ENEMS MICROSYSTEMS RESEARCH SPOT: Academic performance

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Monday 1 May 2023

THE EFFECTS OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF PRIMARY 1 PUPIL

THE EFFECTS OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF PRIMARY 1 PUPIL

ABSTRACT

This examined the effects of instructional materials on the performance of primary 1 pupils in Nasarawa state Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study is to determine the availability and adequacy of instructional materials in teaching primary 1 pupils in Nasarawa State; ascertain the utilization of instructional materials among teachers teaching primary 1 pupils and to examine the effects of instructional materials on the academic performance of primary 1 pupils in Nasarawa State. The study sample was selected through simple random sampling technique. The data collection instruments were questionnaire and observation. One hundred and fifteen respondents were administered the questionnaire which include head of teachers, teachers and pupils. The data analysis was done using statistical tools such as percentages, frequencies, means, correlation and scattered plot graph. Research result showed that the availability and adequacy of most of the instructional materials and instructional materials were just a little. More so, utilization of most of the instructional materials also just a little. The correlation analysis for the relationship between Instructional materials and pupils’ academic performance were significant (P<0.01) with a moderate positive relationship of 0.5 and 0.45 respectively. Inadequate and low quality instructional materials in primary school impedes effective teaching and learning process and hence affect pupil’s academic performance negatively.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background Information

Education is generally seen as an instrument for effective national development. In the teaching and learning process, the goals of education in Nigeria include a united, strong and self-reliant nation, a free and democratic society, a just and egalitarian society, a great and dynamic economy and land full of bright opportunities for all citizens, they are given cognizance (FGN, 2014). Education is therefore a connective tissue in the society. Okongo, Ngao, Rop & Nyongesa, (2015) revealed that the standard of education in Nigeria is falling, the problem of education emerged from the neglect which the sector suffered from the 1980s leading to the gradual erosion of the system. The problems include among others inadequate learning facilities such as lack of teaching tools and moderate classrooms and the acute shortage of qualified teachers (Okongo, Ngao, Rop & Nyongesa, 2015).

For a teacher to attain the set goals of education and for students to gain from such teaching experience, the use of instructional materials is important. Instructional materials are all types of materials or facilities used in the teaching and learning process. These include books, government documents, artifacts, instructional sheets, computers, radio sets, television sets, social media and magazines among others (Janovsky & Brooks, 2015). They are used for teaching at primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education.

Instructional materials in primary schools enhance and improve teachers’ competence; they also make learning more useful and meaningful to the pupils as they are being presented with a real life experiences and materials for learning. The use of instructional materials is seen to determine the academic performance of pupils in schools. Yusuf (2012) disclosed that academic performance is the knowledge and skills that pupils or students have mastered in a subject or a course, it is basically a measure of how well students have performed in the various assessment items set for them based on some educational criteria determined by professional educators.

Instructional materials have been observed as a powerful strategy to bring about effective teaching and learning. The importance of quality and adequate instructional materials in teaching and learning can occur through their effective utilization during classroom teaching. Instructional materials here include all the tools that the teachers can use to make the learning more interesting and memorable. According to Atanda, and Jaiyeoba (2018), instructional materials include books, audio-visual, software and hardware of educational technology. He further opines that the availability, adequacy and relevance of instructional materials in classrooms can influence quality teaching, which can have positive effect on students’ learning and academic performance. The insight from Atanda, and Jaiyeoba on linking instructional resources to students’ academic performance serve critical in the provision of quality education.

According to Adeogun, schools, whose teachers use more instructional resources perform better than schools, whose teachers do not use instructional materials. This corroborated the study by Babayomi (2019) that private schools performed better than public schools because students and teachers are provided with sufficient and quality teaching and learning resources. From this importance, schools at all levels of education have been advised to have quality and adequate instructional facilities to raise academic performance of their students. The advice emanated from the fact that instructional facilities have a potent factor to qualitative education. The dictum is that “teaching is inseparable from learning but learning is separable from teaching.” This means that teachers do the teaching to make the students learn, but with quality and adequate instructional facilities, students can learn without the teachers. It is against this background that this study seek to examine the effect of instructional materials on the performance of primary one (1) pupils

