through their communication skills. Three hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance using chi-square analysis. The results showed that teachers’ classroom effectiveness on the use of instructional materials through professional communication in the classroom and students learning styles have impact or influence on student’s academic performance in public examination. In this regard therefore, there is the need to assess the role of communication in effective teaching and learning in secondary schools of Bwari Area Council in order to establish measure of communication and strategies to use in communicating in order to make meaningful progress in the pattern of teaching and learning in Bwari Area Council. The survey therefore sought to find out the following information. The issues which emerged in this study are vital to the understanding of teacher education in communicating effectively in the teaching and learning in secondary schools. The researcher happened to apply some approaches on random sample of teachers and students at the various secondary schools in Bwari areas council. The importance of this study lies in the new trend of Mass Failure in Senior School Certificate English and Mathematics Examinations.

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

 

1.1     Background of the Study

In Nigeria public discussions frequently focus on educational standards. The public’s unhappiness becomes more prominent following the annual release of the public examinations results. Student outcomes do not match the government and parental investment. All stakeholders are concerned about why the system is turning out graduates with poor results. To them, it is questionable whether or not teachers in the public secondary schools, the most important factor in the effectiveness of schools and in the quality of a child’s education is the competent to communicate and teach effectively. The National Policy of Education states, “No Education system can rise above the quality of teachers in the system” (FGN, 2006). Ogunsaju (2004) opined that the academic standard in all Nigerian educational institutions has fallen considerably below societal expectations. Blumende (2001) corroborated this view when he reported that the decline in the quality of education cannot be ignored by anyone who is aware of the significant role of education as an instrument of societal transformation and development. There is a need to focus on teachers’ adequacy and competency in respect to their pedagogical practices and strategies and mastery of the curriculum and subject content (Chall & Popp, 1990; Stuart, 2004; Rodgers, 2001). In support of the aforementioned scholars, Ekwesili (2006) institutionalized the Private Public Partnership (PPP) and School Based Management Committee (SBMC) to manage secondary education and to promote school effectiveness since students’ success depends on the amount of learning that takes place in the classroom and other related ‘how effective and efficient the teacher performs in schools’.

In the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), education remains the largest industry and government continues to ensure that funds, instructional materials and teaching personnel are made available for the sector. Government has also continuously encouraged secondary education by adopting the social demand approach towards planning the sector and by subsidizing the Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) fee in the Territory over a long period of time. An indication of government interest in the general education in the FCT is reflected in the budgetary estimates of the Territory.

Academic achievement is usually established through examinations, which consist of set questions that seek to determine how much an individual perceives the subject as a result of learning. Commendable performance is an indication of effective learning. Secondary education in Nigeria has been characterized by poor performance in national examinations, especially in core subjects such as Mathematics and English Language (MoEST, 2005).

One of the most potent barometers so far, if not the strongest, of measuring school and teacher effectiveness is the performance of pupils in public examinations such as Senior School Certificate Examination (S.S.C.E.) in Nigeria. The issue of declining academic performance of secondary school students in two principal subjects (English Language and Mathematics) at the Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) has generated much interest among stakeholders in the education sector, particularly in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The quality of education and performance of students depends on the teachers as reflected in the discharge of their duties. Over time pupils’ academic performance in both internal and external examinations had been used to determine the effectiveness of teachers and teaching (Ajao, 2001).

Teachers have been known to have important influence on students’ academic achievement and they also play a crucial role in educational attainment; because the teacher is ultimately responsible for translating educational policies and principles into actions based on practice during interaction with the students (Afe, 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). Considering governments’ huge investment in public education, its output in terms of quality of students has been observed to be unequal with government expenditure. Consequent upon the observed deterioration in the academic achievement, attitude and values of secondary school students in public secondary schools, one wonders if the high failure rates and the failure of the students especially in external examinations is not a reflection of the instructional quality in the schools.

Therefore, the ineffectiveness of teachers in classroom interaction with the students could be responsible for the observed poor performance of students and the widely acclaimed fallen standard of education in Nigeria. Effective teaching of any subject will not only stimulates student’s interest in the subject but also enhance their achievement in the examination. To achieve effective teaching and learning process, there is the need for use of instructional materials.

Instructional materials are the different teaching aids or apparatus which a classroom teacher employs to facilitate his or her teaching for the achievement of the stated objective. Agun (1992) defined instructional materials as those materials which are helpful to the teachers and students and which maximize learning in various areas. The use of instructional materials in teaching these two critical subjects is very important because it provides a concrete basis for conceptual thinking motivates people to learn and captures pupils’ imagination if used correctly (Ajalla, 1997). Some scholars have also observed at one point or the other that the knowledge base in all professional fields, changes over time teaching is not an exception. With advances in educational research, and the rapidly changing demographics of students in Nigeria, the knowledge base in education will never be ‘complete’ or finished (Fafunwa, 2004; Farrant, 2004; Wasagu, 2009) in Awwalu M.I and Najeemah B.M.Y, (2012).

