The Impact of Instructional Materials and Students Academic Performance in Economics in Secondary Schools

The Impact of Instructional Materials and Students Academic Performance in Economics in Secondary Schools

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate instructional materials and students’ academic performance in Economics in secondary schools in Ikono Local Government Area. Three (3) research questions and three research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Survey research design was adopted for the study.

The population of this study comprised of all the senior Secondary two (SS2) 1,304 students from all the nine (9) Public Secondary Schools in the study area. Simple random sampling technique was used to select one hundred and twenty (120) students draw from six (6) selected public secondary schools in the study area. The instruments used for data collection were Economic Achievement test and a questionnaire tagged “Instructional materials and students academic performance questionnaire (IMSAPQ)”.

The data collected were analyses using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC). The result showed that Instructional materials have a significant relationship on students academic performance in Economics. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made among others that Government should endeavor to provide Instructional materials to secondary schools who do not have enough instructional materials for the students to use during teaching/learning process.

The Impact of Instructional Materials and Students Academic Performance in Economics in Secondary Schools

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background to the Study

The influence of instructional materials in promoting students’ academic performance and at promoting teaching and learning in an educational system is indisputable. The teaching of Economics in Nigerian secondary schools needs to be properly handled. The materials used by teachers to teach and drive home their subject points at the secondary school levels of Nigerian education system is incontrovertibly a paramount important issue in practical classroom interaction and successful transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the learners.

Instructional materials are materials which assist teachers to make their lessons explicit to learners. They are also used to transmit information, ideas and notes to learners. He further stated that instructional materials can also be referred to as the widely variety of equipment and materials used for teaching/learning by teachers to stimulate self-activity on the part of the students.

Instructional materials include both visual and audio-visual equipments. Visual equipments are those materials that you see. These include; flashcards, posters, charts, textbooks, real objects, models, chalkboard, and so on. While Audio-visual materials are those materials that stimulate both the visual (sight) and audio (hearing) senses. Examples are; computers, tape recorder, radios, videos, televisions among others. Their importance in the teaching/ learning process is not to be over-emphasized.

The role of instructional materials as follows: It promotes meaningful communication, hence effective learning, it ensures retention, thus making learning more permanent, it helps to overcome the limitation of classroom by making the inaccessible accessible, it provide a common experience upon which other learning can be developed. it stimulate and motivate students to learn, it encourage participation especially if students are allowed to manipulate materials used.

Instructional materials are highly important for teaching especially for inexperienced teachers. The teachers rely on instructional materials in every aspect of teaching. They need materials for background information on the subjects they are teaching. Young teachers find it difficult to express themselves when they enter the classroom. Therefore they need instructional materials to help them. Teachers often use instructional materials for lesson planning. These materials are also needed by teachers to assess the knowledge of their students. Teachers often assess pupils by assigning tasks, creating projects and administering examinations. Instructional materials are essential for all these activities.

The Impact of Instructional Materials and Students Academic Performance in Economics in Secondary Schools

However, instructional materials often provide innovative and creative ways to assess pupils’ performance. It is hard to imagine any teacher who is capable of teaching effectively without accompaniment of instructional materials. With instructional materials the class is more realities and it gives a view point on the topic. Instructional materials help the teacher to teach well as to make her lesson clear and understandable to the students especially in the learning of Economics in secondary schools.

Instructional material does not only provide the necessary concrete experience but also help students integrate prior experience. It is against this background that the study sought to find out how instructional materials relates with students’ academic performance in Economics in secondary schools in Ikono Local Government Area

1.2   Statement of the Problem

In recent years, there are increasing problems of poor academic performance of students in Economics in both external and internal examination regardless of all avenues explored by government to bring out good academic performance in the subject; by providing relevant instructional materials to teach students.

This poor academic performance of Economics candidates as evident in WAEC result of 2020/2021 academic session have been attributed to several factors such as gender differences, methods of teaching, insufficiency qualified teachers, inconsistent policies of education, inadequate utilization of instructional materials, etc.

Based on this, the researcher was interested in examining the influence of instructional materials and students academic performance in Economics in secondary schools in Ikono Local Government Area.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between instructional materials and students academic performance in Economics in secondary schools in Ikono Local Government Area.

Specially, the study seeks to:

1. Examine the relationship between instructional wall chart and students academic performance in Economics in secondary schools.
2. Examine the relationship between film projector and students academic performance in Economics in secondary schools.
3. Examine the relationship between flash cards and students academic performance in Economics in secondary schools.

The Impact of Instructional Materials and Students Academic Performance in Economics in Secondary Schools

1.4   Research Questions

The following research questions were formulated to guide this study;

1. How does instructional wall chart relates with academic performance of students in Economics in secondary schools in Ikono Local Government Area?
2. To what extent does film projector relates with academic performance of students in Economics in secondary schools in Ikono Local Government Area?
3. How does audiovisual materials relates with and academic performance of students in Economics in secondary schools in Ikono Local Government Area?

1.5   Research Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses will be formulated to guide the study:

1. There is no significant relationship between instructional wall chart and academic performance of secondary school students in Economics in Ikono Local Government Area.
2. There is no significant relationship between film projector and academic performance of secondary school students in Economics in Ikono Local Government Area.
3. There is no significant relationship between flash cards and academic performance of secondary school students in Economics in Ikono Local Government Area

1.6   Significance of the Study

        The study will be significant in the following ways:

• The study is expected to be of great significance to various groups and individuals like the Ministry of Education, policy makers, curriculum planners, principals and teachers.
• The findings of the study will help Economics teachers in choosing an appropriate instructional material capable of relieving students tension towards the subject thus improving students academic performance in Economics.
• It will motivate students to learn because when the rightl instructional materials is used students academic performance will be improve.
• Findings of this study will help to clarify among the teachers the need for continuous and regular improvisation of suitable instructional materials for teaching and learning of Economics.
• Moreover, the results of this study will be of great significance to the Economics curriculum planners. The curriculum developers will find the work useful in reviewing the Economics curriculum by seriously laying emphasis on utilization of instructional materials so as to meet up with emerging needs of the society.
• This study will be of immense benefit to researchers in the field of Economics by forming a basis for further studies.

The Impact of Instructional Materials and Students Academic Performance in Economics in Secondary Schools

1.7   Limitation of the Study

Lots of problems faced by the researcher in carrying out the research work are:

1. Time factor: The given for the completion of this study was inadequate to make the research have a wider scope.
2. Financial constraint: The research hardly enough to the researcher to gather more factual data due to financial mishap.

iii.     Academic Work Load: This also exerted pressure on the study as the researcher could not expand the scope of the study as a result of researcher much academic work-load in the campus.

1.8   Delimitation of the Study

This study on instructional materials and students academic performance in Economics was delimited to selected public secondary school students in Ikono Local Government Area.

1. 9 Definition of Terms

The following terms will be defined for better understanding of the study:

1. Instructional materials: These are materials that help teachers to deliver their lessons effectively and also help students to understand the lesson the more than what it should be without its usage.
2. Instructional Wall Chart: Instructional wall charts are charts that are hung on walls, examples of these wall charts are flip chart, pocket charts, flex etc.

• Academic performance: This is the outcome or result of the students’ learning ability in school. It is the measure of ability of the students based on their cognitive, affective and psychomotor domain.

1. Economics: This is defined as a social science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses.
2. Flash card: A flashcard or flash card is a card bearing information on both sides, which is intended to be used as an aid in memorization.
3. Film projector: This is an instructional material that teachers used to display information on the screen for the pupils to see and learn.