EFFECT OF MEDIA USAGE IN TEACHING AND LEARNING OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BAYELSA STATE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
It is a pertinent fact that agriculture has played a very significant role in man‟s civilization. Products such as food, fiber, fuel, raw materials for drugs and many assorted product come from agriculture. Many nations‟ economy has depended on agriculture. For instance, Nigeria in the early 1960s before the „Oil boom‟ depended on agriculture for her economic sustenance. It is the invaluable contributions of the agriculture to our nation that engendered our educationists and government to make provision in the National Policy on
Education for practical agriculture in the curriculum of the Senior and Junior Secondary Schools as a core subject (FGN, 2000). Inspite of efforts made to promote agriculture in this wise, its impact is yet to be felt in total. The West African Examination Council and the National Examinations Council, the major examination bodies in Nigeria have been recording poor results from candidates who sit for the examinations on agricultural science. Besides, the enrollment for the examination in agricultural science is on the decline (Bassey,2011). The stakeholders and many more could attribute this to poor methods of teaching, poor implementation of Educational Policies.
According to Ezewu (2007), asserted that government, manufacturers and parents have exhibited concern about the quality of Education that have been acquired by their wards. It is the level and quality of an individual‟s education that is used as parameter to measure and predict the contribution that the individual makes to the society. The effect of what one learns should be seen in the individual, his environment and the society at large.
Learning agricultural science, techniques and acquiring skills through various practicalscarried out in the class and school farms are the basis for this knowledge gained. According to Isangedighi (2007), exposure to training is important if learning must take place.
Learning is refer to as any relatively permanent change in behavior, interpretation or emotional response because of previous experience. Similarly, learning can be defined as a change in behavior or performance which is as a result of experience and practice and which makes individual face later situations differently (Danga,2002). Furthermore, the true test of learning can be seen in the positive improvement of the learner towards a given task. Thus, an individual is assuming to have learnt techniques and skills if there is a remarkable change in his academic performance during and after the course of his study.It can be said that the success of an educational programme can be measured about degree with which its beneficiaries perform academically. Myriad of factors have been known to influence the academic achievement of students in their various school endeavors (Bassey,2011). These factors can either be personal (poor self-concept, motives, readiness, emotions, attitudes and maturational level of the students) or environmental. Studies have identified allied factors such as students‟ individual differences (personal causal factors), teaching learning strategy (system causal factors), family causal factors and the teacher (academic causal factors) to interfere with the performance level of the students. This research work will focus mostly on the teaching / learning strategy (system causal factors). The rate of failure in the public examinations has persistently increased and this has attracted the attention of many stakeholders involved. The belief is that no nation can develop scientifically and technologically without quantitative and qualitative educational system (Alao, 2000).
According to Ogogan (2007), Sight and hearing are the two senses used in most human teaching and learning activities. These senses receive primary consideration in the selection and development of instructional media. The five senses used in teaching and learning include kinesthetic (touch), gestulatory (taste), olfactory (smell), auditory (hearing) and optical (seeing), Aliyu (2001) in Awolola (2004). When these senses are integrated or employed during classroom teaching and learning process, the communication becomes effective. The use of educational media in teaching and learning process is aimed at maximizing the employment of these five senses in classroom communication. Instructional media also promotes effective understanding of the message that is being communicated.The National Policy on Education (NPE,2004), under educational service section 10, has objectives among others to improve learning and the competence of teachers and make learning more meaningful for children. According to the policy, the application of educational technology develops and promotes an effective use of innovative materials in classroom. There are several types of instructional media depending on what to teach, where to teach and the availability of instructional media in that environment. According to Abimbade (2007), instructional media can be classified into three categories: these are non print media, print media and electronic media. The non print media are the projected materials such as films, slides, film strips, while printed materials are books, texts, maps, journals and electronic media which consist of visual, audio and audio visual that rely on electricity to function effectively. All these and many more stimulate the sense of observation in learners. The foundation for the use of instructional media in the school system is to transmit information in the teaching and learning process. Instructional media according to Ajelabi (2000), refers to broad range of information carrying resources that constitute an integral component of classroom teaching and learning and are utilized in an instructional process with the hope of facilitating effective and efficient communication in teaching and learning process. That is, instructional media are those materials or objects that help the teacher in making the learning more interesting to the learner.