One of the key elements in any school and effective teaching is a Teacher. Teachers are the key propellers for school improvement. By implication, the task of a teacher, which includes sustaining education system, do not rest on his or her professional competency alone, but on the entire features of the school climate (Loukas, 2007). But, public schools which are owned by government and are predominantly occupied by citizens of lower socioeconomic status in Nigerian society and are facing challenges of educational sub-standard, lack of adequate resources, leading to poor teaching, students poor academic performance and dropping out.

Darling-Hammond (2006) opined that teacher preparation and knowledge of teaching and learning, subject matter knowledge, experience, communication skills and the combined set of qualifications measured by teacher licensure are all leading factors in teacher effectiveness. The realization of the goals of a secondary school as an educational organization hinges on effective communication among the various operating personnel. Communication helps to build relationships and facilitates achievement of goals. Thus the need for effective communication strategies for the improvement of a secondary school cannot be overemphasized.

The basic function of “education” itself relies almost entirely on communication. This can be inferred that classroom interactions between teachers and students occur rapidly in a classroom. It is indicated that teachers in secondary schools may have interactions with 150 different students in a single day. However, teachers are usually not aware or are not able to describe or remember what happens in these interactions with their students. For example, in a study conducted by Good and Brophy as cited in (She and Fisher, 2002), it was observed that teachers are usually not aware on how many questions they asked students and what kind of feedback they provided.

In any society, the teaching profession is perhaps the largest and single profession. It is however; not the most attractive but it has the greatest impact on the overall development in society. For this singular reason, effective communication improves learners’ expectations and motivation to learning in secondary school education. Communication has deep significance for human organizations since individuals make specialized contributions to the achievement of the overall goals of the organization.

Secondary education is a comprehensive type of education with a core curriculum, designed to broaden the knowledge and outlook of students who “successfully complete the junior secondary school” (FME, Status Report 2003 P.55). It is a stage, where a student enters at the age of thirteen (13) years. This statement was upheld by the World Bank, 2011, that “Secondary education is now being recognized as the cornerstone of educational systems in the 21st century.”  This is the most crucial stage of one’s life.  At this stage, teacher plays an important and crucial role at secondary school level. I would like to say that if secondary school teachers (English and Mathematics) succeeded in framing sound base of these subjects to the students of secondary level, it is justified to say that they will be able to make useful scientific discoveries. That is why, these teachers occupies the most important and crucial position in entire educational system.

The cognitive domain of learning involves knowledge and the development of intellectual skills. It includes the recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns and concepts that serve in the development of abilities and skills. Effective teaching of any subject will not only stimulates student’s interest in the subject but also enhance their achievement in the examination. To achieve effective teaching and learning process, there is the need for use of instructional materials.

It is precisely from this background that the researcher seeks to evaluate communication as an effective tool in teaching and learning (English and Mathematics) in the use of instructional materials in Secondary schools in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory.  With hope of making concrete suggestion on how best students’ expectations and motivation to learning English and Mathematics in secondary school education can be properly enhanced through effective communication.

1.2.    Statement of the Problem

This study is to look into the “Role of Communication in effective teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools of Bwari Area Council”. It has to be kept in mind that people do not communicate by just composing sentences, but by using sentences to make statements of difficult kinds, to record, to describe, to classify, to give and ask for information, to ask questions, make requests, etc. Therefore, students acquire the language by using it. The quality of any educational system is determined by the quality of the teaching-learning process.  Teachers interpret and communicate the curriculum to learners.  They ensure that efficient and effective use the country’s investment in education, act as role models to the learners and transmit societal values from generation to generation.

The importance of English and Mathematics, occupying a unique position among subjects taught in secondary schools cannot be overemphasized. The act of teaching is fundamentally concerned with passing ideas, skills and attitude from the teacher to the learner. Concerns are being raised in recent times about the poor performance of students at public examinations like: the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE), the National Examination Council (NECO) and the Joint Admission and Matriculations Board (JAMB) examinations. On one hand, teachers have been blamed for failing to equip the students with the necessary skills to enable them competes in such examinations. On the other hand, teachers put the blame on students; indeed, the corner stone of good education in any secondary school is its teachers because all other factors mean little without competent teachers.