1.2 Statement Of The Problem

The rate of pupils poor academic achievement in primary schools today is really disturbing. The poor academic achievement of pupils has attributed to many factors which are lack of instructional material and skills needed for effective teaching and inability to provide or improvise material relative to the topic depending on the school type. Unqualified teachers and teacher’s attitude towards effective teaching and learning, lack of student interest in setting subject. It is observed that most pupils complain of being taught principles that seem to be abstract in nature because materials such as textbooks, most board and essential equipment like computer, projector, television and video are not readily available in many schools. In Indian axioms that says, what I hear, I may forget but what see, hear and touch I will never forget. This is because teachers adopt the verbal and theoretical method as a way of teaching and learning thereby making pupils to lose interest. In Nigeria, for example experience has shown that spoken words alone in the communication of ideas are grossly ineffective and inefficient in producing desired learning outcomes. One of the major problems facing education sector in Nigeria is the low level of the performance of primary school pupils in both local and standardized examinations. It has become a great concern for researchers, educators and all education stake-holders over the years. It was observed that pupils usually fail in examinations owing to improper teaching methods and lack of essential teaching aids for instructional delivery. (Afolabi, 2019). This study therefore deemed it necessary to look specifically at the effects of instructional materials on the performance of primary one (1) pupils in Nigeria Primary Schools.

1.3 Purpose Of The Study

The main aim of this study is to examine the effects of instructional materials on the performance of primary one (1) pupils in Nigeria.

The study specifically aims at finding out the following:

To determine the availability and adequacy of instructional materials in teaching primary 1 pupils in Nasarawa State.
To ascertain the utilization of instructional materials among teachers teaching primary 1 pupils in Nasarawa state.
To examine the effects of instructional materials on the academic performance of primary 1 pupils in Nasarawa State.

1.4 Research Questions

The following research questions were raised to guide the study:

To what extent is the availability and adequacy of instructional materials in teaching primary 1 pupils in Nasarawa State.
To what extent is the utilization of instructional materials among teachers teaching primary 1 pupils in Nasarawa state.
What are the effects of instructional materials on the academic performance of primary 1 pupil in Nasarawa State.

1.5 Research Hypothesis

The following hypotheses will be tested at (p < 0.05) significance level:

Null hypothesis (H_o): There is no significant relationship between the available instructional materials and primary 1 pupil’s academic performance.

Alternative hypothesis (H₁): There is a significant relationship between the available instructional materials and primary 1 pupil’s academic performance.

1.6 Significance Of The Study

The study has both theoretical and practical significance. In the theoretical aspect, it is the use of Jean Piaget on the cognitive development and behavioral learning theory which center on the child development knowledge, intelligence and high level of thinking that allows the child to acquire problem solving skills by inventing or constructing reality out of experience and thus mix their observation with their ideas about how the world works. It also provides individual with a certain behavioural management plan or change based on observation in the classroom.

On the practical aspect, the findings of the study will benefit the followings, the pupils, schools, computer studies teachers, textbook writers, curriculum planners and government. Constructivist teaching is based on the belief that learning occurs as learners are actively involved in a process of meaningful and knowledge construction as opposed to passively receiving information. Through interaction with the physical situations, or concrete objects, a child’s physical experience accumulates and he is able to conceptualize, think creatively and logically. The child therefore develops skills to abstract problems. According to this theory, learners are the makers of knowledge and meaning Constructivists believe that “learners construct their own reality or at least interpret it based upon their perceptions of experiences, so an individual’s knowledge is a function of one’s prior experiences, mental structures, and beliefs that are used to interpret objects and events.” “What someone knows is grounded in perception of the physical and social experiences which are:

Pupils: The study will change pupils attitude to learn computer studies since the use of instructional materials during teaching and learning made the lesson very interesting by having direct contact with the material by touching, smelling or tasting of the object thereby enhancing their performance in the subject in question.

School: It help the school have a well equipped laboratory and a good environment on production of improvised and standardize resource material suitable for teaching and learning without waiting for government to provide it for them. It also helps to know the number of pupil in the classroom and proper monitoring of teachers or pupils teacher on the use of instructional material.

Textbook writers: Inclusion of instructional material needed to teacher the particular topic base on specific objectives.

Government: Production and provision of resource instructional material to school base on the subject offered. Organizing seminar and workshop on the utilization of instructional material especially in the area of science and technology. And parent teacher their children on how to embrace technology.

Curriculum planner: When developing syllabus and scheme of work, space for the provision of instruction material should be made with related topics and days of supervision of teachers with instructional material.

1.7 Scope Of The Study

This study is focused on examining the effect of instructional materials on the performance of primary 1 pupils. It was carried out in primary 1 among the primary schools in Nasarawa town but due to the population of public and primary schools in Nasarawa the scope of the study is limited to Destiny Kings and Queens Nursery and Primary School Nasarawa.

1.8 Operational Definition Of Terms

Learning: Learning is the relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience in the learners’ environment.

Education: It is the process by which knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits are being acquired or transferred from one person to another.

