ABSTRACT
The
academic performance of students is associated with several factors of which
the physical environment of the school is a vital factor. Understanding this
influence and the degree of impact is significant in devising means of
improving the learning outcome of Students. This underlying phenomenon formed
the basis for the conduct of a study in Ilorin Local Government Area (LGA). The
study evaluated the influence of the School’s physical
environment on academic performance of Students. A
total of 250 Students formed the total study population drawn from five (5)
private and five (5) public schools. Simple
random samplingtechnique was used to administer questionnaires
which was structured to reflect responses from Secondary School Students as it
related to the immediate environment, location of schools, distance of students
home from school, state of the classroom, availability of amenities and
recreational facilities. The study utilized
a descriptivesurvey research design that ensured
that each member of the target population had an equal and independent chance
of being included in the sample.
Five (5) research questions were raised for the study and five (5) hypothesis
were teste. Data obtained was analyzed using
descriptive and inferential statisticaltechniques
embedded in SPSS-20. Data obtained from analyzed responses was
presented in three forms; Demographic characteristic, descriptive analysis and
inferential analysis. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the five
(5) research questions posed for the study. T-tests statistic was used in
testing the five (5) hypotheses formulated at 0.05 level of significant
at 249 degree of freedom were all accepted with calculated t-test values being
less than the respective table values. The immediate environment surrounding
the school had significant impact on students irrespective of whether it is in
the Rural or Urban community. Students in Schools with adequate facilities and
good school building designs and infrastructures were positively influenced for
better academic performance.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Title page i
Certification .ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement .iv
Abstract v
Table of contents vii
CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION
Background to the study 1
Statement of the problem 12
Purpose of the study 13
Significance of the study 14
Scope of the study 15
Research Questions 15
Research Hypotheses 16
Definition of key terms 17
CHAPTER TWO:
LITERATURE REVIEW
Concept of Environment 19
Concept of Academic performance 21
Physical Environment of Educational Institutions .23
Secondary Educational in Ilorin West Local Government 24
Studies on Physical Environment and Students’ Academic
Performance 29
Appraisal of the Literature Review 36
CHAPTER THREE:
RESEARCH METHOD
Research Design 37
Population of the study 37
Sample and Sampling Technique 38
Research Instrument 39
Validity and Reliability of the Instrument 39
Procedure for Data Analysis 40
Method of Data Analysis 40
CHAPTER FOUR:
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA
Analysis of data to answer the research questions 41
Finding of study 80
Hypotheses testing 85
Discussion of findings 89
CHAPTER FIVE:
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary of findings 91
Conclusion 92
Recommendations 93
Suggestion for further findings 94
REFERENCES 95
APPENDICES 106
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Intelligence is
not the only determinant of academic performance of a student (Shamaki, 2015). The academic
performance of a student is most often associated with a lot of components of
learning environment. According to Bosque (2013), “teaching and learning
environment ought to implement six (6) functions: inform, communicate,
collaborate, produce, scaffold and manage. He further added that the learning
environment refers to the whole range of components and activities within which
learning happens”. Hence, learning environment takes into account several
variables that have direct and indirect effect on students’ performance.
Denga (2012)
maintained that each environment plays a part in shaping the development of the
child academically and otherwise. Accordingly, a child gets from his
environment all he needed to enable him develop best. Students of urban
surrounding have more opportunities to radios, educative film shows,
electricity, televisions, well equipped laboratories and libraries etc that
help or contribute in moulding their approaches when compared to rural location
students regarding academic achievement. Effiong (2011) on his part opined that
any two individuals with approximately equal intelligence but living in two
separate and distinct environments may end up attaining unequal intellectual
heights.
Past and present
research in education has long-established that academic performance of all
categories of students have been a point of concern to many educators (Ashby,
Sadera, & McNary, 2011).
Indeed, learning
environment plays a major role in shaping the quality of academic achievement.
It seems there is perceptional consistency among scholars about learning
environment and the student’s cognitive and effective outcome (Lizzio, et al,
2012). It was observed that the learning is optimal when body, soul and spirit
are in accord; otherwise learning will be ineffective. Hence, clean, quiet and
comfortable environment are important components of learning environment.
Furthermore, creating an ideal learning environment must be a top priority.
Being comfortable should be a combination of several factors which include;
temperature, lighting, and noise control (Murugan & Rajoo, 2013).