The reason for this could be ascribed to the fact that there are topics in these subjects that pose serious problem of comprehension to students.  Scholars like Mutebi and Matora (1994) emphasized the role of communication in instructional materials utilization on teaching and learning. According to them, we learn and remember 10% of what we hear, 40% of what we discuss with others and as high as 80% of what we experience directly or practice. However, the questions here are: does the use of instructional materials really influence students’ academic performance? Is teaching effectiveness enhanced by the use of instructional materials? 

A basic understanding of the priorities of today’s generations is a crucial element to help educators to better understand, relate and communicate to the learners in their teaching. The success of a school system is dependent upon the “quality of communication” in it.

1.3     Purpose of the Study

  1.  To identify the role of communication in effective teaching and classroom management.
  2.  To determine the effect of use of instructional material on student’s achievement in English and Mathematics in secondary schools. Specifically, the study intends to:
  3. find out the mean achievement scores of students taught with instructional materials and
  4. those taught without instructional materials
  5. To identify how communication and development can be used to improve student performance in examinations.

1.4    Research Question

This study intends to examine and provide answers to the role of communication for quality of teaching and learning using Instructional materials in public secondary schools in Bwari Area Council. To guide the study three research questions were posed.

  1. Does teachers’ classroom effectiveness on the use of instructional materials have any impact or influence on student’s academic performance?”
  2. What are the effects of effective communication of teachers on students’ academic performance?
  3. What are the effects of students taught by highly qualified, moderately qualified and less qualified teachers using instructional materials?
  4. What are the effects of communication in the understanding of learners’ learning styles in classroom environment?

1.5     Research Hypotheses

To guide the study, three hypotheses were formulated as follows:

H01:   There is no significant difference between the academic performance of students taught with instructional materials and those taught without instructional materials by qualified (highly, moderately and less) teachers through their communication skills.

H02:   There is no significant relationship between effective communication of teachers and students learning styles on their academic performance.

H03: There is no significant difference in the academic performance of students taught by highly qualified, moderately qualified and less qualified teachers through their communication skills.

1.6   Significance of the Study

Teachers have been known to have important influence on students’ academic achievement and they also play a crucial role in educational attainment because the teacher is ultimately responsible for translating educational policies and principles into actions based on practice during interaction with the students (Afe, 2001).

  1. This study will contribute towards the achievement of the teaching and learning in the study area. The findings of this study will make a contribution to the ongoing debate surrounding effective teaching methodologies using instructional materials on students’ performances in public examinations as a measure of teachers’ communication skills.
  2. The researcher is of the opinion that the study will inform policy development towards more accurate and reliable measures of school performance, that is, value added analysis.
  3. the study would likely promote awareness in both teachers and the taught and will further improve effective classrooms control for better teaching and learning.
  4. Finally, outcomes of the study will produce recommendations that might be useful for educators and curriculum planners at the time of designing syllabi.

1.7     Scope and Delimitation of Study

This study is specifically designed to examine the role of communication for quality of teaching and learning in public secondary schools in Bwari Area Council. To this end, 8 schools public senior secondary schools drawn from 4 districts in Bwari Area Council.  A total three thousand five hundred (3500) respondents were randomly selected and bordered on two principal subjects (English and Mathematics).

In addition, the value added results from the other subjects will not be generalized. Students’ academic achievement is not the only important goal of education that can be used to judge teacher’s teaching effectiveness. Multiple indicators of teacher’s teaching effectiveness are required such as, teachers’ mastering  subject & knowledge of teaching methods, regular preparation of lesson plan for teaching, checking of student’s homework regularly, arrangement of weekly/monthly test to evaluate and assess the student’s academic achievement and performance in the subject area, attitude of students to learning, social functioning and attendance. While these are desirable, students’ academic achievement still remains the main indicator of post-basic education. The study is narrowed to students’ academic achievement only.  As the research was completed in a relatively short period of time other factors and variables are not considered. This might have an impact on the results of the study.

1.8     Basic Assumptions of the study

The study was based on the following assumptions

  1. The target respondents would cooperate and give correct information.
  2. Well performing schools had adopted Effective communication in teaching and learning ‟strategies that were not employed by low performing schools to improve academic performance.”
  3. By adopting the strategies employed by well performing schools, poor performing schools can improve their performance.
  4. It is assumed that classroom is a place where knowledge is socially constructed through interaction among teachers, students, and materials.

1.9     Definition of Terms

The following terms are defined in order to provide an understanding of how they will be used in this study. The definitions of other key concepts are presented in the relevant chapters.

Academic performance – This refers to the ability to study and remember facts, being able to study effectively and see how facts fit together and form larger patterns of knowledge, and being able to think for yourself in relation to facts and being able to communicate your knowledge verbally or down on paper.

