CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

          Education has been considered to be the cornerstone for development. According to Federal Republic of Nigeria (2010). Education forms the basis for literacy, skills acquisition ability, teaching achievement and ability to harness human and material resources towards the achievement of societal goals. In Nigeria today there is high demand for education because of this effective contributionsin the overall development.

          Subsequently, many subjects are studied at different levels of institution in Nigeria towards realizing the goal of education. Economics is one of the subjects offered in post primary school. It is important to both students and society because it cuts across all spheres of human endeavour. It is a subject concerned with the effective utilization or management of limited resources, for the purpose of attaining the maximum satisfaction of human wants.

          Achala (2014)states that Economics is associated with scarcity and choice.He defines Economics as social science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses. This means that economic as a science which helps man to understand and manage his scarce resources, in order to meet his numerous needs.

Economics education in senior secondary school is expected to equip the students with fundamental area of intellectual training, vocational skills, cultures, values, citizenship, training tools for the analysis of situation and natural interest for developments. But the optimal achievement on the above goals, or objectives, depends on the appropriate application of instructional material.

          Instructional materials are device that help in the effective teaching and leaving and help the teacher to achieve his or her specific objectives. Instructional materials are significant teaching and learning tools which helps the students to comprehend, retain and apply the knowledge acquired to attain the educational objectives. It is essential materials needed for teaching and learning of school subjects to promote teachers efficiency and improve students’ performance.

          It also make learning more vivid, logical, realistic and pragmatic. Economics deals with concept and abstract ideas, the use of appropriate instructional materials go a long way to up-grade the learning experience and facilitates understanding. On the contrary non-use or inappropriate use of instructional materials is capable of jeopardizing the entire instructional objectives.

          Achala (2014), states that economic teaching need concrete objects when teaching, for example if a topic like money is to be taught, the teacher needs to show the students the currency ,both notes and coins and their demonstration, in order to retain the topic in their memory. Furthermore, a set goal may not be reached by the teacher if he fails to choose and correctly use appropriate resources in teaching, because there are some students who learn better when they see and touch and others learn more when they combine all the senses of learning, sight, touch, and  even tasting and smelling.

Abdan (2014) states that despite thefact that instructional materials are essential tools that can make learning practical and knowledgeable, they are not readily available in Nigeria secondary school leading to low levelin academic performance of learners in government examination.

Academic performance is the outcome of education or the event to which an institution is able to achieve the educational goals.  These entails how the students and teacher are able to fulfil the purpose for which educational goals and objectives are set. Academic performance is how well or bad, someone does during his or her school and all the activities that go with it. Bossarti, Roumenas, Versxhuevent (2011) stated that academic performance is commonly measured by examination or contains assessment.

          Since academic performance is measured through examination like WAEC, NECO, and JAMB, it is necessary to know why the students performedpoorly in an examination. One of the secret is the type of instructional material s their teachers used in carrying out the instructional objectives. Trying to know the type of instructional material used in teaching and learning in both rural or urban school in the study area will help to improve the academic performance of the students, because it will help to find out whether the economics students are using instructional materials or not. If they are not using instructional materials, they will be forced to use it and suitable and appropriate instructional material will be selected for them to enhance high academic performance in economics subjects.

          So it is on this background that this study will be carried out to find out the type of instructional material used in teaching and learning of Economics in government senior secondary school in Enugu East Local government areas.

Statement of the problem

          Teaching and learning of economics have been seriously frustrated in recent time.Udekaigbo, Onionwu and Mbionwu (2009).This attributed to the fact that it is difficult to translate the ideas of some economics conceptsand theories into visual practical realities. Teachers are being accused of not teaching with the use of instructional materials which has led to poor academic performances of students especially in external examinations. Because of this, most students rely so much on examination malpractice to succeed in external examinations, like West African Examination council (WAEC) NationalExamination Council (NECO), National Business and Technical Examination Board (NABTEB) and University Tertiary and MatriculationExamination (UTME). The problem is compounded by the use of unsuitable teaching aids such as out-dated textbook s, parroting in place of improvisation or even emphasis in teaching and learning  with technology,  

          The inadequate supply of instructional material by government cum the poor supervision  of teacher s’ compliance  to instructional materials  usage especially during teaching and learning  encounter has  led to poor academic performance among economics students of government senior secondary school of Enugu East Local  government  area.  Furthermore teachers who are not well acquainted with the skill on how to use the instructional materials end up making the lesson more abstract than reality, and which makes the class boring .For example, there are teachers in the secondary schools who have Bachelor of science [B.SC]  at the expense of Bachelor of Education [B.ED], and they might not have acquired relevant skills on how to appropriately use the instructional materials In teaching and learning process even at students jeopardy. It becomes obvious that they can degrade the quality of our educational system.

          Hence, there is need to identify the type of instructional  material used in teaching and learning of economic in order to address the problems of poor academic performance of economic students and non-use or inappropriate use of instructional material in teaching and learning of economics in government secondary school Enugu East L.G.A.

Significance of the study

      The study aimed at identifying the instructional materials used in teaching and learning Economics. The findings of the work will be beneficial to all students in general, and Economics students in particular, the society and policy makers. It will help the students to develop interest in the subject as instructional materials awaken interest in school subjects. It will also help the students to perform higher in Economics examination, since instructional materials make learning more real and concrete.

The teacher of Economics will also benefit from the findings of the study as it helps to reduce their energy in communicating meanings, concepts to the learners by the use of teaching aids.

The society in general will benefit from the findings of the study because the interest of the students will lead to devoting more time to the study of the subject and this will generate moral values that the society needs. It will also enlighten the general public, state, and federal ministry of education on the need to provide public secondary schools with the relevant instructional materials for the production of highly skilled, intelligent and professional students for national transformation and sustainable development. The study will equally enable the authorities in government secondary schools in Enugu East Local Government Area to see the need to equip the schools with relevant teaching aids for the improvement of the academic performance of the students and the attainment of a global economy.

Purpose of the study

1. Specifically, the purpose of the study is to identify the type of instructional materials used in teaching and learning of Economics in government senior secondary school in Enugu East Local Government Area. Specifically, the objective of the study includes the following:
2. To examine the benefits of instructional materials tostudents of the study area.
3.  To identify the problems associated with the use of instructional materials in teaching and learning of economics in the study area.

Scope of the study

The study focused on some selected government secondary schools in Enugu East L.G.A. The research work has been limited to identifying the instructional materials usedin teaching and learning of economics in government senior secondary schools. The study discloses the relationship between the instructional materials and the academic performance of the students. This means that instructional materials are indispensable tools which enhance teachers efficiency and improve students’ performance towards achieving educational goals. Also in this study the importance of cognitive leaning theory and motivational theory in teaching and learning process cannot over emphasized.

Research Questions

1. What are the type of instructional materials used in teaching and learning of Economics in government senior secondary schools in Enugu East L.G.A?
2. What are the benefits of the use of instructional materials in the teaching of economics to students
3. What are the problems associated with the instructional materials used in teaching and learning of Economics in the study area?