Project – Impact Of Effective Use Of Instructional Materials (Audio Visual) On Student’s Academic Performance

ABSTRACT

This research work empirically explored the impact of effective use of instructional materials (audio visual) on student’s academic performance. The objectives of this study were to ascertain the extent to which audio-visual instructional materials are used in teaching secondary school students, identify factors influencing the use of audio-visual instructional materials in Secondary Schools, ascertain the relevance of the use of audio-visual instructional materials on academic performance of secondary school students, identify strategies for improving the use of audio-visual instructional materials teaching in secondary Schools. The scope of the study is secondary schools in Lagos and FCT, instructional material theories was used as a framework. The research design used for this study is survey, the population targeted for this study consists of student and staff of some selected secondary schools in Lagos and FCT, a total of 300 student and staff was used as sample size, 300 questionnaires administered to students and staffs and cluster sampling technique was applied. Instrument used for this study is the questionnaire. Data collected were collected from primary sources. From the analysis of the data, the findings revealed that the level of adoption of audio-visual instructional materials in teaching secondary school students is low, factors such as financial constraint, unwillingness of teachers to embrace new technique of teaching and student seriousness level influence the use of audio-visual instructional materials in schools, audio-visual instructional materials have significant impact on student academic performance, government need to bring up policies that will support the usage of audio-visual instructional materials.. Following the findings, it was recommended that adoption of audio-visual instructional materials should be enforced by all schools in their teaching of student, government should support schools financially to purchase necessary items, teachers should be willing and able to adjust to modern technique of teaching, policies should be enacted that will enhance the implementation of audio-visual teaching aid usage in all schools. The study reliably concludes that adopting the use of audio-visual instructional materials in schools has a positive impact on Nigeria educational system in particular and Nigeria in general.

Keyword: audio-visual instructional materials, academic performance, educational system, Nigeria secondary schools.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background to the Study

Education is one of the most important aspects of human life; it is no doubt an instrument of change. It is the key to maintaining continued growth. One of the objectives of educational institutions is to produce required manpower for all sectors of the economy and prepare the individual for useful living in the society. The function of education is to provide opportunities for each student to reach his or her full potential in the areas of educational, vocational, social-personal, and emotional development (Kauchak, 2011).The belief in the efficacy of education as a powerful instrument of development has led many nations of the world to commit much of their wealth to the establishment and management of educational institutions at various levels. No doubt, the quality and quantity of human and physical resources determine a nation’s growth and development. The education system in Nigeria has faced dynamic and rapid changes that have had overwhelming effects on the learner, learning institutions and society at large. Since independence, there have been numerous changes in policy formulation and directives, one of these being the introduction of audio-visual instructional materials at all levels of the education system.

Teachers’ effectiveness has proven to be the most influential school – related factor in students’ academic performance. Teachers’ quality in terms of qualifications, experience, skills, style of teaching, use of instructional materials, content delivery, and evaluation is directly proportional to students’ performance. Teaching and learning processes are very crucial at all levels of educational development. If well planned and directed, they are the keys to success and progress of an individual. Therefore, best methods have to be used in order to enhance effective teaching and learning. Consequently, the need to employ the use of teaching aids otherwise referred to as audiovisual resources to enhance effective teaching and learning. The influence of audio visual materials in promoting student’s academic achievement and teaching and learning cannot be over emphasized.

Audio – visual materials and devices are means of providing rich, concrete experiences to learners instead of direct experiences. It however emerged as a discipline in the 1920s when film technology was developing rapidly. A visual instruction movement arose, which encouraged the use of visual materials to make abstract ideas more concrete to students. As sound technology improved, the movement became known as audio – visual instruction. In the 1950s and 1960s, developments in communication theory and system concepts led to studies of the educational processes, its elements, and their interrelationships. Slavin (2000) argues that instructional or audio-visual materials such as text book, pictures diagram’s, flashcards, posters television etc are materials or devices that help in the teaching learning process because they influence the senses of seeing and hearing, but its utilisation must depend on proper planning. This seem to confirm the view expressed by Onasanya & Adegbiya (2007) that a planned utilization of instructional materials help the students comprehend, retain and recall concepts, principals or theories and acquire professional skills.

Student’s perception in learning should be changed through learning techniques. To develop or maintain one’s specific skills, the sub skills built through instructional materials should become the building blocks for more meaningful learning. According to Dike (2000) audio-visual instructions do not only increase the motivation of the teachers and learners; they add clarity to the topic taught and make learning more interesting. Audio – visual materials make learning more permanent since they appeal to more than one sense. Research by Ode and Omokanro (2007) revealed that learners retain most of what they hear, see and feel than what they merely hear. Audio-visual instructional materials arouse the interest of learners and help teachers in explaining the concepts easily and effectively. Lestage (2009) pointed out that technology can never replace the human mind, but it can help expand it.

Usage of visual learning aids on teaching has proved to be effective in the learning outcomes. But secondary schools in Nigeria are faced with multitude of problems which contribute in poor performance. The educational system of Nigeria have been in crisis for many years ranging from the problem of presence of unqualified teachers in the educational system to the problem of lack of infrastructural facilities, negative attitude of students towards learning is also a major cause. Ahmed (2003) confirmed that in most secondary schools in Nigeria, teaching and learning takes place under a most un-conducive environment without access to essential materials.

Government of Nigeria have tried in various ways to improve the quality of education in the country by introducing various policies such as the Nigeria “National Policy on Education” published in 1997, revised in 1981 and 1990. The policy had been revised to ensure that the educational sector is supportive of government development goals. Recent initiatives have also been taken by the government in the funding of education. The FGN/ODA Nigeria Community Education Programmes introduced in 1996. One of the objectives of these initiatives is to restructure educational funding arrangement. Alternative sources of funding education have been explored. In 1995 the government established the Education Tax Fund.