Ryan (2013)
stated that a large amount of a child’s time is spent sitting in a school
classroom. This place is where they will learn the various skills deemed
necessary and proper for them to achieve success in the global society. The
classroom is where they will gain an understanding of their place in the world
and the gifts that they have to offer it. It is where the student develops what
they want their future to look like, as well as knowledge of the skills needed
to reach that goal. With the classroom being such an important place in the
growth of a child it is important to understand the ways in which to affect
this environment in order to receive maximum effectiveness in instruction. If
schools really do play a large role in teaching the next generation how to be
successful members of society then every precaution should be taken to make
sure that the learning environment is one that helps students thrive. If not
approached correctly, a classroom can be set up in a way that stifles
creativity or does not promote a positive learning environment. There are many
things that can affect this environment. There are physical elements such as
wall art, arrangement of desks, or resources. Also, there are intangible
elements such as the energy of the classroom, the rules, or the sounds within
the room. Each of these can impact a student’s focus and performance in the
class. They can also affect a teacher’s attitude in the class.
Included in each of these elements of the
classroom is the emotional environment. The way in which a teacher organizes
their class, or how they control it, will yield positive or negative
consequences for their students. If a teacher is unmotivated or negative there
will be a direct impact on the students within the classroom. Similarly, if a
teacher is motivated and positive they will likely have a beneficial impact on
their students as well. It is important for a teacher to understand this cause
and effect in order to understand how to organize their classroom to create a
better learning environment.
Byoung-suk, (2012)
stated that children need safe, healthy and stimulating environment in which to
grow and learn. During the school year, children can spend 6 to 8 hours at the
school where the environment plays a significant/critical role in child
development. More of the time is spent in the school yard or travelling to and
from school. This condition requires careful planning and designing to optimize
experiences that support education, health and stewardship. Therefore, the
school environment is of paramount importance in shaping and reshaping
intellectual ability. However, supportive and favourable school environment
enriched with enough learning facilities, and favourable climate makes students
more comfortable, more concentrated on their academic activities that resulted
in high academic performance. The forces of the environment begin to influence
growth and development of the individual right from the womb of his mother. The
educational process of development occurs in physical, social, cultural and
psychological environment. A proper and adequate environment is very much
necessary for a fruitful learning of the child. The favourable school
environment provides the necessary stimulus for learning experiences. The
children spend most of their time in school, and this school environment is
exerting influence on performance through curricular, teaching technique and
relationship (Arul Lawrence 2012).
Mudassir &
Norsuhaily (2015) remarked in a document prepared by policy studies association
(PSA) reviewed in 2014 in Washington D.C. (USA)
that students’ academic performance is more heavily influenced by the
quality of the environment than by students’ race, class, prior academic record
or school a student attended. This effect is particularly strong among students
from low-income families and African-American students.
Considerable research has been
conducted on teaching skills, climate, socio-economic conditions, and student
performance (Rafferty, 2013). Depending on the environment, schools can either
open or close the doors that lead to academic performance.
The school
environment, which include the classrooms, libraries, technical workshops,
laboratories, teachers’ quality, school management, teaching methods, peers,
etc. are variables that affect students’ academic performance. Hence, the
school environment remains an important area that should be studied and well
managed to enhance students’ academic performance. The issue of poor academic
performance of students in Ilorin metropolis has been of much concern to the government,
parents, teachers and even students themselves.
Eze (2016)
explained that the quality of education does not depend on teacher’s ability as
reflected in their performance of duties, but also in effective co-ordination
of the physical environment. Emphasizing the importance of physical environment
to student academic performance, the physical environment is an essential
aspect of educational planning, he further explained that “ unless schools are
well suited or situated, building are adequately constructed and equipment are
adequately utilized and maintained teaching and learning may not take place.
Great educators such as Comenius,
Fafunwa and Dewey emphasized the important role `physical environment plays in
the education of children.
