CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Teaching at any level of education is to bring a fundamental change in the learner (Tebabal and Kahssay, 2011). To facilitate the process of knowledge transmission, teachers are to apply appropriate teaching technique that best suit specific objectives and level of outcomes. In the traditional epoch, many teaching practitioners widely applied teacher-centered methods to impact knowledge to the learners compared to student-centered technique. Research on teaching and learning constantly endeavours to examine the extent to which dierent teaching technique enhance growth in student learning (Hightower, 2011). Quite remarkably, rampant poor academic performance by the majority of students is fundamentally linked to application of ineective teaching technique by teachers to impact knowledge to learner (Adunola, 2011). Effectiveness of teaching technique indicates that the quality of teaching is often reflected on the achievement of learners. According to Ayeni, (2011); teaching is a process that involves bringing about desirable changes in learners to achieve specific outcomes. Adunola (2011), maintains that teachers need to be conversant with numerous teaching methods that take recognition of the magnitude of complexity of the concepts to be covered, if teaching is to be effective. It is likely true that successful learning depends on various factors other than that of the teacher.
The technique that a teacher uses continues to play an important role in students’ learning and in their academic achievement. The challenges that educators face in the 21st century are so diverse that using better teaching methods is more crucial now than ever before.Demonstration method of teaching is one of the many teaching learning style under the investigation or activity based. Demonstration method involves showing by reason or proof, explaining or making clear by use of examples or experiments, it means “to clearly show”. It is a method which is capable of improving learning through its diversity effect activity. Demonstration technique often occurs when students have a hardtime connecting theories to actual practice or when students are unable to understand application of theories. This method enables concepts and processes to be observed directly, which in turn makes learning easier.
When teaching Economics in secondary School, teachers are often facing various problems related on how they can make their students understand basic economic phenomena, relevant terms and their application in everyday life. In order to overcome such problems, teachers must discover and apply new teaching techniques which are compatible with the needs, the interests and the abilities of their students. Our proposing method is a combination of teaching through art, cooperative and experiential learning and project method. The proposed technique is based on a research that was carried out in a senior high school and has remarkable results regarding the didactic methodology. The purpose of this paper is to present this innovative technique, to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of students during this teaching process and to examine the extent to which this technique can contribute to the improvement of teaching and learning.