Another notable change has been the effort to update the curriculum, a committee for the improvement of the curriculum was also established. The overall responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Education is to ensure quality within the system, to encourage and initiate innovations and to ensure the schools maintain minimum standards of acceptable educational practice. The National Commission for Colleges of Education was established in 1990 to lay down minimum standards for all programmes of teacher education.

The school is basically established for instruction and learning, to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in schools it is important that the necessary facilities are put in place. There is need to tailor and restructure the education system to meet the standard desired of it. Research have shown that school facilities have profound impact on students outcome, hence the resources available in schools are assumed to be related to educational setting in order to achieve the necessary academic output.

Thus this study evaluates the impact of effective use of instructional materials (audio visual) on student’s academic performance.

1.2. Statement of the Research Problem

Every country endeavours to provide quality education for its people, the future of such nation depends largely on it. The educational system of Nigeria is still faced with a lot of problems. Studies have shown that a strong link exist between school facilities and academic performance. The state of facilities in educational institutions of Nigeria today is disheartening. Lack of application of effective teaching methodology is one of the major reasons of low academic performance in secondary schools in Nigeria. This is pertinent to public schools where the problem of overcrowded classes and unserious students is mostly experienced.

There is low utilization and sometimes non – availability of instructional materials (audio – visual aids in particular) for teaching in schools. The pattern of teaching adopted by teachers today is mostly abstract in form, without been supported by the use of appropriate aids. In other cases, these types of instructional materials are not readily available for use by its teachers. Finally, inability to select appropriate audio – visual materials and sometimes its irregular use as support to teaching has been observed to be a strong hindrance. The use of audio – visual materials has been discovered to facilitate effective communication, transfer of information, knowledge, skills, attitudes and other useful capabilities. It is however, worrisome to note that despite its usefulness to the teaching process. Teachers have not fully take advantage of it such that it is inappropriately selected and may not be regularly put to use.

A number of scholars have highlighted the benefits of audio-visual instructional materials. Despite the relevance of evaluation, very few studies have been conducted in the Nigeria to ascertain the extent to which audio-visual instructional materials are effectively implemented. Although, findings of many studies, such as Sumra and Rajani, 2006; Hakielimu, 2007; Makombe et al, 2010 have lamented on poor performance, they did not link this situation with inadequate quality instructional resources. Other studies conducted by researchers such as Earthman and Lemasters (1996) have shown that learners who are provided with safe, modern and environmentally controlled situation learn much better and their academic performance are high. However, these studies are outdated.  It is against this background that the researcher considered studying the impact of effective use of instructional materials (audio visual) on student’s academic performance.

1.3. Objectives of the study

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of effective use of instructional materials (audio visual) on student’s academic performance. The specific objectives are to:

1. Ascertain the extent to which audiovisual teaching aids are used in teaching secondary school students.
2. Identify factors influencing the use of audio-visual instructional materials in Secondary Schools.
3. Ascertain the relevance of the use of audio-visual instructional materials on academic performance of secondary school students.
4. Identify strategies for improving the use of audio-visual instructional materials teaching in secondary Schools.

1.4. Research Questions

This study will be guided by the following research questions:

1. What is the extent to which audiovisual teaching aids are used in teaching secondary school students?
2. What are the factors influencing the use of audio-visual instructional materials in Secondary Schools?
3. How relevant is the use of audio-visual instructional materials on academic performance of secondary school students?
4. What are the strategies for improving the use of audio-visual instructional materials in secondary Schools?

1.5 Research Hypothesis

The study is guided by this hypothesis:

H₀: The use of audio-visual instructional materials does not influence academic performance of secondary school students.

1.7. Significance of the Study

The critical nature of student performance in particular and the educational sector in general to the success or growth of any economy is given, this is because the level of student performance determines the level of manpower produced in a country. Empirically, this study is carried out to investigate the impact of effective use of instructional materials (audio visual) on student’s academic performance students so as to ameliorate the problems associated with the educational system. This study will be important to the academic sector of the nation, as it will help guide the boards in charge of school management on how it can operate and how it should operate.  It will teach it the importance of audio-visual instructional materials in schools.

This study will be of utmost importance to investors, government and the researchers because it will provide policy recommendations to the various Nigeria stakeholders taking adequate measures in educational sector.  It is hoped that the exploration of Nigerian senior secondary schools will provide a broad view of the operations of the educational system to investors and government. It will contribute to existing literature on the subject matter by investigating empirically the role of audio-visual instructional materials on academic successes. This study will be of benefit to;

The Academia: members of the academia will find the study relevant as it will also form basis for further research and a reference tool for academic works.

Government: this study will reveal to the government happenings in the educational sector. Formulation and implementation of policies based on these findings would ensure development in the sector.

Investors: this study shall also be valuable to the investors especially those who may have research interest as it shall guide their private investment decisions.

This study at the end will enlighten the board of educational sector on the implications of audio-visual instructional materials.

1.8. Scope of the Study

In evaluation of impact of effective use of instructional materials (audio visual) on student’s academic performance students, the scope of the study was restricted to the use of Pearson correlation technique. The study covers the period between 2015 and 2019.

1.9. Operational Definition of Terms

The following terms have been defined operationally.

• Audio-visual: electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component.
• Teaching aids: an object or device used by a teacher to enhance classroom instruction. Here, it implies teaching aids used by Nigerian secondary school teachers.
• School: is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students.Here it implies selected secondary schools.
• Academic performance: is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution attained their short or long-term educational goals. Here it implies academic performance of secondary school students.

Project – Impact Of Effective Use Of Instructional Materials (Audio Visual) On Student’s Academic Performance