Availability and utilization of projected instructional media in teaching Biology in public secondary school in Oshimili South Local Government of Delta State

Availability and utilization of projected instructional media in teaching Biology in public secondary school in Oshimili South Local Government of Delta State

ABSTRACT

The study examined the availability and utilization of projected instructional media in teaching Biology in public secondary school in Oshimili South Local Government of Delta State. Three (3) research questions guided the conduct of the study. A review of related literature was reviewed based on the concepts in each research questions raised and variables in the study. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study.  The population of the study comprised of all the thirty-one (31) Biology teachers in the 13 public secondary schools in Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State as shown in the table below.  Due to the manageable size of the population, all the thirty-one (31) Biology teachers in from the 13 public senior secondary school in Oshimili South Local Government Area in Delta State were used for the study. Hence, there was no sampling.    The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire, titled: Availability and Utilization of Projected Instructional Media in Teaching Biology in Public Secondary School in Oshimili South Local Government of Delta State. To ensure the validity of the instrument, copies of the instrument were sent to an expert in Educational Measurement and Evaluation of Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba for face and content validation. The corrections and suggestions made by the experts reflected on the final copies of the instrument. To ensure that the instrument is valid, a pilot study was carried out on ten (10) teachers in Aniocha North local government area of Delta state. Data were collected and analyzed using Pearson product moment correlation to estimate the reliability and the instrument yielded a correlation of 0.78 which shows that the instrument is reliable. Thirty-one (31) copies of the questionnaires were administered on the teachers in the selected public secondary schools in Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State by the researcher with the help of two research assistants and 29 copies of the instrument were retrieved and analyzed. Data collected were analyzed using frequency count and mean statistics. Findings of the study revealed among others that instructional media are available for teaching Biology and fairly utilized which enhances the academic performance of secondary school students in Biology in public secondary schools in Oshimili South. Some recommendations were made to enhance the utilization of projected media resources in teaching Biology at the secondary school level in the study area. It was recommended among others that government of Delta state should ensure the provision of adequate electricity supply to enhance the utilization of projected media resources in teaching Biology at the secondary school level.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Biology is the study of living things and an activity-based subject. Biology studies the structural complexity of the organisms, the multiplicity of functions occurring simultaneously in an organism. The study of biology involves activities such as collecting of materials, observing, recording, classifying and carrying out field work in some relevant areas. The teaching and learning of Biology cannot be effective without the use of instructional materials.

Instructional materials formerly known as teaching aids are those resources which the teacher can use to facilitate learning Aduabum, (2018). Instructional materials maybe used by the teacher to improve the effectiveness of instruction or to facilitate learning. Teachers use instructional materials to direct and instruct in order to achieve the goals of a specific instruction. Ughammadu, (2017) defined instructional materials as the resources that the teacher and students uses to influence the effectiveness of teaching and learning process. Furthermore, instructional materials are materials that aid the teaching of a subject. This does not do the whole teaching on its own only but in connection with the methods. It is being administered by a model and controlled by the model which the teacher who directs and control. Kofar, (2019) defines instructional materials as veritable channels in the classroom. They are the resources that the teacher uses in presenting his lesson so that the students can easily understand and comprehend what is being taught. It is also a means of making teaching and learning process more meaningful, effective, productive and understandable.

Academic performance on the other hand according to Roy (2021), is the ability to study and remember facts and being able to communicate your knowledge verbally or on paper. In other words, academic performance refers to how students deal with their studies and how they cope with or accomplish different tasks given to them by their teachers.  Academic performance generally refers to how well a student is accomplishing his/her tasks or studies. Academic achievement or academic performance is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor’s degrees represent academic achievement (Olaniyi, 2021). Academic achievement is commonly measured through examinations or continuous assessments but there is no general agreement on how it is best evaluated or which aspects are most important procedural knowledge such as skills or declarative knowledge such as facts (Johnson, 2020).

Projected instructional media includes slides, filmstrips, opaque and overhead projectors and motion pictures which helps teachers to simplify, clarify, analyze and synthesize relationships between man and his environments. Also projected aids are instructional media which is a device for transmitting photographic and other image in an enlarged form into a viewing screen. A visual instruction encourages the use of audio visual resources to make abstract ideas more concrete to the learners. Therefore the teachers’ duty is to make learning life, not just something to remember but part of experience. This can be done effectively by employing the use of audiovisual aids in teaching and learning as means of impacting knowledge to learners.

