INFLUENCE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

The study examined the availability of instructional materials, its adequacy and relevancy; characteristics of instructional materials, importance of instructional materials, and factors affecting the use of instructional materials on students’ academic performance in agricultural science.  This study made use of Survey Research Design. Thirty (30) Government and private secondary schools were used. It had the population of 8,142 agricultural science students and 73 agricultural science teachers.  Sample of 206 students were randomly selected with 30 agricultural science teachers.  The instrument used for collection of data was a questionnaire designed by the researcher for the teachers and students of agricultural science. The instrument used in this study was vetted by the supervisors and experts in the field of measurement and evaluation in the Faculty of Education to determine the face and content validity of the instrument.  The data collected for the pilot study was used to calculate the reliability coefficient using split-half method and also Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r), which gave 0.87. Four research questions and four null hypotheses (Ho) were formulated to guide the study. Contingency chi-square statistical tool was used in testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.  The analysis yielded the following findings that good and relevant textbooks were the instructional materials available to be used to influence students’ academic performance in agricultural science.  That instructional materials should possess characteristics of visibility, simplicity, attraction, and clarity.  That instruction material is important to influence students’ academic performance in agricultural science.  That teacher’s qualification and experience were the major factors affecting the use of instructional materials to influence students’ academic performance in agricultural science in secondary schools.  Recommendations were made in line with the findings, which include the agricultural science teachers should endeavour to use and try to improvise instructional materials for effective teaching of agricultural science in secondary schools.  Government should ensure the adequate employment of dedicated and qualified agricultural science teachers and make funds available and sponsor the teacher’s attendance at conferences, seminars, and workshops on utilization of agricultural science instructional materials.  In conclusion, students perform better when appropriate and improvised materials were made available and utilized in teaching agricultural science. The agricultural science knowledge and subsequent performance of students in both junior and senior secondary schools and agricultural science as a subject becomes more interesting to learn when it was taught by experienced, well committed, dedicated and qualified agricultural science teachers.  Teaching of agricultural science will not be completed if the instructional materials needed to facilitate learning are not sourced for, and properly utilized for each agricultural science topic designed to be taught and construct others using available local materials.

Questions

 

Academic Performance: For the purpose of this study, Senior School Certificate Examination conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) is taken as an index of academic performance.

Apparatus:  Laboratory equipments or tools that are needed for a particular activity or task

Chimneys: Structure through which water is carried up from the container.

Coleorhiza:  In maize plant radicule that breaks through a root covering after about three to four days of planting.

Herbarium:  A collection of dried specimens of flowers and plants origin

Hypogeal:  A seed plant grow with the cotyledon under the soil e.g. maize

Improvise:  To do or make something one has not prepared for because a sudden need has arise.

Laboratory: A room where agricultural scientists works or perform an experiment, 

testing.

Metamorphosis:  The distinct changes in the development of the life cycle of an insect pest.

Specimen:  It is a replicate of the whole object in the question. This may be a part of an object or one of the group or class to represent the whole group.

The influence of instructional materials in promoting students’ academic performance and teaching and learning in educational development is indisputable. The teaching of Agricultural Science in Nigerian secondary schools needs to be properly handled. Agriculture contributes to the nation’s economic development, hence, the need to be taught thoroughly if it is to meet the educational and economic development.  Moreso, that Agricultural Science is one of the subjects in Junior and Senior Secondary Schools; and as a vocational subject, it cannot be taught effectively without the use of appropriate instructional materials (Ajayi, 1988). The curriculum content of the senior secondary school levels consists of three major concepts of production, protection and economics.  Learning by doing was emphasized in the curriculum so that the students should be able to produce food and other agricultural products for themselves and their community.  A series of activities were suggested in the curriculum to ensure the development of psychomotor skills in agricultural science by the students. The programme further recommended that: each student be guaranteed adequate equipment, farm space, farm structures and regular supply of fertilizers and animal feeds.  In addition to having a farm, each school should keep at least two farm animals.  Students achievement should be continuously assessed through various forms of tests and during field and laboratory practicals and individual assessment should be carried out for activities in crop production while group assessment be restricted to performance in animal production activities. Hence for effective and positive production in any establishment, there must be enough working tools to be used by the personnel (Oyedun, 2000).

