Teacher Competencies and Utilization of Instructional Material in Teaching of Biology in Secondary Schools
Abstract
The study examined teacher competencies and utilization of instructional material in teaching of biology in secondary schools. A survey research design was adopted for the study. Sample size of one hundred and eighty (180) Biology students were selected from eight (8) public secondary schools in the study area. Teacher Competence and Utilization of Instructional Material in Teaching of Biology Questionnaire (TCUIMTBQ)” was used for data collection. Pearson schools in the study area. A questionnaire titled “Teachers Product Moment Correlation coefficient (PPMC) was used for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that teacher competencies and utilization of instructional materials enhance teaching and learning of Biology in secondary schools.
The study also found that when teachers utilize the available instructional material during teaching it will create a lasting and concrete idea of the concept been taught in the minds of the learners. Hence, it was recommended that adequate instructional materials should be provided in schools by Government from the teachers and learners to use.
Teacher Competencies and Utilization of Instructional Material in Teaching of Biology in Secondary Schools
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Generally, in the whole world, particularly in Nigeria, education has been considered to be the corner stone for development. The teaching of Biology in Nigeria secondary schools needs to be properly handled by teachers. The material used by teachers to teach and drive home the subject point at the primary and secondary level of our educational system is inconvertibly a paramount important issue in practical classroom interaction.
Competence is the ability of an individual to do a job properly. Competency is set of behaviors that provide a structured which guided and enable the identification, evaluation and development of the behaviors in individual employees. The term “competence” first appeared in an article authored by White in 1959 as a concept for achievement motivation. Some scholars see “competence” as a combination of practical and theoretical knowledge, cognitive skills, behavior and values used to improve achievement; or as the state or quality of being adequately or well qualified, having the ability to perform a specific role. For instance, life, management competency might include systems thinking and emotional intelligence, and skills in influence and negotiation.
Online Wikipedia (2015), Competency is also used as a more general description of the requirements of human beings in organizations and communities. Competency is sometimes thought of as being shown in action in a situation and context that might be different the next time a person has to act. In emergencies, competent people may react to a situation following behaviors they have previously found to succeed. To be competent a person would need to be able to interpret the situation in the context and to have a repertoire of possible actions to take and have trained in the possible actions in the repertoire, if this is relevant.
Competent teachers are the most critical piece in improving students’ achievement and closing the achievement gap. The single most important influence on student learning is the quality of teaching, yet most schools don’t define what good teaching is (Danielson, 2006). This is a problem because if it is not defined, teachers may not be given the opportunities to improve practices in the classroom, which invariably may affect student’s achievement negatively. Regardless of training, competency would grow through experience and the extent of an individual to learn and adapt. Instructional materials are materials which assist teachers to make lessons explicit to learners. Instructional materials are the devices developed or acquired to facilitate teaching and also transmitting knowledge, skill and attitude to the learners within an instructional situation Nwachukwu (2014).
According to Abdullahi, (2015), instructional materials are materials or tools locally made or imported that could make tremendous enhancement of lesson impart if intelligently used. Instructional materials include; visuals, audio, and audio-visuals materials such as pictures, flash-cards, posters, charts, tape recorder, radio, video, television, computers among others. These materials serve as a supplement to the normal process of instruction. (Osafehniti, 2013), points out that concrete or physical object which provides sound, visual or both the sense organ during teaching-learning process.
Teachers should use different instructional materials to motivate the learners to learn more effectively. Cronbac (2015), opined that, the use of instructional materials during teaching and learning process can appeal to the individual’s attention among students by creating interest in order to attain the goal for the learner. He also noted that, the use of instructional materials can facilitate the decision of a person towards learning by taking the right actions. Learning is facilitated when learners make use of their sense organs for seeing, hearing, and touching. (Morenfolia, 2013) pointed out that instructional materials are normally chosen to meet the teaching requirements of an approved curriculum.
Therefore, in the educational development, selection and acquisition of instructional materials in teaching Biology, the relevance of such materials for the contents of the curriculum must be ensured. However, students’ perception of the subject as being particularly oriented needed materials to be used in teaching of Biology in secondary schools. It is against this background that the researcher was interested to investigate the teacher competencies and utilization of instructional material in teaching of biology in secondary schools.
Teacher Competencies and Utilization of Instructional Material in Teaching of Biology in Secondary Schools
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In Nigeria, often times when the results of public examination are released, there seem to have been mass failure in Biology. The reason for this could be attributed to the fact that there are some topics in Biology that pose serious challenge to the comprehension of the students. As such, there is need for the use of instructional materials to teach these topics. This is because some topics cannot be taught effectively without the use of relevant instructional materials to make the lesson practical.
Knight (2015) stated that, using the available instructional materials, a student is expected to get the greatest satisfaction in the classroom during teaching. Suddenly, it has been found that most Biology teachers have not been using the available instructional materials and as such, students are then to perform very poor in both internal and external examinations. It is based on these problems that the researcher was interest is to find out the extent to which teacher competencies and utilization of instructional material could influence the teaching of biology in secondary schools
