CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Instructional materials play a very important role in the teaching and learning process. It enhances the memory level of the students. At this time that education has spread wide and entirely, oral teaching cannot be the key to successful pedagogy; therefore the teacher has to use instructional materials to make teaching and learning process interesting (NIC hulls, 2003; Raw 2006) . According to Abdullahhi (2010), instructional materials are tools locally made or imported that help to facilitate the teaching/learning process. Obanga (2005) view them as materials things which are used to compose ported that could make tremendous enhancement of intellectual use impact the instructional materials, the use of instructional materials can enhance the learning achievement. Cronbach (2009) states the important elements of behavior that provides the base for learning theory situation which consists of all the objects, persons and symbols in the learning environment. Experience in situation prepares a person to respond to similar situation in future. Use of instructional materials can appeal to the individual attention by creating interest goal that will help the learner achieve direct effort. Teacher’s problem of motivation is essentially one of arranging situation with instructional materials in which the learner will see goals he want to attain.

Over the years, the poor performance of students in public examinations has been blamed on the wrong choice of teaching methods by teachers. Teaching and learning activities have a lot to do with other variables, such as instructional materials, teacher’s qualification, school environment variables, and students’ factors and so on. In this study, instructional material is the main focus in order to unveil their effects on the academic performance of students. The importance of Instructional Materials in any teaching/learning Process cannot be over emphasized. This is for the fact that such materials enhance, facilitate and make teaching/learning easy, lively and concrete. Instructional materials are the devices developed or acquired to assist or facilitate teachers in transmitting an organized knowledge, skills and attitudes to the learners within an instructional situation (Nwachukwu, 2006).To be precise, an instructional material are educational resources used for illustrating the content of instruction, thereby making learning more concrete and less abstract. The sequence in which learners encounter materials has direct effect on the achievement of the task. In providing closer experience to real situation, instructional material enhances acquisition and retention of factual information. Instructional material not only provide the necessary concrete experience but also help students integrate prior experience.

One of the innovations in the Nigerian educational system is the introduction of several new subjects at different levels of education. The Social Studies program is one of such curriculum innovations since it is relatively new in the school curriculum. Orakwe (2000) refers to Social Studies instructional materials as information repositories from the society sourced to transfer the desired information to the learners during classroom instruction. Agwu (2001) views instructional materials as those apparatus of teaching which may include textbooks, workbooks, charts, audio visual aids, chemicals, specimens and other relevant things that will attract student s’ attention, and which should only be introduced at the appropriate time by the teacher. Simply put, instructional materials are those which a teacher puts into use to promote the effectiveness of instructions and which also helps him/her to communicate more effectively to the learners. Social Studies is a subject that aims at helping students who are creative, patriotic, responsible and are able to contribute to the development of the nation (Ezegbe, 2008). Okojie (2005) supportively maintained that the ultimate goal of Social Studies is to equip individuals with knowledge and understanding for effective relationships and living. Due to its usefulness in national development, it has gained wide acceptance to the extent of becoming one of the core subjects at the basic education level. In spite of the importance of Social Studies in national development and the efforts of stakeholders to encourage the study of the subject, students have continued to show poor achievement (Agara, 2010). Omabe (2006) agreed that students’ achievement in social studies leaves much to be desired. Nonetheless, a number of factors have been attributed to poor achievement in junior certificate examination in social studies. One of such factors is non-use of instructional materials. Social studies according to Igu (2012) is an activity based subject and therefore depends on instructional materials utilization for effective teaching. Omabe (2006) asserted that instructional materials are central in the teaching and learning of social studies because no matter the efficiency of a teacher, effectiveness in lesson delivery cannot be guaranteed without the use of instructional materials. Esu, Enukoha and Umoren (2004) affirmed that instructional materials facilitate learning of abstract concepts by helping to concretize ideas and stimulate learners’ imagination. Moreover, instructional materials help to increase active participation in the learning process while saving teacher energy, reducing the verbal instructions. In the same vein, Mathew (2012) stated that the use of instructional materials make teaching effective as it enables learners to participate actively in classroom instruction. All these views suggest that the use of instructional materials bring about improved students’ performance. However, in a clear departure from the above views, Orji (2012) and Ekpe (2010) in their independent studies, agreed that instructional materials are not necessarily important if the learners are intelligent and the teacher has good mastery of the subject matter. Egbu (2012) argued that involving learners in classroom activities is what matters most as it makes teaching learner centered. He further maintained that involving learners in classroom activities helps learners to discover new knowledge and gain new insights. From the views of the scholars cited above, there is a strong argument on the place of instructional materials in the teaching of social studies to improve students’ achievement hence the need for this study.

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

For quite some times now, the teaching of social studies has suffered in the hands of un-resourceful and un-motivated teachers, especially at the secondary school level. Many teachers at this level feel that social studies lesson does not necessarily need to be accompanied by the uses of instructional materials. There has been general outcry of poor performance of learners in social studies in secondary school in the state. This poor performance stems from the mare fact that there are inadequate instructional materials or resources that will facilitate the teaching of the basic concept of social studies. Kojo (2006) have noted the above mentioned. The social studies learning therefore appear very abstract and difficult for the learners as they used their sense only. It has been observed the social studies teachers find a very herculean task to accompany their lesson with relevant instructional materials such as audio aids, visual aids, visual and audio-visual aids. This is perhaps due to lack of textbooks or resourcefulness or lack of innovativeness or gross incompetents of the teachers. Whichever is the case, this lack of instructional materials constitutes a great deal of problem for effective teaching and learning of the subject.

1.3     OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is to find out the effect of using instructional materials in teaching social studies in junior secondary school, specifically the study intends to:

1.     Find out the effect of instructional material on the academic performance of students in Social studies.

2.     Determine if the competence of teacher will affect the selection of an instructional material for the teaching and learning of Social studies

3.     Determine if there is a significant different in the performance of students taught with instructional materials and those taught without them.

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions were formulated to guide the study so as to achieve the specified objectives:

1.     What are the effect of instructional material on the academic performance of students in Social studies?

2.     Does the competence of teacher affect the selection of an instructional material for the teaching and learning of Social studies?

3.     Is there any significant different in the performance of students taught with instructional materials and those taught without them?

4.     What is the availability of instructional materials in junior secondary schools?

1.5     RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

1. Ho: there is no significant different in the performance of students taught with instructional materials and those taught without them