THE EFFECT OF USE OF SCIENCE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ON THE STUDENT’S PERFORMANCE IN INTEGRATED SCIENCE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY  

          Teachers of yester-year in secondary school in discipline of integrated science relied on few or no instructional materials at all in their teaching. They believe they can force knowledge no matter how unpleasant into the empty brain of the children or pupils. This made learning of integrated science for most pupils become unpleasant superficial learning or no learning at all time.

          Integrated science is a source of constant fear for many students in integrated science have fail to recognized the fact that learning should consist of pleasurable activities for the same time, the teachers need to appeal to all their senses (seeing learning smelling and touching). Furthermore, the teachers should also note that ineffective use of instructional materials (like concrete objects hairs textbooks, chalkboard and picture) for teaching integrated science in secondary school has discouraged many students from learning integrated science.

          It is important to emphasize once again that integrated science is a “tool” it is real and should be treated as such. The difficulty posed by the integrated science has generated a lot of discussions.

          Many people including our educators do not realized that one of the reason why many students perform very poor and below expectation in integrated science is that the schools lack of relevant instructional media.

          Therefore for effective understanding of the subject matter in integrated science and for students to perform better in integrated science in Nigeria school examination, there is the need to examine the impact or effect of instructional materials on students performance in integrated science with the aim of stimulating the interest of the students in the subject it is well known among educators that the education experience involving the learners activity participating in concrete examples can retain longer than abstract experience. The instructional media add element of reality by proving such concrete examples. The teaching of integrated science course has always been based on a limited knowledge based, and as a result the utilization of instructional media among teachers often rely on traditional isolation of the classroom setting provide access to expensive resources and improve overall productivity.

          Saye (2006) to achieve the desire outcome with the utilization of technology, the teaching of integrated science must focus not only on making teachers competent at using such technology but at the same time promote strategies that enable the integrated of technology. Bolick et al (2008) pointed to a precarious relationship between the teaching of integrated science and utilization of instructional media. They argued that while some educators have been fascinated by the potential media to enhance teaching and learning many schools have lagged behind in assimilating instructional media into instruction. Others express doubt that instructional media will ever in like instructional reform in integrated science. They stated that this conflict has led some researchers to conclude that integrated science has not applicably changed as a result of instructional media.

          The technology in secondary schools instruction has been widely researched but many questions still remain unanswered.

          Research in various relevant areas is still needed. Educators are asking if the use of instructional media will make a difference in the performance of students. At the same time, teachers are asking if there exist the best tool to assist in the course of delivery. The learning environment of a classroom assisted by instructional technology is different from one without technology and the question remains regarding the benefit of technology in the classroom. Do that means that students are actively engage in learning? Would the thinking skills among students and facilitate the preferred inquiry based learning: the teaching and strategies and the curriculum are all affected by the inclusion of instructional media and research would continue to add new information and shape to the evolution of instructional technology in the classroom. Active learning in integrated science involves providing the opportunities for students for participate meaningfully by talking and listening, writing, reading and reflecting on the content, unfortunately many classrooms continue to be dominated by a single medium and this is usually the printed textbooks. This dominance prevents teachers from reaching all students, instead if forced them to cater for those who find the texts accessible and this creates barriers for those who do not. There are further consequences. Even though students are able to access. The are missing, there are media readily available that are more suitable for communicating, student’s preferences and proclivities for certain media and tools can plan an important role in depending their engagement and enhancing their learning experiences.

          Collecting and maintaining a sufficiently varied assortment of traditional media that would allow us to create an optimal instruction environment for every student in unit of curriculum would be incredibly costly insurmountable logistic problem. More instructional media is not a reasonable alternative. Teachers do not necessarily need more media but what they need while worth and Benson (2003) indicate that there is a need for research on the use and effectiveness of instruction media in integrated science classroom that would enhance integrated science education.

          The effective usage of instructional; media has dramatically increased in the last two decades. According to Abu Jabber (2004) the importance of instructional media for both teachers and students cannot be over emphasized. In integrated science the use of instruction media is essential to support learning because integrated science are concerned about little calculation which cannot be easily empresses without the support of video and picture etc. Corsor point out the use of instructional media in integrated science, classroom widens the channel of communication between teachers and their students the instructional media allow the growth of specific learning abilities and motor skills. The use of charts and model enable the teachers to present and illustrate many physical phenomenal and issue easily and at some time, allows them to focus attention on the characteristics of objects. In computer based instructional the use of such media integrated science lesson are imperative as it makes a valuable contribution to the quality of students learning such media can be used in several ways in integrated science lesson. Power point for instance can used to present integrated science issues (diagram) Recece and Walker (2001) also pointed out that similarly effective learning to the professional use of visual aids

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

(a)    Are there any significant difference in performance of students taught with the use of instructional media and these taught without instructional media

(b)   Does the availability of instructional media contribute anything to students academic achievement in integrated science

RESEARCH QUESTION

In this study attempt would be made to solve some question generated to guide in the analysis of the data foe study. These include.

(a)  Can all forms of instructional media be used by the students

(b)  What form of instructional materials can be used by the students

(c)   What is the attitude of the teachers and students towards the use of instructional media for the students

(d)  How accessible is the instructional media to the teacher

(e)   What is the effect of the use of instructional media on the performance of the integrated science students

HYPOTHESIS

The hypothesis generated is:

(1)        will there be any significant different in the achievement or perfor4mance of students taught with the aid of instructional media and that of students taught without instructional media

(2)        Will there be any significant difference in the achievement or performance of female students taught with aid of instructional media and female students taught without the use of instructional media.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

(1)    To compare, the performance or achievement of the students taught using without the use of instructional media

(2)    To see, if instructional media contribute anything positive to students academic achievement or performance in integrated science

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Owning to the effective roles which integrated science plays in the technological advancement of nation, a study that seeks to make the learning of integrated science easier is a world-wide effort. This study is a paramount importance in the teaching and learning of integrated science, because it attempts to clarify of the use of instructional media and effectiveness of those materials in teaching of integrated science. The study is also important of instruction media are really needed for the teaching of integrated science valuable suggestion would be made to the government, parent, teachers and students alike in the use of instructional media in our schools. Those suggestions will form part of the recommendation from the study.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

          The study covers the integrated science students in Nigeria using Irele Local Government in Ondo State as a case study. These schools are selected because it has integrated science students Ito Junior Secondary School. The purpose sampling will be used to select all the teachers both male and female this makes a total of about 40 teachers.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Instructional media: These are media or material use for teaching such as textbook, real objects charts, models, photograph, audio records, and tapes microfilms video tapes, blackboard etc.

Teaching Objectives: The goals which the teacher wants to achieve while teaching

Examination: A test of knowledge or ability to verify what s person is capable of doing offer a teaching process. Have taken place.