Educators have come to realize that the most effective teaching and learning take place when an individual has direct experience with the subject under study, learners learn best by doing. It is only by the use of audiovisual resource that learners can be offered the opportunity to learn by doing, this is because attention, motivation, concentration and retention of facts enhanced through the use of audio visual materials. The use of instructional resources in teaching and learning is eccentric in totality. The dissecting voices wonder if instructional resources have in any way enhanced teaching and learning. It is against this backdrop that the study investigates the impact of the use of projected instructional resources on teaching and learning.

The teaching and learning of all science subjects in general and biology in particular required a lot of instructional media. These instructional media are resources that an instructor uses to implement instruction and facilitate learning as they help to grasp students attention, sprout and stimulate their interest, it also help in making learning to become an enjoyable experience (Akoja & Ali 2017).

The instructional media are not available in many schools, where they are available; they are also grossly inadequate in supply. The scarcities of instructional media in many public schools today has resulted in ineffective teaching of Biology leading to poor achievement of students both in internal and public examinations.

Emayeju in (2015) support of this, reported that factors responsible for students poor achievement in science technology and mathematics are poor laboratory facilities, inability of science teachers to put across ideas clearly to the students and inadequate number of learning facilities in schools as against consistent increase in the number of schools students’ environment.

In view of this, Igyo (2018) see instructional media as those teaching aids and devices that have been systematically designed, produced and evaluated which an instructor uses to facilitate or illustrate the points he wishes to emphasize in his teaching and his intentions to facilitate learning. According to Njoku in Akoja and Ali (2017) instructional media are those channels of communication that promote the effectiveness of instruction and help the teacher to communicate ideas effectively to his students. Instructional media are those alternative channels of communication which a Biology teacher can use to concretize a concept during his/her teaching. Instructional media includes all the materials and substantial resources that an educator might use to implement instruction and facilitate students’ achievement of instructional objectives. They (instructional media) aim at grasping attention, sprouting interest, supporting learning with living example and visual elaboration, making a learning environment in class and it also help in turning learning so as to make it an enjoyable experience.

Instructional media are in various classes, such as audio or aural, visual or audio visual. Thus, audio instructional media refers to those devices that make use of sense of hearing only, like Radio, audio tape recording. While visual instructional media on the other hand are those device that appeal to the sense of sight only such as chalkboard, chart, slide and filmstrip. An audio visual instructional media however is a device that combines the appeal to the sense of both hearing and seeing such as television, motion picture and computer. Among the instructional media the classroom teacher uses the visual out-numbered the combination of the audio and audio visual (Moronfola, 2017 & Kareem, 2018) and from these instructional media we then look into the level of availability and usage of instructional materials.

The available and widely used instructional materials are textbooks, pictures, computers, newspapers and Magazines, technical laboratories, projectors etc and they help to facilitate teaching learning activities.

These instructional media is an aid in teaching and learning. It helps to raise learning from verbalization to practical aspects of teaching and learning. The Nigerian educational system has been facing a lot of critical problem amongst which are increasing enrolment, shortage of qualified teachers, absence of laboratories and many present cases of empty laboratories, acute shortage of necessary teaching and learning materials. Therefore, there is need to investigate the availability and utilization of projected instructional media for teaching Biology in public secondary and the excellence of the materials. This study will serve as a good reference document in providing solution when related issues are raised during Parents Teachers Association meeting (P.T.A).

Statement of the Problem

Biology has application nearly in every field of life despite its importance for national development, the persistent poor achievement of students in Biology in Nigeria at the senior secondary school level in the past decade has been a matter of serious concern to educationist and other stake holders.

The WAEC chief examiners annual reports of which shows that the future indices are on the increase. The number of students that passed biology at credit level was consistently less than 50% in the past five years in Nigeria. This may be that students are having difficulty in understanding and assimilating the Biological concept taught theoretically without the use of instructional media. Findings also show that female students’ achievement in biology is low compare to their male students’ counterpart. It is now clear that lack of utilization of instructional media by biology teachers is the contribution factor for this development. This necessitates the present study to determine the impact of projected instructional media on both male and female student’s achievement in Biology in public secondary schools.