Content relevance:  student’s perception of whether the course instruction and its content, or both, satisfied personal needs, personal goals, and career goals.

Effective learning – This refers to students‟ being available, focused and committed to undertake learning willingly.

Effective school – This refers to a school whose educators are responsible for producing acceptable results, by putting emphasis on instructional leadership, focus on vision and mission, communicating high expectations for success, monitoring of student progress, home-school relations, and creating an opportunity to learn for each student.

Effective teaching – This refers to helping students to learn by providing adequate context and content, and involving the learners in the process of responding to questions, summarizing findings and discussions and research and report on unanswered questions.

Effective teachers:  Teachers that displays certain characteristics in a class.

Instructional materials: Devices developed or acquired to assist or facilitate teachers in transmitting, organized knowledge skills and attitudes to the learners within an instructional situation (Nwachukwu, 2006).

Poor performing school – This refers to a secondary school that consistently obtains a mean grade of below C+ in Senior School Certificate Examinations.

Secondary education: A comprehensive type of education with a core curriculum, designed to broaden the knowledge and outlook of students

Teacher immediacy: a set of verbal and nonverbal behaviours that reveal a teacher’s willingness to approach and be approached by students.

Teacher clarity: A multidimensional construct that explains three broad teachers’ behaviour clusters in a classroom: – presentation or verbal clarity, structural or message clarity, and instructional process clarity (e.g., stresses important aspects of the content, assesses and responds to perceived deficiencies in student understanding.

Well performing school – This refers to a secondary school that consistently obtains a mean grade of at least C+ and above in Senior School Certificate Examinations.

 

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AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE FACTORS AFFECTING EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

ABSTRACT

This research work seeks to investigate the “factors affecting effective teaching and learning”. The method used in teaching is not properly done, the age of the pupils are not usually considered before selecting the method for teaching in Kaduna south local government Area. This justifies the imperativeness for conducting a research on the Effectiveness of teaching and learning in Kaduna South Local Government Education Authority. The literature review was organized under three broad areas i.e. the conceptual framework, the theoretical framework and other issues.  In order to conduct the study, a survey research design, was adopted, forty teachers from four different schools were randomly sampled. Using Questionnaire and interview as the major instruments for Data collection. Tables and percentage were used for data presentation thereby enabling for easy discussion and interpretation of data. At the end of the data gathering, the study revealed that although teaching and learning is going on in some schools within the study area, teachers encounter certain difficulties. Some of these difficulties include Lack of Instructional Materials, Lack of Conducive Learning Environment, Language and Social Barriers of the learners. Thus, the study concluded by giving mechanism and approaches such as demonstration, use of teaching aids, dramatizing, storytelling, excursion. Enhancing and Improving teaching and Learning in the Study Area. Finally, the appropriate recommendations are put forward for improving the Effectiveness of Teaching and Learning within the study area, some of which includes the involvement of parents in the educational process of their children, School Health Services should be revived and inculcated in the National Policy on Education. Teachers should be proactive and respond to urgent needs of their pupils.

 

CHAPTER ONE

 INTRODUCTION

 

1.1       Background to the Study

The authority which a teacher exercises over a child is as a result of his standing in place of the parent, that is in Loco parentis. By a teacher being in loco parentis, to the pupils in his care is meant that, he assumes the rights and duties of the natural parent of the child. By sending the child to school, the parent has authorized the school teacher to administer reasonable school regulation in addition to his teaching responsibility to the child.

The issue of professionalism in relation to the teaching occupation has occupied various literatures and writings of many scholars for a long time. Very often, occupational groups have referred to their occupations as professions as long as members are able to come together to discuss issues of common interest. Sociologists have addressed professionalism and made some contributions regarding its ingredients or characteristics.

For example, an occupation can be truly a profession or a semi-profession, depending on the level of authority enjoyed by the group. Other considerations, which are not exhaustive, include normal educational level of authority activity which aims at bringing about learning or impartation of knowledge into the learners. So also, a teacher must intentionally be well acquainted with the various ways by which he/she can transfer knowledge, skills and ideas to his/her students. He/she must have the required professional knowledge and skills. He/she must also possess the mastery of the subject matter, since the students depend much on the teacher for acquiring new knowledge. No teacher can impart the knowledge that he/she has not acquired, therefore the teacher must prepare adequately well in advance.