School environment
which include instructional spaces planning, administrative places planning,
circulation spaces planning, spaces for conveniences planning, accessories
planning, teachers as well as students are essential in teaching-learning
process. The high levels of student’s academic performance may not be
guaranteed where instructional spaces such as classrooms, libraries, technical
workshops and laboratories are structurally defective. Learning takes place
through the experience which students gain from environment in which they are
placed. Parents and teachers ought to be concerned with providing environmental
conditions to maximize the development of children. It is believed that a
well-planned school will gear up expected outcomes of education that will facilitate
good social, political and economic emancipation, effective teaching and
learning process and academic performance of the students. Relating this study
to international occurrences are the assertions of Turner (2014), quoting
Marsden (2011), which reported that safe and orderly classroom environment
(aspect of instructional space), school facilities (accessories) were
significantly related to students’ academic performance in schools. It was
equally asserted that a comfortable and caring environment among other
treatments helped to contribute to students’ academic performance. The physical
characteristics of the school have a variety of effects on teachers, students
and the learning process. Poor lighting, noise, high levels of carbon (iv)
oxide in classrooms and inconsistent temperatures make teaching and learning
difficult. Poor maintenance and ineffective ventilation systems lead to poor
health among students as well as teachers, which leads to poor performance and
higher absentee rates (Frazier, 2012). These factors can adversely affect
student behavior and lead to higher levels of frustration among teachers, and
poor learning attitude among student. Beyond the direct effects that poor
facilities have on students’ ability to learn, the combination of poor
facilities which create an uncomfortable and uninviting workplace for teachers,
combined with frustrating behavior by students including poor concentration and
hyperactivity, lethargy or apathy, creates a stressful set of working
conditions for teachers. Because stress and job dissatisfaction are common
precursors to lowered teacher enthusiasm, it is possible that the
aforementioned characteristics of school facilities have an effect on the
academic performance of students.
Previous studies
have investigated the relationship of poor school environment including
problems with student-teacher ratio, school location, school population, classroom
ventilation, poor lighting in classrooms and inconsistent temperatures in the
classroom with student health problems, student behavior and student
achievement (Crandell & Smaldino, 2011; Davis, Moore, 2012;
Stricherz, 2013;). To complement these studies, the present research will
examine the highlighted areas of the school environment as it affects students’
performance in schools in Ilorin West Local Government of Kwara State, Nigeria.
Despite various
views on the importance of school environment on teaching and learning, very
little is known about it, although there has been a great deal of researches on
some aspects of teaching and learning process such as the relationship of
reading program or teaching methods on the achievement of reading skills.
Sinab(2015) explained that the forces of environment begin to influence the
growth and development of the individual right from the mother’s womb. A proper
and adequate environment should provide the necessity for fruitful teaching and
learning experience of the child. The
home and school should provide necessary stimulus for learning experience. The
child spends most of the time in school and the environment exerts influence on
performance through curriculum teaching and relationship. Educational
institutions are intimately linked with the society at large, therefore, the
general condition of schools is a matter of great concern for the nation.
Twenty-first (21st) Century
learning environments are envisioned as places where the learner is engaged in
self-directed and co-operative learning activities, and the physical
environment is planned so that it can be routinely re-organized to mediate
learning (Partnership for 21st century Skills, 2016).
Academic
performance has been largely associated with many factors. Most students in
Nigeria are daily confronted with challenges of coping with academics under
serious emotional strains; trekking to school, poor school environment, being
taught by unmotivated teachers under harsh learning conditions and
uncooperative-to-study attitude of parents who often toil to provide for the
family.
Academic
performance is undoubtedly a research after the heart of educators, teachers,
psychologists, policy makers, parents and guardians, social workers, etc. in
attempts to investigate what determines academic outcomes of learners, and they
have come with more questions than answer. Recent, prior literature has shown
that learning outcomes (academic achievements and academic performance) have
been determined by such variables as; family, schools, society and motivation
factors. It has been noted that much of the previous studies focused on the
impact of demographic and socio-psychological variables on academic performance
as a factor of government (Joktham & Sizkan, 2013). In spite of the seeming
exhaustiveness of literature on the determinants of academic performance of
learners, there seems to be more area of interest to be investigated.
School sector
(public or private) and class size are two important structural components of
schools which the economic status of parents would determine the one to be
afforded. Smaller class sizes create more intimate settings and therefore can
increase teacher-pupil bonding which has also been shown to have a positive
effect on pupil’s success.
Pupils from low
economic background who attend poorly funded schools do not perform as well as
students from higher economic classes (Ibitoye, 2014 &Omidiji, 2015). This
trend is a huge problem to parents, teachers, government and Stakeholders in
the education system.
