THE INFLUENCE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Successfully management and realization of objectives of teaching and learning to a large extent can be attributed to many factors. Some of these factors include the personality of the teacher, classroom building learners characteristics availability and effective use of instructional materials. The unique role of instructional materials as an integral part of teaching and learning in classroom situation cannot be over emphasized. This is to say that method of teaching will be grossly incomplete where instructional materials are left out. It is a good policy to use as fully as possible teaching materials that can be made available in school  specially in the secondary school in order to make teaching and learning more real, purposeful and meaningful.    

This was why the government in the then 6-3-3-4 system of education subjects like Maths, English, Social Studies, Physics, History, Biology, Fine Art, Chemistry, Economics, Literature in English, Home Economics, Geography, etc and then share them into three groups as Art, Socio-Science and Science subjects as one of the major intellectual achievement of the new educational system. These various subjects are supposed to make man to know understand and exercise some control over his environment and his community, society, the business sector and possibly the world at large. Inspite of these sharing of subjects in the senior secondary school curriculum the result of students was not excellently for the students that graduated, from the research carried out on the result on some students performance between 2001-2004.

        The above evidence shows that in the e arly 2000’s the rate of students failure in some subjects was low and this is because the percentage of those who failed the subjects was lower than the percentage of those who passed. In recent , between 2005-2010 students performance during the , during the West African Examination Council (WAEC) in some subjects like Maths, English and Social Studies decline, this is shown in the result of subjects offered in the examination written between 2005-201, that one (1) out of every ten (10) students who sat for the examination had an A3, while other nine (9) students were with other grade (C4, C5, C6, P7, E8, F9), these could have resulted from various factors. Due to inadequate instructional materials and lack of qualified personnel in the educational sector such as teachers and masters of subjects resources persons. Inspite of the instruction of the National Examination Council (NECO) to complement that of West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) the result of the students offering some of these core subjects have not change so much from what it was in the recent past.

Though the results of students offering these subjects from national Examination Council (NECO) have quite be encouraging the above survey of students performance in these subjects under these core subjects examination. Over the years shows that students performance in all these subjects had been declining this may have resulted from the influence of the following factors.

i.             Inadequate and lack of instructional materials that are necessary for the teaching and learning process in senior secondary schools.

ii.            Insufficient and unqualified resource personnel for researches in the field and in teaching

iii.          Inabilities of the teachers to improvise the necessary instructional materials for effective teaching of all the subjects that they teach.   

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

For teaching and learning activities to be effective and purposeful, the teacher has to make use of the right instructional materials. It is in the light of the above that this study focuses attention on the influence of instructional materials in the teaching and learning in some selected senior secondary school in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. 

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The study focuses attention on the influences of instructional materials on teaching and learning in the senior secondary school, specially the study will find out if the adequate utilization of available instructional materials can influence the performance of the senior secondary schools students specially in the class positively. The study will also find out the factors that hinders the effective utilization of instructional materials in the senior secondary schools, in addition the study is aimed at finding out how instructional materials can be used in the class in order to bring about the effective teaching and learning in the senior secondary schools.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

In order to achieve the purpose of the study the following research questions were formulated to guide the investigation.

a.   Does instructional materials when made available relevant to the teaching and learning of all the subjects in senior secondary school?

b.   Does the use of instructional materials being about effective teaching and learning of socio science and all other subjects in secondary schools?

c.   Does the use of instructional materials increase students understanding of all the subjects?

d.   Does the use of instructional materials in the class increase students retention of the subjects matter of all the subjects taught?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study when completed will be beneficial to the students, teachers, parents, and guardian and to the local, state and federal government, to the students the studies are important because it will help them to see how important the use of instructional materials are to their understanding of all senior secondary school subjects, specially in the core subjects. To parents and guardians this studies is of great importance because it will help them to appreciate the importance of the use of instructional materials to aid their children, understanding in all the subjects they are taught. This will induce them to join hands with the school authorities to provide all the necessary instructional materials needed to be used in the senior secondary school classroom. The study is also important to the local, state and federal government because it will help them to understand the place of instructional materials in terms of pedagogical practice. This will make them to provide all the necessary instructional materials for use in the senior secondary schools and motivate the teachers financially.   

BASIC ASSUMPTION

The study is based on the following assumptions

i.             The use of relevant instructional materials influence students performance in senior secondary school.

ii.            The use of instructional materials by the teachers increase intense understanding of subjects by the subjects matter.

iii.          That the involvement of all teachers in improvisation of instructional materials influence the teaching positively

iv.          Adequate research of this effects was made in Nigeria taking some selected schools in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State as a case study.