Abimbade (2007), reported that using instructional media in teaching and learning makes students learn more and retain better what they have been taught and that it also promotes and sustains students‟ interests. It also allows the learners to discover themselves and their abilities. Instructional media enrich learners‟ knowledge and reinforce verbal instruction (Ajelabi, 2000). Therefore, when instructional media are used, there is tendency to make classroom environment lively and more interesting.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
When educational policy was review to the 6-3-3-4 system of education in the
1980s, a great deal of prominence was given to the study of agricultural science in the Secondary School Curriculum. However, the objectives of studying agricultural science in primary/post primary schools which among others include: exposing students to gain opportunities in the field of agriculture seems to have been defeated because majority of students openly reject the subject with belief that it is meant for their grandfathers (Agbulu and Olaitan, 2002; Agbulu and Ekele, 2004).
According to (Agbulu and Olaitan, 2002), this apathy towards agricultural science as a profession by the younger generation may continue with advent of high technology where emphasis is being shifted to information and communication technology. If this trend is allowed to continue, achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs), especially MDG I upon which all other MDGs depend may just be a dream. This is a serious challenge to agricultural science teachers at all levels of education and other stakeholders.
Olaitan (2001), states that „if economic development in Nigeria is to be successful and sustained, agricultural science education among the youths should be established and pursued vigourously‟. This can only be realized if teachers of agricultural science in our schools employ a more pragmatic approach to produce the required manpower in the agricultural sector. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), (2003), noted that agricultural development will be engine room for fighting malnutrition and poverty, and for overall economic expansion. Such advances, however, must be achieved through functional agricultural science education that will stimulate interest in Agriculture at all levels of education thereby producing literates, able bodied and skillful young and productive manpower to increase agricultural production, reduce unemployment, extreme poverty and hunger.
Similarly, according to the Nigerian Millennium Development Goals reports (2005), the school performance level in Nigeria has gradually deteriorated, especially between the age group 15-24 who will be the working force of the nation in the near future. Bonwell and Eison (1999), affirmed that the problem of poor school performance was generally caused by poor method of teaching in schools. It is always the conventional teaching methods (i.e. verbal communication and chalkboard method of instruction). This shows lack of appropriate and adequate application of education technology that could bring about maximum and effective teaching and learning process. This problem raises many questions by concerned citizens and the society. The problem has been attributed to the government and the people that are running the affairs of the educational system. This is because government made a lot of promises to improve the sector over the years, however, the negligence and the poor implementation of the government policies have contributed to the low standard of education. The teachers have also been blamed because it is often said that they are not professionally qualified and do not use modern innovation of instructional media for delivery of the subject matter (Mezieobi, 2000).Commenting on the attitude of Government to education, Ali (2007), said that the nation fails to improve the school standard in many decades with qualified and trained teachers, necessary teaching materials and its indiscriminate establishment of schools have caused very poor academic performance.
The basic concept to employ in teaching agricultural science hinges on the methodology or approach used in teaching agricultural science. Although, it is an established fact that, no single method or approach is regarded as the best for every teaching situation. Kolo (2007), observes that most of the present crops of agricultural science teachers in our primary and secondary schools encounter pedagogical difficulties because of wrong method of approaches of teaching. Teachers of agricultural science still stick to those antiquated teaching methods where undue emphasis is laid on theory to the detriment of practical that is supposed to equip students with basic skills and knowledge. This, no doubt contributes greatly to the present lack of interest in agriculture by students, which is evident in the low level of enrolment in agriculture, and agricultural related disciplines at all levels of education each year (Kolo, 2007).
It is in view of these problems that this study examined whether or not effective utilization of instructional media with emphasis on two dimensional- media utilization could enhance students‟ academic performance in Agricultural Science in Secondary Schools in Bayelsa State.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
