CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the study

          The greatest innovations affecting Nigeria today and will continue to affect us in the future is technology. From agricultural produce to manufacturing, from medical advances to the protection of the environment, infrastructure development to industrialization even from the nature to leisure, technology has come to define the way we live. It separates the developed world from the developing; and the skilled from the unskilled or the semi-skilled. It bestowed riches on nations that have it and poverty to those that do not have it (Khawla and Emuas, 2006)

According to Nnaji (2010), there is no substitute to science and technology as the primary driver for socio-economic development. But unfortunately, while the west and Far East are making tremendous forays in the technological advancement, Africa especially sub Saharan region is still living in the backwardness of under development occasionally stunted growth in science and technology. The above was one of the many reasons that led the Federal Government of Nigeria to plan for the enhancement of technology. In accordance with the Federal Government of Nigeria’s demand and plans to enhance advancement in technology’s and a subsequently pilot technological coat to the brink of technology were caused to spring up in the nation in all the geopolitical zones in the mid and late 1980’s (FRN). These schools, which objectives were to produce middle level manpower requirement to cater for the maiden springing technologies. One of the objectives of science education is to develop students’ interest in science and technology, as today’s society depends largely on development in science and technology. Teachers are expected to devise ways of making their students to develop positive attitudes towards science and science-related disciplines (Akpan, 2006)

          Chemistry, in particular, is central to many of the scientific fields of human endeavors; therefore, the teaching of chemistry should be given serious attention. Science teachers have always recognized the importance of practical work as a means of introducing learners to the scientific process of   experimentation. To this end, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) have participated in numerous international meetings to promote inexpensive experimental-based teaching in Chemistry. Effective teaching of chemistry, which laid emphasis on bench-work, in Nigerian secondary schools, is of outmost importance to teachers, parents and the government (N.P.E., 2004).

Chemistry teaching should develop in the students manipulative and experimental skills to make him or her competent and confident in conducting experiments and/or researches. Students should do practical work of conducting experiments, reporting their observations and making inferences or conclusions, thus, developing their scientific knowledge and experimental skills and at the same time arousing and maintaining interest of the students in the subject.

The poor performance of students in science subjects has assumed a dangerous dimension. In the light of this, science educators need to seek suitable ways of tackling the current mass failure if they are to halt the drifts of students to arts and social science subjects (WAEC, 2006). The relevance and importance of chemistry amongst the science subjects is formidable, hence the need for proper teaching of the subject in the secondary schools so that students’ scores in internal and external examinations will be high, thereby making the candidates’ entrance into higher schools easier. According to Sola and Ojo, (2007) teachers of chemistry are expected to make chemistry more relevant, enjoyable, easy and meaningful to students. Teaching methods need to be improved and appropriate teaching strategies employed as the teaching-learning situation may demand. Teaching methods such as inquiry, project, lecture-demonstration, lecture performance, problem-solving, field trips, cooperative or group learning, excursion, remedial, laboratory and guided discussion and the use of audio-visual materials have been recommended for the teaching of science in schools (Sola and Ojo, 2007).

There is however the need to understand that for different topics in science, the teaching approaches may differ depending on the complexity and structure of the topics. Teachers should be concerned with the use of variety of methods and procedures. The most enjoyable aspect of teaching and learning can occur when a variety of teaching methods are used.

According to Khawla, and Emuas, (2006), teaching of science in laboratories has been a controversial issue. Laboratory work is both time consuming and expensive compared with other models of instruction. Hence, the efficiency of such a method of learning should justify the additional time and cost of using it, especially in primary and secondary education. They further noted that the increase in the educational budget for using laboratories as a model of teaching should be more efficient in accomplishing the objectives of teaching sciences than other models of instruction. Teaching science through laboratories needs, therefore, to be constantly evaluated using one or more of the following methods. First, there should be a comparison of the academic achievement of students who are taught through the laboratory method compared with the achievement of students taught through other models such ad demonstration. Khawla, and Emuas, (2006), for example, indicated that students exposed to laboratory-based education exhibited significantly greater chemistry achievement than students in comparable lecture-demonstration groups on both immediate and delayed post-tests.

Demonstration instructional method is a method of teaching concepts, principles or real things by combining explanation with handling or manipulation of real things, equipment or materials. As a following study, Vikoo (2003) grouped demonstration method of instruction among psychomotor development methods. He added that this method is an activity based method of instruction that aims at motor skill development in learners. It aims at developing in students’ knowledge of procedure, rules and principles with which they can do things with their manual dexterity. It is characterized by minimum instructor control and more of students’ activity.

In this regard, it is evident that the laboratory technique and demonstration method of teaching have been widely utilized in the teaching and learning of science. However, there is no clear evidence to which method is better and in which areas/concepts in chemistry that it should be applied. It is therefore the desire of the researcher to compare students’ achievement in laboratory technique and demonstration method of teaching chemistry in Ethiope East Local Government Area secondary schools.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

Educators are continually trying to teach students in a more efficient and effective manner. Some science instructors believe they have discovered a more efficient and effective teaching method in the form of laboratory technique in the teaching of chemistry. Chemistry, the study of matter and energy has traditionally been taught by lecture and demonstration.

