Environmental Resources Utilization and Academic Performance of Secondary School Students

ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES UTILIZATION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN BIOLOGY IN EKET LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

 

ABSTRACT

The study examined environmental resources utilization and academic Performance of secondary school students in biology in Eket Local Government Area. Three research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The total population of the study was 1016 biology student in senior secondary two students from all the public secondary schools in Eket Local Government Area. One hundred SS2 students were the sample size and were randomly selected from four secondary schools in Eket Local Government Area. Biology Achievement Test was used in collecting data for the study.

The data collected were analyzed using independent t-test statistical tool. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 levels of significance. The result revealed that students taught biology with environmental resources perform better than students taught without environmental resources. It was recommended that teachers should always incorporate environmental resources in order to reduce abstraction on the teaching and learning of biology; also, parents should create a conducive environment in their home to allow students to explore their environment.

 

Environmental Resources Utilization and Academic Performance of Secondary School Students

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background to the study

Biology is a natural science which is concerned with the study of living things and concerns itself with the study of the structure, behaviour, distribution, the organs of plants and animals and their relationship with their environment. Abugo (2017) stated that biology is a natural science in which we study living organism- plants and animals. Biology as one of the science subjects in all field of studies develops human thinking faculty as it built on skills, knowledge and experiences and this has made it the most commonly offered science subject of all science subjects which has prepared learners in science field such as; medicine, nursing, pharmacy and food technology.

The teaching of Biology has been very important that in West African Council in their syllabus (1998-2013) came up with some aims and objectives in teaching Biology in secondary schools which are; to understand the structure and function of living organisms as well as to appreciate nature, to acquire adequate laboratory and field skills in order to carry out and evaluate experiments, to acquire necessary scientific skills for example; observations, classification and interpretation of biology data. To impart relevant knowledge in biology needed for the future advanced studies in biology, to be able to apply biology principles in every day in matters affecting personal, social, environment, community health and economic problems.

However it is of great importance in order to achieve the above objectives that there should be effective teaching and learning resources which is to provide better learning and teaching experience, which will facilitate interaction among students and teachers during learning and teaching process. The successful implementation of resources such as audio-visuals influences and promotes opportunities for students and teachers to explore ideas and develop knowledge and skills, creativity and logical thinking. Exploring nature with the help of audio-visuals completes a sensory experience and early experiences with the natural world which is positively linked with development of students’ imaginations and their sense of curiosity that serves as a vital motivator for life-long learning Faridullah (2011).

Moreover, students interpret instructional activities in terms of what they already know; they actively seek to relate new concepts, attitudes or skills on their prior set of concepts, attitudes or skills. Therefore, for better outcome of teaching/learning processes, two components should be considered which are input and outputs. Inputs consist of human and material resources while outputs are goals realization of the teaching learning process.

These human and material resources which are termed instructional resources are important to the teaching of biology in the school curriculum. This resource arouses students’ interest and at the same time helps train learners to think things out themselves, in-depth understanding of such a lesson and makes learning interactive thereby motivating them to learn. Therefore, this research shall attempt to find out environmental resources utilization and students academic performance in biology in Eket Local Government Area.

1.2   Statement of the problem  

Education is seen as an instrument par excellence for the development of a nation as recorded in National Policy on Education of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) 2013. Biology as one of the subject is very important to the development of any nation that is why every nation must take it very serious in all institutions of learning if this aim is to be achieved. Interestingly, as important as this subject is, students’ academic performance has not been encouraging in it and this is worrisome and called for investigations.

Similarly, the chief examiner of West African Council Examination (WACE) in 2015 reported that out of 616, 370 candidates who sat for the examination representing 38.68% obtained five credits and above including mathematics and English Language with this result, the expected percent is not achieved. The chief examiner attributed this to several factors such as lack of teaching equipment, school variables and home environmental variables amongst others (Adesulu 2015).

In the authors view, poor academic performance is science is due to lack of teaching resources in secondary schools in Eket senatorial district. This trigger the researcher’s interest to ask, could the use 0f environmental resources influence the academic performance of students in biology particularly in secondary schools in Eket Local Government Area? Finding answer to this question necessitated this study.

Environmental Resources Utilization and Academic Performance of Secondary School Students

1.3   Purpose of the study

The main purpose of this research was to find out the effect of environmental resources utilization and academic performance of secondary school students in biology in Eket Local Government Area. Specifically, the study intends to:

• Investigate the academic performance of students taught using environmental resources and those taught without using environmental resources
• Examine gender difference and academic performance of students taught using environmental resources in biology in secondary schools in Eket Local Government Area
• Find out the effect of school location on academic performance of secondary school students taught using environmental resources

 

1.4   Significance of the study

                This study shall be significance in the following ways:

• The findings of this study shall reduce abstraction in biology thereby concretizing learning concept which directly increases the academic performance of students
• The findings of this study will serve as a guide to teachers on the effective use of environmental resources during the teaching learning process.
• The study will be of help to curriculum planners as it assists them in taking into considerations the use of environmental resources in biology teaching.
• It will help the government, philanthropical organization in provision of relevant environmental resources in teaching and learning of biology.
• It will serve as a reference manual for subsequent researchers on related topic.

 

1.5   Research Questions

  The following questions were formulated to help the study:

• Could there be any significant difference between academic performance of secondary school students taught biology using environmental resources and those taught biology without using environmental resources?
• Could there be any significant difference between academic performance of male and female students taught using environmental resources?
• Could there be any significant difference between academic performance of students in urban and sub-urban schools taught biology using environmental resources?

1.6 Research Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were stated to guide the study in line with the research questions:

• There is no significant difference between academic performance of students taught biology using environmental resources and those taught without environmental resources
• There is no significant difference between academic performance of male and female students taught biology using environmental resources
• There is no significant difference between academic performance of students in urban and rural schools taught biology using environmental resources

Environmental Resources Utilization and Academic Performance of Secondary School Students

1.7   Delimitation of the study

This study focused on environmental resources utilization and academic performance of students in biology in senior secondary schools in Eket Local Government Area.

1.8   Operational Definition of Terms

The following terms were defined as used in the study:

Environmental Resources: These are the raw materials gotten from the immediate environment which are used to support teaching and learning process.

Utilization: This simply means the process of making use of items for teaching.

Academic Performance: This is the outcome that indicates the extent to which a student accomplished in an examination or test. That is the grade or scores of the students.