Instructional materials: It is the means through which information (knowledge, skills, and values) is being transferred to the pupils.

Academic performance: It is the extent to which the student has achieved the predetermined educational objectives after evaluation using examination or continuous assessment.

Pupils: Is a person in a particular schools usually primary or pre-primary school who want to acquire knowledge, skills, value or competence.

Thursday 30 December 2021

THE IMPACT OF ACADEMIC LIBRARIES ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF UNDERGRADUATES OF FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC IN NORTH CENTRAL ZONE

(A CASE STUDY OF FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC NASARAWA)

ABSTRACT

The study examines the impact of academic libraries on academic performance of undergraduates of federal polytechnic in north central (a Case study of Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa). The specific objectives of the study include to determine the present state of the institution library, find out the extent to which students make used of the library service in the institution, determine the impact of academic libraries on the academic performance of undergraduates and identify the problems encountered by students in academic libraries of North Central Zone. Identify the problems of academic library in federal polytechnics. The study will employ descriptive survey research design. Random sampling technique will be used in choosing the sample. The researcher adopted the use of questionnaire as the research instrument while the data obtained were analyzed using tables and descriptive statistics. The findings of the study shows that academic library render services such as circulation / borrowing service, bibliographic / references service, scanning, photocopying and printing, laptop loan / multi-media to her esteeming users and that Information communication technology have significant impact on services of the library as it has eased library operation, aid library in meeting users need quickly, speed up the process of cataloguing and classification of library materials, enables most effective ways of resource sharing. The study recommends that the institution should provide information to support all key operations such as acquisition, circulation control, and serial management.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction

The library occupies an important position in academic institutions such as University, Polytechnics, College of Education and other similar institution of higher learning. The importance of library in providing quality educational services cannot be overemphasized. The uniqueness of academic library set up in an institution must be a library that is made up of collection of print materials such as books, periodicals, newspapers, government publications, and non printed materials, such as audio – visual materials, machine readable format etc (Akinbode, 2012).

Library is simply described as a special designated building stocked with prints and non – print materials which are readily made available to the library users’ such as teachers, students, researchers, and staff of the institution through convenient book cataloguing and delivery system. Academic libraries are those attached to higher institution of learning like Universities, Polytechnics (Anafulu, 2016).

Libraries are service oriented organizations established for the provision of relevant information resources and quality services to meet their users’ information needs. (Sowole, 2015) noted that users are described as the reason (reason for existence) of the library. Meeting the information needs of users requires the provision of the actual information resources and services that will satisfy the needs of users. (Anafalu, 2016) stated that there are several factors that can influence user’s satisfaction; these factors include responsiveness, competence and assurances, tangibles and resources.

Providing quality services in academic libraries is now a major issue among academic librarians; they see the library more in terms of the provision of and access to service quality than as just a physical place. The roles of libraries and librarians themselves have been re-evaluating their role as reflected in many literatures. They emphasize the provision of good library service as more important to the users than the mere physical library building (Pikulsi and Cooper, 2017).

An academic library has an essential element for the development of literacy, teaching, learning, cultural and assimilation which are core imperative in every academic settings. There is no doubt that library has a significant role to play in our educational development given the singular reason, every educational sector emphasis it’s importance and has therefore do all what is humanly possible to provide learning materials in the library.

Background Of The Study

Libraries are service oriented organizations established for the provision of relevant information resources and quality services to meet their users’ information needs. Sowole (2015) noted that users are described as the reason (reason for existence) of the library. Meeting the information needs of users requires the provision of the actual information resources and services that will satisfy the needs of users. Anafalu (2016) stated that there are several factors that can influence user’s satisfaction; these factors include responsiveness, competence and assurances, tangibles and resources.

Pikulsi and Cooper (2017) argued that providing quality services in academic libraries is now a major issue among academic librarians; they see the library more in terms of the provision of and access to service quality than as just a physical place. The roles of libraries and librarians themselves have been re-evaluating their role as reflected in many literatures. They emphasize the provision of good library service as more important to the users than the mere physical library building.

An academic library has an essential element for the development of literacy, teaching, leaning, cultural and assimilation which are core imperative in every academic settings. There is no doubt that library has a significant role to play in our educational development given the singular reason, every educational sector emphasis it’s importance and has therefore do all what is humanly possible to provide learning materials in the library.

