Teacher’s Demonstration on Students’ Academic Performance in Basic Science in Secondary Schools
Chapter One
Introduction
1.1 Background to the study
Many of our standard methods of teaching have been shown to be comparatively unproductive in the students’ ability to master and then retain vital concepts. The traditional methods of teaching (lecture, recitation, and laboratory) do not tend to foster collaborative problem-solving, critical thinking and creative thinking (Wood and Gentile 2003; Costa 2014). With regard to the prevailing scenario in engineering education, in general, students are taught memorization and routine application, and not reasoning methods, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation (Somalingam and Shanthakumari 2013). Employers complain that today’s secondary school graduates are severely lacking in basic skills particularly communication, problem-solving, the ability to prioritize tasks and decision making (Selingo 2015).
A high dropout rate is a current problem in science classes. The institutions have to raise the student success ratio and have to reduce the number of dropouts (Paura and Arhipova 2009; Marcus 2012). In-class demonstrations by teachers, a standard constituent of science courses in schools and universities, are generally believed to help students understand science and to stimulate student interest (Crouch, 2004). Most students get a great deal more out of visual information than verbal information (spoken and written words and mathematical formulas) (Felder, 2000).
Teacher demonstrations provide a multi-sensory means to describe a concept, idea, or product that may otherwise be difficult to grasp by verbal description alone (Cabibihan 2013). Teacher demonstrations strategy has emerged to become an instructional approach that is gaining rising interest within the engineering education community (Hadim and Esche 2002). Research has found that diverse students benefit vastly when they have the opportunity to participate in activities, interact with materials and manipulate objects and equipment (Carrier 2005; Prpicand Hadgraft 2009). An earlier work that made use of demonstrations by teachers in Basic Science education reported an increase in student attendance from thirty percent to eighty percent (Kresta 1998).
Ogwo and Oranu (2006) affirm that demonstration strategy is the most widely used TeachingStrategy for the acquisition of practical skills asit includes the verbal and practical illustration of a given procedure. The authors have further added that the strategy is highly effective because it contains the activity of the student. Cabibihan (2013) used working models for in-class demonstrations and reported that a multi-background, multidisciplinary, and multinational student audience had responded favorably to the in-class demonstrations. It was also reported that the students’ academic achievement could be attributed to the immediate appreciation of concepts from the practical examples that the students experienced from the demonstrations. Jaksa (2009) has utilized a number of demonstration models in his teaching in geotechnical engineering.
In conclusion, the author reiterates the effectiveness of demonstration models as a tool to improve learning and to engage students. Adekoya and Olatoye (2011) and Daluba (2013) have studied the effect of demonstration strategy using working models in an aspect of Basic Science and reported that this Teaching Strategy brought about the most significant positive impact on the students’ academic achievement.
However, basic science is the only core science subject taught in junior secondary schools in Nigeria. Because of its promising role in promoting self-reliance through the provision of employment opportunities and production of staple future scientists for the populace, it’s teaching as a course offering in our schools and colleges has been made compulsory by the federal government. The Federal Republic of Nigeria in its attempt towards the attainment of these laudable goals outlined the basic objectives of teaching Basic science at the secondary school level as enumerated in FMR (2013) were to enable learners.
Teacher’s Demonstration on Students’ Academic Performance in Basic Science in Secondary Schools
- Develop interest in science and technology;
- Apply their scientific and technology and skills to meet societal needs;
- Take advantage of the numerous career opportunities offered by science and technology;
- Become prepared for further studies in science and technology..
The above objectives can only be attainable through effective instruction and motivation of students by teachers of Basic Science. Surprisingly, most teachers of Basic Science in our secondary schools today are still known to have difficulty in teaching some Basic Science concepts thus leading to students’ poor performance in such areas especially in prescribed external examinations like Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination. Again, there has been a general perception of Basic Science by an average Nigerian student, that it is a subject that is dominated with practical and is majorly meant for students that are intellectually incapacitated (Adah, 2011).
The way and manner students perceived the subject, arises from the fact that instructional approaches adopted by teachers both in the classroom during the teaching and learning process are not impressive. The effect of this is lack of interest and poor performance of students in the subject. Similarly, the poor performance of students in Basic science may be attributed to poor teaching strategies and skills (Vincent and Akpan 2014). These problems have led to a desperate search for appropriate teaching strategies that would best be used to realize the aims of Basic Science teaching, thereby improving learning and skills acquisition.