Teachers are trained in the art of teaching because of the child. The principles and methods of teaching should be guided by the experience of the child, the environment and the innovative approach to reaching where students have control over their learning contrary to the traditional approach to students learning. So he/she must have the practice, theory, child study and study various branches of knowledge like methods, principles and general study for the benefit of the child. The teacher is only teaching when a child is learning.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

In today’s Nigeria, the educational system is faced with the challenge of effective teaching methods and a myriad of other related problems thereby having its toll effects on the learning states of the students.  The Nigerian ‘Union of Teachers is however constrained by its limited budget to look to alternative means of carrying out its statutory responsibilities. Not only this, the cost of governance has increased lately making the government to cut down budgets of its ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in a bid to stay afloat.

Early Childhood Education in Nigeria: Issues and Problems

Early years in life are the most important to the formation of intelligence, personality and social behaviour of a child. The year before a child reaches Kindergarten are among the most critical in his or her life to influence learning. That is why modern societies show serious concern for the education of their young ones by providing needed support to prepare them to succeed later in school (Ejieh, 2006). It is common practice in most societies to make provision for early childhood education programmes of various sorts for children below the official school-going age (usually 6years) mainly to prepare them for education in primary schools (Obidike, 2012). The Federal

Government of Nigeria recognizes the importance of early childhood education in Nigeria and as a result it was given prominence in the National Policy of Education ( FRN, 2004) as one of the programmes in the Nigerian educational system.

Bagudo (2008), posited that reports across the globe revealed that an estimated figure of one hundred million children, struggle daily for survival in villages and cities, and are exposed to the risks of hunger, poverty, disease, illiteracy and abuses. In support of this view, Mahuta (2007) stresses that the need to address the problems and salvage these children and the next generation of children from these menace, has necessitated the programme of Early Childhood Care Development and Education (ECCDE).

Mahuta (2007) also stated that the aim of ECCDE is to foster the proper development of the children, identify and address their problems, harness their potentials, mould their character, enhance their learning, equip them for life, so that their actions are channeled towards positive personal, communal and global development in all ramifications of life. A brief history of early childhood education in Nigeria.

History of Early Childhood Education in Nigeria

In Nigeria, organized education of the child below primary school age did not receive official recognition until very recently, receive the attention it deserved. The concept of infant schools was introduced in Nigeria by the missionaries in the early 20th century when such schools were set up in the Western and Eastern regions of Nigeria. Early Childhood education in the form of nursery school or pre-primary education as we know it today in Nigeria is largely a post-colonial development. The semblances of it during the colonial era were the Kindergarten and infant classes, which consisted of groups of children considered not yet ready for primary education. As groping for instruction in schools was not age-based during that period, some children aged six or

even more, could be found in some of the infant classes (Tor-Anyiin, 2008). With the phasing out of infant classes, some parents began to feel the need for nursery schools.

During that period, (pre-independence) all efforts for provision of early childhood education were confined to the voluntary sector and received little or no support from the government (Tor-Anyiin, 2008). It was for the first time in 1977 with the introduction of National Policy on Education by the then military government of Nigeria that the importance and need for early childhood education was given official recognition and linked with the child’s educational performance in primary school. Gradually, early childhood institution stayed, and by 1985, Nigeria had about 4200

early childhood educational institutions. While by 1992 the number increased to about 8,300 (Federal Government of Nigeria/UNICEF 1993).

Nowadays, early childhood educational institutions are located in various places and buildings compuses of universities and Colleges, premises of some industries and business organizations, church premises, residential buildings with unprecedented expansion owing to the high demand for early childhood care and education by parents (Ejieh, 2006).

  1. Concept of Early Childhood Care and Education

Maduewesi (1999) refers to early childhood care and Education as the education offered to children who have not yet reached the statutory age of beginning primary school. He further maintained that it is a semi-formal education arrangement, usually outside home where by young children from about the age of 3 years are exposed through play like activities in a group setting through mental, social and physical learning suited to their developmental stages, until the mandatory age of government approved formal schooling. FRN (2004) refers to Early childhood care and Education

(pre-primary education) as an education given in an educational institution to children aged 3-5 plus prior to their enrollment in the primary school.

  1. Objectives of Early Childhood Education

The objectives of early childhood education according to FRN (2004) are:

  1. Effect a smooth transition from home to school
  2. Prepare the child for the primary level of education
  3. Provide adequate care and supervision for the children while their parents are at work (on the farm, in the market or offices)
  4. Inculcate social norms
  5. Inculcate in the child the spirit of inquiry and creativity through the exploration of nature, the environment, art, music and playing with toys and so on.
  6. Develop a sense of cooperation and team spirit
  7. Learn good habits, especially good health habits and.
  8. Teach the rudiments of numbers, letters, colours, shapes, forms and so on through play.
  9. Basic Curriculum Provision of National Policy on Pre-Primary Education

The FRN (2004) outlined some steps the government designed to achieve the objectives of preprimary education in Nigeria, which are as follows;

(i) Encourage private efforts in the provision of pre-primary education

(ii) Making provision in Teacher Training Institution for production of specialist teacher in Preprimary education.

