CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Â Â Â Â Â BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The failure of most secondary school leavers in social studies in May/June examinations administered by Junior WAEC prompted the Federal Government to establish a panel to investigate student failure in the 2007 Junior Secondary Certificate examination (JSCE). Of all the candidates who sat for the 2007 May/June JSCE, 84 percent failed (information on Nigeria Education, 2007). The implications for the candidates’ failure and the nation’s manpower growth should worry the country’s leaders, education sector stakeholders, and the nation as a whole. Different scholars, on the other hand, have identified several causes as being accountable for students’ consistently low performance in Business Studies. These include, among other things, a lack of effective digestion and usage of research results by Business Study professors, Sex Stereotyping, the transmission of unfavorable attitudes from older students to younger students, and a poor self-concept towards Business Study.
Teacher characteristics (Onocha and Okpala, 1985), anxiety, motivation, reasoning ability, problem solving skills, and instructional strategy (Nwoji, 1999), instructional/classroom characteristics, societal factors, and school factors (Nwoji, 1999), instructional/classroom characteristics, societal factors, and school factors (Nwoji, 1999), instructional/classroom characteristics, societal factors, and school factors (Nwoji, 1999), instructional/classroom characteristics, societal (Udousoro, 2000). From the above, a few significant elements emerge that seem to play a larger role in the issue of low performance in business studies.
Musa (2000) defines academic accomplishment as “the quality of outcomes achieved by students as evidenced in the quality of their test scores.” Greater C.A. indicates more incentive on the side of pupils, and it is believed that success would rise as a result. Students are often encouraged to learn via continuous assessment. The teacher interprets motivation as “the urge to work independently either applying oneself to one’s work, interest in one’s task or course he has chosen, the desire for a good 18 qualification and good employment, determination to pass examination or a defined goal which one has set for himself, and sustenance of enthusiasm,” according to Beard and Seniour (1980).
1.2Â Â Â Â Â Â STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
During the educational process, the purpose of employing assessment tests and other evaluation instruments is to lead, direct, and monitor students’ learning. As well as progress in meeting the course’s goals (Alonge 2004, Kolawole 2010). Breaking up the subject matter content or course into smaller hierarchical units for instruction, specifying objectives for each unit, designing and administering validated periodic tests, offering group remediation in areas where students are deficient before moving on to another unit, and then administering a summative test on completion of all units are all examples of how periodic testing can be used in the teaching and learning process. The division of a topic or course into discrete sections allows students to adequately prepare for the exam. Furthermore, regular testing encourages students to become more active and invested in the teaching and learning process, resulting in improved performance. Students (as a means of diagnosing students’ learning difficulties and presenting alternative remedial measures) and teachers (as a means of locating specific difficulties that students are experiencing with subject matter content and forecasting summative evaluation results) benefit from periodic evaluation. According to Gronland and Linn (1990), periodic assessment has three purposes: i. to plan remedial action for upcoming learning inadequacies; ii. to monitor progress. ii. To assist in the motivation of students. iii. To promote learning retention and transfer.
Students’ responses to a periodic exam, they claim, might be analyzed to indicate group and individual faults that need to be corrected. As a result, periodic testing is an approach for identifying learners’ learning issues and giving remedial measures to improve the majority of students’ performance.
As a consequence of the examination system in place, the school’s activities are legally regulated and organized around rigid time units. This supported the thesis and revealed that teachers’ hectic schedules in discharging their duties do not allow them the luxury of one-on-one monitoring of pupils.