The problem now is, would achievement and retention of both male and female students improve when taught biology using projected instructional media?

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to investigate or examine the availability and utilization of projected instructional media for teaching Biology in Public secondary schools in Oshimili South Local government area of Delta state, Nigeria. Specifically, the study shall find out.

1. Availability of projected media equipment for teaching Biology in Public secondary schools in Oshimili South Local government area of Delta state
2. Utilization of projected media for teaching Biology in Public secondary schools in Oshimili South Local government area of Delta state.
3. The challenges confronting the availability and utilization of projected instructional media.

Research Question

The following research questions have been raised to guide the study:

1. To what extent are instructional media available and utilized for teaching Biology in Public secondary schools in Oshimili south local Government area of Delta state.
2. To what extent is the use of instructional media in teaching Biology enhances academic performance of secondary students.
3. What are the challenges confronting the availability and utilization of projected instructional media.

Significance of the Study

The study on the use of instructional media and improvement of 5cience education especially Biology will be of immense benefit to the following stakeholders of Biology education, in Nigeria. The students, teachers, parents and future researchers could benefit on finding of this study.

The finding of this study will be of help to the students in learning and acquiring knowledge and skills in biology.

This study may also be of benefit if the availability and utilization of projected media proved effective. This is because instructional media may integrate the cognitive affective and psychomotor aspects of learning of biology and making teaching and learning attractive, inspirational and effective.

This finding of this study will encourage Biology science teachers to make adequate use of instructional media in their teaching and learning process to facilitate their effective communication. This may consequently enable biology teacher to present biology concept to their students in the way they will understand, assimilate and retain the knowledge for high achievement. The implication is that the success will boost the biology teachers’ morale.

The findings of this study may also sensitize school administration to encourage biology teacher to utilize instructional media by providing them necessary instructional materials for the teaching and learning of Biology.

The findings will also be of benefit to Biology curriculum alongside with the needed instructional materials to be used in order to facilitate student’s achievement in biology.

The finding of this study will be of benefit for government to see the need to retain biology teacher on the proper use of instructional media.

The finding will serve as a guide for the government to provide the necessary instructional material in the school to assist both the teacher and students in the teaching and learning of biology.

The finding of this research work help on the influence on learners understanding and retention. The study may also serve as a source of information in library conference in the institution of learning and for those who may want to carryout research in biology on the availability of instructional media. It is hoped that the findings of this study will serve as a basis for further studies in the area of biological approach of teaching in respect to use of instructional materials.

Finally, to the society, the findings of the work will help the society to achieve her educational objectives while maintaining the usefulness of varieties depending upon the objectives, and characteristics of the students.

Scope of Study

This study focused on investigation into the availability and utilization of projected instructional media in teaching Biology in public secondary schools in Oshimili South local Government Area of Delta State. The study also entails on the utilization of projected instructional media, the extent to which available instructional media are useful in teaching Biology. How instructional media are sources of information in teaching and learning of Biology and also how do teachers and students benefit on the integration of instructional media in secondary schools.

Hence it becomes necessary to investigate the availability and utilization of instructional media in public secondary schools in Oshimili South local Government of Delta State.

Operational Definitions of Terms

Instructional media: Is defined as any device with instructional content or function that is used for teaching purpose, including books, textbooks, and supplementary reading materials, audio visual and other sensory materials.

Availability: Is the quality of been available or the extent of which an item is available

Utilization: Is the action of making practical and effective use of something.

4 Projected instructional Media:- Are usually a combination of software and hardware that require light source of projection e.g projector slides etc.

Biology: Is a natural science that involves the study of life and living organism including their physical structure chemical composition, function, development and evolution

Projected Aids: Are instructional media which is a device for transmitting photographic and other image in an enlarge form into a viewing screen

Teacher: This is a facilitator for the acquisition of Biology knowledge and skills by the students in formal school setting.

Students: Students here are the learners of the last three years of secondary school education in formal schooling.