Many secondary schools in Delta State are considering a change from traditional demonstration method to laboratory based method of teaching chemistry. Numerous secondary schools have made this change in the past few years, but the outcome in terms of performance of students from this change is not made know. Experts in the field of science education have disagreed as to the effectiveness of laboratory method of instruction or any significant difference between it and traditional demonstration method instruction. Since available research could not substantiate the advantage of change, experiments need to be conducted in Ethiope East Local Government Area.

The laboratory method self-paced instruction by use of equipment in the laboratory but facilitated by the instructor while the students play active role in the process of teaching and learning. No school or school system should want to change from traditional demonstration method to laboratory method without sound reason to believe that students would benefit from the transition. Therefore, every effort should be made to explore the issues raised by each method’s adherents and critics. Many experts in the field of science education, especially chemistry have weighed in with pertinent opinions on the usefulness of abandoning traditional demonstration method in favor of laboratory based instruction.   The challenges they encounter include class size (not enough materials for each individual student, equipment breakdowns, etc.), difficulties meeting individual students’ needs, worksheets, tests, lesson plan construction, and software problems that can bog down lab operations. Conversely, developing modules in laboratory method has been described as time consuming and expensive, and teacher-made tests may not be as valid as vendor tests (Michael, 2000) At least two studies have already compared traditional demonstration versus laboratory technique, the findings for both methods were basically the same, with neither method emerging as clearly more successful than the other. Enhance, it is necessary reevaluate which method is better using secondary schools in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State.

1.3     Research Questions

The following research questions have been formulated to guide this study.

1. Do students taught with laboratory technique perform better than those taught with demonstration method in chemistry?
2. Does the students’ performance dependent on method of teaching (e.g laboratory technique, demonstration method and control group using traditional lecture method)?
3. Is there any difference in the performance of male and female students taught chemistry with laboratory techniques?
4. Is there any difference in the performance of male and female students taught with chemistry laboratory practical method?

1.4     Research Hypotheses

     From the research questions above, the following research hypotheses have been formulated to guide this study.

1.        There is no significant difference in the mean achievement between students taught separation of mixtures using demonstration method and those taught using laboratory technique in chemistry.
2. There is no significant difference in the mean achievement of students taught separation of mixtures using laboratory technique, demonstration method and control group (using traditional lecture method).
3. There is no significant difference in the mean performance between male and female students taught chemistry using demonstration method.
4. There is no significant difference in mean performance between male and female students taught with laboratory techniques.

1.5     Purpose of the study

The main purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a difference in the performance of student taught with laboratory technique and those with demonstration method in secondary schools in Ethiope East Local Government Area. Specifically, the following purposes are to be achieved in this study:

1. To determine which method of teaching chemistry is better, laboratory and demonstration.
2. To ascertain the difference in the mean performance of students taught using laboratory technique, demonstration and control group using traditional lecture method.
3. To evaluate difference in the mean performance of male students taught with demonstration method in chemistry?
4. 4. To assess the difference in performance between female students taught chemistry, separation of mixtures with laboratory technique.

1.6     Significance of the Study

This study was significant because this question needs to be answered before either teaching method can be confidentially embraced as preferable. Because of strong differences of opinion between experts in the field of science education, only conclusive findings can guide fruitful dialog and sound decisions on this issue. Therefore this study will be of significance to students, teachers, parents, school administrators, ministry of education official, policy makers, curriculum planners and researchers.

To the students, this study will promote in chemistry students the idea that chemistry is both a product and a process in student by arousing interest in practical work with the use of laboratory technique and demonstration where necessary.

To the teachers, the study will convince the chemistry teachers that practical laboratory lessons are mostly essential for effective teaching and learning of the subject and the need to adopt it for teaching for maximum achievement of students.  

To the parents, finding from this study will motivate parents to provide basic requirements of practical lesson for their children in secondary schools and understand the need to send their children to secondary schools where laboratories are available and teachers utilize the laboratory for the benefit of their students.

The study will encourage the government through the ministry of education to realize the need for provision of science equipment to school and posting of qualified laboratory teachers and technologist to secondary schools.

The Nigeria society in the quest for improved technology and industrialization and economic development will see the need for laboratory practical in the training of students to fit into the society adequately.

Finally, other researchers may use the findings of the study to guide them conduct further research in order to add more knowledge use of laboratory practical and demonstration method to enhance the performance of students in chemistry and overall performance of students in science and engineering.

1.7     Scope and delimitation of the study

This study is targeted at the senior secondary schools in Ethiope East LGA of Delta State. The study is limited to SS2 Chemistry students in both private and public secondary schools.

1.8     Definition of Terms

In this study the following terms will be used in the following ways.

Chemistry laboratory: This is a place/classroom where laboratory equipment are kept and experiments are performed.

Gender difference: These are differences as a result of being either a male or female arising from social and cultural construction of roles associated with these sex differences.

Practical Skills: These will be referred to as process skills. These are mean experimental skills such as observation, recording, manipulation, analysis and interpretation acquired by students in the teaching and learning in laboratory.

Student’s ability in a practical task: This is the degree of successful execution of experiments during practical classes.

Years of Experience: This refers to the number of years the teacher has put in service as a chemistry teacher.