(iii) Ensuring that the medium of instruction will be principally the mother-tongue or the language of the local community.

  1. Develop the orthography for many more Nigerian languages, and.
  2. Produce textbooks in Nigerian languages, FRN reported that some of these developments are already being pursued in the University Departments of linguistics under the auspices of some state ministries of Education. This Language centre will be expanded so as to have wide scope;

(iv) Ensure that the main method of teaching in the pre-primary institutions will be through play and that the curriculum of teacher training college is appropriately oriented to achieve this.

  1. Early Childhood Education and its Problems

Nigerian education system since independence can best be described as a system riddled with crisis. It is not strange for this to be so, because we had inherited the system from our colonial master (Eriba, 2011). Judged against this premise, it becomes very challenging for Nigerians to manage the educational system passed to them by the British. So the system becomes inundated with diverse crises since independence. According to Eriba (2011), the educational system has been in a state of permanent crisis that it has lost quality, efficacy and functionality over the years.

Early childhood education in Nigeria is not left out in these crises which tend to make the gains of education less spectacular. The challenges which these problems have precipitated for the nation will be highlighted in few key areas so as to provide a framework for considered action by the stakeholders.

  1. Proliferation of Early Childhood Institutions

The official provision made in the National Policy on Education (FGN 2004) mandated the Government to encourage private efforts in the provision of early childhood education in the country. Moreso, owing to the high demand for early childhood education by parents, it does not take a long time for newly established early childhood institutions to grow and develop. According to Nwakaego (2007), it is becoming customary to operate a early childhood institution in every household. Currently, early childhood education institutions are located in various places and buildings-campuses of some universities and colleges, premises of some industrial and business organizations, church premises, residential buildings some part or the whole of which are hired for use as early childhood schools (Ejieh, 2006). The flip side of this proliferation of early childhood institutions is that, the issue of standard and “regulations” have been waved off. The end result is that the young minds are offered “substandard” and “irregular” education that cannot breed egalitarianism and self-reliant individuals of the society and leaders of tomorrow.

  1. Quality and Qualification of Teachers

The quality of the teachers determines the strength of any educational system and the value of the learners (Okoro, 2004). In Nigerian early childhood institutions today, the teacher quality is generally low. It is only a few of the nursery schools especially those owned by educational institutions, private companies and wealthy individuals that can afford to engage the services of university graduate teachers and holders of Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) qualifications, competent and committed teachers and are also capable of retaining such teachers. Most others employ a few NCE teachers (if any at all), who are usually underpaid, while others employ mainly Grade Two teachers and secondary school leavers with school Certificate or General Certificate (ordinary level) qualification. In a situation where most of the teachers in our early childhood institutions are unqualified and/or unprofessional, effective teaching and learning cannot be achieved.

  1. In-effective Supervision of Early Childhood Institutions

No educational plan however excellent it may be, can be effectively implemented if the school supervision is ineffective. State Ministry of Education officials are in principle, supposed to visit and inspect the physical plant, the human and other resources available in a proposed nursery school and if these are found to be adequate, the ministry would approve the school for operation. In most cases these visits are made a long time after the school had become operational and had been paying the prescribed taxes. The same is true in regard to teachers in nursery schools. Some of the people employed to teach the children are neither trained to teach nor do they know how to handle or relate to children.

  1. Language Policy Implementation

Inspite of the laudable provision of the language policy nothing much seems to have been achieved. Firstly, the position of Nigerian language as a medium of instruction is hard to come by.

The FGN/UNICEF (1993) reported that about 93.2% of teaching and learning in Nigeria preschools was done in English. The 6.8% use immediate language shows clear lackadaisical attitude towards the implementation of the issue of medium of instruction in mother-tongue or language of immediate community. This problem is likely to be connected with parents and pupils interest in English which has been in use since 1842, as well as its official position in Nigeria (Tor-Anyiin, 2008). The low literacy rate even in English indicates poor implementation of the language policy, he further maintained that lack of implementation of language policy has affected the quality of Nigeria Educational development.