The teacher alone cannot provide all the needed condition for an effective teaching and learning process, other supporting materials should be provided. The students learn better when most of the senses are appealed to the instruction and use of instructional materials in agriculture science education has added a new dimension in the positive promotion of the teaching and learning process.  It provides the much need sensory experiences needed by the learners for an effective and meaningful behavioural change. Instructional materials are meant to improve the quality of education for effective academic performance of agricultural science students in schools. The performance of the students on the intended learning outcome provide the validation – loop on the success of the interaction and instruction (Bakare, 1986).

Teachers normally dodge the use of instructional materials in most of their teaching topics, while they try to do all they could during their practical teaching in their course of study; even though some of these materials are not usually available in the schools for teachers’ use. Also, in the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination, agricultural science practicals use a lot of specimens. Such includes soil samples, insect pests, seed samples, bone meal, fish meal, survey equipments, simple farm tools, farm machinery and implements, termitarium, fruits, sprayer, fertilizer, herbicides, cage, tilapia fish, watering can, feeding trough, hides and skin, weed specimens, hook and line etc., but most of these materials are only made available for students’ use for the purpose of examination. These specimens are those that have not been seen or used before by the students. “In most of the secondary schools, instructional materials are not judiciously used as it ought to be.  Many teachers teach in abstract without using the required materials” (Ibrahim, 2000). 

In making use of any instructional materials, such materials must be previewed that is, having full knowledge of the material; prepare the environment where it will be used; prepare audience by means of making sure that the materials to be used will attract attention, arouse, motivate and provide the rationale that could be used in the beginning, middle or end.  The effectiveness of utilizing appropriate instructional materials in teaching and learning of agricultural science is not void of quality instructor.  In order to give quality education to the younger generation, there is need for employment of more competent, experienced and qualified agricultural science teachers.

The need to identify the suitable instructional materials, by which students can be made to comprehend the extent of the subject easily and intelligibly, is the focus of this study. An in-depth look at the secondary schools agricultural science programmes revealed that there is the need for improving all phases of the programmes (IMAA, 2004). For example, there is need for the introduction and use of instructional materials and equipment for use in both the classrooms and school farms.  The broad aim of any good training materials are to induce and support the learning process that leads to improve on-the-job performance through affecting changes in the knowledge, attitudes, skills and practices of the learners.  With the above reasons, it is worth investigating the influence of instructional materials in the teaching of Agricultural Science in our Secondary Schools, for better performance of students in their examination and chosen career in the field of agriculture. If instructional materials are used in Secondary Schools, it would help improving the teaching and learning and hence the academic performance of students in Agricultural Science effectively.

Many of the school authorities have very lukewarm attitudes over the provision of needed tools, apparatus’s, and farm inputs required for effective agricultural science, especially practical in secondary schools.  This non-challant attitude tend to retard genuine efforts of some teachers of agricultural science in the secondary schools.  Inspite of the emphasis being placed on agricultural science as one of the subjects in secondary schools, there is usually not enough time provided in the time-table for a meaningful agricultural science work (Adeyemi, 2000).  Agricultural science teachers are always interested to finish the syllabus before the external examination – Senior School 

Certificate Examination (SSCE) conducted by West African Examination Council (WAEC).  

Hence, the prosecution of a functional education in relation to agricultural science in secondary schools still leaves much to be desired.  In view of this difficulties, most teachers of agricultural science still resort to the theoretical method of teaching the subject.  This undoubtedly, is contrary to the improvement of agricultural science education, which is greatly needed at this period of our development with emphasis on practical oriented learning (Mammudu, 1996).  The researcher has taught for a number of years in some secondary schools and had visited a number of secondary schools as a resource person.  Through these experiences, the researcher observed that most teachers in secondary schools in the state did not fully make use of instructional materials in the teaching of agricultural science to their students.  This negligence of the effective use of the instructional facilities and materials in teaching and learning of agricultural science common to both the trained and untrained teachers affected the successful academic performance of students in agricultural science in secondary schools in Benue State.  

The desire to embark on this research study therefore, stemmed from the fact that there is problem of poor performance of secondary school students in agricultural science in the state.  This poor and general backwardness in agricultural science have been recorded for some years now by the examination bodies of Senior School Certificate Examination conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC), school promotion examinations and the special qualifying examination, conducted by the State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, introduced for students in senior secondary schools respectively – (Department of Statistics, Planning and Research, Ministry of Education, Markurdi, 2007).  The statistics obtained from fifteen secondary schools in Benue State have indicated that there is a progressive decline in the performance of students in agricultural science subjects.  Statistics from the various examination offices of the schools revealed that out of a total of 1,964 agricultural science students that registered and sat for the West African Examination Council in 2009, only 610 passed and 1,354 students failed from the 15 secondary schools – representing 31% passed and 69% failed (School Examination Offices, 2010).

