The attitude of biology teachers towards improvisation and utilization of instructional materials in teaching and learning biology in private secondary schools in Potiskum local government area

Abstract

This study was carried out on the Attitude of Biology Teachers towards Improvisation and Utilization of Instructional Materials in Private Secondary Schools in Potiskum Local Government Area. Four research questions in line with the purpose of the study were formulated to guide the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The target group of the study was the entire 38 Biology teachers from 22 Private schools in Potiskum Local Government Area. Due to manageable size of the group, there is no sample and sampling technique used for the study as such the entire group was used for the study. Data were collected for the study through the administration of structured questionnaire. The data obtained were analysed using mean. The findings of the study revealed that, Biology teachers give students group projects to produce instructional materials and Biology teachers request that students bring materials in the environment to be used as improvised material during lessons. The findings of the study also revealed that, Biology teacher utilized improvised Visual aids like diagram, charts, posters, pictures and photographs for effective teaching of Biology, and Biology teachers utilized available resource person in the community to improvised instructional materials for teaching Biology. The findings of the study further revealed that, the use of Improvised Biology Materials helps the biology teachers to capture and sustain the curiosity and interest of the learners towards the lesson in schools and that the use of Improvised Biology Materials helps the biology teachers to motivate students in the subject being taught. The findings of the study also revealed that, lack of awareness on where to obtain facilities for improvising instructional materials and lack of motivation on part of government for Biology teachers in their efforts towards improvisation of instructional materials for teaching Biology are some of the problems faced by Biology teachers towards improvisation of Instructional Materials for Teaching and Learning of Biology in Private Secondary Schools in Potiskum Local Government Area. It was recommended that, Policy-makers in the secondary schools should raise fund so as to procure materials necessary for improvisation and purchase of textbooks that will facilitate the effective teaching of the course.

Secondary School Teachers’ Perceived Influence of Instructional Materials on Students’ Learning Science Subjects in Muhanga District in Rwanda

“…In developing countries like Rwanda, insufficient funds to support educational undertakings have been correlated to the use of insufficient and ineffective /outdated teaching and learning resources, therefore due to these challenges encountered during in classroom activities/concerned bodies such as educational administrators, teachers, and learners are encouraged to take part into improvisation (Ibrahim et al, 2021). Much literatures have been produced disclosing that in the shortage of standard instructional materials (Rufus & Muhammad, 2018), improvised ones can play a similar role with almost the same accuracy in measurements.…”

Effect of Modelling Clay on The Performance of Field-Dependent and Field-Independent Senior School Students in Cell Division

“…Among the various factors and causal variables identified for the unimpressive performances of students in biology are the lack of mass (Abe et al, 2019;Adeoye & Abimbola, 2016), inadequate or absence of instructional materials (Agada & Sam-Kayode, 2022;Ibrahim et al, 2021), and the difficulty of some biology topics, processes and concepts (Elangovan, 2018;Frederick-Jonah & Tobi, 2022). For instance, cell division, a topical content in the Nigerian Senior Secondary School biology curriculum has been identified by researchers as a hard-to-teach and hard-to-learn concept for both senior school teachers and students respectively (Badmus et al, 2019;de Graaf et al, 2019).…”