The teachers teaching strategies are decisions about organizing people, materials, and ideas to provide learning (Nwachukwu 2005). Weston and Cranton (1986) viewed teaching strategies as both the teaching method and the materials used in the process of teaching. Some of these teaching strategies include inquiry, discussion, lecture, and demonstration, among others (Vincent and Akpan 2014).
Also, to arrest students’ attention, interest, curiosity and promote their performance, the use of activity stimulating and student-centered approach like demonstration method instead of depending on the conventional approach needs to be embraced. The demonstration method refers to the type of teaching method in which the teacher is the principal actor while the learners watch with the intention to act later. Here the teacher does whatever the learners are expected to do at the end of the lesson by showing them how to do it and explaining the step-by-step process to them (Ameh, Daniel and Akus, 2007). Mundi (2006) described it as a display or an exhibition usually done by the teacher while the students watch with keen interest.
He further added that it involves showing how something works or the steps involved in the process. Some of the advantages of this method as outlined by Olaitan (2014) and Mundi (2012) include: It saves time and facilitate material economy; the method is an attention inducer and a powerful motivator in lesson delivery; students receive feedback immediately through their own products; it gives a real-life situation, of course, of study as students acquire skills in real-life situations using tools and materials; it helps to motivate students when carried out by skilled teachers and it is good in showing the appropriate ways of doing things.
A teacher’s demonstration strategy is a method of teaching concepts, principles of real things by combining explanation with handling or manipulation of real things, materials, or equipment (Akinbobolaand Ikitde 2011). “In the matter of physics, the first lessons should contain nothing but what is experimental and interesting to see. A pretty experiment is in itself often more valuable than twenty formulae extracted from our minds” a famous quote by Albert Einstein (Moszkowski 2010). The novelty, spectacle, and inherent drama of an in-class demonstration can provoke significant interest from students. Psychologiststermed this kind of interest, the situational interest which spontaneously creates interest among all students (Schraw et al. 2001).
Teacher’s Demonstration on Students’ Academic Performance in Basic Science in Secondary Schools
The demonstration strategy is effective for long-term memory retention and appropriate to college students’ study skills (McCabe 2014). The act of demonstratingreadily helps to kindle more natural interactions between the students and the teacher. Their active responses and completely spontaneous observations provide an excellent opportunity for the teacher to connect with them and with their unedited ideas.
Conventionally, the lecture method is a common strategy teachers employ in the teaching of basic science. It is also referred to as talk and chalk or textbook method (Gbamaja, 1991). In the course of employing the method, the teacher dominates the teaching with very little participation on the part of the learners. Here the teacher is seen as the repository of all knowledge while the students are passive recipients of knowledge transmitted by the teachers in the process of learning.
The method has the advantage of covering a wider area within a short time but it is not student-centered and students do not gain mastery of concepts. Having critically examined these two methods of teaching, the question now is what the effect of teacher demonstration and students’ academic performance in Basic Science in secondary schools in EssienUdimLocal Government Area?
1.2 Statement of the problem
The act of teaching is fundamentally concerned with passing ideas, skills, and attitudes from the teachers to the learner experience has shown that spoken words alone in the communication of ideas are grossly ineffective and inefficient in producing desired learning outcomes. The mass failure recorded by students in junior secondary schools in Basic Science 2017 which according to the chief examiners report that the reason for this could be ascribed for the fact that there are topics in Basic science that pose serious problems of comprehension to students.
These topics cannot be taught effectively without relevant instructional methods. On the forgoing, owing to the famous Chinese proverb we learn and remember 10% of what we hear 40% of what we discuss with others, and as high as 80% of what we experience directly or practice. This motivated the researcher to carry out this study in order to investigate whether there is any effect of using teacher’s demonstration on students’ academic performance in Basic Science in secondary schools in EssienUdim Local government Area.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of teacher’s demonstration on students’ academic performance in Basic Science in secondary schools in Essien Udim Local Government Area. Specifically, the study sought to:
- Compare the academic performance of students taught Basic Scienceusing teacher’s demonstration and conventional lecture methods.
- Determine the academic performance of male and female students in Basic Sciencewhen taught using teacher’s demonstration.
1.4 Research Questions
The following research questions were formulated to guide the study in line with the study:
- What is the difference in academic performance of students taught Basic Science using teacher’s demonstration and those taught using conventional lecture methods in Basic Science?
- What is the difference in academic performance of male and female students taught using teacher’s demonstration?
1.5 Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were formulated to guide the study in line with the study:
- There is no significant difference in academic performance of students taught Basic Science using teacher’s demonstration and those taught using conventional lecture methods in Basic Science.
- There is no significant difference in academic performance of male and female students taught using the teacher’s demonstration.