  1. Teacher-Pupil Ratio

The policy position of teacher pupil ratio of 1:25 is also not implemented due to lack of supervision or monitoring. Indeed, since businessmen/women dominates this education sector, profit maximization is their main concern. As such, employing more teachers to maintain this ratio is not beneficial to them, hence, early childhood institutions have a ratio that depends on available children. This goes further to explain the accommodation problem of this educational level. Though higher institutions are now offering early childhood education courses, however, Government nonencouragement in terms of scholarship and teachers’ poor financial remuneration is blocking many of the opportunities to go for such courses and help man the institutions. Indeed, since, the proprietors are money conscious their payment is not encouraging to warrant many people take to the study of early childhood education (Tor-Anyiin, 2008).

  1. Negligence on the Part of Government

Of all the measures that Federal Government undertook in order to facilitate the achievement of the objectives of early childhood education, the only one it has effectively accomplished is the granting of permission for private efforts in the provision of early childhood education in the country, with virtually less or non participation by the public sector. This, in addition to lack of supervision to ensure the maintenance of standards, has led to increases in numbers of early childhood education institutions in the country. Significant provision is yet to be made in public or private teacher training institutions in the country for the production of specialist teachers, it is doubtful if it can attract many clients, as neither the Federal nor any state government has established any nursery or early childhood schools where graduates of such programme can be employed. Work in private nursery or early childhood institutions would probably have no attraction for specialist in early childhood education teachers because of low wages and job insecurity associated with teaching in such institutions (Ejieh, 2006).

  1. Prospects

The Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act (2004) has an expanded scope which includes programmes and initiatives for early childhood education and development. The UBE programme has made provision for every public primary school to have a pre-primary school linkage to cater for children aged 3-5 years. This linkage will serve as a strategy for getting children ready for school and school ready for children (Hua 2010).

An inventory of ECC faculty in Nigeria conducted by FGN/NERDC/UNICEF in 2003 showed that most of the ECC facilities are private owned (42% of the sample population are private owned and 34% by the government, followed by 21% by local communities). Now that the Early Childhood Development Programme is covered by the UBE law, government ownership at state/LGA/community level is certain to increase, particularly regarding centre’s catering for the 3- 5years olds.

Early childhood care has been included in the Bachelor’s degree curriculum of the Faculty of Education of some of Nigeria’s Universities since 1991. The concept has also been integrated in the syllabus of Colleges of Education throughout the country. In-services training on the early childhood development concept and learner centered pedagogy for handling young children is continually provided to teacher/caregivers in public ECC/ pre-school facilities in UNICEF supported 111 focus LGAs nationwide. However, only now it is being recognized that early childhood care and early stimulation is the basis upon which attainment of the child’s fullest potential depends.

The Child Right Act (2003), the UBE Act (2004), the National Policy on Education, Food, Nutrition and Health are laws and policies which have given shape to different sect oral interventions on Early Childhood Care and development in Nigeria. Currently however, an Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) policy, that integrates interventions from the various sectors to promote an integrated holistic approach to the development of the child in its very earliest years.

Efforts are also targeted at vulnerable or disadvantaged children through community- driven and home based care and support for young children age 0-3 years supported by UNICEF in 222 focus communities nationwide has boosted access of very vulnerable and disadvantaged children to early childcare and early learning (UNESCO 2007). Launching of the children and AIDS campaign in Nigeria with increased focus, care and attention to children affected by the HIV and AIDS’ scourge.

Increased advocacy has been mounted with government and other stakeholders to ensure that young children are fully protected from the scourge of the disease.

According to UNESCO (2007), the curriculum for Early Childhood Education in Nigeria was reviewed and revised in 2003/2004 using an integrated bottom up approach, targeting children age 0-5 years. This revised curriculum has been approved for use by the government, and a training manual to facilitate use of the curriculum; is in process of development. the training manual is expected to promotes the integrated approach and cover all sectoral interventions- health, nutrition, water and environmental sanitation, psycho-social care, early learning and creating a conducive environment for them to service, live, learn and reach their full potentials.

1.3       Research Questions/ Hypotheses

This research is design to answer the following questions:

  1. How effective have teaching been in Kaduna South Local Government Education Authority?
  2. What is the level of learning among the pupils of Kaduna South Local Government Education Authority?
  3. How cordial is the relationship between the Teachers and the Learners in Kaduna South Local Government Education Authority?
  4. What is the level of parents’ involvement in the learning process of their wards in Kaduna South Local Government Education Authority?
  5. What factors affects effective teaching and learning in Kaduna South Local Government Education authority.

1.4       Purpose of the Study

  1. To find out the effectiveness of teaching and learning in Kaduna State Local Government Education Authority.
  2. To find out the level of learning among the pupils of Kaduna South Local Government Education Authority.
  • To find out how cordial is the relationship between teachers and the learners in Kaduna State Local Government Education Authority.
  1. To find out the level of parents involvement in the learning process of their wards in Kaduna State Local Government Education Authority.
  2. To find out the factors affecting effective teaching and learning in Kaduna State Local Government Education Authority.