Anything that saves students from performing poorly in agricultural science, will also save parents or guardians from wasting their hard-earned money.  It may put an end to parents or guardians wasting their hard-earned money re-enrolling their wards to repeat agricultural science examinations which they are not guaranteed passing even after several attempts.  The unusual way some agricultural science teachers approach the teaching of agricultural science has contributed to the students’ development of negative attitude to both the subjects and the teachers.  Most of the secondary schools cannot meet up with the academic (practical) requirements of this subject as they lack instructional materials for adequate teaching and learning of the subject.

The central problems which are attributed to the students’ poor academic performance in agricultural science in secondary schools’ in Benue State may be due to poor usage or not using appropriate instructional materials to teach agricultural science, issue of class size, inability to improve on the needed facilities, equipment, technical expertise, lack of agricultural science laboratories, workshops, seminars, poor organization of the few available instructional materials, agricultural science teachers attitudes towards the use of instructional materials, non-improvisation of instructional materials by agricultural science teachers and the weakness of the school administrators in finding solutions to the problems for the influence of misuse of instructional materials, all need serious attention.

The appropriate utilization of instructional materials and teaching of agricultural science by experienced and qualified teachers, may probably be the main solution to poor performance in Agricultural Science. In order to develop interest of the students to the study of agricultural science in secondary schools and the participation of agricultural science teachers to teach the subject as a vocational agriculture, the researcher deem necessary for the use of appropriate instructional materials for the teaching of Agricultural Science in selected secondary schools setting in Benue State in particular.

The major objective of this study is to determine the influence of instructional materials on the academic performance of students in agricultural science in secondary schools in Benue State, Nigeria. The specific objectives are to:

The following research questions were answered in the course of the study.

State?

The following null hypotheses (Ho) were stated to guide the study.

This research work is significant and useful in the teaching and learning of agricultural science.  Findings from this study will help to assess the effectiveness of the stated objectives of secondary school – agricultural science curriculum.

Subsequently, the findings from the study will help agricultural science teachers in choosing an appropriate instructional material(s) capable of releasing students’ tension towards the subject thus improving students’ academic performance in agricultural science.  It will motivate agricultural science teachers to develop interest towards utilizing suitable teaching materials that will be a possible means towards reducing failure in the teaching and learning of agricultural science. Findings of this study will help clarify among the teachers the need for continuous and regular improvisation of suitable instructional materials for teaching and learning of agricultural science. 

Moreover, the results of this study will be of great significance to the agricultural science curriculum planners. The curriculum developers will find the work useful in reviewing the agricultural science 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 agricultural science by forming a basis for further studies on the usage of instructional materials and teachers’ quality in order learning aspects of agricultural science as a subject.

The study will also equip our educational administrators in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST), educational test and measurement experts on the need to provide instructional materials for teaching agricultural science in our secondary schools setting particularly in selected secondary schools and the Benue State as a whole.

The study will also be useful in educational policy making.  The research will arouse instructional educational funding agencies such as Federal Ministry of Education, Faculties or Schools of Education, National Teachers’ Institutes as well as professional bodies such as Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN) to formulate educational polices which may be useful in implementation of agricultural science curriculum.

The researcher made the following assumptions that:

i. the availability of instructional materials – specimens, relevant agricultural science textbooks, pictures, diagrams, practical school gardens, charts and community resource places contribute to the academic performance of 

students in agricultural science; ii. the good use of instructional materials is dependent on the teachers’ qualification and experience to influence students’ academic performance in agricultural science; iii. students taught with instructional materials do perform better than students taught without instructional materials; iv. the factors affecting the use of instructional materials is built-up upon the class size or student’s population.

This research work is delimited to the types of instructional materials available for use to influence academic performance of agricultural science students in secondary schools in Benue State, characteristics of instructional materials, importance and uses of instructional materials and factors affecting instructional materials usage.  It is also delimited to thirty agricultural science teachers and two hundred and six agricultural science students from thirty selected Government and private Secondary Schools in three senatorial districts of the sixteen local government areas in Benue State.