Statement of the Problem
In kwara State
and particularly Ilorin West Local Government, some secondary schools are
dotted with dilapidated buildings equipped with obsolete facilities situated in
unconducive environment. Teachers work at times under stressful conditions and
a handful of them go the extraordinary path to convey lessons that should be learnt
with ease. It is not unusual to find teachers and students interacting
academically under collapsed school buildings, buildings with wrecked roofing,
large class size, or sometimes under trees and easily distracted open spaces.
Poor academic performance of students in Ilorin West Local Government is a
concern to all stakeholders including students.
Ekpeyong (2012)
noted that the quality of education does not only depend on the teacher’s
ability as reflected in the performance of their duties, but also in the
effective co-ordination of the school physical environment. The efficiency of a
school system in achieving its organizational objectives and goals depend on
the effectiveness of the various physical environmental factors to which the
component of the system are subjected to (Eke, 2015). However, it is believed
that physical environment might have an impact on students’ behavior and
attitudes towards learning.
This study
therefore seeks to identify and determine the type of physical environment
provided for Secondary school students in Ilorin West Local Government and how
it has affected academic performances.
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose
of this study was to examine the influence of physical environment on the
academic performance of secondary school students in Ilorin West Local
Government with the intents to providing valid and useful suggestions towards
the provision of standardized and conducive school environment towards
enhancing students’ academic performance.
Specifically, the study will
examined the following;
i. The influence of physical environment on student’s academic
performance.
ii.
The extent to which school location affects the academic
performance of students.
iii.
The extent to which school environment affects student’s academic
performance.
Significance of the Study
The findings of
this study will be of immense benefit to stakeholders in the educational sector
in Kwara State in the following ways:
Formulation of strategies for
curriculum developers and education planners to enhance student’s academic
performance through the provision of appropriate physical environment.
Provide useful resource to
teacher-in-training and those already on the field to further enrich their
knowledge on the issue of school environment and students’ academic performance.
c. Provide a wide spectrum of
knowledge on how to create, manage and sustain a conducive physical environment
for better educational outcome of the students.
Provide relevant information for
the government on the effect of poor physical environment on student’s academic
performance.
Scope of the Study
The study will be
limited to ten (10) Secondary schools in Ilorin West Local Government. The
population for the study was drawn from five (5) public and five (5) private
secondary schools using an acceptable scientific sample size determination
technique from the total population of secondary school students in the ten
(10) schools. Questionnaires were administered to students randomly.
Insufficient financial resources and time were the major limitations and
constraints to this study on the part of the researcher.
Research Questions
The following
questions were raised to sharpen the focus of this research.
i.
Does physical environment have any influence on academic
performance of secondary students in Ilorin West Local Government?
ii.
To what extent does physical environment influence the academic
performance of secondary school students in Ilorin West Local Government?
iii.
Does availability of facilities in secondary schools affect the
student’s learning attitude?
iv.
What impact does the location in which the School is located have
on students?
v.
What is the relationship between the physical state of school
building, the general surroundings and learning outcome of students?
Research Hypothesis
The following hypothesis were tested in the
study:
Ho1: There is a significant influence of the
physical environment on students’ academic performance in Secondary Schools.
Ho2: There is a significant influence of the
physical environment of Urban Secondary Schools on Students’ Academic
Performance.
Ho3: There is a significant influence of the
physical environment of Rural Secondary Schools on the Academic Performance of
Students.
Ho4: There is a significant influence of the
physical environment of Public Secondary Schools on the Academic Performance of
Students.
Ho5: There is a significant influence of the
physical environment of Private Secondary Schools on the Academic Performance
of Students.
Definition of Key Terms
The following are
terms defined operationally:
Academic performance: Academic feats attained in school subjects revealed in test
scores or performance in examination.
Attitude: Disposition or state of mind.
Dilapidated buildings: buildings in a state of disrepair or deterioration especially
through neglect.
Hyperactivity: An increased state of activity.
Lethargy: A state of extreme torpor or apathy, especially with lack of
emotion or interest; loosely, sluggishness. Laziness.
Obsolete facilities: facilities that a no longer in use or gone into disuse or
neglected.
Physical environment: the visible surroundings of, and influences on a particular item
of interest.
School system: a collection of organized things or planning around a school.
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