1.5       Significance of the Study

The significance of this study is to add more to the existing researches and as well to strengthen facts and records as to the factors affecting effective teaching and learning as well as the reasons that often lead to poor teaching and learning in Kaduna South Local government education authority and other stakeholders in Nigeria.

Meaningful developments can only be achieved and sustained if and only if the standard of education of the country is high as the outcome is vast resources of intellectual elites, and such can be achieved if the educational authority is managed positively. In this study, attention is given and focused on how effective teaching and learning has effects on the development of the country. Therefore, it is of utmost significance to further unearth the factors affecting effective teaching and learning and its effects on the development of Nigeria. Meanwhile, the study will be of immense importance to stakeholders of the educational sector, which are Nigerians in general.

1.6       Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The scope and delimitation of this study is on the factors affecting effective teaching and learning in Kaduna South Local Government Education Authority, the causes of such factors as well as the role of the stakeholders in tackling such factors, especially in Kaduna state.

To achieve effective teaching and learning, requires that the stakeholders work together to define and develop solutions to problems relating to effective teaching and learning. This is because teaching and learning is a two way relationship involving the teachers and the community. The effectiveness of the Nigerian educational system largely depends on how well the teachers are in contact with the pupils and the parents, a role that has been put t6 test lately by not only the outrageous number of failures in recent examinations but as yell the dimensions these failures are now assuming. In the face of all these challenges, the educational authority must strive to put to use other international best practices aimed at making it achieve its objectives.

1.7       Limitation of the Study

This project work is not designed to cover all the teaching and academic activities of the schools in the study area but treated the most important aspects and factors that affect effective teaching and learning as regards to some selected schools in Kaduna South Local Government Area. Therefore the research was limited to only finding out such factors and how best they can be tackled.

Again, due to the difficulty in gathering information from all schools state-wide; both private and public schools, the research was again limited to only some selected schools in the Kaduna South Local Government Area as the case study.

1.8       Operational Definition of Terms

Community: A group of people with common interests or with shared interests within society.

Audio-Visual aids or instructional materials: These are different forms of information carriers which are used to record, store, preserve, transmit or retrieve information for the purpose of teaching and learning. They also transmit information in such a fashion that will modify the attitude, habits and practices of students. Examples are pictures, illustrations, blackboard, televisions, charts, etc.

Teaching: Teaching is defined by many scholars of education as “the promotion of learning, some others define teaching as helping other people to learn. Teaching is the art of impacting knowledge. It is knowing what to teach the learners and ways of imparting the knowledge in the most effective way possible. Teaching is also that important art that builds up the society by the way it is done, the area in which it is conducted and its cumulative effect on the life of the society. Teaching is a process of inducing learning; it is guiding someone to behave in a given or certain manner beneficial to himself and the society.

Learning: According to Merriam Webster online, learning is the activity or process of gaining knowledge or skill by studying, practicing, being taught, or experiencing something, it is the modification of a behavioral tendency by experience (as exposure to conditioning) and Wikipedia has it that Learning is acquiring new, or modifying and reinforcing, existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information.

Loco Parentis: The term in loco parentis. Latin for “in the place of a parent” refers to the legal responsibility of a person or organization to take on some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent. The legal doctrine under which an individual assumes parental rights, duties, and obligations without going through the formalities of legal Adoption.

Effectiveness: Working to produce the result that is needed or intended.

Strategy: A careful devised plan to action to achieve a goal or the art of developing or carrying out a plan.

Professionalism: The word profession has been defined as an occupation that can claim exclusive technical competence and also adheres to ethics of professional conduct. Elsewhere, a profession is being defined as a calling in which one professed to have acquired special knowledge used by either instructing, guiding or advising others or serving them in some art.

Syllabus: A syllabus is a broad outline of the work planned to be done in the course of a year with each class in each subject. This course work may either be constructed by the school or imposed by some external examining bodies.

Scheme of work: The scheme of work is the breaking down of topics in the syllabus into series of lessons. Scheme of work in any subject is a clear and orderly statement of the work the teacher proposes to do in a given period.

Lesson Plan: A lesson plan is the preparatory notes on the subjects to be taught on daily basis. It is the layout of how the teacher intends to handle a lesson from the beginning to the end. A lesson plan is installment with which a good teacher can effectively perform his daily classroom teaching.

Factors: According to the free Online Dictionary, factor is that which is actively contributes to an accomplishment, result, or a process, it can also be an element or cause that contributes to a result. 

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