The academic environment is a place for teaching, learning, and research and knowledge creation. The library is a vital facility for enhancing learning, teaching, and research, and as the hub of all academic activities, is established for provoking intellectual excellence. The library is an information resource that provides and enhances personal and national development, and more so influence students’ overall academic achievement. Thus, the effective utilization of information resources in the library is critical to students’ overall academic performance. The study skill(s) adopted determine to a large extent how well students utilize information resources culminating in academic success. Fayose (2001) points out that the library is essential to any educational development. Availability of adequate library facilities encourages passionate study behaviour in students early in life. It also helps students inculcate the attitude of self-inquiry and self-development. It is against this background that this study seek to examine the impact of academic library on academic performance of undergraduate students of Federal Polytechnic of North Central Zone, Nigeria.

Statement Of The Problem

Primarily academic libraries have a sole responsibility of ensuring there are relevant academic resources available for all members of the academic community including meeting national information needs. However several challenges or problems have tempered with the library ability to attain its utmost importance of enhancing academic performance of undergraduate students and the entire community of the institution. Such problems include lack of study skills and information seeking strategies by students which is due to absence of emphasis on teaching of study/information seeking strategies. Consequently, there is the problems of high level of information (knowledge) poverty that has consequences for the mass failure witnessed in today’s education. Lack of information resources is another problems faced by academic libraries as students cannot rely on the library because of the lack of library resources. They are likely to look elsewhere to satisfy their information needs in order to facilitate their academic performance. These problems jeopardizes the purpose of academic libraries in enhancing performance of the students and staff of the institution. Thus this study is necessary to examine the impact of academic library on academic performance of undergraduate students of Federal Polytechnic in North Central Zone of Nigeria.

1.3 Research Question

This study is set to provide answers to the following questions.

What is the present state of the institution library?
To what extent do students make use of the library services in the institution?
What is the impact of academic libraries on the academic performance of undergraduates?
What are the problems encounters by students in academic libraries of North Central zone.

1.4 Objectives of the Objectives

The general objective of this study is to examine the impact of academic library on academic performance of undergraduates of Federal Polytechnic libraries in north central zone, Nigeria – a case study of Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa.

The specific objectives of the study include:

Determine the present state of the institution library
To find out the extent to which students have used the library service in the institution
Determine the impact of academic libraries on the academic performance of undergraduate students
Identify the problems encounters by students in academic libraries of North Central zone.

1.5 Significance of the Study

The findings of this study on the impact of academic library on academic performance of undergraduate students of Federal Polytechnic libraries in North Central Zone, Nigeria are hoped to be of benefit to the library users (students and lecturers), the library management, librarians in the polytechnics and other academic libraries, polytechnic management, the government or proprietors of educational institutions, the library users who are all stake holders in the following ways:

The students and lecturers through the availability and accessibility of an enriched collection specifically developed to support teaching, learning and research.
For the library management it will serve as a guide to the heads of academic libraries especially the acquisitions librarians in formulating a realistic and current acquisitions policy that would adequately develop the library collections according to the prioritized needs of the specific disciplines offered in the Polytechnics. Again it will assist them in making better and prioritized budgetary spread for acquisition in individual academic programmes offered in their institutions, and also solicit for alternative sources of support from donor agencies and individuals within and outside the country.
For the librarians in the polytechnics and other academics it is hoped that the study will be of benefit to all academic libraries particularly those in polytechnics through identifying the areas of deficiency in the collections that may hamper their effective patronage by the users. It will also help them to sustain and improve on their collections, organize regular library publicity strategies, and user education among others.
It is hoped that Polytechnic management will benefit from the outcome of this study in making realistic budgetary allocation to the library, ascertaining whether the library is carrying out its responsibilities in line with mission and goals of the institution, and also providing the relevant information resources in all relevant fields

1.6 Scope of the Study

The study covered the impact of academic library on academic performance of undergraduates in Federal Polytechnic of North Central Zone of Nigeria. The scope of the study is limited to only the Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa.

1.7 Definition of Terms

Academic Library: Any library attached to a post-secondary or tertiary institution or libraries attached to universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of educations, colleges of agriculture etc.
Library: A library is a social institution charge with the responsibilities of selection, acquisition, organization, interpretation, conservation, retrieval and dissemination of information by trained or professional librarians and para-professionals. Library is a store or ware house of knowledge. It serves as link between knowledge and users for social, economical, political and cultural development.
Academic Performance: This referred to the extents to which students have been able to succeed in the school works as indicated by their results.
Undergraduate: An undergraduate is a polytechnic or university student who is not a graduate student. Undergraduates are students of universities and colleges: they’ve graduated from high school and have been accepted to college, but they haven’t graduated yet.
North Central Zone: North-Central Nigeria is one of the geopolitical zones that make up the federation.The following states make up the North Central zone of Nigeria: Benue, FCT, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau