EJES v4n1

European
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VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1 FEBRUARY 2012

THE PROMOTION OF CARDIOVASCULAR WELLNESS THROUGH PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES AMONG BANK WORKERS IN BENIN CITY, EDO STATE, NIGERIA. O. H. OBASUYI and E. O. AGWUBIKE JOB SATISFACTION STATUS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN OTA, NIGERIA ABIODUN .M. GESINDE and GBADEBO .O. ADEJUMO ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN RESEARCH CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF UNIVERSITY BOTSWANA (UB) GRADUATE EDUCATION PROGRAMME H. JOHNSON NENTY FOLLOW-UP STUDY OF GRADUATES OF SPECIAL EDUCATION PROGRAM IN PRINCESS RAHMEH COLLEGE HIAM JAMEEL KATANANI HIV AND AIDS STIGMA IN BOTSWANA: VOICES OF SCHOOL STUDENTS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR MORAL EDUCATION SANA KOKETSO MMOLAI ICT ADOPTION AND EFFECTIVE SECONDARY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION IN EKITI-STATE ABIODUN-OYEBANJI OLAYEMI and K. OMOTAYO A CORRELATIONAL ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN WAEC AND NECO MATHEMATICS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA AJAO, I.O. and AWOGBEMI , C.A. IMPACT OF SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICES ON KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE & PRACTICE OF HEALTH AMONG STUDENTS TOWARDS STRENGTHENING NATIONAL HEALTH STATUS IN DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY ABRAKA JOSEPH O. OGBE ADULT EDUCATION: THE HOPE OF THE MARGINALIZED ADEDOKUN MARY OLUFUNKE and OJELEYE JONATHAN ADEMOLA VISUAL ACUITY AND MOTOR PERFORMANCE CORRELATES IN BASIC EDUCATION SCHOOL CHILDREN OF EDO STATE, NIGERIA F.U.OKAFOR and E.O.AGWUBIKE DESIGNING AND VALIDATING A SOCIAL CAPITAL SCALE WITHIN A GRADE SPECIFIC CONTEXT EBRAHIM KHODADADY and FARNAZ FAROKH ALAEE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION AND THE CHALLENGES OF DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA AYENI, M. A. and ADELEYE, J. O. THE NEMESIS OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN BOTSWANA PRIMARY SCHOOLS MAVIS B. MHLAULI RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT VARIABLES AND STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EGOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, EDO STATE, NIGERIA. DR. ROSELINE O. OSAGIE and CHUKUJINDU J. OKAFOR GENDER DIFFERENCES AND STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION IN SOCIAL STUDIES AMONG JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EKITI STATE B.O. ABDU-RAHEEM
DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF INTERNET-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN ASSISTANCE FOR PRINT-BASED SELF-LEARNING MATERIALS OMAR MAJID, ZURAIDAH A. RAHMAN, HANAFI ATAN, AHMAD H. MOHAMAD
A PEER REVIEVED INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
European Journal of Educational Science

A Peer Revieved International Journal
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Volume 4, Issue 1, February 2012

ISSN 1946-6331
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Managing Editor Ali Ozel, Dumlupinar University Publication Coordinator Taskin Inan, Dumlupinar University Editorial Board
Gerald S. Greenberg, Ohio State University, USA Hakki Yazici, Afyon Kocatepe University, Turkey Hayati Akyol, Gazi University, Turkey Hayati Doganay, Ataturk University, Turkey Laurie Katz, Ohio State University, USA Lisandra Pedraza, University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico Lutfi Ozav, Usak University, Turkey
Mihai Maxim, Bucharest University, Romania Ibrahim Atalay, Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey Ibrahim S. Rahim, National Research Center, Egypt Janet Rivera, NOVA University, USA Ramazan Ozey, Marmara University, Turkey Samara Madrid, Northern Illinois University, USA
Samia Abdel Aziz-Ahmed Sayed, National Research Center, Egypt
Web: http://www.ozelacademy.com E-mail: editorejes@gmail.com Copyright 2008 Ozean Publication, 2141 Baneberry Ct. 43235, Columbus, Ohio, USA
European Journal of Educational Science

A Peer Revieved International Journal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Volume 4, Issue 1, February 2012

ISSN 1946-6331 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------THE PROMOTION OF CARDIOVASCULAR WELLNESS THROUGH PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES AMONG BANK WORKERS IN BENIN CITY, EDO STATE, NIGERIA. O. H. OBASUYI and E. O. AGWUBIKE JOB SATISFACTION STATUS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN OTA, NIGERIA ABIODUN .M. GESINDE and GBADEBO .O. ADEJUMO ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN RESEARCH CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF UNIVERSITY BOTSWANA (UB) GRADUATE EDUCATION PROGRAMME H. JOHNSON NENTY FOLLOW-UP STUDY OF GRADUATES OF SPECIAL EDUCATION PROGRAM IN PRINCESS RAHMEH COLLEGE HIAM JAMEEL KATANANI HIV AND AIDS STIGMA IN BOTSWANA: VOICES OF SCHOOL STUDENTS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR MORAL EDUCATION SANA KOKETSO MMOLAI ICT ADOPTION AND EFFECTIVE SECONDARY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION IN EKITI-STATE ABIODUN-OYEBANJI OLAYEMI and K. OMOTAYO A CORRELATIONAL ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN WAEC AND NECO MATHEMATICS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA AJAO, I.O. and AWOGBEMI , C.A. DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF INTERNET-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN ASSISTANCE FOR PRINT-BASED SELF-LEARNING MATERIALS OMAR MAJID, ZURAIDAH A. RAHMAN, HANAFI ATAN, AHMAD H. MOHAMAD IMPACT OF SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICES ON KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE & PRACTICE OF HEALTH AMONG STUDENTS TOWARDS STRENGTHENING NATIONAL HEALTH STATUS IN DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY ABRAKA JOSEPH O. OGBE ADULT EDUCATION: THE HOPE OF THE MARGINALIZED ADEDOKUN MARY OLUFUNKE and OJELEYE JONATHAN ADEMOLA VISUAL ACUITY AND MOTOR PERFORMANCE CORRELATES IN BASIC EDUCATION SCHOOL CHILDREN OF EDO STATE, NIGERIA F.U.OKAFOR and E.O.AGWUBIKE DESIGNING AND VALIDATING A SOCIAL CAPITAL SCALE WITHIN A GRADE SPECIFIC CONTEXT EBRAHIM KHODADADY and FARNAZ FAROKH ALAEE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION AND THE CHALLENGES OF DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA AYENI, M. A. and ADELEYE, J. O. THE NEMESIS OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN BOTSWANA PRIMARY SCHOOLS MAVIS B. MHLAULI RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT VARIABLES AND STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EGOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, EDO STATE, NIGERIA. DR. ROSELINE O. OSAGIE and CHUKUJINDU J. OKAFOR GENDER DIFFERENCES AND STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION IN SOCIAL STUDIES AMONG JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EKITI STATE B.O. ABDU-RAHEEM
Web: http://www.ozelacademy.com E-mail: editorejes@gmail.com Copyright 2008 Ozean Publication, 2141 Baneberry Ct. 43235, Columbus, Ohio, USA
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European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012
European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012 2012 Ozean Publication
THE PROMOTION OF CARDIOVASCULAR WELLNESS THROUGH PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES AMONG BANK WORKERS IN BENIN CITY, EDO STATE, NIGERIA
O. H. OBASUYI*, E. O. AGWUBIKE** *Department of Health, Environmental Education and Human Kinetics, Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. **Department of Health, Environmental Education and Human Kinetics, Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. **E-mail address for correspondence : agwueo@yahoo.com.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: Physical inactivity portends a great risk factor of many Cardiovascular Diseases ( CVDs), resulting in increased morbidity and mortality rates of individuals who maintain relatively sedentary lifestyle. The influence of physical inactivity has assumed a worrisome dimension in the scientific arena , health, society and the economy of Nigeria. The banking sector is one of the main workplaces for sedentary works in contemporary times. To increase the proportion of bank workers who engage in moderate -vigorous physical activities that promote cardiovascular wellness in Benin City, Nigeria. Only bank workers in Benin City, Edo State of Nigeria were used for the study. Four research questions were raised to guide the study and four hypotheses were generated to verify the results. A pre-tested questionnaire was utilized to gather data from a sample of 139 participants in five banks in Benin City using the simple random sampling technique. Data were analysed using frequency counts, percentages and ChiSquare (X2) statistics. Results showed, amongst others, that the level of knowledge of the benefits of physical activities significantly promoted cardiovascular wellness of the bank workers df of 8 (x2=32.58; p < 0.05), though the types of physical activities which they engaged in, did not significantly enhance their cardiovascular wellness, df of 8(x2=10.35; p < 0.05). It is, however, recommended that bank workers should engage in moderate- to-vigorous physical activity of 30-60 minutes duration. Individual guidelines for continuous training are of paramount significance. Keywords: Cardiovascular wellness, Physical activities, Bank workers, Promotion _____________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION Cardiovascular wellness is a major health - related fitness that determines an individuals overall well-being. Cardiovascular wellness, simply, means optimal health and vitality, encompassing healthy heart and blood circulatory wellness. However, this essential scientific and health- related fitness component tends to be undermined by chronic diseases. Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) happen to be one such diseases that have been firmly rooted and their magnitude is approaching that of an epidemic in Nigeria. Insel and Roth (2004), noted that the major forms
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of CVDs are hypertension, atherosclerosis, heart disease and heart attack, stroke, congestive heart failure, congenital heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, and heart valve problems. In Nigeria and many other developing countries, CVDs have high mortality than in developed countries (Reddy & Yusuf, 1998). The World Health Organisation WHO emphasized in the 2011 World Heart Day that, CVDs are the worlds largest killers, claiming 17.1 million lives a year; and one of the risk factors for heart disease and stroke include physical inactivity. The Nigerias health minister reiterated at the 2009 World Heart Day in Abuja that, one third of global deaths are caused by CVDs with over 80% of them occurring in low and middle income countries, including Nigeria. The deaths resulting from CVDs are attributable to four common behavioural risk factors: inadequate physical activity, tobacco use, the harmful use of alcohol and poor diet (WHO, 2009). Physical inactivity is a major risk factor of CVDs. According to Vaillant and Mukamal (2001); Gary and David (2001); Steyn, Fourie and Bradshaw (1992), drug abuse, tobacco smoking, and alcohol drinking as well as lack of exercise may also increase the risk of developing certain diseases, such as CVDs, especially later in life. Too many Nigerians eat an unhealthy diet, are overweight and sedentary, smoke, manage stress ineffectively, have uncontrolled blood pressure or high cholesterol levels, are physically inactive, and above all, do not know the signs of CVDs (WHO, 2009). WHO (2011), published a report on chronic and non-chronic conditions that, approximately 3.2 million die each year due to insufficient physical activity and people who do not take enough exercise have a 20 to 30 percent increased risk of dying prematurely (Chidi, 2011). The nature of CVDs and associated risk factors arising from physical inactivity of an individual greatly influence cardiovascular wellness. The U.S Healthy People 2000, National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives stated that the development and maintenance of cardiovascular wellness entails that at least 20% of people age 18 and older and at least 75% of children and adolescents age 6 to17 engage in vigorous physical activity 3 or more days per week, for 20 minutes or more per session (Prentice, 1997). The proportion of people who ought to meet this standard in Nigeria, appears to be small. Hence, the threat of CVDs, as evident by inadequate physical activity, and urgent need of cardiovascular wellness continues to raise two big questions in contemporary society: how do we make physical activities a priority in our busy daily or weekly schedules and how do we attain health and cardiovascular wellness irrespective of our tight schedule?
Statement of the Problem The WHO reported in the World Health Report (2002) that, CVDs accounted for 9.2% of total deaths in Africa in 2001 and hypertension, stroke, cardiomyopathies, rheumatic heart disease were the most prevalent causes. It also emphasized that, life years lost rose from 5.3 million for men, 6.3 million for women in 1990 to 6.5 million and 6.9 million respectively in 2006, and could rise to 8.1 million and 7.9 million in 2010. A current report by The Nigerian Voice of Friday April 29, 2011stated that the Global Status Report on Non-communicable Diseases ( NCD) warned that, without action, the NCD epidemic is projected to kill 52 million people annually by 2030. The question that may agitate ones mind is: How prepared are Nigerians to avert this intending calamity? The risk factors of CVDs, ranging from personal lifestyle (with lack of physical activity), through health habits or behaviours to inherited attributes, portend increased death rate of the individual. These death rates arise from people who lead a relatively sedentary lifestyle than those who maintain active lifestyle (Prentice, 1997). Despite the benefits of physical activity which include reduction in the risk of developing heart disease, colon cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure, Lee, Blair and Jackson (1999) opined that, on the average, people who are physically active outlive those who are inactive. Physical inactivity has substantial economic consequences for the health care system. The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation-ASPE(2002), noted that the prevalence of CVDs related to physical inactivity are associated with two types of costs- health care costs for prevention, diagnosis and treatment and costs arising from lost wages by people unable to work because of CVDs. In effect, a physically inactive person is at both medical and financial risks for many chronic diseases and conditions. Therefore, the impact of physical inactivity is an impending disaster for the scientific world, health, society and the economy of any nation. The banking sector appears to be greatly influenced by most sedentary works. Thus, the need for cardiovascular wellness of bank workers is of contemporary concern in the broad field of science vis--vis
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health-related fields. The above forms the basis upon which the following research questions were raised for investigation.
Research Questions 1. activities? 2. 3. 4. What extent do awareness and level of knowledge of the benefits of physical activities promote cardiovascular wellness of bank workers? What extent do the types of physical activities of bank workers enhance their cardiovascular wellness? Would engagement in physical activity requirement preference promote cardiovascular wellness of bank workers? What extent does medical history of bank workers influence their engagement in physical
Research Hypotheses The following hypotheses were formulated and tested. 1. 2. 3. 4. There is no significant relationship between medical history of bank workers and their engagement in physical activities; Ho : fo=fe or H1 : fofe Awareness and level of knowledge of the benefits of physical activities do not significantly promote cardiovascular wellness of bank workers; Ho : fo=fe or H1 : fofe The types of physical activities of bank workers do not significantly enhance their cardiovascular wellness; Ho : fo=fe or H1 : fofe Engagement in physical activity requirement preference of bank workers does not significantly promote their cardiovascular wellness; Ho : fo=fe or H1 : fofe
Objectives of the Study The broad goals of the study are to: achieve basic overall health and wellness of Nigerian bank workers; reduce health disparities between medical fields and allied health fields vis--vis health educating bank workers and to achieve access to preventative services rather than curative services for all Nigerian bank workers. Based on these goals, the main objective of this study is to increase the proportion of bank workers who engage in moderate -tovigorous physical activities that promote their cardiovascular wellness in Benin City, Nigeria. Other purposes of the study were to: increase the proportion of bank workers offering employer sponsored physical activity programmes; increase the proportion of primary care providers who routinely access and counsel bank workers regarding the frequency, duration and intensity of each type of physical activity practices; increase the proportion of Nigerian bank workers who are overweight in order to adopt regular physical activity for appropriate body weight; reduce the proportion of bank workers who engage in no leisure-time physical activity and finally to reduce CVD deaths.
Research Materials and Methods The investigation was conducted in Edo state of Nigeria, between April and June 2011. Edo state is located in a way that it forms the nucleus of Niger Delta region of Nigeria. With Benin City as the capital, the population of the state is 3,218,332: (1,624,461 males and 1,557,871 females) (Eguavoen, 2010). Its notable financial institutions include 24 licensed banks of Nigeria First Bank Plc, United Bank of Africa Plc (UBA), Union Bank, Afribank, Skye Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc, Sterling Bank, Oceanic Bank Int., Fidelity Bank Plc, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Standard chartered Bank Ltd, Bank PHB, Unity Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc, NIB/CTI Bank , Spring Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, First City Monument Bank Plc, Guarantee Trust Bank (GT) Plc, Fin Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc, StanbicIBTC Bank, Devocom/ETB and EcoBank Plc.
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With the simple random sampling, the names of the banks were written on pieces of papers and were picked in turn until 5 banks were randomly selected. These were First Bank, UBA, Union Bank, Zenith and Intercontinental Bank. Also, with the simple random technique, all the named bank branches in Benin City were listed on pieces of papers and First Bank Ugbowo, Union Bank Kings Square, UBA Sapele Road, Zenith Bank Sapele Road and Intercontinental bank Ugbowo campus branches were selected. From each branchs record, First Bank Ugbowo has a staff strength of 35, Union 34, UBA 38, Zenith 43 and Intercontinental 30.Thus, the sample size of the study comprising 30, 21, 32, 36, 20 subjects respectively were randomly selected from the five branches giving a total of 139 subjects. Of the 139 subjects, 56 were males and 83 were females. The subjects are officers who are responsible for most of the bank operations and Customer Services. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the informed consent of the bank managers. A validated and pre-tested questionnaire designed to determine the extent to which physical activities enhance cardiovascular wellness of these bank workers was administered by the researcher and collected immediately, given a reliability coefficient (r) of 0.73. This meant a high reliability of the study. The extent to which the medical history of the bank workers could limit their engagement in physical activities was assessed by their agreement or disagreement to the items. Adequate knowledge of the benefits of physical activities in promoting cardiovascular wellness was determined by a good definition of (5-7) items plus two types of physical activities each of moderate and hard types. Inadequate knowledge was assessed by fair definition of (2-4 items) plus 1 type of moderate or mild type of physical activity, while poor knowledge was assessed by poor definition of (1 item) with no type of physical activity at all. Physical activity engagement requirement preference was assessed by best preference [Intensity: hard (76-95%), duration (minutes per day): 20 and frequency (per week): 3-5 times], good preference [Intensity: moderate (40-75%), duration (minutes per day): 20-60 and frequency (per week): > 5 times] and poor preference [Intensity: mild < 40%, duration (minutes per day): < 20 and frequency (per week): < 3 times]. Data were analysed using Chi-square ( X2) frequency counts and percentages The significant level was set at 0.05. The differences between the proportions were carefully analysed.
RESULTS
From the study, the participants, age ranges (15 to 30 years, 31 to 46 years and 47 to 62 years) of the bank workers responded. 56 (40.3%) were males while 83 (59.7%) were females giving a response rate of 100%.More of the bank workers 101/139 (72.7%) were B.Sc holders, 38/139 (27.3%) M.Sc holders and none was a Ph.D holder.
Medical History and Engagement in Physical Activities Majority of the overall bank workers 119/139 (85.6%) did not have medical history (that is, coronary heart disease, irregular heartbeats, family history of heart disease, high blood pressure, and so on) that could hinder their cardiovascular wellness. However, (14.4%) had medical history of irregular heartbeats that required the use of prescription drugs. There was a significant relationship in the proportions of those with medical history and engagement in physical activities between different banks, df of 4 (x2=22.13; p < 0.05). The proportion of those with medical history in First bank and Intercontinental bank was not significantly different (10.0%). However, the proportion of those with medical history in UBA (31.2%) was significantly higher than their counterparts in Union (14.3%) and Zenith (05.6%) banks [Table 1].
Awareness and Level of Knowledge of the Benefits of Physical activities in Promoting Cardiovascular wellness Majority of bank workers 123 (88.5%) were aware of the benefits of physical activities in promoting cardiovascular wellness while 16 (11.5%) were not. There was no statistical difference in the proportions of those who were aware of the benefits of physical activities in promoting cardiovascular wellness among the banker workers, df of 4 (x2=7.46; p < 0.05). The proportions of participants with adequate knowledge of the benefits of physical activities
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from UBA, Zenith and Intercontinental banks were not significantly different (25.0%) each and 15.8% overall, but out rightly outweighed those of the First bank and Union bank workers who had inadequate knowledge. The overall proportion of those with inadequate knowledge (40.3%) and poor knowledge (43.9%) were not significantly different. However, the overall proportions of those with adequate knowledge (15.8%), inadequate knowledge (40.3%) and poor knowledge (43.9%) showed that, the level of knowledge of the benefits of physical activities significantly promoted cardiovascular wellness of the bank workers. That tended to hold stronger for those in First bank, Union bank and UBA, df of 8 (x2=32.58; p < 0.05) [Table 2].
Types of Physical Activities which enhance Cardiovascular wellness of Bank workers Of the 139 (100%), bank workers, 72 (51.8%) of bank workers have participated in mild type of physical activities (cycling, gardening, etc), 42 (30.2%) in moderate type (slow running or jogging for 60 minutes , and tennis or volley ball for 45 minutes) while 25 (28.0%) in hard type (soccer, competitive handball). The proportion of participants who participated in the various types of physical activity was not significantly different from among all the bank workers. Thus, the types of physical activities do not significantly enhance cardiovascular wellness of bank workers, df of 8(x2=10.35; p < 0.05) [Table 3].
Physical activity Requirement Preference From the total of 139 (100%), majority of the bank workers preferred good physical activity requirement preference 100 (71.9%), whereas the proportions of best and poor physical activity preference were significantly different 08 (05.8%) and 31 (22.3%) respectively. Thus, engagement in physical activity requirement preference significantly promotes cardiovascular wellness of the bank workers though that tended to hold stronger for good preference in First bank, UBA and Zenith banks, df of 8 (x2=19.38; p < 0.05) [Table 4].
DISCUSSION Regular and adequate physical activity leads to cardiovascular wellness which decreases the risk of CVD mortality in general and coronary artery disease in particular. By physical activity, it relates to any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles and such movement brings about the expenditure of energy. The term exercise is usually a subset of physical activity involving planned, structured, repetitive movement of the body designed especially to improve or maintain physical fitness. Thus, exercise and physical activity had been used interchangeably in this context. A large number of studies have been concluded to show the relationship between physical activities and overall well-being (Rowland, 2001and Drygas, Kostka, Jegier, Kunski, 2000) and that an inverse relationship exists between physical activity and occurrence of CVDs (Prentice, 1997). Thus, as physical activity levels increased, deaths decreased. The data of this study revealed that the level of knowledge of the benefits of physical activity significantly promotes cardiovascular wellness of the bank workers. This is in agreement with the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 1996) which pointed out that regular physical activity can improve health by: reducing the risk of death from heart disease; helping to control weight; reducing the risk of developing high blood pressure and diabetes, to mention a few. The economic mainstream and health care status of any individual depends on the eating healthy diets, receiving rest and above all, on the level of physical activity of the person (Prentice, 1997). The need to promote cardiovascular wellness among sedentary workers, especially bank workers, has been poorly considered. The tendency to develop cardiovascular-related conditions (CVDs), seems to be inherited in some individuals. The inherited attributes amount to medical history of varying degrees of an individual. For instance, the tendencies to have coronary heart disease, irregular heartbeats, high blood pressure, smoking, alcohol drinking which automatically result in the use of prescription drugs, constitute medical history of an individual. An individuals medical history determines his/her level of participation in varying amounts of physical activities. If one of a
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persons parents has had heart disease, he/she has a greater risk of developing CVD (Prentice, 1997) and such prompts the medical personnel to advice and prescribe an appropriate physical activity to suit the individual, if need be. Insel and Roth (2004), opined that such could occur between the age of 55-60. It is observed that medical history and physical activity are not independent of each other to which bank workers on agreement attracted 14.4% and disagreement had 85.6%. The findings of this study, that medical history and engagement in physical activities are not independent of each other, is directly in line with those of Rowland (2001), Drygas et al (2000) and Prentice (1997). Again, the study showed that, bank workers awareness of the benefits of physical activities in promoting cardiovascular wellness was relatively high in which 88.5% of all the bank workers were aware of such a relationship. However, only 11.5% were unaware that the benefits of physical activities could promote their cardiovascular wellness. Conversely, the level of knowledge of the benefits of physical activities in promoting cardiovascular wellness of bank workers was poor. Only 15.8% had adequate knowledge, 40.3% inadequate knowledge and 43.9% poor knowledge of the benefits of physical activities. The types of physical activities which the bank workers participated in showed that majority of them (51.85%), participated in mild type; 30.2% in moderate type and 18.0% in hard type. The recommendation for physical activity from the CDC/ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) (1996) asserted that, moderate activities such as briskly walking at about 3 to 4 kilometres per hour, may promote cardiovascular wellness. Wide variety of occupational or recreational activities, including yard work, house hold tasks, cycling and swimming are other beneficial activities. From this finding, only 30.2% participated in moderate physical activities entailing a poor standard of participating in cardiovascular enhancing wellness activities. Thus, the type of physical activities which the bank workers participated in is usually mild and hence, did not enhance their cardiovascular wellness. This is contrary to the recommendations of CDC/ACSM (1996). The study also showed that physical activity requirement preference of the bank workers was good. Majority of them opted for good preference amounting to 71.9% while 22.3% was for poor preference and only 05.8% opted for best preference. Thus, their preference categories meant that their cardiovascular wellness could be promoted by their choices. However, a number of studies show varying degrees of standard of measuring how much physical activity adults need for cardiovascular wellness, in terms of intensity (how hard), duration (how long) and frequency (how often). The standard used for this study is shown on the key of Table 4. Prentice (1997), stipulated that an exercise period of 30 to 60 minutes duration at an intensity of 60% to 90% of maximum heart rate performed three or more times per week for years was recommended for health promotion and disease prevention. The CDC (1996), recommended that for effective health benefits, adults should engage in moderate-intensity physical activity for at least 30 minutes on five or more days of the week or they engage in vigorous-intensity physical activity for at least 20 minutes on three or more days of the week. This is good preference in support of the findings of this study. The benefit accruable to this is that everyone should endeavour to attain a threshold of recommended physical activity by CDC. The Wikipedia (2011), Free Encyclopedia also noted that beneficial effects of physical activity on CVD mortality can be attained through moderate-intensity activity of between 40% to 60% maximal oxygen uptake (VO2) depending on ones age. A study by Wislett, Ellingsen and Kemi (2009), showed that vigorous exercise of 90% to 95% of VO2 max is more beneficial than moderate exercise of 40% to 70% of VO2 max. Intensity can be measured either in minutes of physical activity performed or in the number of calories expended. On this basis, Prentice (1997), indicated that about 200 calories would be expended during 30 minutes of exercise performed periodically. However, CDC/ACSM (1996) maintained that 30 minutes of moderate activity performed daily equates 600 to 1200 calories of energy expended per week. It is glad to note that the intensity, frequency and duration of the present study conformed with these recommended requirements. Improving cardiovascular wellness involves exercising in ones fat burning zone in keeping with ones heart rate at the correct percentage of its maximum during exercise as well as checking ones breathing to monitor the perceived exertion. To calculate ones maximum heart rate, there is need to use: Max : HR =220 age, where HR is heart rate. Low wellness level of VO2 max < 35 and Max HR of 60% to 75%. Medium wellness VO2 max equals 35-45 and Max HR becomes 70% to 85%. High wellness VO2 max > 45 and Max HR is 75% to 90% (www.physicalfitness-exercise.com , 2011). For most sedentary work, especially the banking sector, it is often difficult to find time for physical activities which conforms to Prentices (1997) assertion that, most individuals do not want to engage in physical activities based on a variety of reasons. Thus, overall observation shows that the correlation between bank workers medical history and engagement in physical activities is dependent upon their lack of physical activities because individuals with
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medical history have greater risk of developing CVDs and so have to be much more active than other people in preventing CVDs (Prentice, 1997).Thus far although, the level of knowledge of the benefits of physical activities by the bank workers was high, the level of their engagement in physical activity was low which negates the appropriate requirement preference to promote cardiovascular wellness. The health implication is that, the type of physical activity, which is mild in nature, engaged in by majority of the bank workers does not enhance maximum cardiovascular wellness.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. 2.
Well-organised employer-sponsored physical activity schedule for bank workers should be instituted to last between 30 to 60 minutes. Individual guidelines for continous training should follow the under-tabulated:
Training Level Beginner Intermediate Advanced
Frequency (sessions per week) 3 4-5 5-6
Duration (minutes) 20 30-45 45-60
Intensity (VO2 max or HR) 40%-50% 50%-75% 75%-85%
REFERENCES
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) (2002). Physical Activity Fundamental To Preventing Disease. Retrieved 3rd June, 2011 from http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/physicalactivity/ Cardiovascular fitness and Fat Burning defined.Retrieved 3rd June 2011 from www.physical-fitnessexercises.com/cardiovascular-Fitness.html Chidi, O. R. (2011): News WHO Reports: Tobacco Alcohol And Fat Have Huge Health Impact. Retrieved 4th June 2011 from http://chidioperareports.blogspotcom/2011/04/news-report-who-says-tobacco- alcohol.html Drygas, W.; Kostka, T.; Jegier, A. & Kunski, H. (2000).Long-term effects of different Physical activity levels on coronary heart disease risk factors in middle-aged men Int J Sports Med. 21: 235-41 [PubMed]. Eguavoen, O. E.(2010). Nigeria at 50. Evans Current Affairs. ( 2010 ed). Zivans Books Ventures Benin City. Gary, E. F. & David, J. S. (2001). Ten Years of Life: Is It a Matter of choice? Arch Intern Med. 161:16451652.PMID:11434797. Insel, P. M.& Roth, W. T. (2004).Selected Chapters from Core Concepts in health. McGraw-Hill Custom Publisher. 9th ed. P.363-375, 427-433, 437-453. Lee, C.D.; Blair, S.N.& Jackson, A.S. (1999).Cardiorespiratory fitnes, body composition and all-cause cardiovascular disease mortality in men. Am J clin Nutr 69(3). 373-80
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National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1996). Physical Activity Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Retrieved 4th June 2011 from http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphpsgr/sgr.ht Prentice, W. E. (1997). Fitness for College and Life. Mosby. Reddy, K. S. & Yusuf, S. (1998). Emerging epidemic of Cardiovascular disease in developing Countries. 97: 596601 Rowland, T. W. (2001). The role of physical activity and fitness in children: The prevention of adult cardiovascular disease. Prog Pediatr cardio: 12: 199-203 [PubMed]. Steyn, K.; Fourie, J.& Bradshaw, D. (1992). The impact of chronic diseases of lifestyle and their major risk factors on mortality in South Africa. S Afr Med J.82: 4,227-31. PMID: 1411817. The Nigerian Voice (2011). Nigeria, Others Worst Hit by Non-communicable Diseases Deaths-WHOThenigerianvoice.com. Retrieved 4th June 2011 from http://m.thenigerianvoice.com/mobile/50743/1/1.html Vaillant, G. E. & Mukamal, K. (2001). Successful Aging. Am J Psychiatry. June 1; 158(6): 839-847. PMID:11384887. WHO (2011). WHO/World Heart Day. Retrieved 6 th June 2011 from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/annual/world-heart-day/en/index.html WHO (2009). WHO/World Heart Day. Retrieved 6 th June 2011 from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/annual/world-heart-day/en/index.html Wikipedia (2011), Free Encyclopedia. Physical exercise. Retrieved 4th June 2011 from http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/physical-exercise. Wislett, U.; Ellingsen, O.& Kemi, O. (2009). High Intensity Interval Training to Maximize Cardiac Benefit of Exercise Training. Exercise and Sports Science Reviews 37 (3): 139-146. World Health Organisation, World Health Report (2002). Reducing risks, promoting healthy life. Geneva :WHO,2002. Retrieved online on 26 sep. 2011 from http://www.who.int/whr/2002/en/index.html
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APPENDICES
List of Tables Table 1: Medical History and Engagement in Physical Activities in the Banks (First Bank, Union Bank, UBA, Zenith and Intercontinental Banks) First Bank Union UBA Zenith Intercontinental Total (%) N=30(%) Bank N=32(%) N=36(%) N=20(%) N=21(%)
Medical history and physical activity Yes No Total
X2
P value
03(10.0) 27(90.0) 30(100.0)
03(14.3) 18(85.7) 21(100.0)
10(31.2) 22(68.8) 32(100.0)
02(05.6) 34(94.4) 36(100.0)
02(10.0) 18(90.0) 20(100.0)
20(14.4) 119(85.6) 139(100.0) 22.13 0.05
Awareness of Benefits of Physical activities Yes No Total Level of knowledge Adequate(good) Inadequate(fair) Poor Total
Table 2: Bank workers Awareness and Level of Knowledge of the Benefits of Physical activities in Promoting Cardiovascular wellness First Bank Union UBA Zenith Intercontinental Total N=30(%) Bank N=32(%) N=36(%) N=20(%) (%) N=21(%) 30(100.0) 30(100.0) 21(100.0) 21(100.0) 24(75.0) 08(25.0) 32(100.0) 30(83.3) 06(16.7) 36(100.0) 18(90.0) 02(10.0) 20(100.0) 123(88.5) 16(11.5) 139(100.0)
X2
P value
7.46
0.05
22(73.3) 08(26.7) 30(100.0)
15(71.4) 06(28.6) 21(100.0)
08(25.0) 24(75.00 32(100.0)
09(25.0) 09(25.00 18(50.0) 36(100.0)
05(25.0) 10(50.0) 05(25.0) 20(100.0)
22(15.8) 56(40.3) 61(43.9) 139(100.0) 32.58 0.05
Types of Physical Activities Mild Moderate Hard Total
Table 3:Types of Physical activities which enhance Cardiovascular of Bank workers. First Bank Union UBA Zenith Intercontinental Total X2 N=30(%) Bank N=32(%) N=36(%) N=20(%) (%) N=21(%) 22(73.3) 05(16.7) 03(10.0) 30(100.0) 11(52.40 07(33.3) 03(14.3) 21(100.00 11(34.4) 11(34.4) 10(31.2) 32(100.0) 19(52.8) 12(33.3) 05(13.9) 36(100.0) 09(45.0) 07(35.0) 04(20.0) 20(100.0) 72(51.8) 42(30.2) 25(18.0) 139(100.0) 10.35
P value
0.05
603
Requirement Preference Best preference a Good preference Poor preference Total

c b
Table 4: Physical Activity Requirement Preference of Bank workers First Union UBA Zenith Intercontinental Total Bank Bank N=32(%) N=36(%) N=20(%) (%) N=30(%) N=21(%) 02(06.7) 22(73.3) 06(20.0) 30(100) 04(19.0) 11(52.4) 06(28.6) 21(100) 01(03.1) 28(87.5) 03(09.4) 32(100) 27(75.0) 09(25.0) 36(100) 01(05.0) 12(60.0) 07(35.0) 20(100) 08(05.8) 100(71.9) 31(22.3) 139(100)
X2
P value
19.38
0.05
Footnotes (Table 4): Best Preference a [ Intensity: hard (76-95) %, duration( minutes per day): 20 and frequency( per week): 3-5 times] Good Preference b [Intensity: moderate ( 40-75) %, duration (minutes per day):20-60 and frequency ( per week):>5 times] Poor Preference c-[Intensity: mild <40%, duration ( minutes per day):< 20 and frequency( per week):< 3 times
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JOB SATISFACTION STATUS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN OTA, NIGERIA

ABIODUN .M. GESINDE* and GBADEBO .O. ADEJUMO Department of Psychology, Covenant University, Ota Ogun State, Nigeria. *E-mail address for correspondence: abigeshontop@gmail.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: This descriptive survey study investigated the current job satisfaction level of primary school teachers. Two hundred and thirty-eight teachers (males 95 and females 143) randomly selected from twenty primary schools from public and private schools in Ota, Ogun State participated in the survey. An adapted version of Job Satisfaction Survey by Bellingham (2004) was employed for data generation. Data collected were analyzed using simple percentage, one way analysis of variance, and t-test-statistic. The results of the two research questions and two research hypotheses indicated that greater percentage of teachers (52.9%) were very satisfied with their job while it is also evident that female teachers were very happy with their job than male teachers. Further analysis showed that no significant difference existed on gender basis while there were significant differences on educational qualification and age groups. Consequent upon these findings it is imperative for proprietors of schools to ensure that teachers are not dissatisfied with their job through their inability to consistently provide enabling environment. Key Words: Job, Satisfaction, Primary School teachers, Nigeria _____________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION The term satisfaction is a term commonly employed to describe condition an individual found him/her self after a particular occurrence. It describes state of inner feelings that follows interaction with people or object. It has also been directly substituted with other feeling words such as gratification, happiness, compensation, fulfillment, joy, excitement, self-actualization. For instance, The Microsoft Encounter Dictionary (2009) perceives satisfaction to have four diverse interpretations. These are: the feeling of pleasure that comes when a need or desire is fulfilled (gratification); happiness with the way that something has been arranged or done; compensation for an injury or loss; and the fulfilment of a need, claim, desires. In a similar vein, The Cambridge International Dictionary of English (1995) portrays satisfaction as the form of pleasant feeling you get when you receive something you wanted or when you have done or doing something you wanted to do. Consequently, it could therefore be said that satisfaction is positively viewed as a pleasant feeling and a reward for an activity carried out (reinforcement). Satisfaction is also attainable when an individual do what he/she loves or desires to do such as working in place he/she desire to work.
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There are countless engagements in life that an individual could derive satisfaction from. However, the primary scope of this paper is the satisfaction derivable from working in an institution or establishment. The importance of job to an employee existence is exemplified in this quotation by Szmanski & Parker (1996): Work determines a persons worth and place in society and it influences ones psychological identity and sense of well-being. Work establishes one in the community of human kind. It links a person to others, advances the goals of culture, and gives purpose to ones very existence (p1) In this same vein did Smith (2007) asserts that work does not only occupies a large part of each workers day but also the main source of social standing capable of defining who a person is physically and mentally. Consequently, workers satisfaction is an important component in overall well-being. Job satisfaction can be viewed in three dimensional ways according to Essien (2002). It is viewed as an emotional response to a job situation and often determined by how outcome meets or exceed expectation. It also revealed some job characteristics that represent effective response of people such as: the work itself, pay, promotion opportunities, supervision/leadership and coworkers. An attempt to categorically state an all inclusive and conclusive definition of job satisfaction is a most difficult task. This is simply because Gurbuz (2007) points out that there is a range of conceptualizations of the construct in the literature which makes a conclusive interpretation difficult. These include the fact that some theorists viewed it as a broad positive emotional reactions and attitudes that an individual has towards his/her job brought about by a comparison between actual and desired or anticipated outcomes while others viewed it as two dimensions of a dissatisfaction/lack of satisfaction dimension or intrinsic/extrinsic satisfaction dimension. The above diverse conceptualizations notwithstanding, scholars from varied orientations have suggested operational definition of job satisfaction. A case in reference is Misener et al definition as cited in Mosadeghrad, Ferlie, & Rosenberg (2008) which describes job satisfaction as the type of attitude that people have about their jobs and the organizations in which they perform these jobs. It is the extent to which people like or dislike their jobs. Similarly, Khaanna (2010) conceives job satisfaction as a positive attitude by an employee towards his job as well as his personal life. These definitions clearly show that job satisfaction covers activities within and outside the workplace. Hence, work settings have direct and indirect impacts on how an individual live and associate in the environment. Erdogan (1994) reports that job satisfaction affect employees physical and mental health, the working environment and efficiency of the organization, comfort, economic development, disposal and social dissipation of the society. Absence of job satisfaction in organizational setting leads to worker lethargy and reduced organization commitment (Moser, 1997). The attainment of satisfaction with job and organizational structure, it must be noted, is not restricted to certain professions. It is also evident that job satisfaction is not evenly distributed across occupations or workers (Smith, 2007). This assertion is correct when consideration is given to Bryner (2007) report of 2006 General Social Survey of 27,000 randomly selected Americans who expressed their satisfaction level with their jobs. The finding of the survey indicated that the top ten most gratifying jobs are: Clergy Fire-fighters Physical therapists Authors Special Education teachers Teachers Education Administrators Painters and Sculptors Psychologists Security and Financial services salesperson 87% 80% 7 8% 74% 70% 69% 68% 67% 67% 65%
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Operating Engineers Office Supervisors
64% 61%
It is gladdening, from the above report, to note that teaching profession is one of the helping professions wherein satisfaction could be attained. Teachers are arguably the most important professional in nations development (Bishay, 1996). Consequently, their satisfaction at work is paramount to educational development of the nation. The importance of teachers satisfaction with their job is made more poignant when Best (2010) affirms that it is a predictor of overall student academic success in schools as well as capable of transmitting positive effects on the affective, moral, cultural, and spiritual lives of their students. Quite a number of studies exist to support the fact that teachers in various cadres of educational levels are happy and unhappy with their job at various levels. For instance, a study conducted among 108 universitys academic staff of Buea, Cameroon by Fon (2007) showed the extent to which academic staff in the university is satisfied with their teaching job: 16 (14.81%) not at all satisfied; 37 (34.26%) not too satisfied; 42 (38.88%) somewhat satisfied; 13 (12.05%) very satisfied. Research evidences did support the aspects of teaching profession that teachers are satisfied or dissatisfied with. A case in reference is a study conducted by Jewl, Beavers, Kirby, Fllowers (1990) among 375 vocational agriculture teachers in North Carolina. The study aimed at determining the level of job satisfaction, relationship that existed between their level of satisfaction and their perceptions toward various portions of the teaching professions. The results showed, among others, that the participants appeared to be satisfied with professional acceptance by members of the North Carolina Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association, school faculty, principals, community support, and type of teaching department. Others include number of different class participation required daily, administrative support by the principal, vocational agricultural facilities, discipline of the enrolled students, having to work long hours and having evening responsibilities. They are however dissatisfied with academic ability of the enrolled students and adequacy of financial support for local salary supplement for the teacher. There are also studies which exposed the impact of a number of variables on the job satisfaction level of teachers (Wu & Wu, 2001; Adetayo, 2008). Wu & Wu (20010) conducted a study among 960 elementary school teachers from Taipei Municipality and Taitung county. The study aimed at developing causal model to describe elementary school teachers job satisfaction and how it is affected by social network and job characteristics. It was found, among others, that higher levels of satisfaction are generally found in female teachers, homeroom teachers, teachers who assumed directorship in schools, teachers with lower educational attainment and teachers with higher income. On the other hand, Adetayo (2008) study of the job satisfaction level of 400 randomly selected secondary schools teachers in IJEBU North and Ijebu-Ode Local Government Areas of Ogun State in Nigeria showed that majority of the participants are presently satisfied with their job though they significantly differed on the basis of gender, age group, and qualifications. Statement of the Problem The concern of most organizations, in the submission of Amoda, Odunaike, & Oluwasina (2007) is the attitude of their workers towards work. Workers are expected to be dedicated and committed to their work. Adeyemo (2001), however, observes that it is not uncommon to hear people remark that the present day teachers are not as good or committed as their yester-years counterparts. When teachers are truly not committed to their work it is an indication of dissatisfaction with the job. Studies from diverse nations of the world indicated that teachers have one time or the other enjoyed or dissatisfied with their job. Job satisfaction at work is pliable. This means that it might not be a continuous experience. Hence, an employee who is satisfied with his/her work today might be dissatisfied with it tomorrow or vice versa. This implies that consistent research is required to ascertain the job satisfaction status of employees at a particular period of time. Primary school teachers in Nigeria, as evident from the review of the literature, have been found to enjoy their teaching profession (Adetayo, 2008; Gesinde & Adejumo, 2010). A closer examination of studies on job satisfaction of primary schools teacher in Nigeria, however, showed that there is still gap to be filled, most especially in Ota, in terms of the extent to which primary school teachers are satisfied or dissatisfied with their job. There is also the need to establish whether: Male teachers are more satisfied or dissatisfied with their job than their female counterparts?
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Will long years of service or experience at work contribute to job satisfaction or dissatisfaction? Will possession of educational qualification higher than what is required to teach in primary schools cause dissatisfaction with teaching job?
Significance of the Study It is anticipated that this study would bring to fore probable underlying influence of job satisfaction on some unethical behaviours of teachers in primary schools. It is also anticipated too that the outcome of the study would assist government and proprietors of schools in taking decisions on motivational measures require for maximum performance of primary schools teachers in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.
Research Question (1) To what extent would teachers in primary schools be satisfied with their job? (2) To what extent would differences in age influence job satisfaction level of primary school teachers?
Research Hypothesis (1) There is no significance difference between the job satisfaction level of male and female primary school teachers. (2) There is no significance difference between the job satisfaction level of primary school teachers with bachelors Degree and National Certificate in Education.
Research Design Descriptive survey design was employed for the study.
Participants The population of this study consists of all primary school teachers in private and public schools in Ota. The sample, however, consists of two hundred and thirty-eight primary school teachers randomly selected from twenty primary schools (10 pubic and 10 private schools) derived from systematic sampling technique. The summary of demographic information of the participants showed that males 95 (39%) and females 143 (60.1%); Single 123 (51.7%) and married 115 (48.3%); Degree holders 89 (37.4%) and NCE holders 146 (61.3%).
Instrument The instrument employed to gather data was adapted version of Job Satisfaction Survey by Bellingham (2004). It is two sections inventory with the section A requesting the respondents to provide demographic information on their gender, age, marital status, religion, educational qualification, years of working experience, position at workplace, profession, and name address of workplace. The second section consists of 30 positively worded items that deals with intrinsic and extrinsic aspects of job satisfaction. A 4 point likert type scale of 4= very much like me; 3 = like me; 2 = somewhat like me; 1 = unlike me. A typical item on the scale reads I feel positive and up most of the time I am working. The minimum score obtainable by a respondent is 30 while the maximum is 120. The higher the score the more satisfied the respondent. The reliability co-efficient of the instrument was .96 using Spearman Brown formula. The questionnaire was administered to the participants in their various schools by the researchers with the assistance of three research assistants. The return rate was about 95% for it was collected on the day of administration.
608
Data Analysis Data generated from the instrument were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 11 for Window, V 11(SPSS, Inc). Descriptive statistics of simple percent was employed to analyse the two research questions while analysis of variance and t-test statistic were utililzed in testing the research questions.
RESULTS Table 1: Cross-tabulation Ratings of Primary School Teachers Level of Job Satisfaction S/N Variable Job Satisfaction Rating Very Satisfied Satisfied 126 (52.9%) 111 (46.6%) Total Dissatisfied 1(.6%) 238100%
1. 2.
Primary School Teachers Gender (i) Male (ii) Female Total Work Exp. (i) Less5 years (ii)Above 5 years Total Age (i) Less 25yrs (ii) 25-30 years (ii) 31-36years (iv)36yrs above Total
39 (41.05%) 87 (60.84) 126 62 (44.93) 64 (64%) 126 4 (21.05) 48 (40.34) 54 (72.00) 20 (80.00) 120
56 (58.95) 55 (38.46) 111 75 (54.35) 36 (36%) 111 14 (73.69) 71 (59.66) 21 (28.00) 5 (20.00) 111
0 (0.00) 1 (0.70) 1 1 (0.72) 0 (0.00) 1 1 5.26) 0 (0.00) 0 (0.00) 0 (0.00) 1
95 (100%) 143 (100%) 238 138 (100%) 100 (100%) 238 19 (100%) 119 (100%) 75 (100%) 25 (100%) 238
3.
4.
The display from Table 1 above revealed that greater percentage of teachers (52.9%) are very satisfied with their job while it is also evident that female teachers are very happy with their job than male teachers. Further analysis indicated that teachers with more than five years of working experience and those within the age range of 31-36 are very satisfied with their job.
Table 2: Analysis of Primary School Teachers Job Satisfaction based on Differences in Age
Sum of Squares Between Groups 10631.229 Within Groups 48664.843 Total 59296.071 *sig. @ 0.05 level
Df 3 234 237
Mean Square 3543.743 207.969
F 17.040
Sig. .000
609
Table 2 above presents the outcome of the second research question which sought to find out the extent to which age differences would affect the job satisfaction level of primary school teachers. The result of the one way analysis of variance revealed that the calculated F value compared to the table value of F implies considerable significance (F= 17.04> 4.01). Hence, a significance difference existed in between and within age groups. The calculated F value of 17.04 is a clear pointed to the fact that ages do influence job satisfaction of primary school teachers.
Table 3: t-test analysis of Gender and Educational Qualification of Primary School Teachers Job Satisfaction Status Variable N Gender (i) Male 95 (ii) Female 143 Total 238 2 Educ. Qual. (i) Degree 91 (ii) NCE 147 Total 238 *Significant @ 0.05 alpha level S/N 1 Mean 91.66 99.24 SD 15.60 15.28 Df 236 t-Cal. 3.71 t-obs. 1.96 P .000 RMK NS
95.76 96.50
15.82 15.86
236
-349
1.96
.727
Table 3 presents the effect of gender and educational qualification on job satisfaction of primary school teachers in Ota, Nigeria. While no significant difference existed on gender basis (t = -3.71 df = 236, P = > 0.05) there was a significant difference on the basis of educational qualification (t= -349, df = 236, P = < 0.05).
DISCUSSION This study was set out not only to determine the level of job satisfaction of primary school teachers in Ota, Nigeria but also to determine the impacts of gender, age, working experience, educational qualification on their job satisfaction. The outcomes of the analysis of data are quite revealing. First of all, this study revealed that all the participants except one was dissatisfied with their job. The percentage (52%) of those who are very satisfied with their job outnumbered those who are just satisfied with their job (46.6%). This finding gives credence to the study of Bryner, 2007; Fon, 2007; Wu & Wu, 2001; & Adetayo, 2008) which had earlier reported that teachers are generally satisfied with their job. However, further analysis indicated that female teachers are more satisfied than their male counterparts. This is also in consonance with Wu & Wu, 2001; Ladebo, 2005; Olulobe, 2007 who had earlier reported that female teachers enjoyed higher level of satisfaction than males. It is also palpable from the analysis that greater percentage of teachers (54.35%) with less than six years of service are just satisfied with their job as against (44.93%) who are very satisfied. On the other hand, greater percentage of teachers (64%) with more than five years working experience is very satisfied with their job as against (36%) who is just satisfied. It, therefore, implies that the more years in service the more satisfied with teaching profession. This is quite true and not unanticipated because increase number of years in service is closely tied with promotion, salary increase, job stability (in terms of confirmation of appointment), fringe benefits, study leave with pay, qualification to obtain loan, appointment into headship position among others. Hence, when teachers have access to these they tend to be happier with their job. It is also interesting to note that almost all the participants (80%) who are above 36 years of age are very satisfied with their job. This coincides with Olulobe (2007) finding which revealed that teachers whose ages fall between 30 and 51 showed greater job satisfaction. This probably might be because they have benefited more from the job or and it is pretty difficult to engage in a new professional training for another occupation hence, they are left with no other options than to love and be happy with what they are doing. This difference on age group basis is supported
610
by research question II which also lend credence to Adetayo (2008) earlier finding of significant difference on age group basis. The outcome of test of significant differences on the basis of gender (hypothesis I) and educational qualification (hypothesis II) showed no significance difference for gender and significance difference for educational qualification. It is apparent from the result that female teachers at mean rating of 99. 24 were more satisfied with their job than male teachers mean rating of 91.66. The mean difference could not, however, bring about significant difference. Consequently, no significant difference existed between the job satisfaction level of male and female teachers. This contradicts Adetayo (2008) report of significant difference on gender basis. Conversely, the mean difference was strong enough to bring about significance difference between teachers with bachelor degree (x = 95. 76) and NCE holder (x = 96.50). This finding support Adetayo (2008) study which reported significant difference on educational qualification and negates Wu & Wu (2001) study which found higher level of satisfaction with teachers with lower educational attainment. This result did not come as a surprise because the minimum qualification for teaching in primary schools in Nigeria is Nigerian Certificate in Education which implies that primary school teachers with Bachelor of Education degree are underemployed which has greater capability of reducing their job satisfaction level when compared with their counterpart with NCE.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
This study had amply revealed that primary schools teachers in Ota, Ogun State were satisfied with their job. Therefore, if there is any noticeable unethical practices such cannot be directly linked with lack of satisfaction with their job. Consequent upon this finding, it is imperative for proprietors of schools to ensure that teachers are not dissatisfied with their job through their inability to provide enabling environment and adequate incentives. It is also necessary that study on job satisfaction be carried out on periodical basis since satisfaction with job is flexible.
REFERENCES
Adeyemo, D.A. (2001) Teacher job satisfaction, job involvement, career and organization commitments as correlates of student academic performance. Nigerian Journal of Applied Psychology, 6 (2), 126-135. Amoda, M.B., Odunaike, K.O., & Oluwasina, B.R (2007). Impact of job motivation on job satisfaction in a stressful working environment. African Journal for the Study of educational Issues 1 (1), 36-41. Adetayo, J. O (2008). Level of teachers job satisfaction in Ogun secondary schools. International Journal of Emotional Psychology and Sport Ethics. 10, 208-216. Best, E. E (2010). Job satisfaction of teachers in Krishna primary and secondary schools. http://eproxy.lib.nku.hk/login?url=http:pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=3212536
Bishay, A. (1996). Teachers motivation and job satisfaction: A study employing the experience sampling method. Journal of Undergraduate Sciences, 3, 147-154. Bryner, J. (2007). Survey reveals most satisfying jobs. http://www.livescience.com/health Cambridge International Dictionary of English (1995). London: Cambridge university press.
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Fon, T P. (2007). Job satisfaction among academic staff in the University of Buea. The Exceptional Child, 9 (2), 338-344. Microsoft Encounter Dictionary (2009). Satisfaction www.freedownloadscenter.com/terms/ microsoft-encounter Essien, E (2002). Psychology, applied to work. Ibadan: Sceptre Prints Limited. Gesinde, A. M & Adejumo, G O. (2010). Effects of age and working experience on job satisfaction of primary schools teachers: Implication for career counselling. A paper presented at the 2010 Annual Conference of Counselling Association of Nigeria (CASSON) held at the International Indoor Sports Complex, Nnamidi Azkiwe Stadium, Enugu State, Nigeria from 2nd -6th , August, 2010. Gurbuz, A. (2007). An assessment on the effect of educational level on the job satisfaction from tourism section point of view. Dougus Universitesi Dergisi, 8 (1), 36-46. Khanna, M. J. (2010). A comparative study of leadership behaviour of principals in relationto job satisfaction of teachers in government and non-government schools of U.T. Retrieved 27th July, 2010 from http://www.academicleadership.org/empirical_research/index/shtml Ladebo, O.J. (2005). Effects of work-related attitude on intention to leave the profession: An examination of school teachers in Nigeria. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 33 (3), 355-369. Mosadeghrad, A.M., Ferlie, E., & Rosenberg, D. (2008). A study of relationship between job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention among hospital employees. Health Services Management Research, 21(4), 211-227. Ololobe, N. P. (2007).Teachers job satisfaction and motivation for school effectiveness: An assessment. http://www.usca.edu?esssays/vol182006/ololube.pdf Smith, T. W. (2007). Job satisfaction http://wwwnews.uchicago.edu/releases/07/pdf/070417.jobs.pdf in United States.
Szmankski, E. M & Parker, R. M. (1996). Work and disability. Austin, Texas: Pro-Ed, Inc. Wu, H & Wu, Y. (2001). A study of elementary school teachers job satisfaction and its relationship with their social networks, job characteristics: Taking Taitung County and Taipei Municipality as examples. Bulletin of Educational Research, 46, 147-180
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ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN RESEARCH CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF UNIVERSITY BOTSWANA (UB) GRADUATE EDUCATION PROGRAMME
H. JOHNSON NENTY Department of Educational Foundations, University of Botswana; Botswana E-mail address for correspondence: hjnenty@yahoo.com
___________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: Given the several and severe educational, social and emotional/psychological problems facing the learners especially in the face of poverty and the merciless onslaught by HIV/AIDS epidemic, a huge challenge to educational research is to find how best to contain the effects of these problems on learning. The problem is that teachers who are expected to serve as research warriors generally lack the capacity to carry out educational research. This study was designed to determine the effectiveness of UB graduate education research programme in research capacity building by ensuring significant desirable cognitive and affective changes in behaviour among graduate education students. The data generated from administering a validated questionnaire to 83 in-service graduate education students before and at the end of an educational research course in 2007/2008 school year were analysed with dependent t-test statistical technique and compared across time. The results showed significant desirable changes in cognitive and affective behaviour among these in-service students pointing to some level of effectiveness of the course in cognitive and affective capacity building among in-service teachers serving as UB graduate education students as regards research skill development. The results were discussed and recommendations made. Key words: in-service training of teachers; development of research capacity; role of higher education; knowledge creation _____________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
In every discipline, research is the process through which knowledge is created for application in, and advancement of such discipline and for dissemination through teaching and publication as well as for application and utilization in community services. Since knowledge is the most empowering of all human possessions, possessing the skills necessary for its creation could be said to be a very important human possession. This is why acquisition of such skills is imperative for a university education and the role of higher education in the development of such skills is paramount. It is an overriding duty of education, especially graduate education to ensure such acquisition among students (Nenty, 2004).
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According to Velho (2004), only societies who are able to exploit knowledge seem to grow economically and offer decent living conditions to their population (p. 172) and the means of exploiting knowledge is through building research competence among students in institutions of higher learning. Since knowledge production is sensitive to local contexts and committed to the involvement of users, knowledge production and utilization should be locally driven and constituted. Hence research capacity building in local universities will contribute to development . . . (p. 179). This negates the assumption that research results produced in advanced countries could just be transferred to developing countries and directly applied to the solution of the latters . . . problems (p. 180). Therefore graduate degrees are prerequisite to academic research capacity in the universities and have greater competence to identify, analyse and find solutions to the countrys development problems (Scharp, 2001, p.1; cited in Velho, 2004). In applied form, research in education is seen as a means through which solution is sought for educational and societal problems. For example, the problem associated with the achievement of the millennium goals, the quest to combat poverty before the year 2015 and the existing stubborn and permeating problem of the HIV/AIDS scourge are among the greatest challenges of our times. These call for the best of educational research in the continuous attempt to seek for solution to these problems. The problem of HIV/AIDS has subdued every aspect of human life and it is devastating to the economy, education, social and spiritual life. It affects education in a variety of ways; hence education itself has decided to tackle it head on. This accentuates the need for research skills by classroom teachers. Given the insatiable need for research by the urge to seek solution for the social, emotional and educational problems brought about by AIDS, every classroom teacher is seen as a research warrior against the effects of these problems on learning. These teachers still have to satisfy their primary role of teaching, so in order to gain the skill with which to attempt to contribute solution to these societys problems like the effects of AIDS, they have to resort to part-time graduate education. In Botswana, this and other educational and psychological problems call for the development and deployment of skills and knowledge among pupils, students and community members at a fast rate.
Educational Research In his contribution to the justification of educational research as a scientific process, Nenty (1991/1992, 1999) indicated that just like research in pure sciences is the process of searching for the truth and hence creating knowledge about the behaviour of physical materials, educational research is a scientific process of searching for the truth about and hence creating knowledge on and about human behaviour. There are truths hidden in nature which science is to find out. Since human beings are a part of nature, there are "truths" hidden in each child which education is to "educeree" that is "lead forth" or "bring out" and develop. In other words, there are some truths, in terms of potentials, traits, or generally, behaviour, latent or inherent in every human being which education by its purpose is to find out and then develop. Finding out the truth about human behaviour is tantamount to creating knowledge of human behaviour. The process of creating knowledge has been developed and validated through science. According to Brubacher (1939), "like medicine, education science is based on other sciences" (p.15), it does not have a science of its own. Education science or educational research is therefore, the application of scientific methodology in the search for truth about human behaviour (Nenty, 1991/92). There are two phases to the process of education, that, like science, is involved with finding out the truth about changes in human behaviour, and that like technology, is involved with developmental or instructional application of these knowledge created through research. While the former constitutes the science of education, the later constitutes the art of education. The art of education, or pedagogy, on the other hand, is involved with the application of the tangible and the intangible products of science in the actual attempt at ensuring desirable changes in learners behaviour (Nenty, 1999).
Research Capacity Building in Education Education constitutes all the processes involved in ensuring desirable changes in human behaviour. To ensure effectiveness in such processes, educators must be armed with a good understanding of such behaviour itself, hence human behaviour must first be studied, analysed and understood before an efficient work could be done during the process of attempting to change it desirably. While some educators prefer to contribute, through research, to the
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creation of knowledge about learners behaviour some prefer to serve only as practitioners in education, that is, to apply the tangible and the intangible products of the science of education in the actual attempt at ensuring desirable changes in learners behaviour. Even at that, no practitioner can do a good job without some basic knowledge of research, especially as they have to read and understand the results from the research process before they can apply them effectively. Stenhouse (1979) argued that in order to do a good job at using research findings teachers need to carry out research themselves Beside arming practitioners in education with the knowledge of human behaviour, research contributes solution to the several educational problems faced by these practitioners as well as by all others who are directly or indirectly involved in the educational processes. In fact, most educational research in Africa are geared to this aim, that is, attempt to contribute solutions to one or the other of the several education-related problems in our society. Since performance (cognitive, affective or psychomotor) of the learner is the ultimate dependent variable in education, anything that inhibits the maximization of such performance constitutes a problem in education. And there are several sources of such problems, including policy; administration from the ministry down to the classrooms; parenting and family background; quality and quantity of human and material resources made available to education; effectiveness of the several processes like teaching, assessment, involved; and learner-related factors. Each of these is a conglomeration of complex variables which act and inter-react resulting sometimes in undesirable consequences which are inimical to learning and hence constitute problems for which solutions must be sought if learning must be maximized. Finding solutions to such problems involves disentangling or analyzing such relationships and determining their intensity and direction, and hence finding out how some of the variables could be manipulated in order to maximize learning. Results of such studies are fed back to administration for the formulation of related policies and theories which when implemented will provide a guide to such manipulation and hence to the solution of the problem, as well as to other stakeholders in education to guide practices towards the solution of such problem. Hence, it becomes imperative to ensure that all educators gain some level of knowledge, understanding and skills in educational research. This prompts the need for research capacity building among education students. Research capacity building equips education students with the affective and cognitive skills, knowledge and confidence to carry out research as required by their studies and work. Knowledge in their academic area is supplemented by practical skills in research, and these provide them with a wider opportunity of professional growth and selfrealization. Development of such capacity is of worldwide importance for the creation of knowledge, contributing of solution to educational problems and for the improvement of professional practices and hence it has provoked several international collaborations (Hewson, et al., 2005). According to Research Capacity Building Network (RCBN) (2004), for any research capacity-building activity to be successful in developing students research expertise it is important that their research needs be correctly identified in the first place. It is also of equal importance that one reflects back on the activity to see if students personal or course objectives have been met (RCBN 2004).
Research Capacity Building of UB Graduate Education Students Research in education is generally carried out for two main purposes: (a) contributing solution to an educationrelated problem; and (b) satisfying ones interest or curiosity, trying to find answers to some intriguing or nagging questions or trying to explain an experience or an observation. The first results in what is often termed applied research while the second gives us pure research. While applied research is problem-driven, basic research is interestor curiosity-driven, and hence may not present and analyse any problem but interest or curiosity. Most educational research are applied in nature. When two or more variables or phenomena inter-react the interaction might bring about desirable or undesirable results. If the result is undesirable then a problem situation arises or is created and to contribute a solution to such problem we need to find out, study and analyse the relationships between or among the variables, etc. In other words, problems for which we are seeking solution through research occurs because the relationship between or among interacting variables results in an undesirable consequences. And seeking any solution to such problem calls inevitably for a study or an analysis of such relationships. In either case, a topic is the product of a good analysis of a problem under consideration or of the interest or curiosity which the study is trying to satisfy. Solution to given problem, for example, juvenile delinquency, might call for several studies because several variables contribute to make this a problem. So a topic, for example: Family influences on juvenile delinquency among
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CJSS students in Gaborone represents one angle from which the researcher could tackle the given problem. Another one might look at influence of peer pressure on juvenile delinquency. The first stage to developing capacity is to identify the research needs of students. In other words, to do a good job at building research capacity, the basic skills (both cognitive and affective) involved in the research process must be identified, analysed and involved in the process of capacity building. In educational research these generally include: (1) identifying, analysing, validating and communicating the problem to which a solution is anticipated or the interest or curiosity to be satisfied; (2) identifying and analysing what is known so far about such problem and based on this, speculating what might be the possible solution to the problem or asking questions whose answers will contribute solutions to the problem; (3) reviewing and assessing the experiences of others who have earlier attempted to contribute solutions to this, similar or related problems; (4) selecting, describing and implementation research methods and processes that will enable valid solution to be found for the problem; (5) analysing the information collected through the implementation of such methods and interpreting the results of such analyses; (6) summarizing, discussing (synthesising and evaluating) the research findings in the light of the underlying theory and reviewed literature and presenting it in a form applicable to the research problems and hence recommending possible solutions to the research problems; (7) reporting and disseminating the research findings in a format or style approved by the relevant research community. For any capacity building effort to be able to develop these cognitive skills efforts must be made to develop the general affective skills of receiving, responding, valuing, organization, and characterization (Krathwohl, Bloom, & Masia, 1964) as they relate to research. Favourable attitude towards research is necessary for the acquisition of basic research skills hence, during any capacity building processes, efforts must be made to enhance not only learners cognitive but also their affective behaviour towards research. Strong emphasis must be placed on research skills as being important and desirable for personal and professional growth. Faculty of Education, University of Botswana provides for two graduate-level courses for research capacity building for her students. The first of these courses, as offered in the first semester of 2007/2008 school year, had the following as it objectives: At the end of the course, students who attend every class session and participate fully in class activities will: 1. Acquire knowledge and understanding of the meaning and the several processes of research and its related concepts and operations and have a general idea of the philosophy, paradigms and orientations of educational research. Have knowledge of the general outline for writing research report; state and analyse a research problem and hence derive a topic, state research question and/or hypothesis. Critically review and summarize literature and justifying the need for the study given the results of the review of literature. Determine and describe appropriate research method and design for a study; understand and differentiate among available sampling methods; develop or adapt and validate an appropriate instrument for the study. Write a research proposal, including referencing, using approved reporting style. Appreciate the role and usefulness of research as a means of contributing solution to
2. 3. 4.
5. 6.
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educational problems and hence a means of creating knowledge in education, and thus develop favourable attitude towards research. 7 Appreciate the place of theoretical background in research and the systematic and logical nature of the research process. A genuine need to contribute a solution to a definite problem is the spirit underlying especially an applied research study. Given the many handicaps of a beginning researcher, the identification and validation of suitable problem is, to most students, a problem by itself. Most of the time the student's problem is either too broad or narrow in scope, incapable of solution, trivial, duplication, or beyond their capability to handle efficiently. A topic emanates from a problem, not vice versa. So instead of asking a student to submit a topic in the first place, a student should be asked to submit a problem. An in-depth analysis and discussion of a students research problem yields a topic. For applied research in the area, some guiding questions for identifying or pinpointing and analysing a research problem are: What problem in (any area of) education, or in the society/community, or in my job, etc, am I intending to, or interested in, contributing a solution through this research study? How and why is this a problem? This is tantamount to validating the problem. What are the current adverse consequences of this problem? What are likely to be the consequences of this problem if a solution for it is not sort for and found now?
Such problem can be theoretical, practical or empirical. Oftentimes the students are in a hurry to choose a topic, undertake the study under the pressure of meeting graduation deadline. Little do they realize that the search for truth requires a great deal of time and energy. A problem well chosen is a research quarter done.
Problem of the Study Government of Ireland (2006) identified shortage of capacity to plan, manage am implement the financing, monitoring, and evaluation of educational systems (p. 1) among teachers in Africa. The several and severe educational, social and emotional/psychological problems facing the learners especially in the face of poverty and the merciless onslaught by HIV/AIDS epidemic pose a huge challenge to educational research which is expected to find how best to contain the effects of these problems on learning. In Botswana, the problem is that teachers who are expected to serve as research warriors generally lack the capacity to carry out educational research. Very often than not several courses offered at universities are not handled as if they were meant to provide capacity building experiences to students. University education, more so graduate education, provides professional education. That is, it provides such education as would enable each graduate not only to provide, at an advanced level, a unique service to the society but also to contribute to the advancement of his/her profession. Ability to do both of these depends much on the research capacity of the graduate. Hence capacity building in the area of research is fundamental to a valid professional training at any level. Since research is an important aspect of career development, imparting research skills is a process of enhancing employment and career development.
The Purpose of the Study Any research capacity building endeavour strengthens itself with the feedback from students. The question is: to what extent are the objectives of the capacity building training programme being achieved? The results of a periodic check on this provide a regenerative feedback for the improvement of the training process and an experience for future capacity building programmes. The study aims at determining the extent to which the course has realized the aims of a research capacity-building objective among in-service/part-time graduate students. According to Silliman (2007), the prime academic value is the continuous building of a strong cadre of qualified researchers who hold passionate beliefs about scientific inquiry, have the skills to participate in interdisciplinary partnerships, and recognize for their productivity at the institutional level. Hence the research question was to what extent has the course brought about desirable changes in cognitive and affective behaviour among UB education graduate students? Significant changes in affective behaviour would imply that a good affective foundation for the
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deployment of any level of cognitive skills that might be developed in research is laid. In the other hand, significant changes in cognitive behaviour would imply that skills necessary for carrying out educational research has been gained. Desirable changes in both types of behaviour are necessary for effective capacity building. To what extent therefore is our current academic culture as well as our associated graduate education strategies lead to assembling the necessary research capacity? (Silliman, 2007).
METHODOLOGY
This is a quantitative study with a one-group pretest-posttest pre-experimental design to determine the effectiveness of a research capacity building course in bringing about significant desirable changes in both cognitive and affective behaviour among graduate education students in UB. Data for this study was collected from UB graduate education students who took the first of the two fundamental courses in educational research for graduate students in the faculty of education in 2007. The students were free not to participate in the study, so of the 83 students who registered for the course 73 of them participated fully in the study. Of this number, 51 were females while 22 were males. The questionnaire used in the study was developed by first listing several indicants (Kerlinger & Lee, 2000) of the cognitive and affective variables involved in both the course objectives and in capacity building. These were then developed into statements intended to elicit the level of related behaviour under measurement possessed by the participant. The instrument was given to two colleagues and three teaching assistants/graduate students for face validation. Their corrections and suggestions were incorporated in the revision of the instrument. The resulting questionnaire (see Tables 1 & 2) had 17 items each designed to measure students cognitive and affective behaviour respectively. Subjects were requested to react to each of the statements by choosing the level to which they agreed or disagreed with it. The agreement scale had six options ranging from very strongly disagree to very strongly agree. A Cronbach alpha analysis of the reliability of the instrument for the cognitive behaviour gave an alpha value of .943, while that for the affective behaviour gave an alpha value of .913. The same instrument was administered on the first day of class and again during the last day of class in the course. Out of the 83 students who registered for the course 73 completed the pre- and post- administrations of the questionnaire. Their responses were scored, entered and analysed using the SPSS quantitative data analysis computer package.
Data Analysis and Interpretations of Results To answer the research question posed for the study, the participants mean pre- and post- responses for each of the two sets of 17 items derived from indicators of the cognitive and affective variables involved in the course objectives were compared using the dependent t-test statistical analysis. A significant change given what each of the questionnaire items was measuring would indicate the effectiveness of the course given the related course objectives. These were tested at .01 alpha level. The results, as presented on Tables 1 and 2, show a significant level of effectiveness of the course in bringing about desirable behavioural shift among graduate education students who took the course in all the cognitive behaviour and in all but two (enthusiasm about research and fear of research) of the affective items. The size of the effect of the course on the behaviour reflected by each of the items was calculated (Cohen, 1988). For the affective items the effect size ranged from 0.03 for level of enthusiasm about research to 1.17 for appreciation of the systematic and logical nature of the research process. Given the standard interpretation of d = 0.2 as a small effect size, d = 0.5 as medium, and d = 0.8 as large (Cohen, 1988), the course had at least a small effect in all but the level of enthusiasm about research.
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These were confirmed by a similar analysis of the sum of these items across the two variables. This as shown on Table 3 indicates an overall significant pre-post differences, confirming the significant effectiveness of the course in research capacity building.
Table 1: Dependent t-test Analysis of Shift in Affective Feelings towards Research as a Result of Experience in EFF 641 at UB (n = 73)
Research-related Affective Behaviour
Before EFF 641
After EFF 641
Difference tvalue X SE
Cohe ns dindex (effec t size) 0.03
p<
SD
SD
1.
Enthusiasm about research 3.76 1.89 3.94 1.56 -.15 .23 8 -0.64
.52 3 0.41
2.
Likeness for research 3.40 1.80 4.26 1.33 -0.86 .21 9 -3.91
.00 0 0.91
3.
Usefulness of research 3.29 1.68 4.93 1.23 -1.63 .20 6 -7.91
.00 0 0.22
4.
Fear of research 3.37 1.77 2.92 1.66 .45 .30 1 1.48
.14 3 0.55
5.
Appreciation of the place of the theoretical background in research
2.42
1.52
4.05
1.45
-1.63
.21 9
-7.45
.00 0 1.17
6.
Appreciate the systematic and logical nature of the research process Need for research training
2.62
1.59
4.62
1.55
-2.00
.20 7
-9.67
.00 0 0.49
7.
3.64 8. Excitement about research 3.05 9. Appreciation of research as a means of creating knowledge
1.95
4.80
1.43
-1.16
.28 6
-4.06 0.52
.00 0
2.06
4.25
1.64
-1.19
.23 9
-4.97 0.67
.00 0
3.34
1.85
4.70
1.51
-1.36
.25 1
-5.40
.00 0
619
. 10. Awareness of research 3.24 1.59 4.73 1.46 -1.49 .25 7 -5.79
0.71 .00 0 1.15 2.88 1.51 4.78 1.46 -1.90 .21 0 -9.04 0.37 .00 0
11.
Need for the use of research findings in the classroom
12.
Interest in research
3.31
1.88
4.28
1.71
-0.97
.30 0
-3.23
.00 2 0.63
13.
Determination to be involved in Research
3.18
1.91
4.72
1.39
-1.54
.26 1
-5.90
.00 0
14.
Realization of the need for research in education.
0.81 3.14 1.78 4.94 1.60 -1.80 .27 3 -6.59 0.84 3.18 1.89 5.08 1.33 -1.89 .26 6 -7.12 .00 0 0.50 3.24 1.88 4.49 1.55 -1.25 .27 9 -4.49 .00 0 .00 0
15.
Need for teachers to undertake research
16.
Willingness to undertake research study
17.
Justifying the need for a research study
0.91 2.82 1.76 4.65 1.23 -1.82 .27 9 -7.76 .00 0
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Table 2: Dependent t-test Analysis of Shift in Cognitive Behaviour in Research as a Result of Experience in EFF 641 at UB (n = 73) Cohen s dindex (effect size)
Research-related Cognitive Behaviour
Before EFF 641 X
After EFF 641
Difference
tvalue
p<
SD
SD
SE
0.94 1. Having knowledge and understanding of research concepts
2.76
1.37
4.18
1.28
1.42
.18 5
-7.71 1.03
.00 0
2.
Stating and analysing research problem
2.23
1.68
4.06
1.53
1.83
.21 6
-8.45 1.08
.00 0
3.
Having knowledge and understanding of basic processes of research operations
2.62
1.33
4.22
1.20
1.59
.17 9
-8.90
.00 0 1.14
4.
Having a clear picture of what research is all about
2.71
1.41
4.69
1.03
1.97
.20 2
-9.77 1.05
.00 0
5.
Having a general idea of the philosophy of educational research
2.28
1.46
4.19
1.40
1.91
.22 4
-8.54 0.99
.00 0
6.
Having knowledge of the general outline for writing research report
2.60
1.57
4.18
1.34
1.57
.19 6
-8.04 1.01
.00 0
7.
Stating research questions and/or hypotheses
2.54
1.52
4.34
1.46
1.81
.21 7
-8.32 1.14
.00 0
8.
Determining appropriate research method for a given study and describing such methodology
2.29
1.44
4.30
1.38
2.02
.22 2
-9.09
.00 0 0.92
9.
Understanding and differentiating among available sampling methods
2.21
1.38
4.15
1.59 1
1.94
.25 4
-7.65
.00 0 1.06
10.
Ensuring good referencing and using approved style in research
1.51
.22
.00
621
reporting
2.03
1.36
3.93
1.90
-8.49
11.
Differentiating between research and other intellectual processes
0.90 2.49 1.40 4.16 1.53 1.67 .23 8 -7.02 1.16 2.20 1.37 4.45 1.51 2.26 .23 0 -9.82 0.96 3.03 1.62 4.80 1.25 1.78 .23 2 -7.66 1.24 2.54 1.48 4.70 1.34 2.16 .20 5 10.60 .00 0 .00 0 .00 0 .00 0
12.
Having general idea of the philosophy of educational research
13.
Using different resources/facilities in the library
14.
Coming up with a suitable research topic.
15.
Acquiring general skill in research
2.44
1.59
4.44
1.33
2.00
.21 5
-9.27
1.09
.00 0
16.
Having knowledge of the general outline for writing research proposal
2.52
1.55
4.14
1.30
1.62 1.71
.21 2 .19 4
-7.67
0.95
.00 0 .00 0
17.
Reviewing and summarizing literature
2.62
1.57
4.32
1.32
-8.78
1.05
622
Table 3: Dependent t-Test Analysis of Overall Shift in Students Research-related Affective and Cognitive Behaviour as a Result of Experiences in a Research Capacity Building Course (n = 68) Mean Variables Std. Dev.
Paired Difference t-value Mean SD SEM
Overall Effectsize (Cohens d-index
p<
47.88 Cognitive pretest scores
20.03
-17.76 Cognitive post test scores 96.66 16.79
14.09
1.73
-10.24
2.44
.000
35.70 Affective pretest scores
12.63
-48.78 Affective post test scores 53.45 9.93
19.57
2.37
-20.55
1.41
.000
DISCUSSIONS OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This study took the view that for a university course to serve capacity building functions effectively it has to impact not only on the cognitive skills but also on the affective skills. A learner learns what he or she likes and sees the need to learn. The course by using active and problem-based learning techniques first creates and maintains conducive environment within which students want and like to learn and hence whet students appetite to learn. Lectures, class activities and assignments are linked to current and real life problems faced by the in-service teachers. The study demonstrated highly significant desirable changes in the affective and cognitive behaviour among students who registered for and took the educational research methods courses in 2007/2008 at University of Botswana. Affectively, the course increased significantly part-time or in-service students appreciation of, need for, and perception of the usefulness of research. It also significantly enhanced their awareness of, and determination to be involved in research. With this affective dispositions, in-service students in the course have been engaged in several problem solving studies. For example, through research they have generated or created knowledge on HIV/AIDS which has contributed to the creation of a less fear-intensive environment for containing the scourge of the disease. It is recommended that: given the several problems that abound in our society and hence the need for researchers, lecturers of research courses should see each course as a capacity development endeavour.
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since a learner learns what he or she likes and sees the need to learn, lecturers should first of all ensure that the students are affectively prepared to learn before cognitive knowledge or skills are transferred; and course activities should be linked to identified problems to which the learner intends to contribute solutions or curiosity to which the learner intends to satisfy.
REFERENCES
Brubacher, J.S. (1939). Modern philosophies of education. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.), Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Government of Ireland (2006). The http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/whitepaper/ Irish White Paper on Irish Aid. Retrieved from
Hewson, P., Curtis, M., Schneckloth, S. & Damose, B. (2005). Building education research capacity: Collaboration between the United States and South Africa. Journal of International Cooperation in Education, 8(1), 6180. Kerlinger, F. N., & Lee, H. B. (2000). Foundations of behavioral research (4th ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston Krathwohl, D.R., Bloom, B.S. & Masia, B.B. (1964). Taxonomy of educational objectives -handbook II: Affective domain. New York: Longman Nenty, H. J. (2004). Trends in graduate studies: Lessons for African new and emerging universities. The African Symposium An on-line Educational Research Journal of the African Educational Research Network, 4(2). Retrieved from http://www.ncsu.edu/aern/TAS4.2/TAS4.2.pdf Nenty, H. J. (1999). Link among education, research, educational research and quality of life. In C. Magagula, E. Malibu & S. Z. Manzini (Eds.), Educational research for quality of life (pp. 28 - 44), Swaziland: Swaziland Educational Research Association (SERA) [on line: http://www.boleswa97.tripod.com/nenty_link.htm. Nenty, H. J. (1992). Means of acquiring knowledge. In A. J. Isangedighi & P. M. C. Ogomaha (Eds.) Educational research methods (pp.24-48). Owerri, Nigeria: Totan Publishers Ltd. Nenty, H. J. (1991/92). The basis of education science. Eduscope (Unical Education Students Magazine), vol.5, pp.8 11. Research Capacity Building Network (RCBN) (2004). Research capacity building in teaching and learning. Retrieved from: www.tlrp.org/rcbn/capacity/Activities/RCBNconference.html RCBN (2004). What are your http://www.cf.ac.uk/socsi/capacity/Needs.html research-capacity needs? Retrieved from:
Scharp, C. (2001). Terms of reference. Stockholm: SIDA/SAREE, Stenhouse, L. (1979). Using research means doing research. In. H. Dahl, A. Lysne, & P. Rand (Eds.), Spotlight on educational problems. Oslo: Oslo University Press
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Silliman, E. R. (2007). Interdisciplinary research frontiers: Building research capacity. The ASHA Leader, 12(5), 67. Retrieved March 1, 2009 from http://www.asha.org/about/pubications/leader-online/ Velho, L. (2004). Research capacity building for development: From old to new assumptions. Science Technology and Society, 9(2), 171-207. Retrieved from http://sts.sagepub.com.
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FOLLOW-UP STUDY OF GRADUATES OF SPECIAL EDUCATION PROGRAM IN PRINCESS RAHMEH COLLEGE
HIAM JAMEEL KATANANI Special Education Department, Princess Rahmeh College, Al-Balqa Applied University, Jordan E-mail address for correspondence: hkatanani@yahoo.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: This study aimed at evaluating the worth of the bachelor of special education program at Princess Rahmeh Collage in Al-Balqa Applied University. From the graduates point of view, it is hoped that the evaluation will enable those who are involved to develop general understanding, allowing them to specify the areas which need to be modified and improved. For this purpose, a questionnaire was prepared to collect data, and the subjects were graduates of the program. The results showed certain strengths of the program; the most obvious is that the graduates are satisfied with their preparation level in general. The theoretical content of the program was rich and deep in spite of the fact that the graduates pointed to the need to some topics such as autism, more training in behavior modification, instructional strategies, and using technology. The most obvious demerit was the imbalance between the theoretical and practical components of the program, which influenced certain performance of skills, as well as certain difficulties in the field practice. Keywords: follow-up study, program evaluation, teacher education, and special education. _____________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
One of the vexing questions in teacher education today concerns the outcomes of preparation: What happens to special education program, who are working, and what happens when they enter the classroom? Are the effects of their teacher education experiences washed out, or do they benefit from experiences in teaching? What suggestions do they have for improving the special education major? Which classes are the most helpful? These questions challenge teacher educators, and they are common among special education programs at the bachelor level. Followup studies of graduates are mandated for special education approval. Graduates feedback offers valuable input to curriculum content and development; specifically, evaluative information about the academic preparation as well as information about roles, responsibilities, and challenges encountered in employment. This information is valuable to the faculty staff as they update course content, revise the curriculum, and incorporate real experience world into the preparation of future special educator professionals. The first year of teaching has been described in many ways, from reality shock to sink-or-swim to riding a slightly out-of-control roller coaster. Regardless of the terms used to describe the experience, the descriptions remain remarkably consistent in portraying a difficult transition from being a student responsible for his or her own learning to being a teacher in charge of a classroom and responsible for promoting learning in others(Loving Foss, et al, 2001). Alarming statistics indicate that the first few years of teaching are the most critical in
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determining whether or not the novice teacher will remain in the profession (Whitaker, 2000). To function effectively in the 21st century schools, future teachers must be provided with dramatically different preparatory experience (Maheady and Harper, 1993). DarlingHammond (2000) confirms a significant relationship between quality teachers and student achievement. To provide a quality teacher for every child, DarlingHammond (1996) suggest that the highest priority for teacher preparation programs should be to reach an agreement on what teachers need to know and need to do to affect student success.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Ensuring that students with disabilities receive teaching programs and services that will prepare them for future life and independent living is one of the continuing challenges facing educators today. To meet this challenge, pre-service preparation programs must provide the student with knowledge, skills, and the competencies which they need for effective teaching (Blalock et. al., 2003; Breidenstein et. al., 2001). Programs conduct followup studies of their graduates to evaluate how well the program meets community and student needs. It is essential to monitor the quality of teacher preparation programs (Ayers, 1989). Professional organizations like CEC (2003), (NCATE, 1997, and 2002) strongly emphasize the need for beginning teacher followup studies.
Program Evaluation Purposes The purposes of teacher evaluation are controversial, but they support a position in which two masters are served by combining formative and summative elements in the process. One purpose relates to professional learning and uses formative assessment to improve practice. The other purpose relates to quality assurance and requires summative judgments of teacher effectiveness based on clear standards, defined criteria, and solid evidence (Avery, 2001). The program evaluation that is premeditated and systematic offers the greatest opportunity for determining the worth of the programs products and its working components. It can help determine how well a program prepares teachers while examining those constituent elements of the program perceived as contributing to the development of teachers. Systematic evaluation provides opportunities for collecting information so that strengths and weakness can be identified. Although the overall objective of the program evaluation is to judge the quality of a program, the evaluation process itself can serve to unite all program participants in continuous self-examination and program improvement (Diobilda and boly, 1999; Conderman, et. al, 2001; and Goodlad, 1991). Satisfaction and feedback results from graduates of teachers education programs are required data, and they should be used to evaluate and modify teacher preparation programs as appropriate (CEC, 2003; and NCATE, 2002). Program evaluation has several benefits; among them are accountability to accrediting or approval organizations, higher education governing boards, and school or college administrative offices Improvement is another reason for program evaluation. This may improve a number of areas such as curriculum, instruction, course content, faculty, and advising. (Isaac and Michael 1993; Stolworthy, 2000; Avery 2001; and Dioloilda and Boly, 1990) Program evaluation is also a resource for material for marketing efforts. Examples of the types of information that may be useful for marketing are employment data, rating academic preparation and relevance of curriculum to special education delivery, Understanding and knowledge are another two benefits of the program evaluation (Warren and Curly 1998; and Avery 2001).
Concepts of Teacher Quality Regardless of ones purpose in defining teacher quality, is not an easy task. Reaching consensus on a definition, even among teacher educators and researchers, has proven to be elusive. As noted by Berliner (2005), quality always requires value judgments about which disagreements abound (P. 206).
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Definitions of high-quality teaching range in their focus from the actions of the teacher and the knowledge a teacher possesses to the creativity of the teacher. In recent years, however, leading researchers such as Berliner (2005), and Fenstemacher and Reichardson (2005) have focused on the multidimensional nature of the concept and have defined teacher quality as encompassing two parts: (a) good teaching; meaning that the teacher meets the expectations for the role (e.g., holding degrees, using age-appropriate methods, upholding the standards of a field of study, and other attributes and practices, and (b) effective or successful teaching; meaning the results of the teacher's actions on student learning and achievement. In other words, one dimension in the absence of the other falls short of fully defining teacher quality. In the 1970s, research began to address the complexities of teaching, classrooms, and schools. Approaches to research are referred to by different terms: learning-to-teach research, classroom ecology research, or interpretive research (Berliner, 1989; Doyle, 1983; Fenstermacher and Richardson, 2005; Kagan, 1992; Wideen, et al, 1998). The literature has grown rich with research on teacher planning / decision making (e.g., Reynolds, 1992), teacher thinking (e.g., Carter, 1990), teacher beliefs (e.g., Pajares, 1992) and novice versus expert teacher (Berliner, 1986) among other topics. As in their efforts in processproduct research, special education researchers (e.g., Fuchs, et al, 1992; Nowacek and Blanton, 1996) have borrowed from these new programs of inquiry and produced findings that add to the literature. The knowledge base on teaching and understanding teacher quality continues to expand and change, focusing on both good and effective or successful dimensions of teacher quality (Blanton, 2006). Currently, accountability and performance standards are dominating the teacher quality agenda, with accompanying changes in teacher education accreditation and teacher licensure, which are the major quality control mechanisms for the profession. The result of this focus is greater attention on such teacher attributes as experience, preparation and degree, and certifications (NCATE, 2002; Warren and Curely, 1998; and Rice, 2003). Regardless of how difficult it is to encompass the concept of teacher quality, researchers need credible measures to build strong research programs. As it is argued, strong research programs are necessary to guide teacher education program design and to inform policy. Although large-scale studies of teacher education program efficacy are underway (or complete) in general education, similar efforts are needed in special education (DarlingHammond, 2000; Fenstermacher and Richardson, 2005; Humphrey and Weschler, 2005; and National Commission on Excellence in Elementary Teacher Preparation for Reading Instruction, 2003) similar efforts are needed in special education. In special education, the problem becomes more difficult because classroom teachers and special educators share responsibility for educating most students with disabilities. Thus, determining which teacher is responsible for what had been learnt may be impossible to do with any degree of precision or consistency. Furthermore, special education teachers roles vary from school to school and, for some teachers, from student to student. A special education teacher may work with a single group for much of the day, work with several groups of students for short periods in a resource room or consult with some student classroom teachers in planning accommodations and adaptations, or co- teach with a classroom teacher (Donna et al, 2008).
Program Evaluation Models There are various methods for evaluating a program. A frequently used technique is the exit interview, which is a structured or unstructured interview upon completion of the program; the use of existing data such as competency testing is also common in evaluating programs. A followup survey, which is the third method, is distributed to participants following a period of elapsed time since program completion (Worthen, et al, 1997). Other techniques of program evaluation include external reviews by distinguished colleagues, interviews with faculty members in collaborative programs and rating by employers of graduates. Some program evaluation efforts combine a number of methods depending on the goals of the evaluation process (Clubok, 1997). Blanton, et al, (2006) suggests five traditions of assessing beginning teacher quality: (a) empirical representation of effective practice derived from process-product research, (b) more complete and holistic representations, exemplified by checklists, (c) standards, (d) representations of effective practice from largescale survey, and (e) observation systems for classroom teachers .
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Standards The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) began promulgating teaching standards in the early 1990s, and in 2001, it published a revised edition of the CEC standards for the preparation of special educators. Furthermore, Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) standards purport to be "performancebased: that is, they describe what teachers should know and be able to do rather than listing courses that teachers should take in order to be awarded a license" (Stevens, 2001). Although the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has continuously recommended the ongoing use of follow-up surveys to investigate program effects on graduates' perceptions of their instructional abilities and content knowledge, that method has its known limitations. Despite the limitations, the use of follow-up surveys is still the most efficient way to gather useful information for program evaluation (Thomas and Loadman, 2001). In 1989, The CEC adopted standards for special educators entering into professional practice that include a minimum of a one-year mentorship during the first year of professional special education practice. The CEC (1998) identified five purposes of mentorship program for special educators: (1) to facilitate the application of knowledge and skills, (2) to convey advanced knowledge and skills, (3) to assist adaptation to the school climate, (4) to reduce stress and enhance job satisfaction, and (5) to support professional induction (Whitaker, 2000). The quality of education services for students with exceptionalities depends upon the abilities, qualifications and competencies of educators who provide services to such individuals (CEC, 1983). One implication of this relationship between student success and teacher competencies is that the quality of university programs that prepare K-12 teachers has to be as good as it can be. The program evaluation standards adopted by CEC have significant potentiality to strengthen the preparation of the special educator. One aspect of the CEC standards (the requirements that institutions preparing special educators engage in follow-up studies of their graduates) can provide insights into the strengths and weaknesses of any given teacher preparation program in order to ensure the excellence of that program (Wilcox, et al, 2002). The NCATE is responsible for assessing undergraduate and graduate teacher education programs and the CEC evaluates special education programs using the NCATE process. The CEC provides specific standards for special education undergraduate and graduate programs and lists of core of common knowledge and skills for beginning teachers that includes (a) philosophical, legal, and historical foundations, (b) characteristics of learners, (c) assessment skills, (d) instructional skills, (e) behavior management skills, (f) communication and collaboration skills, and (g) ethical and professional practices (Conderman, et al, 2001; and CEC, 2001).
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The major objective of the study is to investigate the skills which the graduates have enabling them to work effectively from their point of view through their answers to the following questions (Part 1 of the questionnaire). To what extent these competencies are important for effective work in the field? To what extent the program has prepared you to perform it effectively? To answer these questions, the graduates have to rate the importance of every competency in different areas of competencies at first. Then they have to rate the program ability in preparing them at these competencies . The second objective is to investigate the graduates perceptions of the program contents and outcomes, their satisfaction, difficulties, recommendations, and personal characteristics through answering a cluster of openended questions (Part 2 of the questionnaire).
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METHODOLOGY
Subjects: The subjects are all the graduates of the program working in Jordan who have been reached; the total number of which is 80. Instruments: A questionnaire has been designed to consist of two parts . Part 1 includes a list of competencies necessary for teachers of special education to assess the importance of each area of competencies in the work of the teacher, and to determine how well the college program in general has prepared the graduates to function in that area. Through literature review concerning common core competencies of special education teacher, researchers have developed a list of competencies necessary for teachers of special education, and the programs of teacher education in special education aim to develop it (CEC, 1983; CEC, 1992; CEC, 2002). There is an agreement between specialists on a number of competencies. The most prominent one is the competencies set by CEC as well as the competencies from many studies and documents (Blanton, 1992; York and Reynolds, 1998; Reynolds, 1990; Crockett, 2002; Kerns, 1996; Thomas and Loadman, 2001; Hayes, 2002; and Wilcox, et al, 2002). The total number of competencies is 57 distributed at 7 dimensions, see Tables 1, 2, 3,4,5,6 and 7.( Rating scales from 1 to 4 is identified for questions 1 and 2 (Part 1). These questions will be repeated here for convenience. -To what extent these competencies are important for effective work in the field? -To what extent the program has prepared you to perform it effectively? Scale 4 indicates that the competency is very important, and the program ability to develop it is high. As for scale 3, it indicates that the competency is important, and the program ability to develop is moderate. Regarding scale 2, it is evident that the competency is less important, and the program ability to develop is weak. Concerning scale 1, it is obvious that the competency is not important, and the program ability to develop is nonexistent. Cut points which were identified as 3.27 or more mean that the competency is very important, and the program ability to develop is high. Cut points from 2.51 to 3.26 mean the competency is important, and the program ability to develop is moderate. Cut points from 1.75 to 2.50 indicate that the competency is less important, and the program ability to develop is weak. Cut points less than 1.75 mean that the competency is not important, and the program ability to develop is nonexistent. Part 2 of the questionnaire has been designed to answer question 2, which includes a cluster of openended questions concerning their perception of the program content and outcomes. These questions have been abstracted from (Mastropeiri, 2001; AL-Smadi, 1999; Crockett, 2002; Kerns, 1996; Thomas and Loadman, 2001; Hayes, 2002; and Wilcox, et al, 2002( Judgments agreement is 88% of the 12 faculty members who are involved. The questionnaire has been distributed to 80 (42 male and 38 female) graduates, and the returning rate is 90%.
DATA ANALYSIS
Data obtained were analyzed using Descriptive statistical (frequencies and means) with the application of statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) to examine graduate responses to the questions in part 1 of the questionnaire. Frequencies and percentages are used to examine graduate responses to the questions in part 2 of the questionnaire.
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RESULTS The following are the graduates responses to part 1 of the questionnaire.
1.
Basic Knowledge Competencies: It has been noticed in Table 1 that the means range from 3.66 to 3.16, which indicates that the graduates have considered whole majority of those competencies as very important. Concerning the responses involving the extent to which the program prepares the graduates at these competencies, they have said the program has prepared them very well in most of these competencies; the means range from 2.95 to 3.57. (See Table 1) Table 1: The means of graduates ratings of the importance of competencies and the program ability in preparing them at these competencies Basic Knowledge in special education competencies Knowing causes of handicap and prevention strategies Knowing the effect of disability on families and society Knowing the effect of disability on learning at school and life Knowing the relationship between special education and regular education Knowing the development principles of the normal child Knowing the developmental characteristics of individuals with special needs Knowing individual differences in human development between and among exceptional and typical people Knowing the different foundations (philosophical, legal, and historical) of special education foundations Importance 3.66 3.53 3.53 3.50 3.50 3.46 3.33 3.16 Ability 3.57 3.33 3.38 3.19 3.52 3.38 3.38 2.95
Evaluation and Diagnosis Competencies: The results show that all these competencies (without exception) are very important; the means range from (3.36 to 3.90). Whereas the graduates perceive that the program ability in preparing them in most of these competencies in general is moderate (most of the means range from 3.09 to 2.52), they consider that the program has prepared them quite well at competencies no 1 and 4, (See Table 2).
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Table 2: The means of graduates ratings of the importance of competencies and the program ability in preparing them at these competencies Assessment and evaluation competencies Identification of current performance level Using different assessment and diagnosis methods in special education Using evaluation results in identifying special education needs Evaluating individual educational plan efficacy Knowing the appropriate use and limitations of different methods of evaluation Participating in evaluation in multi-disciplinary team Assessing learning, achievement and behavior by formal and informal procedures Using and interpreting different evaluations data Monitoring the students improvement in regular and special curricula Using curriculum based assessment Importance 3.90 3.63 3.60 3.60 3.60 3.53 3.46 3.36 3.36 3.36 Ability 3.33 3.00 2.95 3.28 3.09 2.71 2.90 3.00 2.71 2.52
Instruction Planning Competencies: All these competencies are considered very important; the means range from (3.46 to 3.73) except for competency no. 7, which is considered important. The highest mean is competency no. 1. Concerning the ability of the program to prepare the graduates at these competencies, it has been found that it is moderate in general. The means range from 2.85 to 3.23, except no.5, which considered high (See Table 3). Table 3: The means of graduates ratings of the importance of competencies and the program ability in preparing them at these competencies Instruction planning competencies Developing plan for behavior modification Planning within cooperative context including individuals with special needs and their families Developing the curriculum based on individual educational plan Developing individual educational plan based on regular curriculum Adapting and modifying instructional plans based on continuous analysis of individual improvement Instruction design to suit individual differences Creating supportive and safe instructional environment Importance 3.73 3,66 3.63 3.56 3.50 3.46 3.23 Ability 3.14 3.18 3.23 3.09 3.47 2.85 2.85
Practicing Instructions Competencies: The graduates perceive all these competencies as very important; the means range from 3.27 to 3.80. Competencies 1, 2, and 3 have the highest means; on the other hand,
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the program's ability in preparing the graduates regarding these competencies is moderate except for competencies 1 and 2, which are high (See Table 4). Table 4: The means of graduates ratings of the importance of competencies and the program ability in preparing them at these competencies Applying Instructional practices Implementation of individual instructional plan based on regular curriculum Implementation of individual instructional plan based on special curriculum Teaching basic academic skills Knowing different instructional strategies; e.g.; direct instruction, good instruction Choosing instruction strategies and applying them effectively Applying pre-referral procedures Applying individual behavior modification plans 3.60 3.46 3.27 3.00 3.00 2.90 Important 3.80 3.70 3.70 3.60 Ability 3.33 3.28 3.14 3.09
Using Technology Competencies: All these competencies are considered very important; the means range from 3.56 to 3.66, except for competency no 5, which is important; the mean is 3.26. However, the graduates perceive the program has not prepared them well at competencies no. 3, 4, and 5; the means range from 2.23 to 2.47, which mean it is weak. Competencies no. 1 and 2 are moderate (See Table 5). Table 5: The means of graduates ratings of the importance of competencies and the program ability in preparing them at these competencies Using Technology, devices, aids, and instruments Designing and preparing instructional aids for children with special needs Knowing how to use supportive aids and traditional devices Using the computer in teaching children with special needs Using the computer in monitoring the improvement of children Knowing how to maintain supportive aids and traditional devices Importance 3.66 3.63 3.56 3.56 3.26 Ability 3.14 2.85 2.47 2.47 2.23
Professional Ethical Practices Competencies: This area of competencies is perceived as very important; the means range from 3.46 to 3.70. Furthermore, the graduates perceive that the program ability in preparing them at these competencies is moderate; the means range from 2.71 to 3.14. At the same time, competency 1 has the highest mean (3.33); which is strong (See Table 6).
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Table 6: The means of graduates ratings of the importance of competencies and the program ability in preparing them at these competencies Professional and ethical practices competencies Considering ethical aspects during practice Awareness of selfattitudes and selfbehavior and their effect on children with special needs and others Updating knowledge in service Considering legal aspects during practice Participating in activities enhancing self-professional development Knowing research findings and benefiting from them in improving the learning process Knowing the restrictions and behaving accordingly Ability to reflect, think, and modify instructional practices Considering professional aspects in practices Importance 3.60 3.66 3.70 3.50 3.70 3.50 3.46 3.46 3.46 Ability 3.33 3.14 3.14 3.04 2.95 2.95 2.95 2.80 2.71
Corporation and Communication Competencies: The results show that all this area of competencies is very important; the means range from 3.56 to 3.86, while the program ability in preparing the graduates at all of them is moderate; the means range from 2.76 to 3.19 (See Table 7). Table 7: The means of graduates ratings of the importance of competencies and the program ability in preparing them at these competencies Corporation and communication competencies Cooperating regularly with families, teachers and other related service providers Parents participation in setting individual educational objectives Advocating the issues of people with special needs and their rights Establishing effective work relationship with colleagues and parents Helping teachers to include students with special needs in regular settings Providing counseling to regular teachers and volunteers Providing counseling to parents to understand their needs and problems Participating effectively in teacher supporting team Helping regular teachers to understand legislations, policies related to people with special needs Designing programs for the families to teach their children with special needs at home Important 3.66 3.63 3.86 3.76 3.60 3.66 3.66 3.56 3.63 3.66 Ability 3.19 3.09 3.04 3.04 3.00 2.90 2.90 2.90 2.85 2.76
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2.
The following are the questions and the graduates responses to the openended questions in part 2. These concern the students perception of the program content and outcomes.
1 -What are the main difficulties that face you after working in the field? The most prominent difficulty is the gap between the theoretical side of the courses and the actual practice; moreover, they have difficulties in dealing with employers and administrators, and in dealing with severe cases, designing behavior modification plans, adaptation with work environment, dealing with diagnosis, psychoeducational evaluation procedures and using computers and technology in teaching. The graduates also complained of low salaries . 2 -Has the program prepared you to deal with these difficulties? The graduates responses vary; 32% of them have responded that the program has prepared them to face such difficulties, 39% have responded that they have not been prepared to face these difficulties, while 28% have responded that they have been prepared but not to the required extent. 3 -What are the courses perceived as the most important to practice at work? There is a kind of agreement about the importance of three courses in practice. These are: a) curriculum and methodology in special education, b) assessment and diagnosis in special educations, and c) introduction to special education . 4 -Are you satisfied with your pre-service preparation in general? About half of the graduates (43%) are satisfied completely, 20% have a sort of satisfaction, while 37% are not satisfied with their pre-service preparation. 5 -What are the important skills for which you need more training? Many skills are considered weak from the graduates point of view; consequently, they need to be trained on them according to their importance; evaluation and diagnosis skills (26%), behavior modification (16%), teaching methodology and curriculum designing (10%), dealing with autistic children (13%), sign language and Brail method (13%), using technology and computer (6%), and dealing with families (3%.) 6 -What do you suggest to overcome difficulties in pre-service preparation? Thirty-three per cent of the graduates suggest that every course should have practical activities, (66%) suggest increasing field training and extensive supervision in the field, and direct practice of the skills they learned. 7 -As graduates, what do you recommend to improve the program? The graduates recommend many ways to improve the program; for example, increasing field training (35%), giving attention to specific courses such as behavior modification, assessment and diagnosis, as well as training in all categories in special education (16%). It was also recommended to include practical activities for each course (16%), to omit some courses (13%), to begin at field training from the second year, not the final year. Every faculty member should teach specific courses according to his specialty . 8 -What are the main characteristics which the teacher should have to succeed in working with children with special needs? Patience, strong personality, tolerance, compassion, honesty, and unconditional acceptance of children with special needs are considered important. 9 -Has the program helped you to acquire these characteristics? Fifty-six per cent of the graduates have responded positively while 11% have responded negatively, and 33% have responded that it helps to a certain extent .
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the results narrated earlier of part 1 that the graduates realize the importance of several areas of competencies in special education, as they consider them in general very important, while they see that the program does not prepare them properly most of the time. Because many courses focus on theoretical knowledge, the graduates consider that the program has prepared them very well in most of the basic knowledge competencies. Theoretical knowledge is considered important but not as important as the information with direct applicability to the work. They have succeeded in acquiring some skills at field training, and they have stated in the open-ended questions (part 2) that the most prominent difficulty which faces them is the gap between the theoretical side of the courses and the actual practice. At the
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same time, the majority of the graduates have responded that they are not prepared to face those difficulties. That is due to the fact that the program concentrates on theoretical knowledge more than on the performance skills, in addition to the problems and difficulties surrounding the field training process which weakens the ability to acquire the needed skills and competencies sufficiently and effectively. These results are consistent with the findings of several studies in teachers education literature in general and in special education. Many studies have come up with the same results which can be summarized as follows. There is imbalance between the theoretical and practical sides of teachers education programs (Wilcox, et al; 2002; Crockett, 2002; Reitz and Kerr, 1999; Hayes, 2002; Thomas and Loadman, 2001; Mastropeiri, 2001; Al-Smadi, 1999; Katanani, 2005; kennedy, 1996, and 1999). The main issue here is the gap between theory and real practice, which is the same new-old story, not only in special education but also in teacher education. As Al-Smadi (1999) points out that there are three reasons for the emergence of this issue. The first is excessive focus on the theoretical aspects in various humanitarian disciplines. The second is misunderstanding of the relationship between theory and practice, which has caused the graduates conceptual gap between them, and which has resulted in the underestimation of the value of the educational theoretical knowledge in the practical field. It is worth to mention that it is rare to the educational theories to have direct applications in practice, but their impact can be indirect through interactions and overlapping with the experience that comes from real practice. In other words, theoretical knowledge acquired by students in the courses can not be applied automatically and directly in schools. For more clarification, the theoretical knowledge can be divided into two types: a) the pure theoretical knowledge which is not applicable, and b) applicable theoretical knowledge. In fact, the focus on these two types is necessary. The first is important and fundamental for acquiring concepts, facts, and educational theories; for example, how do students learn, which makes the graduates implement the techniques and procedures with full understanding of theoretical bases underlying behind it. Here lies the real importance of theoretical knowledge, which benefits the graduates indirectly and unconsciously, so they do not realize their importance. The second type, which is the applicable type of knowledge, can be translated directly to strategies, techniques, and performance skills in different education situations (Katanani, 2005). The third reason is called different contexts and circumstances between schools and universities and how this deviation creates the conceptual gap between theory and practice. This is due to the fact that students spend the majority of their times attending lectures, reading books, preparing for exams by studying theories about instruction and classes which are applicable theoretical knowledge. But due to the insufficiency of the practical practice, they see it meaningless and inapplicable. The results also reveal that many skills are considered weak points from the graduates point of view; and thus they need to be trained on (according to priority) diagnosis skills, behavior modification, teaching methodology, curriculum designing and dealing with autistic children. Consequently, to improve the program, the graduates recommendations focus on strengthening the practical side of the program through increasing field training, extensive supervision in the field, direct practice of the skills which they have learned, and every course should have practical activities paying special attention to specific courses such as behavior modification and assessment and diagnosis. Moreover, every studentteacher should be trained in all categories in special education. These results deal with the findings from several studies; for example, Delaney (1995), Miller and Losardo (2002), and Whitaker (2000), have revealed that the graduates request more coursework in classroom management skills, more preparation related to communication skills for effective interactions with parents and other adults, and more emphasis on skills needed to meet the diverse needs of students from various disability areas. The graduates perceive that the program has not prepared them well in general at using the computer in teaching children with special needs and in monitoring the improvement of children. These results agree with Wilcox, et al (2002), and Crockett (2002) regarding the underestimation of the level of graduates preparation in the field of technology in the programs preparing special education teachers. Concerning preparing and designing instructional instruments, the graduates point out that they are trained quite well at these skills as a whole course of the preparation program. Competency considering ethical aspects during practice has the highest mean; this is due to the religious society where the graduates come from. They consider working with exceptional students a kind of piety and to the good of those people and to be rewarded on the Day of Judgment (Katanani, 2005). All practicing instructions competencies are perceived very important. These competencies concerning implementing individual instructional plans and teaching basic academic skills (3Rs) have the highest mean. This agrees with (Reitz and Kerr, 1999 and Englert et al, 1992). On the other hand, the program's ability in preparing the graduates regarding these competencies is moderate, except for no. 1 and 2 which
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are high because they practice these competencies in field training. The lowest mean applies to choosing instruction strategies and applying them effectively. Because special education means specially designed instruction that meets the unusual needs of an exceptional student, the single most important goal of special education is finding and capitalizing on exceptional students' abilities. The central goal of the preparation programs in special education is the development of teachers capable of providing individually designed instruction that is reasonably calculated to provide educational benefits to eligible students with disabilities (Hallahan and Kauffman, 2000). In addition to studying intra- and interindividual differences among students, special educators have the responsibility to offer what is called instruction that is highly individualized, intensive, relentless, urgent, and goal-directed (Crockett, 2002). To do so, teacher trainees should actually be engaged in the process of teaching others. But, in fact, what is happening is the opposite; they spend hours after hours sitting in college classrooms learning about education and how students learn while little time is given to be engaged in the process of teaching. Providing extensive experiences for preserves teachers in school setting, and creating a closer link between theories of teaching and the practice of teaching are a must (Hayes, 2002; Ayers, 1989; Darling Hammond et al., 2002; Delaney, 1995; Wilson et al, 2002; Wideen et al, 1998; and Tulbert et al, 1996). In summary, even though published research addressing beginning teachers satisfaction with their preparation programs is limited, three major themes for recommendations for the improvement of teacher preparation programs have emerged. It is interesting to note that the recommendations documented in studies conducted in 1979 are quite similar to those documented in 2011. The three major themes for improvement are increasing clinical experiences for a longer duration, provision of a full year of support for new teachers and increasing knowledge and skills needed to address the unique needs of the diverse learner. Teacher preparation programs receiving high rating from their graduates have common components. These components emphasize extensive clinical experiences with exemplary education models as well as clinical experiences specifically linked to coursework. In addition, significant attention is given to contentbases pedagogy. Teachers who express high satisfaction with the clinical experiences tends to rate the overall preparation program positively (Darling-Hammond et al., 2002; and Delaney, 1995).
RECOMMENDATIONS
There remains a need for researchers to determine how general and special education teacher preparation programs can be improved to produce highly qualified teachers who are equipped to meet the educational needs of all children. One way to address this need is through beginning teacher followup studies that incorporate empirical research methodologies. The results of these studies must be implemented appropriately to improve preparation programs, support beginning teachers, and retain qualified and experienced teachers who consistently adopt and implement researchbased educational practices . The researcher agrees with (D'aniello, 2008) that the consistent incorporation of research into practice in all teacher preparation programs may take additional focus, dialogue, and requirements at the policy levels. Special education teacher preparation should focus on developing special expertise. To do so, the graduates should understand the concepts, should be trained on the techniques and should understand the different variables which affect the learning process. Consequently, they can analyze various individual needs of students and design individual programs to meet those needs and to be able to find solutions to various and unique difficulties which may face them. This makes the development of both knowledge base and actual delivery of educational services imperative. Where the time knowledge bases are evaluated through different theoretical training courses, the practical skills should be developed through field training, in which the student applies the acquired knowledge base there, learn to critically evaluate emerging teaching practices, and have multiple opportunities to self-evaluate their instructional practices and their student's progress. Finally, what do our graduates wish we told them? They wish to be told the truth about the real world of teaching, they wish to be given tools to be successful, and they wish to be inspired.
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HIV AND AIDS STIGMA IN BOTSWANA: VOICES OF SCHOOL STUDENTS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR MORAL EDUCATION
SANA KOKETSO MMOLAI University of Botswana, Faculty of Education, Department of Languages and Social Sciences Education Gaborone, Botswana E-mail address for correspondence: mmolaisk@mopipi.ub.bw
__________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: A quarter of a century after the beginning of the epidemic, and after as many years fighting the disease with initiatives and information on HIV and AIDS, discrimination and stigma are still very common in Botswana. The findings presented in this paper are based on a research study that was conducted in August 2010 through a questionnaire among 68 students from a junior secondary school in Gaborone, Botswana. These findings indicate that some Botswana secondary school students are very understanding, compassionate, caring and sensitive towards those who are suffering from HIV and AIDS. The paper concludes with a discussion regarding the importance of the values of tolerance, compassion and caring in the teaching of Moral Education. Key Words: HIV and AIDS; Stigma; Moral Education; Compassionate; Caring; Botswana _______________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
HIV and AIDS have affected sub-Saharan Africa severely (National AIDS Coordination Agency, 2003) and Botswana is one of the most affected countries. For example, out of a population of approximately 1.8 million, about 283,764 adults are living with HIV and the hardest hit age is 25-29 years. In Botswana, as everywhere in the world many people who are HIV positive lack the courage to declare their status in public because of fear of discrimination (Iwuagwu, 2003). This stigma is fuelled by incorrect knowledge about HIV and AIDS and the fear of death (Letamo, 2003), or as Adam Ashforth (2005, p.154ff) calls it pollution by association with people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA). HIV and AIDS raise some moral problems in Botswana, hence PLWHA are being discriminated and stigmatized. This is due to the fact that HIV is associated with behaviours such as homosexuality, drug addiction, prostitution and promiscuity (http:www.avert.org/aidsstigma.htm). Furthermore, HIV is transmitted mainly through unprotected sexual intercourse; hence those living with HIV are perceived as irresponsible individuals. For example, some Christians perceive PLWHA as being sinful and receiving punishment from God for their immoral behaviours (Nkomazana, 2007).
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In Botswana the impact of HIV and AIDS has been greatest among vulnerable groups, such as the poor, orphans, people with disabilities, prisoners, women and children (Maundeni, 2009; Monnadibe, 2009; Daniel, 2003). It is against this realisation that in 1998 the Botswana government adopted a National AIDS Policy (Botswana Government, 1998), which among other things, embraces the use of education as a means of combating HIV and AIDS. In response to this policy, HIV and AIDS topics have been incorporated into the curriculum at primary, secondary and tertiary education as well as in other non-formal institutions. At the junior secondary school level Moral Education students explore the mandate of HIV testing; the right and wrong issues relating to HIV and AIDS; ARV therapy and its effects; and considerate attitude towards PLWHA. The literature on children and HIV and AIDS is extensive, as is the literature on HIV and AIDS related stigma (see for example, Holzemer and Uys, 2004; Maundeni, 2009; Monnadibe, 2009), but specific research on adolescents perceptions pertaining to HIV and AIDS-related stigma is relatively sparse. The study described in this paper aims to partly fill this gap. It looks into Botswana junior secondary school students (age 13 15) perceptions about HIV and AIDS stigma and explores how moral education, as a formal subject within the existing national curriculum, can be used in developing positive values among learners that will ameliorate the effects of stigma and discrimination. Most stigma reduction efforts in Botswana have approached the issue as a public health matter (Letamo, 2003). But there is also a strong argument to be made for approaching AIDsrelated stigma and discrimination as being of moral importance. For this reason addressing stigma within a schools Moral Education curriculum is of paramount importance.
METHODS
Site and Participants The study was conducted at one junior secondary school in the city of Gaborone. This is a state school which admits learners from mainly upper middle class families. In Botswana a typical upper middle class individual owns or rents a medium high cost house, owns a car or two, uses a gas or electric stove, owns a television set or sets and VCR, and has a landline and a cellular phone. Many of these people are degree holders, or hold tertiary education qualifications and are employed in reputable organisations with various benefits (Botshelo, 2007). The participants of the study were 68 students (32 males and 36 females) aged between 13 and 15 years. These participants were from two different Form 2 (the second year of junior secondary education) classes and they all studied moral education. Permision to conduct the study was sought from the school head and permision for the leaners participation in the study was sought from the parents who signed the consent form and returned it to the school.
Data collection and analysis A questionnaire with both closed-ended and open-ended items was used to collect data to enable participants to express themselves. The language used in the scenario and questions were the right reading level for the students. The instrument was first given to the School head, Head of Department, concerned class teachers and the Moral Education teacher for the two sampled classes to confirm suitability. The instrument was administered by the researcher to all participants during an afternoon study period in a prepared school hall. Participants were discouraged from discussing their responses amongst themselves and they were also encouraged to respond with honesty. Part A of the questionnaire solicited information on students understanding of the concepts of morality, moral values and positive attitude. The researchers assumption was that if learners have not grasped the meaning of these concepts, they are likely to find it difficult to apply them to their daily interactions and interrelationships with PLWHA. Part B of the questionnaire was based on a fictional case study of disclosure concerning HIV status to an employer by a young woman (Thato) who was HIV positive, and her subsequent dismissal from her job. The
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name Thato Moseki is a pseudonym. Botswana secondary school students are familiar with case studies as a teaching strategy. These students had explored HIV and AIDS content in Moral Education prior to this study. Closed ended items were analysed quantitatively using tables, frequencies and percentages. All closed-ended items were analysed qualitatively by identifying themes emerging from the responses and coding them into different categories.
Hypothesis The hypothesis for this study was that students from upper middle class background have less stigmatised attitudes to PLWHA because they are exposed to media on effects of HIV and AIDS stigma. Moral Education is one of the subjects which are capable of promoting the learners acceptable behaviour (Botswana Government, 1994). Due to the fact that Moral Education is a core and separate subject (allocated 5 periods a week) within the Botswana secondary school curriculum, it was also hypothesised that students doing Moral Education would have positive attitudes towards PLWHA. The following scenario which depicts experiences of most students in Botswana, was the only one given to participants: Thato Moseki is a 34 year old woman who stayed in Mogoditshane. She lived with her three children and two nieces in a small room she was renting. Last year she was lucky because she worked as a domestic servant in the suburbs of Block 5. This work had really made her happy as she was able to provide for her family even though it was not enough as she is the only breadwinner. One day she started feeling sick and within a week she had lost a lot of weight. Her employer noticed this and advised her to go and see a doctor. When she got there she tested HIV positive. At first her employers were very supportive and allowed her to continue with her work but as time passed everything changed. One day when she got to work her employer dismissed her from work with immediate effect. The reason for this dismissal was that since she was HIV positive, she might infect the children she took care of. Now that Thato had lost her job, she had no money to feed her children and to pay rent. One day when Thato and the children returned home from visiting some friends, they found their belongings outside the house and the locks changed by the owner of the room she was renting. They then returned to their home village. In the village, even her friends kept a distance from her. They did not visit her always avoiding her. Some called her bad names like segwapa (biltong or dried meat), longangale (dry melon), and so on. Some children also decided to stop playing with Thatos children. This discrimination affected Thato and her children.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The purpose of the study was to investigate and establish some Botswana junior secondary school students attitudes and values concerning HIV and AIDS stigma in Botswana. The results of this study are discussed under four themes, namely (1) students understanding about morality, moral values and positive attitudes; (2) students judgement regarding disclosure of HIV status to an employer, (3) students judgement regarding an employers action of dismissal, and why an employer might dismiss a PLWHA from work, (4) students attitudes and actions towards a friend living with HIV or AIDS and (5) students attitudes and actions towards people in general who might be living with HIV and AIDS. Each will be considered in turn. Students understanding about morality, moral values and a positive attitude Many students displayed a general awareness of the meaning of the concept morality. The following statements illustrate this view: A set of what is right or wrong (Young woman, age 13).
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A sense of good or bad, right or wrong behaviour (Young man, age 14). Morality is the good behaviour or bad behaviour one can display (Young man, age 15). When further asked what moral values are, the following were some of the responses: Moral values are qualities that are regarded good and they guide ones behaviour (Young woman, age 15). Moral values are values that are social and can be important to people, e.g. sharing (Young man, age 14). Moral values are the behaviour we show towards other people e.g. respect (Young woman, age 13). Students were also asked to explain a positive attitude. They described a positive attitude as: The way in which people talk to you or behave around you, especially if you have a problem. An attitude is what someone thinks of you. This is the way in which people talk to you or behave around you, especially if you have a problem. We should develop a positive attitude to people living with HIV/AIDS so as to make sure one is given a boost in terms of being accepted (Young woman, age 14). A positive attitude is an attitude that involves positive thinking towards things, he or she will try always to think of good things and encourage themselves to do right (Young man, age 15). Positive attitude are those things which are good to others (Young woman, age 13). Students awareness of these basic concepts revealed that there should be an expression of solidarity within the community. Such a notion of solidarity is in keeping with the African understanding of Botho (Ubuntu), and while not exclusively African, is a key feature of Botswana youth understanding of morality. The interesting question therefore is how this sense of community solidarity can be linked to HIV and AIDS. Arguably, accepting and caring for PLWHA could be one way of expressing this sense of community solidarity. Students judgement regarding disclosure of HIV status to an employer Having established the students understanding of these basic concepts of moral education, they were then asked questions related to the Thato case study. In the first place, they were asked whether or not it was right for Thato to disclose her HIV status. The majority of the students (78%) were of the view that it was right for Thato to disclose her HIV status. More interestingly, the majority of female students (60%) were the ones who felt that it was right for Thato to disclose her HIV status. It is also clear from these results that the 18% who felt that Thato was not right and those who were not sure (4%) were all male students. Perhaps the fact that Thato is a female has made more female students to sympathise with her situation. In justifying their responses, those who felt that Thato was right argued that if someone has HIV and keeps it to herself, s/he will always be lonely, and therefore it is best to tell someone you trust so that he/she can help you. It was also argued that Thato had to tell her employer so that the latter can limit her work, give her support and always allow her to get her treatment from medical practitioner. It is also evident from students reported beliefs that Thatos disclosure of her HIV status was morally acceptable. They argued that it is right since you feel good about yourself, it is the right thing to do, it makes you feel ok after telling someone, before telling someone, you feel like you are cheating. In general, students argued that disclosing ones status would enable the community to be tolerant, compassionate and more understanding, as echoed by this student: Yes, I think it was right because by doing so people would be able to help her even though others discriminate her, but regardless of that telling people was the right thing (Young woman, age 15). However, what happened to Thato contradict students perceptions: she lost her job, her friends and her children suffered humiliation. It is also worth noting that 18% felt that it was not right for Thato to disclose her HIV
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status due to the potential fear of stigma and discrimination that PLWHA face. These students felt strongly that Thato exposed herself and her children to stigma by revealing her HIV status: If she did not tell people what was wrong with her, they were not going to call her names and her childrens friends were going to play with her children. She made her children suffer for telling people she was not well (Young man, age 14). It is evident from these findings that the general feeling is that while it is morally good to disclose ones HIV status; it is at the same time not always in the best interest of the PLWHA to do so. This particular result expresses a moral question asked by these students: If it is morally acceptable for PLWHA to disclose their HIV status, then why are they discriminated against? Apparently, the discrimination seems to be more influenced by peoples perceptions of the moral behaviour associated with HIV and AIDS. This perception makes it difficult to know what one has to do in this situation as gathered from some of the comments by those who were not sure of whether Thato was right or not. This was highlighted by the following statements: I am not sure of the situation. It is difficult to tell what was the right thing to do in her situation (Young woman, age 14). Because if she tells people that she is infected by HIV/AIDS they will tell other people that she is infected. While she does not tell people, she will not get supported by the people or die. So it is not easy to say she was right or wrong (Young man, age 14). It can be deduced that due to the stigma attached to HIV and AIDS some students feel that perhaps it is best for infected people not to disclose their HIV status. Students judgement regarding an employers action of dismissal, and why an employer might dismiss a PLWHA from work In responding to whether it was right or wrong for Thatos employer to dismiss her from her job, the majority of respondents (80%) indicated that Thatos employer was wrong. One student argued: She was treating Thato unfairly just because of her HIV status, but Thato needed the money to provide for the family which depended on her. This was unfair to Thato and her family were affected by the situation too. They should have at least given her notice so she could have found another house and job (Young woman, age 13). However, 15% of the respondents did express the belief that it was right to dismiss Thato from her job. The reasons they gave in support of their belief was that since the HIV weakens an individual, keeping Thato at her job would have been unfair to her employer because she would perform below her employers expectations. One student stated that: Because sometimes if Thato has a wound and has blood flowing but not noticing it and one of the children has a cut and her blood gets into the wound, the child would be infected (Young woman, age 14). Another student also argued that: If you think of your children, then you must protect them. If she kept Thato in the job maybe she was not thinking of the children. If you think of Thato you do not protect the children (Young man, age 15). It can be deduced from these statements that some students seem to have given priority to the welfare of the children. This is an interesting finding of this study because it highlights these students awareness of ways of contacting the HIV virus on one hand, and the role of parents in protecting their families on the other hand. Arguably, this is an indication of maturity and responsibility. There were also some students who were not sure, as indicated by this statement: Maybe she was to keep Thato in her job. But it is also not safe, but some will say it is safe. So, I dont know, maybe she was not thinking about Thatos children, but hers (Young man, age 13).
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What emerges from these findings is the fact that the few who were not sure about dismissing Thato were concerned about issues that are important. One realises that their argument shows some moral maturity in that they assessed the situation from both Thato and her employer. With regard to the various reasons why Thato might have been dismissed from her job, more respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the option Generally, people despise those living with HIV and AIDS (73%), She was worried that Thato would infect the family with HIV (67%), She was ashamed of Thato (44%), She was only concerned about her own needs and interests (32%) and She was worried that her friends would laugh at her (27%). An analysis of these findings show an insignificant difference between male (38%) and female (35%) participants who are of the view that Thato was dismissed due to the fact that people despise PLWHA. The findings further reveal that female participants (41%), in comparison to 26% of the male participants are of the view that Thatos employer was concerned that she could infect the family. Students attitudes and actions towards a friend living with HIV and AIDS The study further attempted to understand students attitudes towards a friend who is living with HIV and AIDS. When students were asked how they would relate to Thato if she were a friend, the majority affirmed that they would (all the time) sit at the same table with her (94%), hug or shake hands with her (88%), or play with her (82%). It was the feeling of some respondents that interacting with Thato would be the least a friend could do, given Thatos situation. They would interact with her to affirm their friendship and give her moral support: Because she is my friend and I must be there for her. If I spend time with her, she will feel loved (Young woman, age 15) So that she can feel that she has a friend who takes care of her (Young man, age 14). Other respondents expressed the view that since they are fully aware of the effects of stigma and discrimination; they would interact with Thato to help her cope with her illness. One student argued: So that she cant try to commit suicide because she will find out that we care about her and we dont keep her away from us (Young man, age 13). Another echoed this sentiment: People who are HIV positive know that everybody else hates them. This makes them feel sad and lonely. I will not like my friend to feel sad and lonely. I will therefore be with her (Young woman, age 15) It is worth noting that respondents are willing to care for Thato if she was their friend. An analysis of these findings reveals that female students are willing to interact more with Thato in comparison to their male counterparts. For instance, students would (all the time) sit at the same table with Thato (females-74%; males20%), hug her (females-57%; males-31%), play with her (females-50%, males-32%), shake hands with her (females-47%; males-41%) and share a meal with her (females-53%; males 15%). Perhaps the disparity between males and female students is not due to the fact that males are less caring, but to the age group of participants. Arguably, boys of this age interact more with other boys. This being the case, they would not feel free to admit their interaction with Thato. Students attitudes and actions towards people in general who might be living with HIV and AIDS Finally, the study attempted to understand students attitudes towards PLWHA in general. The majority of students indicated that PLWHA need tolerance, support and compassion. They explained that it is important for PLWHA to be given support and be loved (100%), feel respected and be accepted (97%) and to be cared for (92%) since these positive attitudes would benefit PLWHA by helping them not to feel stigmatised and discriminated against. The majority of students argued that it is important to accept PLWHA because HIV and AIDS-related stigma has negative consequences, particularly stress which can result in alcohol abuse or even suicide. They further agreed that it was important for PLWHA to have opportunities to share their feeling with
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other people (88%); be received by other people (88%) and feel wanted (80%). These findings reveal that these students have a positive attitude towards PLWHA.
Limitations There were several limitations to this study. First, since this was a descriptive study it lacks context, structure and validation process of stigma items. However, this study has produced valuable results which could be used as a basis for follow-up studies. Second, the paper mainly addressed the question of dismissal in the moral terms, with no reference to legal terms. Third, this study did not use a control group to validate the results. Fourth, even though participants were asked to respond with honesty, it is difficult to ascertain the extent to which the students were honest in their responses. Fifth, these students are from more educated backgrounds and have better exposure to materials on HIV and AIDS in comparison to their counterparts in lower social contexts. This might have influenced their responses. Further studies should use students from both backgrounds in order to compare the results.
Implications for teaching Moral Education In spite of these limitations, this study suggests some implications for the teaching of Moral Education in Botswana secondary schools. First, the fact that these students have covered HIV and AIDS content in their Moral Education curriculum prior to this study could have influenced their responses. This implies that since Moral Education has a role in promoting values of compassion, caring and tolerance, the Moral Education teacher should emphasise the need to have a positive attitude towards PLWHA. Second, Moral Education has a higher responsibility in teaching learners attitudes geared towards accepting PLWHA because it lays great emphasis on desirable, worthwhile and acceptable behaviour. In this connection, HIV and AIDS related content; particularly stigma can be infused into the Moral Education curriculum. This would in turn promote tolerant and non discriminatory attitudes and behaviour towards PLWHA. Third, the Moral Education curriculum should emphasise Botho (ubuntu) because a caring, compassionate and tolerant nation is a central tenet of Botho, and such a nation ought to be capable of accepting PLWHA. It was hypothesised that due to exposure to media, students from upper middle class background would have less stigmatised attitudes to PLWHA. The findings of this study reveal that most students do not have stigmatising attitudes as most would sit at the same table, hug or shake hands, share a meal and play with an HIV positive person. Since Moral Education is a core subject within the Botswana secondary school curriculum, it was also hypothesised that students understanding of the basic concepts of this subject would influence students to have positive attitudes towards PLWHA. These findings confirm this hypothesis. This study therefore concludes that Moral Education should emphasise attitudes geared towards the promotion of a caring, compassionate and tolerant nation. Students displaying these moral behaviours, values and attitudes are more likely to contribute towards the amelioration of stigma and the achievement of a compassionate and caring society by 2016.
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REFERENCES
Ashforth, A. (2005). Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa .Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Botshelo, I. (2007). The Maid, Botho and HIV & AIDS Infections: The Economic and Ethical Perspectives. In J .Gaie and S. Mmolai (Eds.), The Concept of Botho and HIV/AIDS in Botswana (pp.45-60). Zapf Chancery:Eldoret. Botswana Government (1994). Revised National Policy on Education, Government Printer: Gaborone, Botswana Government (1998). Botswana National Policy on HIV/AIDS. Ministry of Health: Gaborone. Chilisa, B. & Preece, J. (2005). Research Methods for Adult Educators in Africa. Pearson Education: Cape Town. Daniel, M. (2003). Listening to Orphan Voices. In E. Biakolo, J. Mathangwane and D. Odallo, (Eds.) The Discourse of HIV/AIDS in Africa (pp.117-119). Department of English, University of Botswana; Gaborone. Department of Curriculum and Evaluation (2007). Three-Year Junior Secondary Syllabus Moral Education. Ministry of Education: Gaborone. Holzemer, W. & Uys, L. (2004). Managing AIDS Stigma. Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS 1 (3), 165174. Iwuagwu, S. (2003). Challenges of Stigma and Discrimination to Voluntary Counselling and Testing (Vct): Communication Implication Experiences from Nigeria. In E. Biakolo, J. Mathangwane & D. Adallo (Eds.) The Discourse of HIV/AIDS in Arica (pp.268-273). Department of English, University of Botswana: Gaborone. Letamo, G. (2003). Prevalence of, and Factors Associated with, HIV/AIDS- Related Stigma and Discriminatory Attitudes in Botswana, J HEALTH POPUL NUTR, 21 (4), 347-357. Maundeni, T. (2009) Children and HIV and AIDS in Botswana: Challenges faced by the boy Child. In C. M. Fombad, R. Mupedziswa, T. Maundeni & G. Mookodi (Eds.) HIV and AIDS, Vulnerable Groups, Human Rights & Development in Botswana (pp.135-153). OSSREA-Botswana Chapter: Gaborone. Mmolai, S.K. (2007). The Role of Religious Education in the fight against HIV and AIDS in Botswana by Promoting Caring Attitudes, BOLESWA Conference Proceedings, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Botswana: Gaborone, 85-93. Mmonadibe, P. (2009). Orphaned HIV-positive children in Botswana: Challenges and Prospects. In C. M. Fombad, R. Mupedziswa, T. Maundeni & G. Mookodi (Eds.) HIV and AIDS, Vulnerable Groups, Human Rights & Development in Botswana (pp.155-167). OSSREA-Botswana Chapter: Gaborone. National AIDS Coordinating Agency (2003). Botswana National Strategic Framework for HIV/AIDS, 20032009. Pyramid Publishing: Gaborone. Nkomazana, F. (2007) Christian Ethics and HIV/AIDS in Botswana. In J.N. Amanze, F. Nkomazana & O.N. Kealotswe, (Eds.) Christian Ethics and HIV/AIDS in Africa (pp 48-69). Bay Publishing: Gaborone. http://www.fmshk.org/database/articles/dignityrespectfordignityanddignityconservinginpall.pdf (Retrieved 21st August 2010).
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http://www.popline.org/docs/1596/191386.htm. Retrieved 26th February 2010. http://www.avert.org/aidsstigma. Retrieved 26th February 2010.
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ICT ADOPTION AND EFFECTIVE SECONDARY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION IN EKITI-STATE
ABIODUN-OYEBANJI OLAYEMI* and K. OMOTAYO** *Department of Educational Foundations and Management, Faculty of Education, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria **Department of Curriculum Studies,Faculty of Education, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria *E-mail address for correspondence: olayemi.oyebanji@yahoo.com
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: This study examined ICT adoption and effective secondary school administration in Ekiti-state. A sample of one hundred and eighty secondary school administrators was drawn from the three senatorial districts in the state. A questionnaire tagged ICT and Secondary School Administration was used to collect the data needed for the study. The data collected were analysed using frequency counts, percentage score, t-test and Pearson Product moment Correlation. The study revealed that the level of ICT awareness by the secondary school administrators was low. The study also revealed that many of the secondary schools understudied were not provided with ICT facilities. It was also found out in the study that a significant relationship existed between ICT adoption and effective secondary school administration. However, administrators gender difference have no influence on their attitude towards ICT and effective secondary school administration. It was therefore recommended that adequate provision of ICT facilities should be made into secondary schools by the governments and private individuals. Also the secondary school administrators should be encouraged to be ICT driven so as to boost their productivity. Keywords: ICT adoption, secondary school administrative __________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
The number of secondary schools in Nigeria, particularly in Ekiti-state has tremendously grown that we have 343 public secondary schools in Ekiti state alone and 7,536 teachers as at the time of this study. Due to this development, the administration of secondary education system seems to be becoming more and more complex by the day and this complexity makes it expedient for the administrators to find a way of ensuring an effective management system that will enhance their productivity. Todays secondary schools without any doubt require administrators or leaders who can get at, interpret appropriately and favourably disposed to the knowledge of ICT so as to ensure their effective job performance. Information and communication technology (ICT) evolved from the quest for faster and easier management of enormous information available to users. Thus, ICT is very essential for the generation of quality information and management of that information is required for effective decision making. ICT components include as identified by Ayeni (2004) prints media, electronic media, telephone, telex, e-mail, fax and computers.
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ICT in the word of Aboderin (2009) also encompasses the broad fields of information and communications by means of computer and telecommunication; tools that are being increasingly used for organization or personal information processing in all sectors of economy and the society as a whole. The advent of ICT brings all the citizen of this planet close together. Information and communication Technology (ICT) has permeated all nooks and crannies of our society. It has revolutionized the society and, ipso factor, demands corresponding changes in the education sector in line with societal changes (Mbakwem & Okeke, 2007). ICT is further viewed as the combination of computer and telecommunication system to improve the quality of research, teaching, learning and communication through its gathering, processing, storing, connecting, analyzing data functions and dissemination of information. ICT has successfully made fundamental changes in the way and manner many people do business and also communicate, secondary school and administrators inclusive. It has drastically revolutionized business patterns and structures, work habits and interpersonal relationships within an organization. (Mbakwem, 2006). However, most of the developing world lack access to the physical infrastructure through which much of the new knowledge could be enjoyed or utilized, for instance lack of electricity is a major problem confronting the use of ICT facilities, (Obadara & Adenike, 2008). In stating the obvious, Aderibigbe (2008) opined that the world is undergoing a major social and economic change through the new information processing technology of communication and computers. Also, Uwadia (2009) emphasized that ICT serves as a tool for increases productivity and effective decision making. For instance the knowledge of ICT can be explored by the secondary school administrators to ensure teachers effective delivery of services, effective communication, effective maintenance of sound students record system and maintaining academic planning record system among others. In the school system today, it seems impossible to ignore the place of ICT anymore. School administrators are therefore faced with the challenge of incorporating ICT into the management of school in the meaningful and productive way. ICT can improve or enhance the administrative duties of a principal. For instance, computer as one of the ICT facilities can provide better management results. Most experts in education agreed that, when properly used, ICT holds great promise to improve teaching and learning situation (Agabi & Uche, 2006). However, despite the enormous advantages embedded in the use of ICT, it seems as if its deployment has not met with enthusiastic embrace and widespread acceptance of the developing nations. Although this attitude is slowly changing, a wide gap still exists between the developed and the developing nations in the use of ICT (Aderibigbe, 2008). Secondary school administration entails working with and through teachers, non-teaching staff and students to get things done effectively. It is more concerned with the institution, its goals, policies, and execution of these policies (Ajayi & Ayodele, 2003). In school administration according to Jaiyeoba (2006), the primary aim has to do with the improvement of teaching and learning and all the activities of the school; and which is being performed by the principals in secondary schools. The place of ICT in secondary school administration therefore can not be overemphasized considering the problems of over-enrolment of students, shortage of instructional materials and human resources, inadequate infrastructural facilities coupled with poor funding of secondary education which appear to be militating against effective secondary school administration, most especially in Ekiti state. As the secondary educational system is expanding at an unprecedented rate so also the problems of its planning, organizing, coordinating, controlling and directing which are to be performed by the school principal. It has been observed that the level of principals ICT awareness in secondary school administration in Ekiti-state seems to be low, many of the principals seem not to have the basic knowledge of ICT facilities such as computer and internet to mention just two and it also appears as if some of the secondary schools in Ekiti-state are not even well equipped with necessary ICT facilities and it seems as if school administration is effective in the secondary schools with ICT facilities than those without it, it also seems as if ICT remains a low policy of financial priorities in most secondary schools in Ekiti state. On this note, this paper is set to identify whether there is any relationship between ICT and secondary school administration in Ekiti state.
Statement of the Problem This study was designed to identify the relationship that exist between ICT and secondary administration. It has been observed that the level of principals ICT awareness seem to be low. Also, the school administrators irrespective of their gender differences seems to be more at home with administering their schools through the conventional way of administration despite the fact that we are in computer and information age. Traditional
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method of administration appears to be far from what administrators need at this information age in order to bring about effective administration in their schools. The conventional administrative method has been observed to be highly rigid and does not issue practical result. The study therefore set out to investigate the relationship between ICT and effective secondary school administration. The following research questions were raised to guide the study. 1. 2. What is the level of awareness of ICT knowledge by the secondary school administrator in Ekiti-state. Are secondary schools in Ekiti-state well equipped with ICT facilities.
Research Hypotheses In order to find solution to the problems of this study, the following research hypotheses were raised to pilot the study. 1. 2. There is no significant relationship between ICT and effective secondary school administration. Principals gender differences will not significantly influence their attitude towards ICT and effective secondary school administration.
METHODOLOGY
The descriptive research design of the survey type was used for this study. The population consisted of all the principals in all the public secondary schools in Ekiti state, while the sample consisted of 180 principals randomly selected from the secondary schools in 3 senatorial districts that make up Ekiti-state. 60 principals were selected through simple random sampling technique from each of the senatorial district making a total of 180 principals altogether. A questionnaire tagged ICT and Secondary school administration Validated by research experts in measurement and evaluation was used to elicit information needed from the respondents. The questionnaires were personally administered by the researcher on the respondents and this enhanced good and prompt response from the respondents. The data collected were analysed, scored and subjected to statistical analysis. The hypotheses raised were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study were presented based on the research questions and hypotheses generated.
Research question 1: What is the level of awareness of ICT knowledge by the secondary school administrators in Ekiti state?
Table 1: Level of ICT awareness by the secondary school administrators
Level High Moderate Low Total
Frequency 40 53 87 180
Percentage 22.22 29.44 48.33
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Results in table 1 showed 40 persons which accounted for 22.22% of the total respondents perceived the principals level of ICT awareness as high. While 53 respondents (29.44) saw administrator level of ICT awareness as rather moderate and 87 respondents (48.33%) however saw it as rather low.
Research question 2: Are secondary schools in Ekiti-state well equipped with ICT facilities?
Table 2: The views of the respondents about ICT facilities in the secondary schools S/N 1. Items Many of the secondary schools in the state are strangers to ICT facilities, especially computer ICT facilities are haparzardly provided for in many of the secondary schools in the state Computers are the only ICT facilities available in many secondary schools in the state My school is well equipped with ICT facilities Lack of electricity often jeopardizes effective use of ICT facilities in my school. Agree 84 % 46.67 Disagree 96 % 53.33
2. 3.
161 136
89.44 75.56
19 44
10.56 24.44
4. 5.
64 129
35.56 71.66
116 51
64.44 28.33
From table 2, it is seen that 46.67% of the respondents agree that many of the secondary schools in the state are strangers to ICT facilities while 53.33% disagreed with this position. 89.44% of the respondents again was of the view that ICT facilities are haparzardly provided for in their schools but 19% of the respondents disagreed with this stand. On the availability of ICT facilities in schools, 75.56% of the respondents agreed that only computers are the ICT facilities available in their schools while 44% disagreed with this. However, 35.56% of the respondents submitted that their schools are well equipped with ICT facilities while 64.44% of the respondents disagreed with this. Also, 71.66% of the respondents agreed that lack of electricity often jeopardizes the effective use of ICT facilities in their schools while 28.33% of the respondents disagreed with this.
Hypothesis 1: There is no significant relationship between ICT and effective secondary school administration.
Table 3: Test of relationship between ICT and effective secondary school administration Item ICT Administrative effectiveness N 180 180 P < 0.05 0.326 0.195 r-cal r-table
Table 3 shows the relationship between ICT and effective secondary school administration. The result obtained from the analysis shows that the value of r-calculated (0.326) is greater than r-table (0.195) at 0.05 level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected. That is, there is significant relationship between ICT and effective secondary school administration.
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Hypothesis 2: Principals gender differences will not significantly influence their attitude towards ICT and effective secondary school administration
Table 4: t-test showing influence of principal gender difference on their attitude toward ICT and effective secondary school administration Variable Male Female N 110 70 X 1.65 1.82 SD 1.96 2.43 17.8 14.2 1.96 DF t-cal t-tab
Table 4 showed the influence of principals sex on their attitude towards ICT and effective secondary school administration. The value of t-calculated (1.42) is lesser than t-table (1.96) at 0.05 level of significance. The null hypothesis on principals gender difference is hereby not rejected. The findings showed that the principal attitude towards ICT and effective secondary school administration is not as a result of their gender difference.
DISCUSSION
The result in table 1 showed that the level of ICT awareness by the secondary school administrators is low. This shows the poor response of the school administrators to the use of ICT, perhaps owing in part to poverty and largely to ignorance. This position is line with Aderibigbe (2008) findings that attitudinal response of people to the use of ICT in the developing world (school administrators inclusive) is of great concern. The findings also indicated that many of the secondary schools understudied in the state are not well provided with ICT facilities and where they are available, there use are obviously being jeoperdised by lack of electricity. This finding is line with Obadara and Adenaike (2008) findings that lack of electricity, high cost of computers and internet access, all contribute to deprive citizens, enterprises and workers in developing countries from benefiting from the ICT revolution. It was also found out in the study that there was significant relationship between ICT and effective secondary school administration. It could be inferred from the result of the tested hypothesis that ICT will among others things facilitate effective administration and management of activities and processes. This study is in agreement with Uwadia (2009) that ICT will among others serve as a tool for increased productivity, act as a tool for information storage, processing and retrieval and increase decision-making. Another findings of this study indicated that administrators gender difference have no influence on their attitude towards ICT and effective secondary school administration.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
From this study, it could be concluded that many administrators of the secondary schools understudied were not ICT driven and government on its own part also failed to provide ICT facilities in secondary schools. The gender of a school administrator also has no bearing on his/her use of ICT facilities and effective secondary school administration. It is therefore recommended based on the findings of this study that adequate provision of ICT facilities should be made into schools by the government, parents and philanthropists should assist educational institutions by donating computers and internet services to them. Also, the administrators should be encouraged to be ICTdriven so as to boost their productivity.
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REFERENCES
Aboderin, O.S. (2009). The status of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in secondary schools in Ondo State. Ph.D. thesis University of Ado-Ekiti. Adenaike, F.A. and Obadara, O. (2008). The Role of ICT in the Development of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (IVET). African Journal of Educational Managenement, 11(1). Jan. Aderibigbe, F. (2008). The Place of Information and Communication Technology in the Preparation of Examination Results. Being the text of a paper delivered on one day seminar organized by the University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria on Boosting the Job Performance of Academic Staff. March 2008.. Agabi, O.G. and Uche, C.M. (2006). ICT Adoption and Information Quality in Effective University Management. Nigerian Journal of Educational Administration and Planning (NAEAP) Vol. 6, No. 2, June. Ajayi, I.A. and Ayodele, J.B. (2003). Fundamentals of Educational Management Ado-Ekiti, Greenline Publishers. Nigeria. Ayeni, A.A. (2004). Relevance of ICT to the Construction of Sports Courts and Pitches,.West African Journal of Physical and Health Education. Vol. 8, July. Jaiyeoba, A.O. (2006). Educational Management: Thoughts and Practice. Edited by J.R. Babalola, Ibadan, Codat Publications. Mbakwem, J.N. and Okeke, F.N. (2007). Enhancing Internal and External Quality Assurance Mechanisms in Nigerian University through ICT compliance. In Access Equity and Quality in Higher Education, NAEAP publication, 2007. Mbakwem, J.N. (2006). Undergraduate Students Perception of the Role of ICT in National Development. Paper presented at the 19th Annual Conference of the Curriculum Organization of Nigeria (CON) held at Olabisi-Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, from Sept. 12th to Sept. 15th. Uwadia, C. (2009). Is ICT a sine-qua-non to modern University Management. Being an address delivered at 46th edition of the Business meeting of the committee of Registrars of Nigerian Universities (CORNU). May 2nd 4th.
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A CORRELATIONAL ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN WAEC AND NECO MATHEMATICS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA
AJAO, I.O.* and AWOGBEMI , C.A.**

*
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, The Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.

** **
National Mathematical Centre, Kwali, Abuja, Nigeria.
E- mail address for correspondence: awogbemiadeyeye@yahoo.com
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: This study presents the findings of the relationship between students achievement in mathematics conducted by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) in four selected secondary schools in Ifedayo Local Government Area , Osun State, Nigeria. The analysis showed that there is significant positive relationship between mathematics in all the selected schools contrary to the hypothesis that says there is no relationship in WAEC and NECO mathematics results in the schools. It is therefore recommended that students should develop more interest in sitting for either of the two examinations since they produce equivalent results. Keywords: WAEC, NECO, Correlation Coefficient, Mathematics results, Performance _____________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
Every culture on earth has developed some mathematics. In some cases, this mathematics has spread from one culture to another. There is now a predominant international mathematics, and this mathematics has quite a history. It has its roots in ancient Egypt and Babylonia, and then grew rapidly in ancient Greece. Mathematics written in ancient Greek was translated into Arabic. About the same time, some mathematics of India was translated into Arabic. Later on, mathematics was translated into Latin and became the mathematics of Western Europe. Over a period of several hundreds of years, it became mathematics of the world (Joyce, 1998). This study presents the findings of a study of the relationship between students achievement in mathematics conducted by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and the one by the National Examination council (NECO), in selected secondary schools in Ifedayo Local Government Area of Osun State. It is a fundamental statement nowadays that we are in the age of science and technology and Nigeria has also imbibed the idea. The school curricula thus lay emphasis on science subjects of which mathematics takes a higher rank. Hence, it is one of the core subjects in both primary and secondary school in the nation. (Amini, 1997)
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The West African Examination Council (WAEC) for a number of decades has been the only examination body in this country especially for ordinary level examinations. A lot of concerns have been expressed by large number of concerned citizens on students failure especially in mathematics and English language. In the year 2000, the Federal Government of Nigeria came up with another examination board referred to as National Examination Council (NECO). Is this new body efficient in its work? What about students performance if compared with that of WAEC? Is there any relationship between WASSCE mathematics results and NECO mathematics results? These are some of the questions that shall be answered during the course of this research. Recently, there has been a lot of mounting public criticism on the fallen standard of education in the media and public places even though there has not been available or little data to back up this statement. There has also been criticism against NECO. Some even say their questions are tough than those of WAEC. Some universities who once rejected NECO results now accept it. Many private owned secondary schools now register their students for NECO. One of the reasons could be that WAEC and NECO have the same syllabus and each of them has a regulatory body. So, their results should be equivalent. Investigation had shown that students in secondary schools are not very much interested in sciences even though they are aware of the benefits therein. This is due to academic difficulty, using choice of subject and course, poor standard in mathematics and English Language; others are lack of textbooks and insufficient home support (Ajeyalemi, 1987). The importance of mathematics in studying science has long been recognized world-wide. Now that there are two major examination bodies, is there any relationship between students achievement in both examinations with respect to mathematics? If there is, how strong or weak is it? The suggestions and recommendations in this study will go a long way in determining which examination body should be preferred by the schools or students based on the results of the analysis.
THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF MATHEMATICS IN THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM Mathematics is not entirely abstract but has practical aspects. It touches all aspects of life. According to Greek philosophers, the whole life is synonymous to mathematics. The Greek believes that everything can be mathematics. On the other hand, according to Lawton(1983), curriculum has to do with a whole range of matters and tasks relating to contents, experiences and the implementation of the plans into practice by the class-room teachers. For all secondary school students in Nigeria, it is compulsory to offer mathematics. This is in line with the National Policy on Education (FRN, 1981) which emphasizes mathematics as a vehicle of science and technology. The National Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) which was established late 1964 organized series of seminars and workshops between 1973 and 1975 on how to plan a curriculum and produce syllabi textbooks and other instructional materials for all levels of education. This was in anticipation of the proposed new policy on education. In his work, Fakuade (1976) declared that it is a fact that excellence in the knowledge and use of mathematics is an essential factor in the development programme of any nation that wants to have respectable status among other nations of the world. Due to Technological awareness and the need to teach Science and Mathematics for meeting societal needs and aspirations, quite a number of science curriculum projects were prepared for primary and secondary schools and are constantly reviewed. Notably among these include: African Primary Science Programme (APSP) which was later known as Science Education programme for Africa (SEPA), Midwest Bendel Primary School Science, Nigerian Integrated Science Project (NISP) and so on.
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Abdullahi (1982) pointed out that Mathematics like an octopus has its numerous tentacles in all branches of knowledge. In the same vein, Dada (1996) reiterated the fact that teaching of mathematics in secondary education after independence did not in any significant way different from what it used to be before the independence. It was such lives and cries that forced the government to organize a national conference on curriculum development in Lagos between September 8-12, 1969. The conference on curriculum was sponsored by the Nigerian Educational Research Development Council (NERDC) and was saddled with the onerous responsibility of reviewing the nations educational system with particular emphasis on the objectives of education and the content of the curriculum in the light of the peoples needs; both as individuals and as a nation (Dada, 1996). The Sogbetun Commission of enquiry recommended the setting up of NECO, along with Angulu led Commission in 1989 when Professor Bab Fafunwa became Minister of Education (FRN, 1989). The following are some of the roles of WAEC and NECO:
i. ii. iii. iv.
Conduct examination and award certificates. Set questions and conduct examinations to cover such areas as practical, oral and Essay. Set a common standard through their syllabi and draw a uniform time table for conduct of examinations. Provide data or feedback on students performance to schools, thus helping to fast- track improvement in teaching and learning in schools. (Ibrahim 2003)
Adeogun(1991) showed the relationship between students performance in chemistry and mathematics in some selected secondary schools in Ilorin Local Government Area of Kwara State. Twelve (12) schools were selected by stratified random sampling technique. Twenty (20) students from each of the selected secondary schools were chosen by systematic random sampling techniques. Among the findings by the researcher are:
i. ii. iii.
There is a positive and high correlation between students performance in chemistry and mathematics. Boys performance in chemistry and mathematics is not better than the girls The locations of the schools (urban or rural) had influence on students performance in chemistry and mathematics (Adeogun, 1991)
A lot of concern has been expressed by a large number of concerned citizens on students attitudes to sciences. Their verdict was that there was low enrolment of students in science. (Aminu, 1987). The importance of students performance in science and mathematics could not be viewed slightly at it helps in pursuit of academic and industrial revolution. The importance of mathematics in studying and understanding sciences has long been recognized worldwide (Ale 1981, Osibodu 1981). Aliyu (1983), in his research study, concluded that chemistry topics which require mathematics for proper understanding are difficult areas for Nigeria High School students in terms of comprehension. He therefore concluded again that there is a relationship between mathematics and chemistry empirically. Students who find mathematics easy to understand tend to turn towards chemistry and those who find mathematics difficult choose against chemistry. Continuous assessment is the mechanism whereby this final grading of a student in cognitive affective and psychomotor domains of behaviour takes into account a systematic way of all his performance during a given period of schooling (FRN, 1981) Adeyemo (1991) has his primary objective highlighting the relationship between continuous Assessment and Junior school Certificate Examination scores in mathematics.
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Terminal assessments are those administered on learners after a series of lessons, usually covering many different concepts or topics that have been taught (Ayodele, 1985). He highlighted further that such assessments usually come at the end of the term, session or the middle of the session. Ayodele (1985) also said something about periodic assessments. These are more frequent especially with mathematics teachers, usually in form of quizzes, mental sums, and short tests. Spencer (1961) was of the opinion that mathematical experience could be interesting and fruitful in developing individual abilities to understand social institution and in equipping one to meet more effectively problems which occur in his personal life. Another study by Ogunleye (1991) was carried out in sampled secondary schools in Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Nigeria. The study examined the relationship between students attitude toward mathematics and their performance in it. Some hypotheses were formulated and tested statistically. Within the limitation of the study, mathematics attitudes are conclusively related to achievement in mathematics. The study revealed that mathematics is seen as more useful to males than females. This fact is documented by Sherman and Fennema (1972). An investigation revealed significant correlation between attitudes and mathematical achievement (Jackson,1988). Since his review concentrated on measured attitude towards mathematics, one may then conclude that attitude towards specific subjects are more related to school achievement than a general attitude towards the school. As regards sex factor in attitude and performance of students in mathematics, it was discovered that when males and females performance were compared for the analysis, there existed a sex factor in the students performance in mathematics. (Ogunleye, 1991). Aiken and Danger (1961) discussed the effect of sex differences on performance of students. Aiken said: I have consistently found a significantly more positive mean attitude towards mathematics in males. This statement implies that there are differences in attitude of males and females towards mathematics. In his work, James (1992) tested for the relationship between mathematics and physics. Five questions were drawn from each topic which were given to the students to solve in five different schools. The solutions were collected and analyzed to bring out the various concepts that are involved. With this, relevant mathematical concepts for understanding physics were however identified. Adekanni, O. (1989) declared that without mathematics there is no physics. Arinola(1996) examined the correlation between the performance in MOCK- SSCE and SSCE examinations in mathematics from 1990 to 1994 at Ajibade Grammar School, Ibadan. The correlation analysis was employed to determine the relationship that exists between the MOCK and SSCE examination. That is to examine the contribution of the mock examination on the final SSCE examination. The findings showed that the MOCK- SSCE and SSCE results were closely related for the period of study (1990 to 1994). These results however, showed that there is less relationship between the two sets of grades for MOCKSSCE and SSCE. Thus, the insignificant correlation obtained shows that both results were generally poor. The implication of the close relationship of MOCK-SSCE and SSCE results are as follows: i. ii. That, students who passed mathematics in the MOCK- SSCE have very low probability of failing mathematics in the SSCE result. That, students who failed mathematics in the MOCK-SSCE have very low probability of passing mathematics in the SSCE. (Arinola, 1996) The relevance of mathematics to the physical sciences was emphasized by Owa (1988) in his work on Games in mathematics education when he pointed out that, mathematics is a must on the school curriculum right from the primary school to the senior secondary school since it is the basis of understanding science. It is a known fact that one cannot understand concepts and phenomena in physics or chemistry without a set of high powered mathematics tools. This was carried out and clarified further by Adeoye (1991) when he pointed out that mathematical knowledge and skills are prerequisites for successful learning of Physics.
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Ninan (1970) in his study involving 76 undergraduates of liberal Arts at Hinter college of city University of New York, found that the students of the experimental group, that is those whose basic curriculum had been supplemented by mathematical models texts, performed significantly better in the physics test than the control group who has studied only the basic curriculum. He then advised that students of science should learn the mathematical concepts and skills which are applicable in science because their attainment of scientific progress depends much on their mathematical competence. Adeniran (1990) looked at various factors responsible for poor performance of students in mathematics and ways of minimizing the problems. A total of five secondary schools from which 200 students and 40 mathematics teachers were drawn participated in the study. One cognitive measuring instrument (mathematics achievement test) and two non-cognitive (The teachers questionnaires and students questionnaires) were used for data collection. The results showed that a good percentage of sample of students drawn have a negative attitude towards mathematics. There was a significant relationship between students attitudes towards mathematics and their performance in it. Results also showed that boys performed significantly better than their girls counterpart. Several other intervening factors were suspected to be responsible for the poor students achievement in mathematics and suggestions were made for further in depth research into effect of such factors.
MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY
The data for the study were collected from four selected secondary schools in Ifedayo Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria using Simple Random Sampling. The Scope of data spans through the period 2000-2004. The correlation coefficient, r, of the relationship between students performance in WAEC mathematics and NECO mathematics in various school were calculated The computational formula for correlation coefficient, r, as defined or deduced by Karl Pearson is
r
where
[ N X 2 ( X ) 2 ][ N Y 2 ( Y 2 )]
N = Number of pairs Xi = Marks in WAEC mathematics Yi = Marks in NECO mathematics.
N XY X Y
The method of analysis is chosen because the Pearson product moment coefficient is sufficient to provide the direction and magnitude of the relationship between the two variables (WAEC Mathematics and NECO mathematics) for this study.
TESTING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CORRELATION COEFFICIENT In order to test whether there is significant correlation between WAEC and NECO mathematics results in all the schools, t-test was used:
tr
N 2 1 r2
The level of significance was set as 0.05 significant level (or 95% confidence level) with degree of freedom = N- 2 and N is the number of students.
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The null and alternative hypotheses are given as: H0: There is no significant relationship between WAEC and NECO mathematics results. H1: There is significant relationship between WAEC and NECO mathematics results. The decision rule is: reject H0 if tcalculated > tcritical at 0.05 level of significance ASSUMPTIONS: The following assumptions were made on the students in each of the schools selected: (i) All the students used the same textbooks; (ii) The students used the same syllabus in mathematics; (iii) The students were subjected to the same environmental and social conditions; (iv) The students have the same educational background. All the grades scored were converted to marks for easy computation of the correlation coefficient (see appendix for conversion table).
EMPERICAL ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
The summary is stated below: Table 1: Relationship between students achievement in WAEC mathematics and NECO mathematics in school A for the period 2000 - 2004. School A Year 2000 Year 2001 Year 2002 Year 2003 Year 2004 Correlation Coefficient (r) 0.56 -0.14 0.54 0.39 0.04
Table 1 shows both an average positive (r = 0.56) for year 2000 and low relationship (r = 0.04) for year 2004 between students achievement in WAEC and NECO mathematics. Table 2: Relationship between students achievement in WAEC mathematics and NECO mathematics in school B for the period 2000 - 2004. School A Year 2000 Year 2001 Year 2002 Year 2003 Year 2004 Correlation coefficient (r) 0.69 0.13 0.11 -0.27 0.70
Table 2 shows a high positive value of r = 0.70 for the year 2004, lowest value of r = 0.11 for the year 2002 and negative relationship of r = -0.27 for the year 2003 between students achievement in WAEC mathematics and NECO mathematics.
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Table 3: Relationship between students achievement in WAEC mathematics and NECO mathematics in school C for the period 2000 - 2004. School A Year 2000 Year 2001 Year 2002 Year 2003 Year 2004 Correction coefficient (r) 0.62 0.11 -0.04 0.40 0.73
The table shows a high positive value of r = 0.73 for the year 2004 lowest value of r = 0.11 for the year 2001 and an inverse (negative) relationship of r = 0.04 for the year 2002 between students achievement in WAEC mathematics and NECO mathematics. Table 4: Relationship between students achievement in WAEC mathematics and NECO mathematics in School D for the period 2000 2004 School D Year 2000 Year 2001 Year 2002 Year 2003 Year 2004 Correlation coefficient (r) 0.30 0.56 -0.16 0.65 0.62
Table 4 shows a high positive value of r = 0.65 for the year 2003, lowest value of r = 0.30 for the year 2000 and an inverse (negative) relationship of r = -0.16 for the year 2002 between students achievement in WAEC mathematics and NECO mathematics.
Table 5: Summary of testing for the significance of correlation coefficient School A Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 School B Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 r 0.69 0.13 0.11 -0.27 0.70 r 0.56 -0.14 0.54 0.39 0.04
t-calculated 3.577 -0.748 3.390 2.450 0.212
t-table 2.048 2.048 2.048 2.048 0.048
Remark Significant Insignificant Significant Significant Insignificant
t-calculated 5.065 0.747 0.632 -1.484 5.187
t-table 2.048 2.048 2.048 2.048 0.048
Remark Significant Insignificant Insignificant Insignificant Significant
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School C Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 r 0.62 0.11 -0.04 0.40 0.73
t-calculated 4.181 0.586 -0.212 2.309 5.652
t-table 2.048 2.048 2.048 2.048 0.048
Remark Significant Insignificant Insignificant Significant Significant
School D Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 r 0.30 0.56 -0.16 0.65 0.62
t-calculated 1.664 3.577 -0.858 4.526 4.181
t-table 2.048 2.048 2.048 2.048 0.048
Remark Insignificant Significant Insignificant Significant Significant
SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS
The following major findings were made by the researchers in this study: (1) (2) (3) (4) There was significant positive relationship between students achievement in WAEC and NECO mathematics in school A for the year 2000, 2002 and 2004. There was significant positive relationship between students achievement in WAEC and NECO mathematics in school B for the year 2000 and 2004 There was significant positive relationship between students achievement in WAE and NECO mathematics in school C for the years 2000, 2003 and 2004. There was significant positive relationship between students achievement in WAEC and NECO mathematics in school D for the years 2001, 2003 and 2004
DISCUSSIONS Within the limitation of this study, it has been revealed that there is positive relationship between WAEC and NECO mathematics results. The findings of the study revealed that a student who had credit in WAEC mathematics would have at least a credit or pass in NECO mathematics. Majority of the Students who had credit and above in NECO mathematics obtained at least passes in WAEC mathematics and those who failed in NECO mathematics also failed in WAEC mathematics. The correlation coefficients calculated for each of the schools studied indicated that there was a positive relationship between students achievement in NECO mathematics and WAEC mathematics in four out of five years data used for the study.
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In this study, the research hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between WAEC and NECO mathematics results in all the schools was found invalid. High marks in WAEC mathematics implied high marks in NECO mathematics and low marks in WAEC mathematics implied low marks in NECO mathematics as illustrated in school A for the year 2002 and so on. The findings of the study also revealed that students achievement in WAEC mathematics and NECO mathematics were not affected by the year of the examination or by the location of the school. The least correlation coefficient (r = 0.04) calculated for this study was from school A. However, a unique case occurred at school C which has a high positive correlation coefficient r calculated (i.e. r = 0.73), meaning that students achievements here were closely related in both WAEC and NECO for year 2004. The researchers have no available data to explain why there was a high positive correlation coefficient in WAEC mathematics and NECO mathematics in one school than other schools in the Local Government. Adeogun (1991), determined if students performance in mathematics will enhance their performance in chemistry. He limited his research on WAEC result of 1988 only to find their relationship. Other types of relationship were determined by Ogunleye (1991), Arinnola (1996), Olatunji (1992), Oyeyemi (1988) and James (1992) but none of them worked on relationship between WAEC and NECO mathematics results.
CONCLUSIONS
Life, according to Butter (1962) is the art of drawing sufficient conclusion from insufficient premises. Emanating from the discussion above, the following conclusions are drawn out: (a) There was significant positive relationship between students achievement in WAEC and NECO mathematics is school A for the years 2000, 2002 and 2004. (b) There was significant positive relationship between students achievement in WAEC and NECO mathematics in school B for the years 2000 and 2004. There was significant positive relationship between students achievement in WAEC and NECO mathematics in school C and D for the years 2000, 2003 and 2004. Since it has been found that there is positive relationship between students achievement in most of the schools in the two examination bodies, the hypothesis that there is no significant correlation between WAEC and NECO mathematics results in all the schools was rejected.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations are made in an attempt to improve students achievement in both WAEC and NECO mathematics: i. ii. Students should develop more interest in sitting for either of the two examinations since they were found to be the same or equivalent. Mathematics teachers and school authorities should encourage the students to prepare adequately for both examinations.
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iii. iv.
Students who perform very well in WAEC mathematics should be able to perform well in NECO mathematics so as to confirm the notion that the two bodies produce equivalent results. Parents should encourage their children to put more efforts in studying to reduce the high rate of failure in the two examinations.
SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER STUDIES
On the basis of the above findings, it is suggested that further research should be carried out to: i. ii. iii. investigate whether students who gained admission into higher institutions through WAEC O level result perform better than students who were admitted through NECO O level result. determine whether or not male students are better than their female counterparts in WAEC mathematics and NECO mathematics. investigate whether or not the urban male or female students performance in WAEC mathematics and NECO mathematics differ significantly from those of their rural male or female counterparts.
REFERENCES
Adekanmi, O. (1980). The essentiality of mathematics to physics. Journal of science Teachers Association of Nigeria. 20(3), 15 17 Adeogun, I.O (1991). The Relationship between students performance in chemistry and mathematics. An unpublished PGDE. thesis submitted to the Institute of Education, University of Ilorin. Adeoye, B. (1991). Mathematics, perquisite for successful learning of physics. Journal of mathematics Association of Nigeria. Adeyemi, J.A. (1991) Relationship between Students performance in continuous Assessment and Junior School Certificate Examination in Mathematics. An Unpublished B.Sc (Ed) thesis submitted to the Institute of Education, University of Ilorin. Aiken, L.R. (1970), The Effect of Attitudes on Performance in Mathematics. Journal of Educational Psychology. 52 (1), 19- 24 Aiken and Danger (1961). Effect of sex differences in performance of Students. Journal of Educational Psychology 50 (2), 20-22 Aina, Alonge and Owa (1988). What Mathematics is to the Physical Sciences. Journal of Science Teachers Association of Nigeria 24. (2) 20-23 Ajeyalemi, D. (1987). The Teaching of Chemistry and Mathematics as an Experimental Experience in Nigeria Secondary Schools. Problems and prospects. Journal of Science Teachers Association of Nigeria. 21 (2), 16-25
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Akinola, J.A. (1992). Students Mathematics Background and their Achievement in Physical Sciences. An Unpublished PGDE. thesis Submitted to the Institute of Education University of Ilorin. Ale and Oshibodu (1981). The important of Mathematics in studying and Understanding Science. Journal of Science Teachers Association of Nigeria 19 (1), 3-5 Aliyu, A. (1984). An Investigation into the difficult area of the Ordinary Level Chemistry Syllabus for Nigeria Secondary Schools Journals of Sciences Teachers Association of Nigeria. 21 (2) 18-23 Aminu, J. (1987). Traffic Warden at Ribadu Road: A paper Presented at the 25 years of Centralized University Education in Nigeria Anthony, A (1984). The performance of Nigeria school O level Sciences Students on Mathematics tasks Essential in Secondary School Science Journal of Science Teachers Association of Nigeria 22 (2), 20-22 Arinola, A.A (1996) Performance at MOCK SSCE and SSCE mathematics. An Unpublished PGDE thesis submitted to the Institute of Education, University of Ilorin. Bloomer, R.G. (1980). The role of the head of Department some Questions and Answers Education Research 22 (2), 80-96 Castle E.B. (1959). Principles of Education for Teachers in Africa. Oxford Press (59) Fafunwa, A.B (1974). History of Education in Nigeria. London: George Allen and unwin. Fakuade, A. (1976). Uses of mathematics. Journal of Curriculum Studies: 2 (2), 2-4 Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004). National Policy on Education (4 th ed), Lagos. NERDC. Ilori, A. (1988). Uses of Mathematics in Solving Problems of Natural Sciences, Technology and Commerce Journal of Sciences Teachers Association of Nigeria 20 (2), 4-6 Jackson, O.C. (19988). Correlation between Attitudes and Mathematics Achievement Journal of Educational Psychology 51 (2), 16-18 James, M.O. (1992). Relevance of Mathematics Concepts for Understanding Physics in the Senior Secondary School on (SS 1). An Unpublished B.Sc (ed). Thesis Submitted to the Institute of Education University of Ilorin. Jones, L.V. (1980). Changes in Achievement test Scores of pre college students in mathematics and science. A Review of the Evidence. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina. Joyce, D.F. (1998). History of Mathematics http://alepho.clarku.edu/-djorce/mathlist.html. Lawton, C. (1983). Designing of Curriculum New York: harper and Row Publishing Ninan. D.C. and Gill, N (1970). Relationship between Attitude towards schools subjects and school Achievement. Journal of Educational Research 63 (5), 20-23. Odunsi, T.O. (1984). A Study of the attitude of some Nigeria Science Students Towards Science Teaching. Journal of Science Teachers Association of Nigeria 22 (2), 15-18 Ogunleye, J.A (1991). Relationship between the Students Attitudes Towards Mathematics and their Performances. An Unpublished PGDE thesis submitted to the Institute of Education, University of Ilorin.
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Ormarod, M.B. (1975). Chemistry in Britain London: Longman Osafehinti, J.O. (1990). The University of Mathematics Journal of Mathematical Association of Nigeria 20 (1), 4755 Oyeyemi, M.O. (1988). Effect of Family Background on Academic Performance in Mathematics. An Unpublished PGDE thesis Submitted to the Institute of Education, University of Ilorin. Roberts, L.S. (1974). The Correlation of Science Knowledge of Preserve Elementary Teacher of Education. Journal of Educational Research 22 (2), 23-25. Sherman and Fennema (1972). Usefulness of Mathematics of Males and Females. Educational Research 58 (4), 143-151 Spencer, C.R. (1961). Mathematical Experience means of Developing a Fruitful Individual Journal of Educational Psychology. 24 (3), 17-21.
APPENDIX 1 TABLES OF CONVERSION FOR WAEC AND NECO EXMINATION RESULTS GRADE A1 B2 B3 C4 C5 C6 D7 D8 F9 GRADE OBTAINED A1 B2 B3 C4 C5 C6 D7 D8 F9 MARK INTERVAL 75-100 70-74 65-69 60-64 55-59 50-54 45-49 40-44 0-39 87.5 72 67 62 57 52 47 42 19.5 MID-MARK
CORRESPONDING MARK 87.5 72 67 62 57 52 47 42 19.5
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DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF INTERNET-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN ASSISTANCE FOR PRINT-BASED SELFLEARNING MATERIALS
OMAR MAJID*, ZURAIDAH A. RAHMAN, HANAFI ATAN, AHMAD H. MOHAMAD School of Distance Education, University Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia *E-mail address for correspondence: momar@usm.my
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: The article reports on the development and evaluation of the Internet-based systematic instructional design assistance that is intended for the development of print-based self-learning materials. The system consists of three main elements namely, the instructional design principle, subject contents and collaboration among members of the course development team. The combination of these elements facilitates the collaborative social workspace for the collective use of the subject matter by experts, instructional designers, graphic artists, editors and administrators to effectively develop the self-learning materials. The evaluation of the system was based on the structured interview of the participants who had played his/her role in the development of the self-learning materials. The overall comment from the participants was positive as the system was able to reduce the turnaround time in the development of such learning materials, and the system allowed for the production of the learning materials which conformed to the instructional design principles. However, there were some shortcomings in the system. The support for the instructional design principle was not specific to a particular subject matter. The workspace within a specific template was also found to be restrictive and it hindered the overall flow of the development of the self-learning materials. The various issues and challenges elucidated from this evaluation are discussed in the paper. Keywords: Instructional design, internet-based, self-learning materials, print-based learning materials _________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
In the development of print-based self-learning materials for distance learners, instructional design can be defined as the procedure of planning the instruction in a way that it induces the distance learners to actively engage the learning materials using some form of cognitive strategies (West et al., 1991). Gros et al. (1997), on the other hand, states that instructional design is the process of providing links between learning theories and how we learn and the practices of building an instructional system is the arrangement of resources and procedures to promote learning. It is thus imperative that some form of instructional design should exist in the design of learning materials so that the contents are arranged in a logical manner and are able to stimulate and induce learning and achieve the learning objectives set forth (Yusup, 1999).
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The development of the self-learning materials involved a team of personnel with various expertise such as the subject matter expert (the contents writer), instructional designer, editor, graphic artist and administrator. The task was challenging and the team had to work closely together in order to produce high quality self-learning materials containing all the functions a teacher would carry out in the face-toface setting such as guiding, motivating, explaining, provoking, reminding, asking questions, discussing, appraising, providing remedial and enrichment help (Rowntree, 1986). The conventional way of producing self-learning materials is very time consuming and very costly. The novice needs to be regularly trained to acquire the necessary skills to incorporate the appropriate cognitive theories into the design of instruction. The development also involves a series of face-to-face meetings to coordinate the various roles of the members of the development team. In addition, there are extensive physical movements of documents from one member of the team to another with each of them assuming a set of different tasks. In order to reduce the needs of continuous training for the novice, physical meetings among team members and to minimize the physical movements of documents, this study is intended to develop a systematic instructional design system with the following aims:
i.
Provide instructional design assistance to the subject matter expert at every stage of the self-learning materials development. This is achieved via the provision of templates illustrating the appropriate examples that conform to the instructional events as well as the required instructional design principle and the pedagogical approaches to be adhered to.
ii.
Provide a sharable workspace for the designated members. This space is used collectively by all team members in the construction of the learning materials. Each member can complete the defined tasks within the sharable workspace and the learning materials thus evolve and grow as the developmental process progresses. Such a space also eliminates the needs of separate and independent evaluations and peer reviews by other subject matter experts, instructional designers and editors.
iii.
Provide a platform for collaboration among team members. This collaboration can be conducted anytime and anywhere, thus overcoming the spatial and temporal constraints among team members.
Some instructional design applications have already been developed by researchers such as the IDXelerator (Merrill & Thompson, 1999). However, these are learning-oriented applications that include built-in instructional strategies and run within the multimedia ToolBook. The applications are not internet-based and require installation at individual user PCs. They do not contain collaborative tools and the sharable workspace that this study intends to develop. Ridzwan (2007), Kasowitz, (1998),Lewis, D. (2003), Merill (1999), Muraida & Spector (1993) and Paquette et al. (1994) have also developed an application for the development of learning materials based on the instructional design principle but the final product was targeted for the incorporation of other multimedia attributes to enhance the learning experience. In contrast, this study focuses solely on the development of print-based self-learning materials and the final product is not for delivery in the multi-media based format. Due to the importance of the pedagogical elements in the instructional contents of self-learning materials and the need to reduce the turnaround time, this study seeks to develop and evaluate the systematic Internet-based assistance for self-learning materials development. Specifically, the objectives of this study are to: i. ii. develop a systematic online application for self-learning materials based on Gagnes Nine Events of Instruction. determine if such an application can assist the subject matter expert to write materials more easily.
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iii.
determine if the application can assist the instructional designer to monitor or supervise the subject matter expert more readily throughout the development of the self-learning materials. find out how the application can reduce the turnaround time for the development of the self-learning materials. investigate the extent to which the materials written by the subject matter expert abide with the instructional design principle adopted.
iv. v.
THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE SYSTEM
The theoretical framework of the system has been reported by Ahmad et al. (2009). The main features of the system consist of the following modules: i ii. iii. iv. v. The User Access Module The System Administration Module The Instructional Design Principle Module The Collaboration Module The Content Development Module
The Instructional Design Principle Module is the main module that provides the assistance to the subject matter expert via various suitable templates made available at the appropriate instructional events. In this way, the system is providing continuous assistance to the subject matter expert during the entire process of the writing of the learning materials. The Collaboration Module incorporated into the system allows asynchronous online discussions to be conducted among the assigned members of the developmental team, i.e. the subject matter expert, instructional designer, editor, graphic artist and the administrator.
The next important module is the Content Development Module. This module focuses on the text editor who looks at the materials prepared by the subject matter expert. This module is sharable as the teaching contents can be subsequently updated and revised by members of the team. As such, it allows the creation of new versions of the learning materials which can be further expanded or updated and revised by members of the team until the final version is arrived at and approved by the members. Figure 1 depicts the conceptual framework of the system.
Collaboration Module
Subject Matter Expert Instructional Designer Graphic Artist Editor System Administrator
Subject Matter Expert Instructional Designer Graphic Artist Editor System Administration
Content Development Module
Output
Instructional Design Principle Module
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Figure 1: The conceptual framework of the system (Ahmad et al., 2009)
The figure shows that the Content Development Module is contributed by three sub-modules, namely, the Collaboration Module, the team members (subject matter expert, instructional designer, graphic artist, editor and systems administrator) and the Instructional Design Principle Module. The team members share the same workspace and collaborate with each other in the process of the learning material development. The Content Development Module thus serves as a social workspace for all members to generate the final version of the contents. In addition, the subject matter expert is supported by the Instructional Design Principle Module during the entire process of writing.
The initial writing conducted in the Content Developmental Module is subsequently revised and edited by the instructional designer and editor. The graphic artist then incorporates the required graphics within the contents as discussed with the subject matter expert in the collaboration module. The revising and editing represent a continuous process until the final contents are agreed upon by all members. Thus, the final contents can be considered as an evolution of the contents from the draft format to the final format carried out by all members in the team. The developed contents by the subject matter expert are kept in the server and all designated users are able to gain access to the materials for further revision and refinement. Once the team is satisfied with the final version of the contents, they can be published in the pdf format and printed and distributed to students.
EVALUATION OF THE SYSTEM
The preliminary evaluation of the prototype system was carried out involving a focus group discussion among the members of the contents development of the particular course. The discussion involved a series of structured questions aimed at eliciting the strengths and weaknesses of the developed system. The subject matter expert perceived that the system was useful and capable of helping a writer like him to write self-learning materials based on Gagnes Nine Events of Instruction more easily. The instructional design assistance provided via the various templates would assist him to write materials which would be consistent with the various stages of the instructional design and intended learning outcomes. However, the subject matter expert pointed out several weakness of the system which included the limited use of the instructional design assistance. This facility only provided general templates of instructional design events and the assistance was not specific for the use of a particular subject matter. Comprehensive instructional design assistance covering the instructional design events for all subjects should be made readily available for the system to be of significant use. In addition, the expert felt that the instructional design assistance was not very user-friendly to the extent that it interfered with the actual writing process. The system also did not support texts with special characters such as mathematical characters as well as there was difficulty in uploading and positioning the image files. The evaluative feedback on the instructional design aspect revealed that the system allowed the instructional designer to easily monitor or supervise the subject matter expert throughout the development of the self-learning materials. The role of the instructional designer in the self-learning materials development was made easy with the provision of the sharable workspace. The instructional designer could be involved in the revision of the contents at any stage of the writing and this could be done regardless of spatial and temporal constraints. Nevertheless, the instructional designer agreed with the subject matter expert that the instructional design assistance could be made more beneficial and useful to the expert if a wide range of templates was made available for each instructional design event and if it could cater for most of the subjects involved e.g. covering the areas of physical or biological sciences, social sciences, humanities and other fields. In this way, the subject matter expert is provided with sufficient guidance and support throughout the writing process.
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The administrator felt that the application could reduce the turnaround time for the development of selflearning materials. The face-to-face meetings between each member of the development team could be reduced or eliminated altogether. The administrator also felt that if the materials written by the subject matter expert adhered to the applications and abide by the instructional design principle adopted, the system had the capability of producing high quality self-learning materials with respect to instructional design.
CONCLUSION
The conventional process of developing self-learning materials involves many physical face-to-face meetings between each member of the development team for the purpose of coordination at various stages of the development. At the same time, physical documents have to be transferred from one person to the other for revision or editing and upgrading thus lengthening the period for development before the final version can be produced, printed and distributed to students. The system that is being developed is an attempt to shorten the developmental time, reduce the cost of the development and at the same time, enhance the quality of the self-learning materials being produced. We managed to develop such a system which fulfils the objectives set forth. However, improvements have to be made to many areas in the system before full implementation can be carried out.
REFERENCES
Ahmad H. Mohamad, Zuraidah A. Rahman, Omar Majid & Hanafi Atan (2009). A Conceptual Framework for the Development of Internet-based Systematic Instructional Design Assistance. Paper presented at the IADIS International WWW/Internet Conference 2009, 19-22 November 2009, Rome. Baker, M. (1994). Adapting instructional design methods to intelligent multimedia authoring systems. http://ses.telecom-paristech.fr/baker/publication/ArticlesBakerPDF/.../1994c.pdf Gros, B., Elen, J.K., Merrienboer, J.M. & Spector, M. (1997). Instructional design and the authoring of multimedia and hypermedia system: Does a marriage make sense? Educational Technology, 37(1), 48-56. Kasowitz, A. (1998). Tools for Automating Instructional Design, ED420304. Syracuse, NY: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology. Lewis, D. (2003). Automating Instructional Design with Automated Pedagogical Agent Systems: Will There Always Be a Need for Instructional Designers? Paper presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology Annual Meeting, October 2226, Anaheim, CA. http:// www.coedu.usf.edu/agents/aect2003/ Merrill, M. D. (1999). Instructional transaction theory (ITT): Instructional design based on knowledge objects. In Instructional-Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory, Vol. II, edited by C. M. Reigeluth, pp. 397424. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Merill, M.D. & Thomson, B.M. (1999). The IDXelerator: Learning-Centred Instructional Design http://mdavidmerill.com/Papers/ElectronicTextBook.PDF Muraida, D. J. and Spector, J. M. (1993). The advanced instructional design advisor. Instructional Science, 21(4), 239253.
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Paquette, G., Aubin, C., and Crevier, F. (1994). An intelligent support system for course design. Educational Technology, 34(9), 5057. Ridzwan W A (2007). An Application for Creating e-Learning Content Story Board Based on Instructional Design Principle. Master Thesis. Universiti Malaya. Unpublished. Rowntree, D. (1986). Teaching Through Self-Instruction. London: Kogan Page. West, C.K., Farmer, J.A. & Wolff, P.M. (1991). Instructional Design Implications from Cognitive Science. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Yusup, H. (1999). Are instructional design elements being used in module writing? British Journal of Educational Technology, 30 (4), 341-358.
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IMPACT OF SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICES ON KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE & PRACTICE OF HEALTH AMONG STUDENTS TOWARDS STRENGTHENING NATIONAL HEALTH STATUS IN DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY ABRAKA
JOSEPH O. OGBE Department of Physical and Health Education, Delta State University, Abraka E-mail address for correspondence: ogbe_joseph@yahoo.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: The study was all about assessing of undergraduate students and would be health education professionals, on knowledge, attitude and practice of school health services. This is to ascertain their understanding of the benefits of school health services. Two sets of students; experimental and control groups who were purposively sampled for used. A pre- experiment post test only, non equivalent design was used to test knowledge, attitude and practice of school health services. The correlation analysis of pearsmans correlation and independent t- test were used to analyze the data at alpha of 0.05. The findings reveal that students had good understanding of knowledge, attitude and practice with the three variables significantly correlated. It was observed that Health Education Students were significantly positively informed than their Social studies Education counterparts. It was recommended that the present level of awareness of school health services be sustained and improve upon, among other recommendations. Key words: school health services, health education, school community ______________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION Health education is a teaching learning process directed at a learner acquiring knowledge, positive attitude and skill or practice for the well-being of himself and others School health services is a component of school health education, referred to as school health programme or education. School health education / programme comprises of school health instruction by which health education purpose is achieved. The school health services is directed at the well being and health of the school community (learners, teachers and non teachers) and the school healthy living environment meant to cater for preventive health of the school community. The school health service is meant to promote the health of the school community. Without it there will be drastic reduction in learning. This is because learning is a factor of physically, mental and social well- being. It is only with this, that intelligence, absorptive and retain memory is developed. Towards this, the federal ministry of education, Nigeria in 2006, approved the national school health policy, with the mission statement:
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To put in place adequate facilities, resources and programmes. That will guarantee physical and mental health, social well being and the safety and security of the school community which will promote the learning outcomes of the child. National School health policy 2006, page 4 The school community is made up of students, teaching and non-teaching personnel. National school policy (2006) defined school community to mean all the people living /working within the school premises including pupils / students, the teaching and non-teaching staff as well as members of their families Udoh, Fawole, Ajala, Okafor, Nwana and Obayan (200) stated that the coordinal objective of school health service as a component of school health programme is to promote and maintain the health of the school child and the school personnel .The national school health policy (2006) was specific to state that to help children at school to achieve the maximum health possible to obtain full benefit from their education. Very often it was observed by this researcher that some students may not care very much about their health as they often take to drinking, smoking and even keep late nights. Others may not register in the university health facility. Other may not report at the health facility when sick. The question is often asked: Do students know much about school health services available to them? The rationale of the study is to know how much students know of the school health services available to them, as to form the basis for guiding and counseling of students. The focus of this study was to assess students benefits of school health services in term of their knowledge, attitude and practice of health, and to make comparison between health education students in their knowledge, attitude and practice (skills) and their social studies education counterpart. The statement of problem in the study was simply put at: Do students school health services practice in Delta state university justify the aims and objectives of school health services towards strengthening national health status? An individual health status is the ranking of the absence or presence of the determinant of health, which according the world health organization (1948), include, the level of physical, mental, and social wellbeing plus the absence of disease or infirmity. But what determines an individual health status? Ajala (2005) stated that the overall health status of a population or of the individual is not a simple task. He stated further; Many factors must be considered. Factors relating to mortality. Such as life expectancy, mortality rate, both total and cause specific mortality; infant mortality and maternal mortality are frequently used to assess the health of the people in an area. Ajala (2005) pg25 School health service is a sub set of school health education, would assess, as to what extent has theses aforementioned variables be achieved in the school community. Towards this, school health services include pre-entry medical screening, routine screening examination; school health records; sickbay, first Aid and referral services. (NSHP 2006). Also included is the provision of advisory and counseling services for the school community and parents. The objectives are to provide basic services for disease prevention and management of injuries in the school and build capacity of the school community to identify, treat and manage simple illness, injuries infections and infestation (NSHP 2006). Personnel for school health services include; medical doctors, nurses, health educators, environmental health officers, school guidance and counselors, community health workers, dietitians, nutritionists, school teachers and social workers (NSHP 2006) Various studies have been conducted on school health services. Ademiju and Ayanlaja (2006) assessed teachers perception of school health services and concluded that public primary school teachers are aware of school health services and their benefits to pupils and the school community and that non- provision of varied services by school health services can negatively affects the quality of services provided in the health facility. Ogwu and Ayabiogbe (2010) studied school health services in public and private senior secondary schools and observed that health services in Kogi state do not include
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frequent measurement of weight and height, inspection of food in public schools, vaccination in public schools, health appraisals in private schools, private and provision of potable water and drugs in public schools and that both private and public schools have some inadequacy of provision of health services, among others. Baba, shehu, Oniyangi (2010) assessed the impact of school health programme on health of primary school pupils and observed that school health services provided at school have impact on health and well being of primary school pupils. According to the researchers, general health inspection and treatment of minor ailments, all of which were directed at promoting health and well being of primary school pupils. Siwach (2009) assessed the impact of health education programme on the knowledge and practice of school children regarding personal hygiene and observed the need for based school health education programme, developed for different age groups and classes will definitely lead to improvement in knowledge and practice of school children regarding personal hygiene. Research question:-To address this study, two research question two hypotheses were drawn 1. 2. Will Delta state university students attitude and practice of health justify their knowledge of school health services towards strengthening national health status? Will Health Education Students knowledge, attitude and practice of school health service be different from that of their social studies education counter part?
Hypotheses 1. 2. Students health attitude and practice achievement scores will not significantly justify their knowledge of school health services towards in strengthening national health status. There is no significant difference in knowledge, attitude and practice of school health services towards strengthening national health status between Health Education Students and Social Studies Education students in Delta state University Abraka.
The purpose of the study was to access students knowledge, attitude and practice of school health services towards strengthening national health status on one hand and on the other, to make a comparisons in knowledge attitude and practice between Health Education Students and Students of Social Studies Education in Delta state University Abraka.
METHOD
The study adopted the pre-experiment post-test only nonequivalent groups design. The population was 96 final year students in department of Physical and Health Education as at 2011 session and 101 students in the department of social studies education, making a total of 197 students. A purposive sampling was adopted making provision for likely fall out of the study. After administration of post test, 95 health education and 95 social studies education students were finally purposively sampled based on the best 95 students in each group. Making a total of 190 students. The instrument was a self design post test with 26 question items in four sections. Section A (demography) Name, matriculation number, department, programme and set; Section B (knowledge) 6 open ended questions, Section C (Attitude) 10 closed end objective questions and Section D (practice) 10 questions answering Yes or No The questions contain every aspect of school health services in the areas of knowledge, attitude and practice. Questions like:
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-State 3 main purpose of school Health services,(open end question) -One of the benefits of your knowledge of health inspection is . (Closed end question) -I check my weight /height /blood pressure to avoid stroke (Yes or No option) Scores obtained were referred to as school health services achievement scores. The scores instrument was given to two experts in test and measurement and one in Health Education, for face and content validity. Minor adjustment were made and accepted for use. The cronbachs alpha statistics was used to ascertain the internal consistency of the instrument. The cronbach alpha was reliable at, r =.980. To achieve this, the instrument was administered to degree students of both the experimental and control group in college of education, Agbor / Warri (Abraka external degree programme) prior to the study. Cronbach alpha if item is deleted ranged between .978 to .983.Summary items statistics were means , 1.634,mininmum, .968, maximum, 4.226, range, 3.258, variance .673, no of items 26. The instrument was administered to the students of both groups under extreme examination condition, the same day in different places. Both descriptive and inferential statistics of independent t test and Pearson correlation statistics were used to analyses the data at 0.05 alphas. Computer analysis using SPSS version 16 was used for the data analysis.
FINDINGS
One hundred and ninety (190) students, 95 from both the experimental group and the control took the post test.
Ho I. Table 1: Achievement scores correlation of knowledge, attitude and practice of school health Services in strengthening national Health status
Knowledge Attitude Practice Knowledge attitude and practice summation .877** .000 190 .480** .000 190 .506** .000 190 .506** .000 190 1
Knowledge Pearson correlation N
Sig (2 tailed)
.168* .020
.197** .006 190 .256** .000
190 Attitude Pearson correlation N Sig.(2 tailed) .168* .020 190 Practice Pearson correlation N Sig. (2 tailed) 1.97** .006 190 Knowledge, Attitude & Practice summation Pearson correlation Sig (2 tailed) N .877** .000
190 1
190 .256** .000 190 .480** .000
190 1
190
190
190
190
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*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2 tailed) **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2 tailed) Table 1 explains the correlation among knowledge, attitude and practice of school Health Service in strengthening National Health status. Knowledge was correlated with attitude and practice at .168 and .197 respectively and significant at .020 and .006 respectively. Attitude was correlated to knowledge and practice at .168* and 256** respectively and significant at .020 and .001 respectively. Practice was correlated with knowledge at .197** and .256** respectively and significant at .006 and .001 respectively. The summation scores of knowledge, attitude and practice was correlated to knowledge at .877, significant at .001, attitude at .480, significant at .001 and practice at .506, significant at .001. Table 2: Ttest analysis of posttest Health Education Students and Social Studies Education Students achievement scores on knowledge, attitude and practice as school Health services towards strengthening National Health status. N= 95 Post test Health Education Students School health services Knowledge Attitude Practice x SD 14.096 4.622 7.463 1.449 6.326 1.806 Post test Social Studies Education Students x SD 10.1265.560 6.694 1.392 5.273 1.340 7.320 3.726 4.560 .001 .001 .001 S. S. S F-value Alpha Sig.
*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2 tailed) *Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2 tailed) S=means significant Table 2 reveals that a t-test post test analysis observed that knowledge achievement scores in the Health Education students were significantly different from that of the Social Studies Education students. This was also applicable to attitude and practice. In all three variables the experimental group had higher means scores than the control group. The t-value was significantly different in all three variables of knowledge, attitude and practice.
DISCUSSION
In this study, school health education was seen as the overall umbrella of school health services. The respondents were significantly knowledge. Hence beneficiaries of Health Education particularly school Health Services were conscious of knowledge as the foundation of attitude and practice. Knowledge, attitude and practice of school health services were significantly correlated. In other words, students attitude and practice were reflective of their knowledge of school health services. Knowledge correlated attitude and practice, while attitude correlated knowledge and practice. Practice also correlated knowledge and attitude. This correlates the claims of Collins (1995) that the school health programme has direct bearing on total school activities directed at the development of healthiest individuals. The findings also correlated the findings of Baba et al (2010) that school health services provided at school have impact on
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health and well-being of pupils. All students in this study, experimental and control showed evidence of some knowledge, practice and attitude toward healthy living. This is because health instruction is a component part of General studies which a compulsory course in this university. It also observed in this study that there was significant difference in knowledge, attitude and practice of school health services between Health Education Students and the Social Studies Education students. This is so because health education students were direct beneficiaries of school Health services. Not only do they benefit as students but also as would be providers. This findings tally with that of Baba et al (2010), Ogwu and Ayabiogbe (2010) Siwach (2009) Pauline, Ademijie and Ayanlaja (2006). All who saw school health services as having significant impact on the health and well being of students and the school community. This finding also tally with that of schetzina (2009) who in her study provided avenue to identified strengths in the school health services as a means of solving obesity in children. School health services recognition in this study of influencing students knowledge attitude and practice of health and well-being will eventually strengthening national health status as it has impact on individual health status. An aggregate of students enhanced health status constitute a National health status at national level. Students knowledge, attitude and practice will in turn reduce total fertility rate, death rate, and annual population and increase life expectancy as the school health services improve and impacts on the health of citizenry.
CONCLUSION
This study has identified students in the university as having knowledge and have positive attitude and practice towards health, that various programme of activities in the school community promote health and well being of the school community. Students utility of available services which include health appraisal, speech test, auditory and visual examination, treatment of emergencies illness and injuries provide avenue for learning, creating, awareness and developing a positive attitude and practice of health. It was also observed that students of health education were better equipped than their social studies education counterpart on issues boarding on Health Education Students were not just for the school community but also for the society at large where they are expected to function on graduation. Their participation in school health services become a strong background for the Nation preventive and promotive health. Their presents health status and that of the school community and their duties performance in further strengthen national health status
LIMITATIONS
This study was university based. The findings cannot be totally applicable to lower schools but the recommendations will be beneficial to all levels of education. Although some studies exist in primary schools in other state in Nigeria but not much in Delta state. Research effort towards primary secondary and vocational institution in Delta state is being recommended.
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RECOMMENDATION
It was recommended that 1) School health services in the university system be sustained and improved upon to the advantage of all within the school community through provision of all factors necessary for the promotion of school health services: These include; qualified health teachers school, sick bay or university clinics, visiting doctors and Nurses. Provision of First Aid Box and materials and students encouragement to participate in school health programme. 2) Health education students should be given preparation in the school that will make them face the challenges as community health extension workers and community guidance and counseling health workers, which by their education / duties there suppose to be. 3) Government should use knowledge, attitude and practice of school health services which already exist in Health education students to enhance their productivity on graduation as Health Educators towards strengthening national Health status, through their campaign against dirty environment, promotion of immunization, campaign against drugs abuse, child trafficking, child abuse and utilization of available health services.
REFERENCES
Ajala, J.A (2005) Health Education in wellness and sickness: this day, this age. Inaugural lecture of University of Ibadan. Ibadan. Print mark Ventures Ltd. P.25 Ademijiu, P.U. & Ayanlaja. O .A. (2006) Teachers perception of school health services in public primary schools of Lagos metropolis, Lagos state, Nigeria. West African Journal of physical and Health Education. 10. 169-176 Baba, D.A., Shehu. R.A . & Oniyangi. S.O. (2010) impact of school health education programme on health of primatry school pupils in Moro local government, Kwara state, Nigerian Journal of health education, 14 (1) 248 -260 Ogwu, T.N. & Ayabiogbe, C.I. (2010) School health services in public and private senior secondary schools in Kogi State. Nigerian Journal of Health Education, 14 (1). 232 - 247 . National School Health policy; Federal Ministry of Education, Nigeria. P.26 Schetzina, K.E; Dalton 111WT, Lowe E.F, Azzay, N, Von Wessowetz, Kin; Givens. C; Stern H.P. developing a coordinated school health approach to child obesity prevention in rural Appalachia: result of focus groups with teachers, parents and students. Rural and remote Health 9 (online) 1157. Available from Http://www.rrh.org.au Siwach, M. (2009). Impact of health education Programme on the knowledge and practices of school children regarding personal hygiene in rural pan pat. International Journal Education Science. 1 (2) 115-118 Udoh, C.O, Ajala, J.A Fawole J.O Okafor, C & . Nwama, O. (1987) Fundamentals health Education, Ibadan, Heinemann educational books Nig. Ltd. World health Organization (WHO) (1948).Official records of the World Health Organization.
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ADULT EDUCATION: THE HOPE OF THE MARGINALIZED
ADEDOKUN MARY OLUFUNKE* and OJELEYE JONATHAN ADEMOLA** *Faculty of Education, University of Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. ** Department of Adult Education, University of Ibadan, Nigeria *E-mail address for correspondence: funkadedokun@yahoo.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: The paper examined the role of adult education for the marginalized groups. The groups include women, children, school dropout and the disabled to mention but a few. The study was carried out in three states of Nigeria namely Oyo, Ogun and Ekiti States in the south western part of Nigeria. The population for the study was all the seeming marginalized groups in these states out of which a sample of 251 was used. A self developed questionnaire was used to generate responses from the subjects and the data collected were analysed using chi-square statistical tool at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that the rights of the marginalized are trampled upon due to lack of proper education and so the study recommended that exposure of the marginalized groups to non-formal adult education would go a long way in raising their already low-self-esteem to a level where they would be involved in enlightened participation in socio-political and economic issues of their societies. Key words: Marginalization, Non-Formal Education, Exclusion
INTRODUCTION
Marginalization is a cause of wish for death. A marginalized person is one that is not given any form of recognition; he/she is one that is possibly attached with socio-political and economic stigma. Theses type of people usually suffers poverty, diseases and low-self esteem which eventually lead to depression and ultimately death. Marginalization breeds diminished low-self esteem and this hurts relationships and impairs performance in most areas of life (Nugosa, 2011). The feeling of low self-esteem is greatest in the marginalized because the media often portrays its celebrities as larger than life, leaving others to feel their non inadequacy in contrast to the icons paraded before them. To be marginalized therefore is to be forced to occupy the sides or fringes and thus not be at the center of things (www.excellup.com). In social environment, groups of people, or even communities can be marginalized for example in the states under study, rural communities belong to the marginalized groups and in cities, people who migrated from the rural to the urban centre in an attempts to avoid the drudgery of life in rural communities, only got to towns to face the stifle of
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marginalization. This therefore means whether one lives in the city or rural setting, the marginalized are everywhere to be found. Causes of marginalization vary but the effect is the same. The great effect of marginalization is that the marginalized group always has the experience of being excluded. To a marginalized person, being excluded means a lot; it is living as if one is non-existing. Some of the causes of marginalization can be because some people speak different language in the midst of a majority. May be they follow different customs or they belong to a different religious group from the majority community; people also often feel marginalized when they suffer from the hold of poverty, and when they have no jobs. Such people will see themselves as been considered of low social status and are seen as nobody and even less human than others. (Understanding Social Marginalization (www.excellup.com) accessed 1902-11. In various societies marginalized groups like women, destitute, school drop out that roam the street, street beggars and even the aged and handicapped are all viewed with fear and people are hostile to such group of people. Such groups of people do not have access to necessary resources, opportunities and services and so they are unable to assert their rights let alone of claiming such. This means that marginalization is accompanied by disadvantages and powerlessness. This is as a result of their not having necessary tools that could move them up the social ladder. The marginalized are subjected to control by the more powerful and dominant sections of the society. These ones enjoy the best of the human rights, because they have access to the best treatment in all spheres of life. They are wealthy, better educated and politically powerful and so they have no cause to feel what the marginalized are feeling; therefore no good step is being taken to bring succor to the plight of these marginalized group. This analysis points to the issue of stratification in our societies in which inequality in terms of services, rights, obligations, power and prestige is the order of the day (Oaskinle, Oyeniyi Olanipekun, 2010). To these authors, education is therefore viewed as an instrument or asset to move up the social ladder. This therefore means that education plays a significant role for social mobility. Morich, (1980) sees social mobility as the movement of an individual from one social position to the other which could either be up or down the social stratum. This definition implies that for the marginalized group to enjoy wealth, social prestige and power which are hitherto not equally enjoyed, they need to be educated because education has the potential of providing opportunity for upward mobility. In other words, education changes social structure through social mobility. Education is a progressive force and it is the main channel to the social class system (Osakinle et al 2010). Reaching and teaching the most marginalized, concept note for the 2010 Global Monitoring Report in (www.unesco.org/pdf/gmr/2010/ Reaching and teaching the most marginalized/ Accessed 19-2-11) states that; All education systems have to address the problems of marginalization, chronic poverty social exclusion, and inequalities linked to gender, race and ethnicity, conflict, location and disability can interact to push the disadvantaged groups into extreme educational disadvantage. Effective and innovative education policies open enormous opportunities for overcoming marginalization.
The report states that the common thread that links each of the groups in the marginalized is that the groups figure prominently at the lower end of the distribution for education access and achievement in their respective societies and that reaching and providing a meaningful education to the most marginalized poses a distributive set of challenges that go beyond promoting equity in general. The type of education to be given the marginalized therefore is one that will give these set of people the right understanding, mutual fulfillment and self sufficiency (Dan 2010). Education to Dewey should be a continuous process because it is a necessary instrument for mans actualization of himself and so it is a lifelong process. Adedokun (1998) quoting the document on the World Declaration on Education for All (1990) states that education is not only a social service but a transformative act which is fundamental to social and personal development as when there is access to education, there is an increase in social and political awareness and heightened aspirations, self assurance and self-assertiveness. The above implies that the best type of education for these marginalized groups is adult education. Adult education has been described by Omolewa as an instrument for moving forward. To him adult education:
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Makes provision and gives access for those who have been kept out of the educational system for various reasons. Gives opportunity for re-growth to happen It helps people tackle whatever problems they are faced with It offers people a second chance, its focus is on life-long learning and it provides everyone with the hope to live and change the unpalatable situations to better ones.
Adult education is so wide in scope that it is able to care for everybody within the society through its varied programmes and also through it people can make progress in their society. Adult education is democratic and empowering. Anyanwu (1992) therefore defines adult education as that education whether formal or otherwise, whether they prolong or replace initial education in school as well as in apprenticeship whereby people enrich their knowledge, improve their technical or professional qualifications or bring about changes in their attitudes or behaviour in a way as to bring about balance and independent, social, economic and cultural development. Adult education is therefore needed for the marginalized group. It will empower them to become what they want to become and to bring the best solutions to problems besetting them in a bid to move up the social ladder.
Statement of the Problem The problem of the marginalized is one that should give cause for thought provoking solutions. The problem is majorly what are the causes of marginalization and how can one tackle the problem of marginalization with its associated problems?
METHODOLOGY
Research Design: This study adopted descriptive research design. It was used to collect detailed facts on the study.
Population The population consisted of all the marginalized (school dropout, less privileged men and women, the disabled and the street boys and girls).
Sample Random sampling was used to choose two hundred and fifty one (251) subjects for the study from the three states under study.
Instrument Questionnaire tagged Adult Education for the Marginalized was used (ADEMQ) was used to elicit responses from the subject of the study. The questionnaire items were both in English and Yoruba the mother tongue of the people.
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Validity The instrument was validated by experts in tests and measurement of the University of Ado Ekiti. Reliability: Test re-test method was used on 60 respondents outside the subjects of the study and a reliability coefficient of 0.72 was obtained which was good for the study.
Method of Data Analysis The questionnaire items were scored by the respondents item by item making use of the four-point Likert type scale of strongly Agree (SA) Agree (A) Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD). The results were analysed using chisquare statistical tool to determine whether there is a relationship between adult education and upward social mobility of the marginalized.
RESULTS
The Results are presented below
Hypotheses
1. 2.
There is no relationship between education and upward social mobility of the marginalized. There is no relationship between adult education and improved living for the marginalized.
Presentation of Results
Hypothesis 1: There is no significant effect of education on the upward social mobility of the marginalized.
Table 1: Relationship between Education and Upward Social Mobility for the Marginalized Items SD 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 40 17 28 90 30 D 21 5 9 31 6 Observed A 10 10 4 11 20 SA 180 219 210 119 195 50.02 50.02 50.02 50.02 50.02 299.120 12 21.026 0.000 Expected X2 cal df X2 tab p
As shown in table 1 above X2Cal = 299.120 > X2tab = 21.026 at 0.05 level of significance. The null hypothesis that states that there is no significant effect of education on upward social mobility of the marginalized is rejected while the table shows that there is significant influence of education on upward social mobility of the marginalized.
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Table above shows that there is a strong relationship between education and upward social mobility. This fact is supported by Osakinle et al (2010) that education appears to be the main channel of the social class system. To them education helps to break the barriers of mobility and helps one to achieve higher status. When people are educated their feeling of being inferior give way to one of superiority and this eventually helps them to perform actively by contributing to the development of their society .For the disadvantaged and the powerless to gain power in the society therefore, education should be given. Since it may not be easy for everybody to have the opportunity of attending schools on a formal basis adult education becomes a better alternative for the marginalized to be educated.
Hypothesis 2: There is no significant influence of adult education on improved living for the marginalized.
Table 2: Effect of adult education on improved living for the Marginalized Items SD 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 26 10 29 12 37 D 21 17 8 7 25 Observed A 23 14 19 3 27 SA 181 210 195 299 162 50.2 50.2 50.2 50.2 50.2 297.319 12 21.026 0.000 Expected X2 cal df X2 tab p
As shown in table 2, X2cal = 297.319 > X2tab = 21.026 at 0.05 level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis that there is no significant influence of adult education on improved living is rejected while the alternate hypothesis that there is a significant influence of adult education on improved living is accepted. The above table shows there is a strong and reliable relationship between adult education and improved living for the marginalized. Therefore, everybody in the society should be made aware of what adult education is all about.
DISCUSSION
The research findings reveal that education assumes a degree of importance in the lives of the marginalized. People could be relieved of social and political marginalization only through education. Education to the marginalized should not be seen as remote, difficult to access and the education of the marginalized should not be of poor quality. They should be provided with meaningful education (www.unesco.org 19-02-11), one that will help them live meaningful lives in the society in which they are found and in the world community. The study revealed that marginalized adults are often illiterates and lacking opportunities for skills development and according to the document Reaching and Teaching the Marginalized (www.unesco.org), in the area of learning achievements, children from marginalized groups are more likely to experience poor quality education and to leave school and enter adulthood with poor skills. The only solution to remedy this problem is quality adult education. This is supported by Ademola and Adedibu (2008) that adult education is the last chance for learning for those who ought to have learnt but due to one problem or the other could not learn at the right time. UNESCO in Anyanwu (1992) sees adult education as the entire body of organized educational method whether formal or otherwise, whether they prolong or replace initial education in schools, colleges or universities as well as in apprenticeship whereby persons regarded as adults by the society to which they belong develop their abilities, enrich their knowledge, improve their technical or professional qualification or bring about changes in their attitude, or behaviours in a way as to bring about changes in their attitudes or behaviours in a way as to bring about balance
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and independent social, economic and cultural development. The above indicates that adult education is the last hope of the marginalized. Through its various programmes, all the classes of the marginalized could be reached and their lives changed for the better.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the above findings, the following recommendations are made. The government should make sure that inclusive policies are made for every member of the society. Creating a sense of exclusion will lead to the marginalized not having access to necessary education that could empower them. Religion of any kind should not be reasons for low self-esteem and exclusion. Religious leaders should educate their members as to the importance of education and should make efforts at providing various educative programmes for their members (Non-formal education). The marginalized should be educated to see the importance of making themselves available for adult education programmes. This is because putting good programmes in place, without participants interest amount to nothing. Policies concerning the education of the marginalized should be followed to the letter. The marginalized should elevate their status first from their thought by having high esteem about themselves and cast off the low-esteem feelings.
REFERENCES
Adedokun, M.O. (1998). Contributions of Community Development to Sustained Community Development Project in Oyo State 1987-1996. Unpublished Ph.D, Thesis, Ibadan, University of Ibadan. Ademola, A.E and Adedibu, M.B. (2008). Contemporary Issues on Education of Special Target Groups, Ibadan, Akin Johnson Press and Publishers. Ademole and Adedibu (2008): Education of the Marginalized. Anyanwu, C.N. (1992) Community Development. The Nigerian Perspective, Ibadan Gabecther Educational Publishers. Dan, B. Human Education should be Humanistic in www.ashonet.org/conferences/ 2000indiaconf/ paper.htm Accessed - 12-12-2010. Dewey, J. (1916). The Republic of Plato (trans) London, Oxford University Press. Marich, I. (1980). The Sociology of Education London, George Allen and Unwin. Melgosa J. (2011). Jesus Wept. The Bible and Human Emotions in Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide January-March, 2011. pp. 100-103. Osakinde, E.O. Oyeniyi P. and Olanipekun J.A. (2010). Fundamentals of Sociology of Education. Ado-Ekiti, Balfak Educational Publishers.
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Reading and Teaching the Most Marginalized: Concept note for the 2010 global Ministry Report. January 2009 in www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTI-MEDIA/HQ/ED/ GMR/pdf/gmr2010-consultationconcept.pdfreaching and teaching the most marginalized: Accessed 19-02-11. www.excellup.com/marginalizationeight.aspx - Accessed 19-02-11.
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VISUAL ACUITY AND MOTOR PERFORMANCE CORRELATES IN BASIC EDUCATION SCHOOL CHILDREN OF EDO STATE, NIGERIA
F.U.OKAFOR* and E.O.AGWUBIKE** *Department of Nursing Science, University of Benin, Nigeria **Department of Health, Environmental Education and Human Kinetics, Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Nigeria E-mail address for correspondence: uchendifidelis2001@yahoo.com
__________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: The study was conducted to investigate the relationship between visual acuity and physical performance of students of Universal Basic Education (UBE) in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. It was aimed at eliciting relationship and instituting intervention strategies on the students, who performed poorly in the skill related activities. A sample of 1,491 students, 771 males and 720 females, from three primary schools and four junior secondary schools was recruited. A cross sectional survey involving pre-post test design was used. Data were collected from a structured exercise programme involving catching and throwing the ball and the assessment of visual acuity of the students by reading the snellen chart. The data were analysed descriptively using frequency counts and percentages and inferentially by using correlation to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that visual acuity had significant relationship with the indices of physical performance of speed, agility and reaction time (skill related fitness) at p<0.05.Therefore, a strong positive correlation between physical performance involving speed, agility and reaction time and visual acuity of the students was observed. It is therefore concluded that students with poor visual acuity are likely to have poor physical performance in terms of speed, agility and reaction time. It was recommended that testing of athletes visual acuity in relation to physical performance should be in practice in UBE programme. The nurse and other health personnel in sport medical unit should be encouraged to regularly check the UBE student athletes visual acuity in order to design structured exercise programme as a corrective measure for those with defective vision. Key Words: Visual Acuity, Physical Performance and UBE Students. ________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
Human beings, biologically, possess five major sense organs which enable them to adapt to the environment where they live and operate. In effect, five sensory modalities have been scientifically identified as means by which the learner becomes aware (gains cognition) of his /her environment. These modalities, according to Ross and Wilson (2000), are: The eye for achieving visual perception; The ear for achieving auditory perception; The nose for achieving olfactory perception; The tongue for achieving gustatory perception; and
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The body for achieving tactile perception;
The eye is regarded as the vital organ of vision, which is one of such sense organs. It plays an important role in the visualisation of objects in ones environment. The absence of this essential organ of sight results in blindness which is regarded as a vision less than visual acuity of 3/60( Vanghan, Riordam-Eva &Asbury, 1999;Emmette,Cuningham,Lietman & Whitcher,2001). Structurally, the eye is a very sensitive and delicate organ, though highly equipped to protect itself from undue injuries and to guide the body to perform a variety of motor skills. In motor performance by children, there is need for proper: I. Eye-hand-foot co-ordination;
II. Speed of recognition, and III. Balance and Timing (Agwubike, 2005). These motor performance requirements are provided in part by the human eye (Vaughans, et al 1999). Limburg (1993) indicated that poor vision in childhood will affect performance in school and have a strong negative influence on the future life of the child. Vision problems among children have been linked with behavioural risk, reduced academic and motor performance and low self-esteem (Johnson,Nottinghan, Stratton, & Zaba, 1996; Yawn, Lydick, Epstein, & Jacobsen,1996). It is sometimes being speculated that poor vision may be one of the main reasons for some school age childrens drop-out from schools in Nigeria (Okoro & Okafor, 2009). Hence, in visual dysfunctionality or disability, the sufferers are rarely identified by most teachers and parents thus, leaving such school children in the world of darkness, confusion and frustration. In most instances, they are ignorantly blamed for their poor performance in both cognitive and psychomotor tasks as well as other mishaps in teaching and learning experiences. Odirin (1998) outlined the implications of poor visual status to education as: Learning difficulties due to visual defects; The learner constituting a nuisance to him/herself; The learner constituting a nuisance to his /her teacher; and The learner acting as nuisance to his/her peers.
It should, however, be noted that numerous factors influence stress responses emanating from visual problems. They include the individuals physical and mental condition, age, sex, socioeconomic status, heredity, religious affiliation, previous experience with similar stressors and the like. Through the process of visual acuity, defective school children are identified and necessary adjustments effected in such areas as their sitting arrangements in the classroom, teaching methods, instructional materials in use, and health care services offered to them (Okoro & Okafor, 2009). By so doing, the promotion of visual health, prevention of eye disease, and provision of therapeutic eye services which are good indices for promoting effective and efficient teaching-learning process will positively be geared towards achieving the goal of the World Health Organisations global initiative for the elimination of avoidable visual problems, especially blindness, tagged vision 2020 Right to Sight. Various tests of motor ability for children have been designed in many fields. One of them is measuring motor performance quantitatively with speed, distance, accuracy and time. Establishing motor ability quantitatively is possible when performance is represented by numerical values thereby producing a relative platform for individual or group comparison. Many of these tests are examined in validity, reliability and standardization to be used for measuring motor abilities in basic education children. The question that arises is: Do basic education school childrens motor performances in Benin metropolis correlate positively with their visual acuities. It is against this backdrop that this paper correlates the basic education school childrens visual acuity with some of their motor performance indices (speed, agility and reaction time). It is expected that the outcome of this screening test will serve as a basis for instituting intervention strategies for not only solving the childrens visual problems but also for promoting their visual health and fitness.
Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were formulated and tested 1. There is no positive correlation between the students speed of physical performance and their visual acuity.
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2. 3.
There is no positive correlation between the students agility and their visual acuity. There is no positive relationship between the reaction time of the students and their visual acuity.
Method and Materials: A cross sectional survey of male and female school-age children in government (public) basic education schools within Benin metropolis of Nigeria was carried out. Basic education in Nigeria school system involves a six year primary education and a three year junior secondary school education which is free and compulsory (Nigerian Federal Government, 2004). Global sampling of public basic education schools within the metropolis was carried out. Private schools were not included in the study due to the high disparity in economic status of parents of children attending such schools as against those in public schools. A total of 1,491 school-age children (771 males and 720 females) were randomly drawn from the seven basic education schools in Benin metropolis as the study sample. The ages of the males and females ranged between six and twelve years with a mean age of 10.2 years for the males and 9.9 years for the females. Informed consent forms were given to the children which were filled by their parents. Permission was also obtained from the head teachers of the schools and the chairman of the Basic Primary Education Board. The screening test was pre-tested as a pilot survey at public basic education school about two kilometres from the metropolis before the actual survey was carried out. Data collection procedure involved the collection of data in two phases namely: I. Structured exercise programme, in terms of structured throwing and catching, and.
II. Screening for ocular problems/diseases (i.e. measurement of visual acuity).
Structured Exercise Programme: The throwing of the ball was done by the researcher who performed the throws to the children to ensure uniformity and efficiency of the throws. In throwing, the researcher adopted two phases: Phase1 required throws to be performed from a three metre distance; and Phase2 involved a six metre distance throws.
In each phase, the researcher grasped the ball with the right fingers slightly spread; the right elbow bent and raised almost to shoulder level. As the elbow was drawn back, the hand reached the shoulder, the elbow was straightened, the trunk was rotated slightly to the right and back, and also inclined sideward so that the right shoulder was lower than the left. The weight was on the right foot. The left arm was extended, the foot just touching. The throw was accomplished by bringing the right arm forward with the elbow leading at shoulder height for a short time. The arm was then extended and the hand whipped through rapidly. This arm action was accompanied by a rotation of the trunk to the left. When the ball was released with a snap of the wrist, the hand was in front of the shoulder, the trunk was forward, and the weight was then transferred to the forward (left) foot. All balls were thrown above the childrens waist level, preferably toward the chest level. There was a follow-through which involved the right arm becoming fully extended, the trunk continuing its rotation to the left with the left arm swinging backward, and frequently the weight of the body falling forward, resulting in a step on the right foot. In catching by children, the hands were held forward of the body with the elbows held in to maintain balance when moving in any direction to meet the ball. The ball, and the hands and arms brought towards the body (give) with the ball or move in the direction in which the ball was travelling. The player/child was advised to relax and keep his/her eye on the ball so that its (balls) position was known until it was caught. The caught ball was held for three seconds (until the researchers command for its release). Each child was allowed twenty catches at the three metre distance in the first turn. Then after all have completed the first turn, another twenty catches at the six metre distance were performed.
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Measurement of Visual Acuity: The visual acuity was tested in each eye separately, in line with Smith (1995), Darling and Thorpe, (1975), and Garlands, 1995) recommendation. This was measured with a Snellen chart showing letters. If the vision was very poor, and the child could not even see the largest letter on the Snellen chart, other tests involving Picture/natural object were introduced. The children were tested at two different standard distances of six and three metres. Near each line on the chart was a small number indicating the distance (in meters) at which the child with normal sight should be able to clearly see that line. If the child could only see the top letter of the chart, his/her vision was 6/60. This means that at six meters he/she could see a letter that a normal person can see at sixty metres. If he/she could see as far as the second line, his/her vision was 6/36, and so on. The top number of the fraction is the distance between the children and the chart. The bottom number is the number of the smallest line of letters the child could read. An adolescent child with normal sight should reach the line which was marked with a six. This was a 6/6 very good vision If the vision was below 6/60 and the child could not even see the top letter, he/she w as requested to go nearer the chart until he/she was able to see it. If he/she saw it at two meters, his/her vision was 2/60. If he/she could only see it at one metre, his/her vision was 1/60. Another method used for testing the children with poor vision less than 6/60 was to ask the children to count the fingers (CF) held up in front of their eyes by the researcher. The human finger was about the same size as the top letter on the chart and so counting fingers at six metres was about equal to 6/60 vision. Counting fingers at one metre distance was therefore the same as 1/60. If the vision was below 1/60 and the child was still able to detect the movement of the hand in front of his/her eye, a hand movement (HM) was recorded. If the subject could not even see HM, the final test was to shine a light into his/her eye and see if she/he could perceive the light, referred to as light perception (LP). If there was PL, it was important for further test if the child could identify the direction the light was coming from, termed projection of light. The light was shone from all four quadrants of the childs vision: top left, top right, bottom left, and bottom right. Good projection indicated that the retina and optic nerve were functioning normally. Therefore, the defect was probably opacity in the cornea, lens and/or vitreous body, and was regarded as treatable. Poor projection of light indicated retinal or optic nerve disease, and was regarded as probably untreatable. Any child with defective visual acuity was tested again through a pinhole. This minimised any refractive error by narrowing the beam of light entering the eye, the blurred area on the retina becoming smaller, and so the object appeared clearer. If the visual acuity improved when the child looked through a pinhole, it indicated an error of refraction, which spectacle could correct. If there was no improvement, then the loss of vision was regarded to emanate from eye diseases. If the child could not identify different symbols on the chart, in terms of E or C, pointing in different directions was used. The child was requested to hold a card with the letter on it, and was instructed to turn it so that it matches each symbol on the chart.
Plan for data analysis: The data were generated in both absolute and relative terms. The absolute points represent the number of points realised from twenty catches in each phase. The relative points were got by multiplying the absolute point with the designated scales, in which: A good or clean catch was scored three points; A fumbled catch attracted two points, and A missed catch attracted one point.
The data realised through this process were analysed with percentages and further correlated with data arising from the ocular screening. The scores generated from ocular screening were correlated with those obtained from physical performance indices of speed, agility, and reaction time using SPSS modality.
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Results: The study revealed the findings shown in tables 1 -3.
Table 1: Distribution of respondents according to their visual acuities Visual Acuities 6/4-6/5 6/6 6/9-612 6/18-6/24 6/36-6/60 HM-NPL Total Source: Fieldwork. Table1 shows that respondents with very good vision (100 to 150%) had frequency of 1300(87.2%) followed by respondents with good vision (50 to 66.6%) that recorded a frequency of 188(7.9%) and the least being the respondents with very poor vision (0 to 16.6%) who had a frequency of 29(2%). Poor vision (25-33.3% vision) however featured 44 respondents which represents 3% of the sample. F 857 443 118 44 16 13 1491 % 57.5 29.7 7.9 3.0 1.1 0.9 100 % Vision 150-120 100 66.6-50 33.3-25 16.6-10 8.3-0 Good Vision Poor Vision Very Poor Vision Remarks Very Good Vision
Testing of Hypotheses Hypothesis1: There is no positive correlation between the students speed of physical performance and their visual acuity.
Table 2: Pearson Product-Moment Correlation (PPMC) of visual acuity with speed of movement Variables Visual Acuity Speed N 1491 1491 Mean 1.63 14.64 Std. D 0.93 1.42 0.753 56.7% 0.000 Sign. r Coevar p Remarks
Table2 reveals that there is positive correlation between the physical performance and visual acuity. Therefore, hypothesis 1 was rejected, since r=0.753; p<0.05 is significant. This implies that there is strong positive correlation between the two variables of visual acuity and the students speed of movement. Therefore, an increase in vision of the students will yield 56.7% of increase in the speed of their physical performance. Ho2: There is no positive correlation between the students agility and their visual acuity. Table 3: Correlation between the students visual acuity and their agility Variables Visual Acuity Agility(sec) N 1491 1491 Mean 1.63 15.58 Std. D 0.93 1.46 0.836 69.8% 0.000 Sign. r Coevar p Remarks
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Table3 reveals that there is significant positive correlation between the agility of students physical performance and their visual acuity, displayed as (r=0.836; p<0.05).Therefore, hypothesis2 was rejected. The positive relationship implies that an increase in visual acuity of students brought about a corresponding change in their physical performance involving agility,, all things being equal.
Ho3: There is no positive relationship between the reaction time of the students and their visual acuity. Table 4: Correlation between the students visual acuity and their reaction time Variables Visual Acuity Reaction Time(cm) N 1491 1491 Mean 1.63 36.12 Std. D 0.93 3.23 r 0.797 Coevar 63.5% p 0.000 Remarks Sign.
Table4 reveals that the relationship between the reaction time and visual acuity of students was significant (r=0.797; p< 0.05). Hence, hypothesis3 was rejected. This implies that the visual acuity has positive relationship with the reaction time of the students physical performance.
DISCUSSION
The present results may therefore force a reflection on the following questions: Is childrens and adolescents motor performance inefficiency a significant correlate to the state of their visual acuity? and Is the occurrence of ocular injuries in children and adolescents a significant correlate to the state of their visual acuity?
The results revealed that visual acuity had significant relationship with all the indices of physical performance in terms of speed, agility and reaction time (skill related fitness) at p<0.05. These three elements of skill related fitness are interrelated or interwoven as one has direct effect on the other. For example, speed and agility have direct effect on the reaction time and good reaction time implies the possession of speed of movement and an expressed ability of agility. The findings of this study was confirmed by the opinion of Chandna and Gilbert (2010); who indicated that almost three quarter of a childs early learning comes through vision and that over one third of adults visual stimuli such as recognition responds to objects. The increase of visual acuity of the students has relative percentage increase in speed (56.7%), agility (69.8%) and reaction time (63.5%). This physiological response between vision and skill related fitness could be explained by the action of sympathetic stimulation on the eye which causes contraction of the radiating muscle fibres of the iris, thus dilating the pupil, retracting the eyelids to produce a look of alertness and excitement. It is most expected that the same sympathetic stimulation was in action for muscles of the physical performance among students of basic universal education in Nigeria in agreement with Walsh and Crumbie (2007), Guyton, (1981), as well as Ross, and Wilsons, (2000) postulations.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
It was concluded that student athletes with poor visual acuity are most likely to have poor physical performance in activities involving speed of movement, agility and reaction time. It was recommended that testing of student athletes visual acuity in relation to physical performance should be in practice in UBE programme. The nurse
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and other health personnel in sport medical unit should be encouraged to regularly check the UBE student athletes visual acuity in order to design structured exercise programme as a corrective measure for those with defective vision. There is the need for physical and health educators to continually promote eye fitness of UBE children in Nigeria. It is well recognised that visual screening is most effective in the preschool and early childhood years because in the early years such problems are most amenable to treatment and early identification. Moreover, treatment of many such conditions can prevent irreversible vision loss. Yet, despite the importance of early screening and the fact that vision problems among children seem to be on the increase in Nigeria, school-age children in Nigeria are denied this vital aspect of health care. It should be noted that children are the least likely age group to visit an eye professional. School vision screenings will remain an important safety net for many children, but these screenings occur too late for early detection of many serious eye or visual problems. Prevention of vision problems and their consequences require timely detection. Here calls for the role of nursing and health education which provide the best opportunity for effective and inexpensive approach to vision reaction time. The preventive component of health care is a vital organ of eye health education, which should involve: Vitamin A deficiency education. Vitamin rich foods are rarely consumed by children in most rural and urban communities despite some being available free of cost in the villages or at low price (e.g. pawpaw fruits i.e. papaya). This lapse is mainly due to children lack of dietary knowledge, ignorance or a lack of advice from health authorities. Arrangements to organise vitamin A supplements in school midday meals by UBE health centres should be instituted. Small songs and dramas impart eye health and dietary education to UBE school children should be practised. There should be screening system through the school teachers. In order to achieve this goal, such teachers need special training in which the objectives of school eye screening programme and the role teachers can play in the programme are well spelt out. A little theoretical information on vision and the functioning of human eye will be given. The ways children suspected of having poor vision would be examined by the Paramedical Ophthalmic Assistant (PMOA) and eye defective children should be provide with spectacles. Child-to- Child approach of spreading exercise promotion and visual message is equally helpful. UBE teachers will be instructed on how to teach children to carry out eye screening. After such exercise promotion and ocular screening training, teachers go back to their respective schools and conducts the screening programme. Good coordination with PMOA is very important at this stage, because the teacher has to provide the service of examining the eyes and prescribing spectacles.
REFERENCES
Agwubike, E.O.(2005). Physiology of physical activities: Theory through question and answer approach. Benin city:Osusu Publishers . Chandna A. & Gilbert C. (2010) When your eye patient is a child. Community Eye Health (23)72:1. Darling, V & Thorpe, M. (1975). Ophthalmic Nursing, London: Fakenhan Press Ltd. Emmette, T; Cuningham Jr: LietmanT.M. & Whitcher, J.P. (2001). Blindness: A global priority for the twentyfirst Century Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 79 (3): 180. Garland, P. l. (1995). Ophthalmic Nursing London: Faber and Faber. Guyton, M.D. (1981) Medical Physiology, London: W.B. Saunder Company. Johnson, R; Nottinghan, D; Stratton, R. & Zaba, J. (1996). The Vision Screening of Academically and Behaviourally at Risk-Student. Journal of Behavioural Optometry, 7 (2).
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Limbury, H. (1993). School Eye Screening, Community Eye Health, 6: (11), 12 14 Nigeria Federal Government (2004) The National Policy on Education, Abuja. Okoro F.I. & Okafor U.F. Ocular Screening among Pupils in Public Primary Schools in Edo State of Nigeria,Pakistan Journal of Nutrition8(9):1446-1449. Odirin, O. (1998). An Introduction to Special Education, Benin City: Bellio Publisher. Ross, J.S. & Wilson, J.W. (2000). Foundations of Anatomy and Physiology, London: Churchill and Livingstone. Smith. M.C. & Maure, F.A. (1995) Community Health Nursing Theory Practices. U.S.A: Saunders, Company. Vaughan, D.T. Asbury P. Riordan-Era (1999) General Ophthalmology U.S.A. Appleton and Lange. Walsh.M& Crumbie A. (2007) Watsons Clinical Nursing and related Sciences. U.S.A. Bailliere Tindall. Yawn, B. P; Lydick, E.G; Epstein, R. & Jacobsen, S.J. (1996). Is School Vision Effective? Journal of School Health 66 (5)
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DESIGNING AND VALIDATING A SOCIAL CAPITAL SCALE WITHIN A GRADE SPECIFIC CONTEXT
EBRAHIM KHODADADY and FARNAZ FAROKH ALAEE Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran E-mail address for correspondence: ekhodadady@ferdowsi.um.ac.ir
_____________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: This study designed a 40-item social capital scale (SCS) and explored its reliability and factorial validity by administering it to one thousand three hundred and fifty two grade three high school students in Mashhad, Iran. The internal consistency analysis and application of the Principal Axis Factoring to the data and rotating the extracted factors via Varimax with Kaiser Normalization showed that the SCS is a highly reliable scale which consists of ten factors, i.e., Self Volunteering, Receptive Relatives, Maternal Supervision, Parental Monitoring, Teacher Consultation, Parental Expectation, Parental Rapport, Family Religiosity, Helpful Others, and Parent Availability. Further analysis of factors revealed that they were reliable and correlated significantly with the SCS and each other. The implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions are made for future research. Keywords: Social capital, factor analysis, parents, grade three high school students __________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
Human beings are by their very nature social. In order to lead a peaceful life and fulfill their economic, educational, political, and psychological needs, they have to live together and cooperate with each other. Living together also provides humans with various opportunities to build social capitals or networks, norms, and trust (Putnam, 1996, p. 56) through which they can address their higher and future needs or objectives. These reasons have prompted scholars in various fields to study the capitals and explore their relationship with variables such as academic achievement. Khodadady and Zabihi (2011), for example, investigated the underlying factors of a 35-item Social and Cultural Capital Questionnaire (SCCQ) in Persian and explored their relationships with the academic achievement of Iranian university students. The administration of the SCCQ to 403 undergraduate and graduate university students in Mashhad, Iran, resulted in the extraction of ten factors, i.e., Literacy, Parental Consultation, Family-School Interaction, Family Support, Extracurricular Activities, Family Relationship, Parent-School Encouragement and Facility, Cultural Activities, Peer Interaction and Religious Activities. Among these, Khodadady and Zabihi could
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establish significant relationships between the students GPA and Parent-School Encouragement and Facility (r = .33, p <.001), Parental Consultation (r = .22, p <.001), Family Relationship (r =.20, p <.001), and Family Support (r = .18, p <.001). Khodadady, Alaee and Natanzi (2011) administered the same 35-item Persian SCCQ to 706 students of five public and private high school students in Mashhad and extracted the same number of factors, i.e., Family-School Interaction, Facility Consciousness, Extracurricular and Religious Activities, Parental Consultation, Literary and Artistic Appreciation, Family Support, Family-Peer Relation, Reading Enjoyment, Family Encouragement, and Self-Confidence. They also explored the relationship between these factors and the students English achievement and could only establish a significant correlation between Facility Consciousnesses and the English achievement (r =.12, p <.05) when they removed the items which cross loaded acceptably but lowly on this factor. The results obtained by Khodadady and Zabihi (2011) and Khodadady, Alaee and Natanzi (2011) showed that social and cultural factors are influenced by the sample from which they are extracted, i.e., whether they are high school or university students, and the inclusion of two types of capitals, i.e., social and cultural. While the first factor extracted by Khodadady and Zabihi (2011) is, for example, cultural, i.e., Literacy, it turned out to be a social factor, i.e., Family-School Interaction, in Khodadady, Alaee and Natanzis (2011) study. This study was therefore designed to find out whether a single comprehensive Social Capital Scale (SCS) could be developed and validated in this study by administering it to a more homogenous sample, i.e., grade three high school students, in Mashhad, Iran.
METHODOLOGY
Participants One thousand three hundred and fifty two grade three high school students, 500 boys (37%) and 852 girls (63%) voluntarily took part in the study. Their age ranged from 16 to 25 (Mean = 17.24, SD = .72). While 77 (5.7%) did not specify how much their average family income was, 222 (16.4%), 397 (29.4%), 250 (18.5%), 200 (14.8%) and 206 (15.2%) announced it to be less than 200000, 200 to 400000, 400 to 600000, 600000 to 800000, and more than 800000 tomans per month, respectively. Each American dollar was worth 1300 tomans at the time of research.
Instruments The questionnaire designed and employed in this study had two sections, i.e. demographic and social capital scales.
Demographic Scale The demographic scale (DS) dealt with the participants age, gender, school type, family income (e.g., Onyx, J. & Bullen, 1998), number of changing school (e.g., Teachman, Paasch, & Carvert, 1996), the length of living in a local area (e.g., Hofferth, Biosjoly, & Duncan, 1998), parents familiarity with English as a foreign language (e.g., Kim, & Schneider, 2005), parents education (e.g., Anderson, 2007), number of siblings (e.g., Dyk, & Wilson, 1999), the family elders education (e.g., Smith-Maddox, 1999), and the type of personal home (e.g., Blaxter, Poland, & Curran, 2001).
Social Capital Scale
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The social capital scale designed in this study involves parents being at home (e.g., Morgan, & Scrensen, 1999), parents educational encouragements (e.g., Furnstenberg, & Hughes, 1995), parent-child talk (e.g., Yan, 1999), parents keeping track of their childrens progress (e.g., Lopez, 1996), parents help with the homework (e.g., Wright, Cullen, & Miller, 2001), parents control (e.g., White, & Glick, 2000), family cohesion (e.g., Parcel, & Dufur, 2001), parents expectations (e.g., Carbonaro, 1998; Muller, & Ellison, 2001), friends expectations (e.g., Stanton-Salazar, & Dornbusch,1995), mothers attendance of school meetings (e.g., Pong, 1998), mothers familiarity with childrens friends (e.g., McNeal, 1999), visiting grandparent (e.g., Bianchi, & Robinson, 1997), calling friends and relatives (e.g., Bullen & Onyx, 1998), visiting relatives and neighbours (e.g., Morrow, 2001), extent of parental acquaintance (e.g., Israel, Beaulieu, & Hartless, 2001), religious involvement (e.g., Candland, 2000; Putnam, 200; Smith, Beaulieu & Israel, 1992), participation in extracurricular activities (e.g., Hao, & Bonstead-Burns, 1998), school environment (e.g., Muller, 2001), teachers role (e.g., Onyx, J. & Bullen, 1998), trusting people (e.g., Dyk & Wilson, 1999), being valued by society (e.g., Blaxter et al, 2001), being socially responsible (e.g., Bullen & Onyx, 1998), expressing feelings (e.g., Garmoran & Lopez, 2007), social integration (e.g., Carmo, 2010), school quality (e.g., Hughes, 1995) and social satisfaction (Blaxter et al, 2001) The capitals cited in the previous paragraph and reviewed by Dika and Singh (2002) in some details were expressed in forty Persian statements comprising the SCS. Every attempt was made to make the structure and style of the statements as simple as possible so that they could be easily understood by grade three high school students without any ambiguity. Each capital was then presented on a scale consisting of six points, i.e., never, seldom, sometimes, usually, often, and always. The values of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were assigned to these points, respectively. (The capitals along with the factors upon which they have loaded are given in the results section.)
Procedure The nine educational districts of Mashhad were classified into low, middle and high class areas by consulting the education organization. From each area one district was then chosen on the basis of their comparability, i.e., the number of high schools and student population. This process resulted in the selection of districts 5, 9 and 4 being populated by low, middle and high class families, respectively. The types of schools in the selected areas were then taken into account and the gifted, private, religious and semi private schools were all excluded from analysis as shown Table 1.
Table 1: School Type in the three selected low, middle and high social class schools School type Gifted Private Religious Semi-State State Total Frequency 2 24 4 3 65 98 No of students 235 1283 369 1857 5721 7795 Girls 122 926 209 84 3788 5129 Boys 113 357 160 103 1993 2726
Upon specifying the type and number of schools in districts 5, 9 and 4, the gifted, private, religious and semi-state schools were excluded from the present research because of their offering different syllabi and charging the well-todo families for educating their children. The statistics related to the 65 state high schools were then obtained. The researchers first decided to choose ten percent of grade three high school students as their sample. It was, however,
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noticed that the number of students differed drastically from school to school. In order to make the sample as representative as possible, each district was also divided into the three social classes in consultation with the authorities and then the data were collected from the schools with the largest number of students resulting in the selection of more than 20% of the whole population of grade three high school students in Mashhad in 2010.
Data Analysis The descriptive as well as inferential statistics of the forty social capitals were estimated by utilizing IBM SPSS statistics 19.0. The internal consistency of the SCS was estimated via Cronbachs Alpha and the Pearson Product Moment Correlation was employed to explore the relationships among the capitals. For extracting the factors underlying the SCS, Principal Axis Factoring (PAF) was followed by adopting the Eigenvalues of 1 and higher as the criterion to determine the number of factors. They were then rotated via Varimax with Kaiser Normalization to study the structure of factors upon which the capitals loaded acceptably, i.e., .30 and higher. The three hypotheses below were followed to present and discuss the results.
H1. The Social Capital Scale (SCS) will be more reliable than the Social Capital Sub Scale (SCSS) of Social and Cultural Capital Questionnaire (SCCQ). H2. The 40 items comprising the SCS will correlate highly among themselves. H3. The factors extracted from the SCS will correlate significantly with each other.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The internal consistency analysis of the SCS showed that it is highly reliable, i.e., = 0.89. The Cronbachs Alpha of SCS is slightly higher than the coefficients obtained by Khodadady and Zabihi (2011) on the 35-item Social and Cultural Capital Questionnaire (SCCQ), 0.87, and its 24-item Social Capital subscale (SCSS), i.e., .85, when they administered it to 403 undergraduate and graduate students. Similarly, Khodadady, Alaee and Natanzi (2011) [henceforth KAN11] estimated almost the same coefficients for the same SCCQ, .87, and SCSS, 0.84 upon administering it to 706 high school students. The results of the present study, therefore, confirm the first hypothesis that the SCS will be more reliable than the SCSS of SCCQ. Upon establishing the reliability of the SCS, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of Sampling Adequacy was utilized to find out whether employing factor analysis to extract its latent variables was appropriate. Since the KMO statistic obtained in this study was in the .80s, i.e., .86, it was considered meritorious (Kaiser, 1974 as cited in DiLalla & Dollinger, 2006, p. 250) and its sample was treated as adequate. The significant Bartletts Test of Sphericity, i.e., X2 = 12964.176, df = 780, p < .0001, indicated that the correlation matrix was not an identity matrix. Table 2 presents the ordered initial and extracted communalities obtained from the 40 capitals comprising the SCS. As can be seen, the extraction communalities range from .68 (capital 22) to .12 (capital 2) and thus challenge Costello and Osbornes (2005) suggestion of .40 to.70 as common magnitudes in social science research. The findings of the present study are to some extent in line with the lowest extraction communality found by Khodadady (2010), i.e., .29, and suggest that .40 needs to be reduced to .12.
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Table 2: Forty capitals (C), the Initial Communalities (IC) and extracted communalities (EC) obtained via Principle Axis Factoring C 05 06 20 35 04 18 11 22 40 21 IC .527 .454 .411 .409 .403 .393 .391 .390 .378 .375 EC .596 .564 .514 .489 .465 .540 .560 .678 .453 .434 C 31 15 14 10 09 32 25 13 28 38 IC .363 .359 .357 .356 .351 .343 .337 .337 .333 .333 EC .469 .498 .428 .446 .402 .365 .427 .414 .414 .395 C 24 23 36 39 30 08 34 37 33 27 IC .333 .319 .316 .309 .307 .303 .301 .287 .286 .274 EC .467 .383 .362 .370 .460 .347 .360 .309 .365 .341 C 29 26 19 12 17 07 03 01 16 02 IC .267 .257 .246 .230 .205 .202 .173 .158 .152 .107 EC .351 .308 .279 .252 .273 .229 .186 .234 .169 .120
The low extraction communalities (ECs) obtained in this study seem to be more common than what is suggested in the literature (e.g., Costello and Osborne, 2005). Khodadady and Ghahari (2011), for example, obtained the ECs ranging from .57 to .32 when they administered the 20-item Persian version of Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) to 854 undergraduate and graduate university students in Iran. Since the SCS is twice the size of the CQS and covers more divergent topics than the CQS does, the ECs ranging from .60 to .12 must be a common feature in social studies. Table 3 presents the ordered 780 correlation coefficients (CCs) and their frequency (F) and percentage (P). As can be seen, the magnitude of CCs ranges from -.01 to .56 (Mean = .17, SD = .09). Out of 780 CCs, only 67 (8.6%) reach .30 and higher, indicating that the 40 SC items are addressing divergent capitals and are thus quite heterogamous in nature. They also disconfirm the second hypothesis that the 40 items comprising the SCS will correlate highly among themselves.
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Table 3: The frequency (F), percent (P) and cumulative percent (CP) of 780 ordered correlation coefficients (CC) obtained among the 40 capitals comprising the SCS. CC .56 .53 .51 .48 .46 .44 .43 .42 .40 .39 .38 .37 .36 F 1 2 2 1 2 1 1 2 4 2 4 3 1 P .1 .3 .3 .1 .3 .1 .1 .3 .5 .3 .5 .4 .1 CP .1 .4 .6 .8 1.0 1.2 1.3 1.5 2.1 2.3 2.8 3.2 3.3 CC .35 .34 .33 .32 .31 .30 .29 .28 .27 .26 .25 .24 .23 F 4 2 7 7 12 9 15 13 11 21 13 17 17 P .5 .3 .9 .9 1.5 1.2 1.9 1.7 1.4 2.7 1.7 2.2 2.2 CP 3.8 4.1 5.0 5.9 7.4 8.6 10.5 12.2 13.6 16.3 17.9 20.1 22.3 CC .22 .21 .20 .19 .18 .17 .16 .15 .14 .13 .12 .11 .10 F 23 31 34 34 42 33 38 53 30 44 37 32 28 P 2.9 4.0 4.4 4.4 5.4 4.2 4.9 6.8 3.8 5.6 4.7 4.1 3.6 25.3 29.2 33.6 37.9 43.3 47.6 52.4 59.2 63.1 68.7 73.5 77.6 81.2 CC .09 .08 .07 .06 .05 .04 .03 .02 .01 .00 -.01 Total F 42 26 15 19 10 11 7 10 5 1 1 780 P 5.4 3.3 1.9 2.4 1.3 1.4 0.9 1.3 0.6 0.1 0.1 100.0 CP 86.5 89.9 91.8 94.2 95.5 96.9 97.8 99.1 99.7 99.9 100.0
Table 4 presents the ten factors extracted from the SCS via PAF rotated through Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. As can be seen, all forty capitals have loaded acceptably on the ten factors and thus shown their contribution to the scale validated in this study. Among them only capital five, My mother keeps track of my progress, has cross loaded on three factors, i.e., 3, 4 and 6. As can be seen in Table 1, this particular capital has the largest extraction communality among the others which might explain why it cross loads on more than two factors. Similarly, six items cross loaded on two factors, i.e., 21, 24, 29, 35, 36 and 39.
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Table 4: Rotated factors extracted from the 40 capitals (C) comprising the SCS via PAF Factors C 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * .32 .44 .68 .42 .64 3 * * * * 4 * * * .52 5 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 6 * * .34 * .32 * * * * .59 .70 .35 * * * * * * * * 7 * * * * * * * * .44 * * * * * * * * * * * 8 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 9 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 10 .42 21 .32 22 * 23 * 24 * 25 * 26 * 27 * 28 * 29 * 30 * 31 * 32 * 33 * 34 * 35 * 36 * 37 * 38 * 39 * 40 C 1 2 3 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 4 * * 5 * * 6 * * 7 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 8 .52 .76 .45 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 9 * * * * * * * * .44 .61 .54 * * * * * * * * * 10 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * .32 * * * * Factors
* .33 * * .33 * * .44 * * .44 * * .49 * * .54 * * .35 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
.46 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
.38 .56 * * .42 * * * * .56 .56 .68 * * * * * .63 .38 * * * * * * * * * * * * *
.38 * .52 * .50 * * * * *
.37 *
* .44
* .32 * .35 * * * * * * * *
.41 * .47 * * * * *
* .32 * .37 * * * .54
* Loadings less than .30
Cross loading items have stayed unaddressed in social sciences in general and applied linguistics in particular as if they did not occur in any studies. Moafian and Pishghadam (2008), for example, compiled a questionnaire dealing with the characteristics of successful teachers and extracted 12 factors upon which no item cross loaded. Khodadady (2010), however, extracted only five factors from the same questionnaire upon which 29 characteristics (62%) cross loaded on at least two factors. Based on his findings, Khodadady suggested that cross loading items be reported for
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three main reasons, i.e., 1) they contribute to the factors upon which they cross load, 3) they increase the reliability of factors, and 3) they provide the necessary background to explore the contexts in which they cross load. Table 5 presents the descriptive statistics of ten factors extracted in the present study. (The descriptive statistics of the capitals have been given in Appendix.) As can be seen, the fourth and tenth factors are the most and least reliable factors underlying the SCS, i.e., .73 and .40, respectively. Since factor ten consists of only two capitals, its low reliability sounds quite plausible. The eight remaining factors, however, show acceptable reliability coefficients ranging from .60 to .72. The ten factors together explain 54.1% and 39.2% of variance in the SCS when they are initially extracted and rotated, respectively.
Table 5: Descriptive statistics of ten factors underlying the SCS Factors 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 SCS # of Capitals 6 5 4 4 4 5 5 3 3 2 40 Mean 27.67 18.43 17.86 14.72 13.31 20.12 21.01 12.12 9.13 7.52 161.89 SD 5.598 5.470 4.728 4.907 4.397 4.416 5.439 3.594 3.686 2.115 27.719 .70 .65 .70 .73 .63 .60 .72 .66 .64 .40 .89 Eigenv % of Cumulativ Eigenv % of Cumulativ alue Variance e % alue Variance e % 7.956 2.480 1.891 1.755 1.654 1.394 1.232 1.156 1.074 1.045 19.891 6.199 4.727 4.389 4.136 3.486 3.079 2.890 2.685 2.611 19.891 26.090 30.816 35.205 39.341 42.827 45.906 48.796 51.481 54.092 1.955 1.937 1.789 1.772 1.757 1.745 1.472 1.383 1.194 .710 4.887 4.843 4.472 4.431 4.393 4.362 3.679 3.458 2.984 1.775 04.887 09.730 14.202 18.633 23.026 27.388 31.067 34.525 37.510 39.285
Table 6 presents the six acceptably loading capitals (ALCs) on the first factor extracted and called Self Volunteering in this study, i.e., 24, 32, 33, 34, 37, 38. Capital 24 is the only one which cross loads acceptably on the fifth factor as well, indicating that high school students studying EFL get involved in extracurricular activities partly because they are ready to help (and possibly be helped by) others. As can be seen, capital 33, When needed, I will help my townspeople, has the highest loading, i.e., 0.52, on factor one and thus emphasizes the fact that students will help their townspeople and turn into responsible citizens when they have strong friendship with others and feel valued by them. While the findings of KAN11 specifies Family-School Interaction as the main factor of social capital for high school students, the present study replaces it with Self Volunteering for the grade three high school students.
Table 6: Acceptably loading capitals on the first factor Self Volunteering No 33 34 38 Capital When needed, I will help my townspeople. I know my responsibilities as a citizen and perform them completely. My friends have strong ties with me. Loading 0.52 0.50 0.47
708
24 37 32
I like to get involved in extracurricular activities. While shopping, if I see a friend or an acquaintance I will run to him/her. I feel valued by society.
0.46 0.41 0.38
Table 7 presents the five ALCs on the second factor extracted and called Receptive Relatives in this study. As can be seen, capital 18, We regularly visit our relatives, has the highest loading on factor two, i.e., 0.68, emphasizing the fact that students practice socialization with their relatives first and then extend it to friends, acquaintances, neighbors and grandparents. Similar to the first factor, Receptive Relatives replaces the second factor of KAN11, i.e., Facility Consciousness, emphasizing the validation of social measures with specifically more homogeneous samples. While the present study highlights the importance of relatives as social capitals for grade three high school students, KAN11s findings turn the light to the quality of schools. Table 7: Acceptably loading capitals on the second factor Receptive Relatives No 17 19 16 20 18 Capital I call my friends and acquaintances regularly. We regularly visit our neighbors. I see my grandparents weekly. We have many friends and acquaintances and keep in touch with them. We regularly visit our relatives. Loading 0.44 0.42 0.32 0.64 0.68
Table 8 presents the four ALCs on the third factor extracted and called Mothers Supervision in this study. As can be seen, capital 15, My mother supervises my school affairs more than my father, has the highest loading on factor three (.68), emphasizing the pivotal role of mothers supervision and its close relationship with students friendship, behaviors and whereabouts. The extraction of this factor highlights the importance of mothers supervision not only in their childrens schooling but also in their social life.
Table 8: Acceptably loading capitals on the third factor Maternal Supervision No 8 13 14 15 Capital My parents know where I am and what I do. During my education, my mother has taken part in school meetings. My mother knows most of my friends. My mother supervises my school affairs more than my father. Loading 0.42 0.56 0.56 0.68
Table 9 presents the four ALCs on the fourth factor extracted and called Parental Monitoring in this study. As can be seen, capital 6, My father keeps track of my progress, loads the highest on factor four (.63) and highlights the importance of Parental Monitoring of what they do in school and what they intend to do in future. Since capital 35, I easily talk about my feelings with my parents, cross loads on this factor, parents must know that their monitoring must be based on a strong rapport with their children.
Table 9: Acceptably loading capitals on the fourth factor Parental Monitoring
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No 7 4 5 6
Capital My parents help me with my homework. I usually talk to my parents about my future feature job and education. My mother keeps track of my progress. My father keeps track of my progress.
Loading 0.38 0.52 0.56 0.63
Table 10 presents the four ALCs on the fifth factor extracted and called Teacher Consultation in this study. As can be seen, capital 28, I consult my teachers when I have a problem, has the highest loading on factor five (.54), showing the distinct and significant role the teachers play in students school activities. Since capitals 23, 24, 29, 36, 39 cross load on this factor and they all deal with schools and their environment, more attention must be paid to teachers to enhance their contribution to students success. Future research must reveal whether Teacher Consultation is significantly related to school achievements. Table 10: Acceptably loading capitals on the fifth factor Teacher Consultation No 26 25 27 28 Capital Generally, we have intimate school environment. I participate in school activities. I like my teachers. I consult my teachers when I have a problem. Loading 0.44 0.44 0.49 0.54
Table 11 presents the four ALCs on the sixth factor extracted and called Parental Expectation in this study. As can be seen, capital 11, My parents expect me to be accepted in a very good field at university, has the highest loading on factor six (.70). Two other capitals loading on this factor specify being top in the school and continuing studies as what the parents expect their children to do. However, the third highest loading capital, i.e., 12 (.35), deals with friends expectations. These expectations must however be accompanied by proper monitoring as reflected in the acceptably cross loading capital five.
Table 11: Acceptably loading capitals on the sixth factor Parental Expectation No 3 12 10 11 Capital My parents encourage me to continue my study. My friends expect me to be accepted in a good field at university. My parents expect me to be among the top students in my class. My parents expect me to be accepted in a very good field at university. Loading 0.34 0.35 0.59 0.70
Table 12 presents the five ALCs on the seventh factor extracted and called Parental Rapport in this study. As can be seen, capital 40, Generally, I am satisfied with my social life, has the highest loading on factor seven (.54) preceded by capitals 35 and 9 relating satisfaction with social life to the ease with which students can talk about their feelings within an intimate and warm family environment. These results show that that grade three students become satisfied with their social life whenever parents choose appropriate schools, put their trust in them and create an intimate environment in the family where their children can express their feelings.
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Table 12: Acceptably loading capitals on the seventh factor Parental Rapport No 36 39 9 35 40 Capital My parents trust my school in many ways (providing educational progress, having a good social, cultural and religious environment, and so on). As a whole, during my education, I have had excellent schools with high qualities. Our family environment is very intimate and warm. I easily talk about my feelings with my parents. Generally, I am satisfied with my social life. Loading 0.35 0.37 0.44 0.44 0.54
Table 13 presents the three ALCs on the eighth factor extracted and called Family Religiosity in this study, i.e., 21, 22, and 23. As can be seen, capital 22, My family takes part in mourning anniversaries of Imams, has the highest loading on factor seven (.76), showing the close relationship grade three high school students establish among feeling sorrow for the death of their twelve Imams, i.e., Ali, the Prophet Mohammads (PBUH) cousin, his two sons and their grandsons who are accepted as the only rightful leaders of Islamic society by Shiites, offering Nazari, i.e., money paid or an action done because of a religious oath made for the fulfillment of a certain prayer, and Eftari, the dinner offered freely to some invited people to break their fasting in Ramazan, and worshiping God in mosques. The extraction of this factor thus provides support for Putnams (2000) acceptance of faith communities in which people worship together (p. 19) as a latent variable of social capital.
Table 13: Acceptably loading capitals on the eighth factor Family Religiosity No 23 21 22 Capital We go to mosque to worship God. My family participates in religious activities (Nazri, Eftari, etc.) My family takes part in mourning anniversaries of Imams. Loading 0.45 0.52 0.76
Table 14 presents the three ALCs on the ninth factor extracted and called Helpful Others in this study, i.e., 29, 30, and 31. As can be seen, capital 30, When needed, I can easily get help from the others, has the highest loading on factor seven (.61). Helpful Others are also sought when grade three high school students wish to make important decisions. Furthermore, receiving help when needed assist these students develop trust in the majority of their people. These results thus provide support not only for connecting trust to social capitals as Harper (2002) did but alos on the dependence of trust on reciprocity as people willingness to co-operate for mutual benefit (p. 6).
Table 14: Acceptably loading capitals on the ninth factor Helpful Others No 29 31 30 Capital In my opinion most of the people are trustable. When I want to make a decision, I get help from the others. When needed, I can easily get help from the others. Loading 0.44 0.54 0.61
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Table 15 presents the two ALCs on the tenth factor extracted and called Parent Availability in this study, i.e., 1, and 2. As can be seen, capital 1, My mother is often at home, claims an acceptable loading (.42) which is higher than capital 2 (.32), My father is often at home, indicating that mothers are more available in Iran that fathers and thus play a larger role in their childrens social capital at grade three in high schools. The results though show that the availability of both parents plays a significant role in grade three high school students functioning in educational environments.
Table 15: Acceptably loading capitals on the ninth factor Parent Availability No 1 2 Capital My mother is often at home. My father is often at home. Loading 0.42 0.32
Table 16 presents the correlation coefficients obtained among the factors underlying the SCS. As can be seen, the ten factors correlate significantly not only with the scale but also with each other and thus confirm the third hypothesis that the factors extracted from the SCS will correlate significantly with each other. Among the factors, the first, Self Volunteering, shows the highest relationships with the seventh, i.e., Parental Rapport (r =.50, p < .01) and Teacher Consultation (r = .45, p < .01), respectively, emphasizing the parents and teachers unique role in the life of grade three high school students who are ready to help and trust the people of their community.
Table 16: Correlations among the ten factors extracted from the SCQ Factors 1 Self Volunteering 2 Receptive Relatives 3 Maternal Supervision 4 Parental Monitoring 5 Teacher Consultation 6 Parental Expectation 7 Parental Rapport 8 Family Religiosity 9 Helpful Others 10 Parent Availability SCS .71* .63* .60* .66* .61* .60* .76* .56* .56* .31* 1 1 .34* .30* .28* .45* .36* .50* .38* .40* .17* 2 .34* 1 .32* .31* .26* .28* .39* .37* .31* .08* 3 .30* .32* 1 .42* .20* .30* .39* .31* .17* .15* 4 .28* .31* .42* 1 .28* .48* .51* .19* .22* .19* 5 .45* .26* .20* .28* 1 .24* .42* .33* .42* .15* 6 .36* .28* .30* .48* .24* 1 .38* .21* .21* .17* 7 .50* .39* .39* .51* .42* .38* 1 .31* .40* .15* 8 .38* .37* .31* .19* .33* .21* .31* 1 .25* .18* 9 .40* .31* .17* .22* .42* .21* .40* .25* 1 .11* 10 .17* .08* .15* .19* .15* .17* .15* .18* .11* 1
* Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)
CONCLUSIONS
A Social Capital Scale (SCS) consisting of 40 items was developed and administered to one thousand three hundred and fifty two grade three high school students in their English classes to explore its construct validity in this study.
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The application of Principal Axis Factoring to the data collected from three low, middle, and high class districts of education organization in Mashhad, Iran, in 2010 and their rotation via Varimax with Kaiser Normalization revealed ten factors, i.e., Self Volunteering, Receptive Relatives, Maternal Supervision, Parental Monitoring, Teacher Consultation, Parental Expectation, Parental Rapport, Family Religiosity, Helpful Others, and Parent Availability. The results of this study show that not only the SCS but also its underlying factors are reliable and related to each other significantly. They also show that limiting the scope, i.e., a single component, i.e., social capital, instead of two, i.e., social and cultural capitals, and a more specific and homogenous population, i.e., only grade three high school students, brings about noticeable differences in both the number of factors extracted and their order in terms of the magnitude of variance they explain. While studies exploring social as well as cultural capitals in a single scale, for example, reveal ten factors for a sample consisting of three grades (see KAN11), this study extracted the same number of factors underlying the social capital of grade three high school students only. It remains, however, to be explored whether the SCS developed in this study will reveal any significant relationship with a host of variables such as gender and family income and abilities such as English language achievement.
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APPENDIX
The descriptive statistics of capitals (C) comprising the Social Capital Scale C 1 2 Mean 4.65 2.87 SD 1.308 1.368 Missing % 0.5 0.5 Never % 02.1 14.9 Seldom % 05.3 29.9 Sometimes % 08.3 25.3 Often % 23.1 16.5 Usually % 28.7 07.6 Always % 32.0 05.3
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3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
5.37 4.23 4.44 3.93 2.12 5.25 5.08 5.21 5.29 4.24 4.05 4.20 4.37 3.22 3.97 4.46 2.83 3.96 4.40 4.67 3.05 4.08 3.11 4.05 4.01 2.14 2.28 3.21 3.64 4.77 4.80 4.76 3.57 4.36
2.147 1.696 1.610 1.787 1.502 1.263 1.358 1.280 1.351 1.645 1.790 1.663 1.761 1.998 1.669 1.565 1.626 1.557 1.515 1.533 1.600 1.651 1.595 1.646 1.670 1.474 1.396 1.885 1.518 1.374 1.493 1.395 1.699 1.562
0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8
03.4 07.5 06.0 13.2 50.7 02.0 03.0 02.4 04.0 09.5 11.7 07.5 10.2 30.5 08.1 05.1 24.6 05.3 03.6 04.2 17.8 07.3 16.9 09.4 08.8 47 37.4 12.2 07.1 03.1 03.5 01.7 13.8 05.2
03.8 12.5 08.9 13.0 18.9 02.8 03.6 02.8 02.7 07.6 12.1 13.7 08.8 15.3 15.3 08.7 27.1 14.9 10.1 06.4 25.7 12.0 23.7 10.8 12.9 23.1 26.2 25.2 17.6 03.9 05.6 05.9 15.9 08.7
04.6 13.4 12.0 12.3 13.0 05.5 06.0 04.9 03.4 11.2 14.2 10.0 10.4 10.8 15.3 11.9 16.1 19.4 13.5 11.3 20.2 17.2 20.9 12.4 15.2 12.4 17.2 23.6 22.2 08.3 10.0 11.0 18.5 12.8
04.7 13.5 16.0 15.8 05.7 09.3 11.4 10.6 07.0 19.4 12.8 16.0 12.9 09.8 17.2 17.1 12.6 19.5 18.0 14.4 13.1 17.0 15.2 22.0 16.9 05.8 09.5 16.1 21.7 17.6 12.7 14.5 17.2 19.2
08.7 18.9 19.3 17.5 05.8 15.5 18.8 16.7 13.0 22.2 16.9 23.2 16.9 09.2 18.0 20.6 09.7 17.9 22.0 19.1 12.6 17.3 12.3 19.6 20.1 06.1 05.3 12.0 15.9 26.9 19.8 25.1 15.8 21.2
74.3 33.6 37.3 27.7 05.4 64.3 56.7 62.1 69.5 29.5 31.8 29.2 40.2 23.9 25.6 36.0 09.5 22.5 32.2 43.9 10.0 28.5 10.4 25.1 25.4 04.9 03.7 10.1 14.8 39.4 47.6 40.9 18.0 32.2
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37 38 39 40
4.43 4.82 3.60 4.39
1.511 1.416 1.693 1.617
0.8 0.8 0.9 0.9
03.7 03.2 15.5 06.7
08.0 04.7 12.8 08.4
14.8 07.8 14.9 10.7
16.9 15.0 20.7 16.5
23.1 25.0 19.5 23.3
32.7 43.4 15.7 33.4
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PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION AND THE CHALLENGES OF DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA
AYENI, M. A.* and ADELEYE, J. O. Department of Educational Foundations and Management, Faculty of Education, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria *E-mail address for correspondence: dr_ayeni2006@yahoo.com
_______________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: Philosophy of education is said to be application of philosophical methods and principles to solve any problem in education. One of the goals of Nigerian philosophy of education is geared towards the development of a free and democratic society. Education is the weapon of any good democracy and without education for all, democracy will not be successful. Philosophy must influence the government by educating the policy makers in the formulation of policy that will create within the people a sense of purpose and unity. Bearing this in mind, this paper examines philosophy of education and the challenges of democracy in Nigeria. Issues like the philosophy of Nigerian education is looked into, it also examined the Nigerian philosophy of education and the attainment of equality of access to educational opportunities, and challenges of democracy in Nigeria. Keywords: Democracy, education, philosophy of education _________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
Prior to independence in 1960, Nigerians had seriously criticized the British Colonial regime on issues of relevance, comprehensiveness and focus of the system of education provided to Nigerians. Among several other agitations, Nigerian leaders and educators were particularly worried that the British system of education laid emphasis on academic subjects; Educational opportunity was restricted to few people and that the British grammar school system of education was trans-imposed on Nigeria without due consideration to the culture, environment and the aspirations of Nigeria as a country. The above agitations culminated in the 1969 National conference on curriculum development. The conference was to fashion out a philosophy for Nigerian education the outcome of the conference was the inauguration of a National policy on Education in 1977 for the entire country. After this, the nation still faced a lot of challenges in its democratic system. Thus, to transform its democratic experiment into a true democracy that nation must control social disturbances, establish and nurture the essential political institutions to protect the peoples rights, lives and properties. The absence of true federalism in Nigeria is a stumbling block to the nations ongoing democratic enterprise. The federal government is very overbearing as it controls 80 percent of the resources in the country, leaving, state and local governments at its mercy. Therefore, true federalism would enable each region, state, or geopolitical zone to control their resources and to have access to the necessary funds for community development programs. It is only true democracy that can guarantee fairness and justice in the society. A durable and enforceable peoples constitution is an indispensable tool to make this feasible, as the constitution protects the people and determines socio-political activities in a society. This justified the philosophy of Aristotle, that we can decide
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European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012 the identity of a state only by examining the form (and contents of its constitution. To realize the above, the nation needs a virile and functional education.
The Philosophy of Nigerian Education The philosophy of Nigerian education is embedded in the National policy on Education. According to the policy document, the five national goals which Nigerias philosophy of education draws its strength are: i. ii. iii. iv. v. A free and democratic society; A just and egalitarian Society; A united, strong and self-reliant nation; A great and dynamic economy; A land full of bright opportunities for all citizens.
In order to make philosophy of education work harmoniously for Nigerias goals, education in Nigeria has to be tailored towards self realization, right human relations, individual and national efficiency, effective citizenship, national consciousness, national unity as well as towards social, cultural, economic, political, scientific and technological progress (NPE, 2004). To this end, the Nigerian education system is value-laden and aims at the betterment of the citizens in order that they may live a better live and contribute to the advancement of society. It may be necessary at this point to examine each aspect of the national goals for which education is set to achieve in Nigeria.
Free and Democratic Society The question that readily comes to mind here is what does a free and democratic society entails. And how can this be achieved through education? A free society is a society where the citizens do not suffer restrains or undue interference. They are at liberty to achieve whatever they want to achieve that the least capable person can attain. Just like freedom, democracy implies: a. b. c. d. e. That all men possess certain inalienable rights; That all humans are to be regarded equal in certain respect Faith in human intelligence; Enhancement of individual freedom; Right to peaceful dissent (Omotoso & Aladejana, 2003)
The needed level of awareness of the citizens of the Nigerian society on the benefits of a free and democratic society as outlined above can be achieved through a virile education system that is guided by national policy, which the society itself has evolved for its own benefit (Omatsaye, 1992).
Just and Egalitarian Society The attributes of a just and egalitarian society entails that all persons should be considered of equal importance and their opinions treated equally and seriously. Underneath a just and egalitarian society is the principle of justice and fairness; and the principle of fairness to all is also the principle of equity. The goals of a just and egalitarian society can indeed be pursued through education. Here, education can be used to deliberately inculcate in the learner the spirit of fairness and help to recognize individual differences and needs.
A Great and Dynamic Economy A dynamic economy is an economy that is capable of enhancing equitable income distributed by: i. Eliminating absolute poverty;
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ii. iii. iv.
Participation of broadly based group in public matter affecting the citizens; A reduction in the level of literacy. A greater control and manipulation of the resource endowment of the nation by the internal forces.
The role of education in achieving a great and dynamic economy for Nigeria cannot be underestimated. Skilled manpower of various categories and their diverse qualities is needed in the various economic sectors to pursue the goals of economy growth and development. It is through the process of education that these skills are developed and used to implement any meaningful economic development plan.
A United, Strong and Self-Reliant Nation This stipulated that the nation must be political indivisible, strong to defend the territory and able to provide for her citizen. Philosophy of Nigeria education believe that education perform all these roles. A nation without education is a dead nation but Nigeria with her level of education ought to be united, strong and self-reliant one.
A Land Full of Bright Opportunities for all Citizens A country that will have full opportunities for all citizens must be the one that provide all the social amenities for them so that individual can explore the opportunity at his disposal to become what the natural abilities they endowed to be. Education should be able to inculcate in every Nigerian the ability to contribute to the development or upliftment of the country.
The Nigerian Philosophy of Education and the Attainment of Equality of Access to Educational Opportunities in Nigeria Pursuant of the attainment of the broad national goals examined earlier, the National policy provides that the philosophy of the Nigerian education shall among others be based on The provision of equal access to educational opportunities for all citizens of the country. In order to realize equality of access to educational opportunities the policy framework provides that government shall undertake the following measures: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) (i) (j) Education shall continue to be highly rated in the national development plans. Life long education shall be the basis of the nations educational policy. Education and training facilities shall continue to be expanded in response to societal need and progressively accessible to afford the individual a few more diversified and flexible choice. Education activities shall be centred on the learner for maximum self development and self-fulfilment. Universal Basic education in a variety of forms depending on the needs and possibilities, shall be provided for all citizens; Efforts shall be made to relocate education to cover all community needs. Educational assessment and evaluation shall be liberalized by their being based on whole or in part on the continuous assessment of the progress of the individual: Modern educational techniques shall be increasingly used and improved upon at all levels of the education system; Education shall be structured to develop the practice of self-learning, and government shall in this regard continue to encourage the establishment of young learner clubs in schools. At any stage of the educational progress after junior secondary education an individual shall be able to choose between continuing full time studies, combining work with study, or embarking on full time employment without excluding the prospect of resuming studies later on; Opportunity shall be provided for religious instruction; no child will be forced to accept any religious instruction which is contrary to wishes of his or her parents; and Physical and health education shall be emphasized at all levels of education system (NPE 2004)
(k) (l)
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A critical examination of the extent to which the stated philosophy of education in Nigeria has achieved the desired goals reveals that the policy was more Utopian than practical. There are clear indications that educational programme implementation has been generally defective and largely ineffective, and have shown disappointing outcomes: There are no practical evidence to show that all Nigerian children have equal access to education. In the words of Omotseye (1992) the fact that only those who can afford the cost of schooling send their children to school is anything but a just and egalitarian system. It has been impossible for government to eliminate situations in which the children of the poor are attracted to illequipped public schools and those of the wealthy to well staffed and better equipped schools. Until that day when the children of governors, ministers, Commissioners and highly placed in society will be sent to public schools which they have built, shall the populace take government educational policies serious. The national goal of a united strong and self-reliant nation will remain a mere dream if every Nigerian child does not have the right to education, not just by mere policy proclamation and directive but by matching words with appropriate actions. The Nigerian education system as presently constituted is in serious crisis. The different levels of public school suffer from poor conditions of learning, high studentsteachers ratio, overcrowded classrooms among the others. Presently, many Nigerian do not have faith in the country anymore; talk less of faith in the leaders who stash away Nigerian wealth illegally to foreign countries. Nigerians have lost faith in themselves and have more than even before become neutrally suspicions of each others. No respects for culture, industry, honesty and respect for values have been eroded. The land is bright but not full of opportunities (NTI 2006) very high levels of unemployment have come to stay with us. Crimes of all sorts have taken over our streets. Many Nigerians cannot attend a University because of inability to finance their education. That the Nigerian education system has not been able to achieve the desired goals as enumerated in the policy document leaves much to be desired. Fifty-one years of independence, we are still counting our losses. In the words of Okoh (2005) our nation is at risk because we have been committing acts of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament. We have ended up producing graduates who are completely irrelevant to themselves and their society; graduates who have been miss-educated. Scientific Dand critical thinking have been sacrificed for mediocrity And this posed challenges to the democracy and democratic systems in Nigeria.
The Challenges of Democracy in Nigeria Before going proper to the challenges facing democracy in Nigeria, it is expedient to discuss briefly what democracy is all about. Democracy is a very controversial term. It may be described as a system of government under which the people exercise the governing of power either directly or representatives periodically elected by themselves. One of the important reasons why democracy is very controversial and difficult to define is that it has become very fashionable for different types of government to lay claim to being democratic. However, a useful way of clarifying the concept of democracy as to realize that it is used to refer both to a system of government and to a set of principles. (1) (2) As a system of government, it implies rule by the people through their elected representatives. It can also take the form of either direct or indirect democracy. As a set of principle, it pre-supposes the ideal that political power originates from the people and that government is therefore, legal or legitimate only when it is based on the consent of the people.
The major challenge facing democracy in Nigeria is illiteracy and ignorance. It is appropriate to note that more than one half of the Nigerian population seems to be illiterate. Thus, a certain level of education would enable the citizen to differentiate right from wrong and evaluate the principles of political leaders and political office seekers so as to make an informed political decision. Regrettably, Political Parties and Politicians in Nigerian society are not ideologically, ingrained. The situation where political parties and those elected (or appointed) to manage the affairs of the nation do not represent nothing other than bribery and corruption make the sustenance of true democracy impracticable. Poverty, reinforced by mass unemployment, is another challenge to the Nigerias guest to true democracy. The federal government had announced a war on poverty but joblessness has not lessened. Any individual deprived of the basic wherewithal cannot participate effectively in a democratic political process. Therefore, a poor person is not a full-fledge social individual, as he or she lacks the basic freedom to engage in the lives he or she enjoys. Thus Amartya Sen observers in Development as freedom (2011) that Expanding the freedoms that we have reason to value not only makes our lives richer and more unfettered, but also allows us to become full social persons, exercising our own volition and interacting with and influencing the world in which we live . One can then safely argue that poverty constitutes a challenge to true democracy since economic chaos can topple democratic institutions. The problems of poverty and injustice are good part of Nigeria and the citizens do not seem to understand what is in their culture that prevents them from achieving a just, prosperous, dignified life and true democracy. It is essential to
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note that about 70 percent of the Nigerian population are estimated poor. Is there any wonder why the society is chaotic? Discrimination, ethnicity, tribalism and poverty are closely related, as they affect the peoples ability to secure employment and earn a living. Consequently, many people are concerned more by their daily struggle for economic survival than the empty term democracy, which they believe would not feed them. The government should therefore engage in social policies to spur economic growth (expansion of basic education, health care and equitable distribution of resources) to enlarge the economic pie, so as to reduce poverty. To prosper and have true democracy the society must create a sound macroeconomic, political and legal environment which would enable business organisations and citizens to be productive. (A sound microeconomic policy is equally important). As Michael (2011) warns in culture matters, unless companies operating in a nation become more productive, an economy cannot become more productive. If the citizens and companies are not productive and innovative the nation cannot compete in the global market place and therefore cannot meet the peoples needs toward this end. It has been maintained that economic development creates the social space that makes democracy possible and gives a newly democratic government the breathing room to deliver on its promises. The promises the government has been incapable of fulfilling include the prompt payment of workers salaries, maintenance of roads and the funding of schools and hospitals. Thus, Nigerias reward system, which is perhaps, the poorest in the world, is among the causes of the poverty of the people. Workers work for months without getting their salaries and the retired are not paid their pension benefits. Sadly, national priorities are turned upside down in the society; hard work is not rewarded, but rogues are often glorified. And these have adversely affected the lives of the citizens thereby making the attainment of democracy a difficult endeavour. Prosperity therefore is the ability of an individual, group, or nation to provide shelter, nutrition and other essential commodities that enable people to live a good life. The most pressing challenge facing Nigeria is leadership ineptness. The society will continue to have problems realizing its dream until its political leaders are capable of making tough decisions with vigorous enforcement of the laws of the land to deter anti-social and anti democratic behaviours, in other words, the nations democratic enterprise will not be fruitful until the leaders, to borrow from Lawrence (2002) begin to initiate activities that promote progressive values and attitudes perhaps, the nations traditional culture is a handicap! Nigeria has for long entrusted its democratic enterprise in the hands of non-democrats. Could one without democratic ethos deliver true democracy to Nigeria? You cannot give what you dont have! Related to this is uncertainty of a military coup detat. In a place like the lawless Nigeria nobody is certain what the Khaki boys would do. Abacha regime in Nigeria justified this lawlessness. However, we now live in a global village; any bloodthirsty military officers venturing to overthrow a duly constructed Nigerian government would face the wrath of the international community, as the world would bomb them to submission. Another challenge is the absence of basic democratic values in the society. Some of the nations political leaders have often left many in doubt about their respect for democratic norms. Ethical crisis and fraud perpetrated mostly by the lawmakers are approaching an alarming proportion. This includes politics of greed and lust for power (Political office holders should learn to resign if they cannot perform), electoral frauds, political intolerance, thugs and political assassinations, kidnapping strewn all over the landscape. To attain a true democracy the agencies in charge of elections must ensure a level playing field for all political parties to participate in the political process and political differences and disagreement among citizens should be tolerated and protected. As Dahl (1964) wonders in On Democracy If we dont believe in Political equality, how can we support democracy? And without credible opposition, democracy dies. Finally, it is a known fact that corruption is a bane of Nigeria; as a nation and this has affected every facet of the society. Nigeria is a place where political leaders with access to national treasury convert public fund to private use; it is a place where the congress works to undermine anti corruption campaign; and it is a society with corrupt judiciary and petty jealousy. Consequently, political corruption is endemic in Nigeria, with bureaucratic and electoral corruption, bribery and fraud, embezzlement and extortion with favoritism and nepotism widespread on the political scene. To reach its destination, the political immunity enjoyed by the corrupt politicians should be scrapped to enable the society hold them accountable for their action while in office. True democracy demands that citizens should create and maintain a supportive political culture.
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CONCLUSION
Without any iota of doubt, Nigerian philosophy of Education has made it cleared what should be excepted in true democratic system of the country. Education is the bedrock of any successful democracy. Democracy without education is a contradiction in term. Education is the weapon of democracy. For Nigerians to get the good governance, distributive justice, transparency, accountability and the rule of law they deserve, they must address the critical issues and challenges facing democracy in the country. The challenges should be tackled by Nigerians themselves since it is only Nigerians who can make Nigeria what Nigeria must become.
REFERENCES
Adiele, A. A. (2006). Reflections on the philosophy of the Nigerian education and the attainment of equality of access to primary education. International Journal of African and African American Studies. Dahl, R. (1964) Modern Political analysis. Engle wood Cliffs, new jersecy prentice hall inc. Ekwueme, A. (2005). Sustainable democracy in Nigeria: Challenges and prospects. A paper delivered at the International Conference held at Imperial College, , South Kessington Campus, London on Saturday 25th June. Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004). National policy on education. Lagos: NERDC Press. Lawrence, A. (2004). Challenges of democracy. http://www.goggle search.com. Retrieved on September 1, 2011. National Teachers Institute (2006). PostGraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE by DLS). PDE 107: Philosophy and education. Kaduna: National Teachers Institute. Okoh, J. D. (2005). The risk of an educational system without a philosophical base. Inaugural Lecture Series, 38. University of Port Harcourt. Omoteso, B. A. & Aladejana, T. I. (2003). Politics and democracy in the Nigerias philosophy of education. Journal of African Philosophy. Victor, E. D (2011) citing Amartya Sen: Barriers to true democracy in Nigeria. Retrieved from Google Search. Victor, E. D. (2011) citing Michael, E. P. Barriers to true democracy in Nigeria. Retrieved from Google search.
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THE NEMESIS OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN BOTSWANA PRIMARY SCHOOLS
MAVIS B. MHLAULI Department of Primary Education, University of Botswana E-mail address for correspondence: mhlaulim@mopipi.ub.bw
_____________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: The major purpose of this study was to explore the Social Studies teachers perceptions of the problems and challenges teachers face in the teaching of Social Studies in primary schools in Botswana. I used critical theory to understand the teachers perceived problems and challenges in the teaching of social studies. The study was qualitative and anchored within the naturalistic inquiry paradigm. Qualitative methods were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using grounded theory and employed the constant comparative technique. The findings of the study revealed that social studies teachers are faced with enormous challenges in their effort to develop ideal citizens. I argue that these challenges that are embedded within the structural inequalities regarding social studies are a deliberate act on the part of the government to depoliticize social studies and develop a certain kind of citizenry ideal to the political climate of the country. Such efforts by the government to ignore the fact that social studies is a political subject have in fact turned to be its nemesis. Keywords: Botswana, Social Studies, Nemesis, Citizenship Education, Challenges, Critical theory, Primary schools. __________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
There is consensus in the Social Studies literature that the major goal of social studies is citizenship education (Ajiboye, 2009; Adler & Sim, 2008; Ross, 2006; Hahn, 2001). In some countries social studies and citizenship education are regarded as synonymous. Social Studies has been identified as the subject within the school curriculum that is used as a vehicle for equipping students with the requisite knowledge, skills and values, attitudes and dispositions relevant for producing functional and effective citizens (Mhlauli, 2010). In Botswana, Social Studies is one of the core curriculum subjects that is offered across the different levels of education from primary to junior secondary levels of education. The introduction of social studies in the school curriculum in Botswana was a result of the 1968 Mombasa Conference where African countries agreed to set up the African Social Studies Program (ASSP) now referred to as the African Social Studies and Environmental Studies Programme (ASSESP) (Adeyemi, 2008). In Botswana, social studies emerged for the first time as a school subject in 1969 as part of the standard one and two curriculum (Mautle, 2000). It was not until 1982 that the subject was introduced into the whole primary school curriculum and eventually became part of the Junior secondary schools curriculum in 1986 (Ministry of Education, 2005). The rationale for introducing social studies in primary and secondary schools in Botswana was to focus on issues and problems relevant to the learners experiences (Mautle, 2000). It was discovered that history and
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geography were no longer relevant to the needs of the children hence social studies was seen to be an ideal subject that will be able to address the childrens realities in a contemporary world that is constantly changing. The aims of the social studies curriculum are based on the philosophical view that social studies must play a leading role in developing the individual learner into a functional citizen of Botswana (Mautle, 2000). However, Social Studies was later introduced in other higher levels of education. Since its introduction in the primary school curriculum in Botswana in 1969, there have been doubts as to whether the subject is achieving its major goal of developing good citizens. These doubts emanated from recent trends and evidence from studies that suggest that products of schools are exhibiting behaviors that are not in tandem with good citizenship as encapsulated in the social studies curriculum (Ajiboye, 2009; Preece & Mosweunyane, 2004). Like in many developing countries, the discourse on citizenship education through social studies in Botswana is still at its infancy stages and is to be implemented by teachers, yet very little is known about what social studies teachers think and say and their perceptions of problems they face in teaching Social Studies and or citizenship education within the Botswana context. It is therefore, critical that social studies teachers understand its goals and intent (Sim, 2008) and their voices are captured in order to understand their challenges. The major research question focused on What are the teachers perceptions on the problems or challenges facing social studies in primary schools in Botswana? In asking this question the study sought to hear from the teachers what challenges they are faced with in the development of citizens through social studies teaching. The identification of challenges faced by the social studies teachers may pave way for instructional recommendations that may impact on the delivery of the subject.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following broad questions guided the study: 1. 2. 3. What are the Social Studies teachers perceptions on the problems and challenges in the teaching of social studies? What are the socio-cultural challenges experienced in the teaching of social studies? If there are any challenges, how can they be addressed?
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
In this article I use critical theory to understand the nature of the power relations embedded in educational institutions and schooling in particular in order to understand the Social Studies teachers problems and challenges in their teaching of the subject It is noteworthy to understand that, critical theorist begin with the premise that men and women are essentially unfree and inhabit a world rife with contradictions and asymmetries of power and privilege (Mclaren, 2003, p. 69). Critical educators advocate for theories that are dialectical since they recognize the problems of society as more than isolated events of individual deficiencies within a social structure. The dialectical nature of critical theory enables the researcher to view the school not only as a socialization agent of instruction but also as a site for both domination and liberation (Mclaren, 2003). The dialectical nature of schooling further opposes the dominant view of mainstream academic theory which conceives of schooling as mainly providing students with the skills and attitudes necessary for developing a certain kind of citizenry ideal to the society. I employ a critical lens to interrogate the social studies teachers perceptions of the problems and challenges experienced in the teaching of social studies and to show how mainstream academic knowledge continues to under privilege other forms of knowledge. Mainstream academic knowledge continues to dichotomize knowledge through seeing other subjects such as mathematics, English and science as more superior than other subjects such as social studies. This binary representation of the world was instituted during the colonial era and continues to manifest itself
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in more subtle ways (Said, 1978), what Tickly (2006) would refer to as the new imperialism. Critical educators argue that any worthwhile theory of schooling must be fundamentally rooted to the struggle for a better life for all through the construction of a society based a non exploitative relations and social justice; as well as being cognizant of the influences of class, gender, ethnicity and race to every problem (Mclaren, 2003). Therefore, critical theory becomes an invaluable tool for the analysis of the teachers perceptions of the problems and challenges they face in the teaching of social studies. I use critical theory in view of the fact that the teachers challenges are rooted in structural inequalities and socialization processes which are often seen as universalistic without any consideration of those they affect and that in practice, Social Studies within the Botswana context remains a marginalized curriculum subject.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Social Studies and Citizenship Education in Africa In this review, I examine how Social Studies has been used to develop citizenship among African nations since independence. I focus on two ways in which Social Studies has been used to develop citizenship among African nations mainly: Africanization of the social studies curriculum and Promotion of Inquiry-based learning. Social Studies has been used as a tool for national development. Its purposes, content and rationales differ from one country to another (Kissock, 1981). Among African nations it has been used to improve the image of people in the society after a colonial heritage (Sierra Leone); to learn ways of improving the economy after military rule (Ghana); to transform the political culture (Ethiopia); and to inculcate concepts of nationalism, unity, and interdependence among a citizenry of new nations with diverse populations (Nigeria) (Kissock, 1981, p. 1). The major question here is how does it do all this? The answer lies in the ability of Social Studies to prepare a well informed citizenry that have the requisite knowledge, skills and values (Adeyemi, 2000). One way in which Social studies was used to develop citizens has been through what Merryfield & Tlou (1995) refer to as the Africanization of the curriculum.
Africanization of the Social Studies Curriculum Social studies provide knowledge, skills, competencies, attitudes and values which enable the youth to be good citizens (Merryfield, 1995). The development of a good citizen in Africa was done through the Africanization of the social studies curriculum (Merryfield & Tlou, 1995). Merryfield & Tlou further define Africanization in terms of an African-centered education that refers to instruction that is developed from and centered on African peoples experiences, thought, and environments (p. 2). This view is based on the premise that the curriculum has to be changed to reflect the views of the Africans as opposed to those of the colonizers. This Africanization of the social studies was done in different aspects of the curriculum which necessitated that the objectives, content, methods and resources or teaching materials be redirected to reflect the content and knowledge, values and attitudes as well as the skills of the indigenous people it is supposed to serve. This called for reforms in the social studies curriculum more especially the syllabus to be Africanized. Merryfield & Tlou (1995) in their study where they examined the primary social studies curriculum in Malawi, Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe found that most of these countries had revised their social studies curriculum to reflect their culture, language, literature and traditions. For example in Botswana the move towards Afrocentric social studies included among others developing a strong moral code of behavior that is compatible with the ethics and traditions of Botswana. In Kenya the social studies syllabus emphasized Kenyas economic development, cultural heritage, and National political unity as well as the knowledge and appreciation of their local communities and the nation as a whole. In Malawi more emphasis was put on teaching about Malawi and its neighbors as opposed to non-African content. In Nigeria, the Africanization of the social studies was noticed in that it concentrated on the local community, family, culture, health and economic well-being. In Zimbabwe, the syllabus reflected a new ideology that was oriented towards a socialist model. The primary curriculum focused on the study of Zimbabwe as a nation, its history and culture. Most importantly there was a call
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for Zimbabweans to rewrite history to reflect their experiences and perspectives of the pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial eras in Zimbabwe (Merryfield & Tlou, 1995). This reform in the social studies curriculum to embrace the African environments and cultures was pivotal in the development of good citizens as it equipped them with the knowledge, values, attitudes and skills that allowed them to be conversant with their culture, heritage and societal systems and such knowledge is relevant for nation building (Adeyemi & Asimeng-Boahene, 1999). It is further argued that part of the Africanization is to build national identity and unity. Tlou & Kabwila (2000) contend that a nation can only grow if its people have positive values towards their government, natural resources, social services, their society and themselves as a people. In Malawi this was exhibited through a curriculum that promotes national heritage through knowledge and respect of national symbols. The curriculum further instills positive values towards government by advocating for participatory democracy, care of the environment, effective citizenship and maintenance of high social and moral standards. Students are also trained in decision making, problem solving and critical thinking (Tlou & Kabwila, 2000). Social studies also inculcate the spirit of identity and togetherness through rituals such as national anthems, flags, and other ceremonies that provides a sense of belonging either to the community or nation (Merryfield & Tlou, 1995). In Zambia students and teachers are expected to sing the National Anthem and to respect the National flag as symbols of national consciousness and these have been instituted in the curriculum through the Education Act of 1966. Students are expected to observe all these tenets of the nation as a way of learning good citizenship (Chishimba & Simukoko, 2000).
Promotion of Inquiry Based Teaching Methods Social studies as a field of study advocates for the use of inquiry and problem based learning as opposed to rote learning that previously characterized learning during the colonial era (EDC/CREDO, 1968). It is believed that the problem-solving method is necessary as it develops the child in such a way that she/he sees it as a democratic adventure, as well as the intellectual, critical, and cooperative aspects of the learners (Waghid, 2004; Salia-Bao, 1991). Dewey believed that the most effective and natural education occurred when problem solving was applied in the classroom as it encouraged critical thinking (Salia-Bao, 1991). Following Deweys principle of democratic education, it was believed that such a method encouraged participation among learners through engaging them in cooperative adventures that would turn the classroom into a microcosm of democracy and thereby allowing the child to acquire skills and values of democracy. However, some scholars in social studies argue that the use of problem-based learning has been an ideal in most social studies classrooms in Africa as teachers have not been trained towards the use of such methods (Adeyemi, 2000; Asimeng-Boahene, 2000; Merryfield & Muyanda-Mutebi; 1991). Further research carried out in seven member countries of the African Social Studies Programme (ASSP) have shown that inquiry based learning is talked about in schools but does not translate into teaching as classroom activities are teacher driven and dominated by the chalk-and- talk styles of teaching (Harber, 1997). Other studies carried out in primary and secondary schools in Botswana revealed that teachers used teacher centered methods as opposed to child centered methods in social studies classrooms (Mautle, 2000; Tabulawa, 1998). In Kenya, research into classrooms in general and social studies in particular have revealed that lecture method is still dominant (Harher, 1997). In Botswana there have been attempts to train in-service teachers in child-centered approaches that were meant to develop critical thinking among learners such as the Project method. This initiative received criticism from some people that it was futile to try to alter the classroom relations while the enveloping school social structure remained oppressive (Tabulawa, 2003). Such pedagogies as learner-centered are said to be colonizing and domesticating and that their presentation as a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching and learning marginalizes pedagogies that are based on indigenous knowledge systems (Tabulawa, 2003). Tabulawa (2003) recommends that Africans need to invent alternative culturally relevant pedagogies and there is need to develop indigenous pedagogies. I tend to subscribe to the idea of developing indigenous pedagogies in Africa because it has been argued elsewhere that the African continent is replete with cultural tools that have nurtured vast civilizations as Ancient Egypt, Asante and Zulu kingdoms and has long been acknowledged as the cradle of civilization yet its cultural resources remain untapped (Grant & Asimeng-Boahene, 2006). It is through developing indigenous pedagogies that the cultural resources can be tapped into and be used to further our education and develop the citizens we need.
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Challenges in Implementing the Social Studies Curriculum A number of challenges have been attributed to the implementation of social studies in Africa and among the many are a lack of instructional materials, definitional problems and lack of trained and experienced teachers (Mautle, 2000; Asimeng-Boahane, 2000). It is interesting to note that in her study of some selected African countries Merryfield (1986) found that there was a problem of the definition of social studies and lack of instructional materials in schools. After about two decades the problems still exist. It has been observed that there is a serious lack of instructional materials for teaching social studies such as conventional materials like textbooks, audio, audiovisuals and other resources that are technology related in Africa in general (Asimeng-Boahene, 2000; Mautle; 2000). Such materials where available, are also very limited in scope as they are usually content-related and not activity or problem-solving based (Asimeng-Boahene, 2000). The other problem related to social studies teaching and implementation is related to the definition of social studies. In her study in Malawi, Kenya and Nigeria Merryfield (1986) observed that people who are responsible for the implementation of social studies, teachers and teacher educators were not clear about the meaning of social studies and could not differentiate it from the subjects it replaced. Another problem that appears to be dominant in Africa relates to the training of teachers or teacher education. It appears that there is a great shortage of trained and experienced social studies teachers in most African schools (Mautle, 2000; Asimeng-Boahene, 2000). Problems in the provision of materials and resources continue to dominate in classrooms in Botswana (Adeyemi, Boikhutso & Moffat (2003).The current state of affairs with regards to social studies needs to be addressed if social studies is to achieve its goal of preparing citizens for the 21 century.
METHODOLOGY
The study was qualitative in its approach and employed the naturalistic inquiry paradigm. Naturalistic inquiry is said to demand a natural setting. This is so because phenomena of study, whatever they may be-physical, chemical, biological, social, psychological- take their meaning as much from their contexts as they do from themselves (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, 189). Lincoln & Guba further emphasize that naturalistic inquirers begin their research with the belief that constructions of realities cannot be separated from the world in which they occur or are experienced therefore emphasizing the relationship between time and context to understanding the phenomena under study. Due to the nature of naturalistic inquiry, I found it suitable for the design of my study as it was flexible, required more time in the natural setting and allowed the study to take shape and form as it progressed. Participants The study was undertaken among eleven social studies teachers in upper classes in six primary schools in one of the major villages in the central district in Botswana. For purposes of this study this major village was named Maretlweng village (Pseudonym). Of the eleven teachers, four were males and seven were females. The teachers age ranged between 30 and 55 years, where four teachers were between 30 and 35 years, three were between 36 and 45 years, two were between 46 and 50 and two were between 51 and 55 years. In this study, purposive sampling was used to select the teachers who participated in this study. This type of sampling requires that one establishes criteria, bases, or standards necessary for units to be included in the investigation (Patton, 1990). Therefore, these teachers were chosen on the basis that they are experts in the area of social studies, have taught social studies for more than 3 years, are implementers of the curriculum and can explain what they do best. The naturalistic inquirer prefers purposive sampling because it allows for the increase of the scope and range of data and the likelihood that a full array of multiple realities will be uncovered, it also maximizes the researchers ability to devise grounded theory that takes account of local conditions, local mutual shapings, and local values (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 40). For this study, a type of purposive sampling known as snowball or chain sampling was used to select the participants. The teachers who were identified at the beginning were requested to refer the
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researcher to other teachers in other schools who met the set criteria. After identifying such teachers, they were interviewed individually to get the final group that participated in the study. Those identified as potential participants were requested if they would like to participate in the study and that participation was voluntary. Pseudonyms were used to protect the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants. Data Sources Qualitative methods which included individual interviews, participant observation and focus groups were used for data collection. A total of 43 interviews, 22 participant observations and 2 focus group discussions were conducted over a period of three months (January-April, 2010). The individual interviews were used to solicit more in depth ideas on issues and problems encountered in their teaching; this informed the classroom observations and further interviews. The questions were based on what the teachers think as opposed to asking content knowledge. Interviews have their own limitations, for instance, I interviewed teachers during break, lunch or after school. This made me rush over the interviews as teachers would either be in a hurry to go to the next class or tired after a long day of teaching. I observed the social studies teachers in different settings such as; classrooms and other outside activities in debate clubs, sports activities, staffroom and traditional music practices in an effort to understand what they do and why they do what they do in relation to citizenship development through social studies and to listen to their normal chats and gossips. The data obtained through observations was used to construct follow up interview questions and viceversa. Focus groups were used to enable both the participants and researcher to see how the individual responses contributed during discussions differ from or reinforce those of peers. Focus groups have their limitations in that they compromise confidentiality. At times teachers were not free to say what they would have said if interviewed individually. However, they enabled me to get the socio- cultural aspects of the study in that I was able to observe them when they are together on issues they agree or disagree on.
Data Analysis This study adopted grounded theory techniques for data analysis (Strauss and Corbin, 1994). Data analysis involved making sense of what the researcher has seen, heard, and read. It also requires analyzing, categorizing, synthesizing, searching for patterns and interpreting the data (Glesne, 1999). Data were analyzed inductively using the constant comparative analysis (Merriam, 1998; Patton, 1990). Data collected were immediately transcribed, coded and categorized in order to inform the next interviews and focus groups. The constant comparative analysis is said to be a process that combines inductive category coding with a simultaneous comparison of all social incidents observed and coded (LeCompte and Preissle, 1993, p.256). Data analysis took place at the same time with data collection and questions raised during transcription were used to shape the questions for the next interviews.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
Historically, social studies as a vehicle through which citizenship education is taught has been plagued by controversies and debates over its nature, purpose and methods (Ross, 2006) and this has led to some people dismissing it as a school subject (Thornton, 2005 ). The findings in this study have revealed enormous challenges that social studies teachers in Botswana are faced with in their effort to develop citizens. All teachers in the study expressed frustration at the status of social studies within the curriculum and cited structural inequalities and socialization and cultural practices as the major impediments to the development of social studies teaching and learning. It is these deliberate roadblocks that have been placed on social studies that have turned out to be its nemesis in spite of the noble intent of which the subject was borne out of and introduced into the school curriculum. The findings are discussed according to the Research Questions (RQs) in the study and are divided into two categories mainly structural inequalities and socialization and cultural practices, their discussion follows below.
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RQ1: Structural Inequalities Teachers lamented on structural inequalities that hamper the delivery of social studies and citizenship education in primary schools and among the many cited the following: lack of recognition; inadequate resources; lower qualifications and a lack of understanding of citizenship education. They also cited challenges emanating from the culture of the society they live in which included the socialization of children and lack of participation in class activities.
Lack of Recognition of the Subject All of the eleven social studies teachers and the three school-heads interviewed expressed concern on how social studies is handled within the school curriculum. They expressed frustration at the appalling state of affairs concerning the status of social studies in the curriculum as they felt that it was totally ignored, not monitored nor supervised and argued that it was left at the mercy of those who teach it. Mr Tau elaborately commented on the lack of recognition that as social studies teachers they are concerned about, that: It is only that social studies on its own as compared to other subjects it is not that much monitored. If you look at other subjects you find that they are monitored, they have people who give reports on them on a term basis, but with social studies it is the burden of the teachers who are teaching it. You find that whether you are doing the right thing or not it is upon an individual. Or one would prefer to do it the way they understand it, or the way I was taught from the college. The most important thing is that the Government should recognize that teachers determine the nation or country because right now we have shortage of social studies teachers and there is no department that coordinates it like other subjects such as mathematics and science. Ms Lorato also talked about the non existence of a post of responsibility within the establishment and had this to say: It is only that social studies on its own as compared to other subjects it is not that much monitored. If you look at other subjects you find that they are monitored, they have people who give reports on them on a term basis, but with social studies it is the burden of the teachers who are teaching it. You find that whether you are doing the right thing or not it is upon an individual. Or one would prefer to do it the way they understand it, or the way I was taught from the college. The teachers concerns were also augmented by the school-heads who expressed a lot of frustration on the state of affairs surrounding the status of social studies within the school establishment. Ms Joseph, who was a social studies teacher prior to being promoted, had this to say: There are also no workshops for social studies teachers compared to other subjects. The teachers normally dont even update themselves with information. They just teach outdated information. They just take things exactly as they are from the syllabus. Mr Jeremiah who is also a school-head, echoed more on the conspiracy within the government to sabotage their own efforts in citizenship development that: You See, Like I said earlier on, if people know what social studies is , we would be having somebody heading the department. To the Policy Makers social studies is not important, what is important is Maths and Science, Languages and Arts. Thats why we are having heads of Departments in these areas. When you talk about social studies people will say no, Senior Teacher Sports and Culture would be rightly placed to head that department. Why? Because people dont really want to know what social studies is about? But somebody somewhere knows what social studies is, and because they think its a political subject have decided to ignore it. He went on to say that: What I would like to say about social studies as a subject, very important as it is; to the Powers that be to know the importance of social studies particularly when we talk about citizenship education people need to know and understand their roles... Otherwise, if citizenship education is not taken aboard people will be left
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European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012 behind. And I would be very happy if the powers that be meaning politicians and policy makers can listen and take note of this, so that at the end of the day we have Senior Teachers; HoDs for social studies. It is not only about creating jobs but all about educating people and informing them about citizenship education because it is very important. From these findings it is clear that both the teachers and school-heads expressed frustration and concern in the way social studies is handled and the lack of recognition of it as a curriculum subject that exists. The school-heads called on policy makers to inform themselves on social studies and its goals if indeed they are committed to the development a certain kind of citizenry ideal to Botswana. Though teachers were aware of the various challenges they are faced with, they also attributed them to conspiracy theories which they believed were political. This notion of conspiracy is explicitly stated by Mr Jeremiah that: I think to some extent social studies on its own is a political subject and if this can be brought to the attention of the teachers there is going to be a problem. Therefore, from the excerpt of Mr Jeremiahs interview, it can be deduced that the lack of recognition of social studies within the curriculum was seen as deliberate and aimed at producing citizens who are compliant, uncritical and cannot challenge the status quo. I also observed that social studies teachers were not specifically designated as such because they were teaching other subjects such as Mathematics, Setswana, English, Science and Practical subjects which were more recognized than Social studies. This observation solidified the teachers assertion that Social Studies was not recognized as a a subject and that it is not given any attention in terms of professional growth. This situation is troubling in that it defies the very fundamental principle within which social studies is grounded; that of preparing citizens in a democracy by equipping them with the knowledge, skills and values necessary for active participation (Adler & Sim, 2008; Ross, 2006; Hahn, 2001). It is this paradox of introducing such a robust and important curriculum subject and the lack of its recognition thereof, which has turned to be the nemesis of social studies in primary schools in Botswana.
Dearth of Teaching Resources All the teachers spoke about the shortage of resources as one of the challenges that limits citizenship development and the teaching and learning of social studies in their schools. Teachers also recognized the importance of technology in order to be active players in the world. This dearth of resources was experienced across the different subjects. The inadequacy of materials ranged from technology to teaching materials such as resource books for teachers and funds to carry out educational tours or field trips. Talking about the lack of technology in schools resulting in computer illiteracy Mr Tau said: I think we are living in a changing world and as such citizens need to have technological skills such as using modern technology devices like the computer, internet and all that is related to them. It appears Batswana are lacking in scientific skills and knowledge and therefore it is necessary to develop such skills. The government of Botswana has totally neglected primary schools when it comes to technology and therefore this affects the teaching of subjects such as social studies. Ms Thato explained how the availability of computers would facilitate learning and had this to say: The resources again i.e. computers, internet where pupils could be researching for themselves, our kids are computer illiterate, so if these things were here in our school, I think our pupils were going to manipulate, they will learn better. We are now living in modern society where all these things are now used. When they interact with other pupils of their age who are using this, they seem to be left behind in a way and those other kids will look down upon them. From the above dictum, it is clear that teachers are faced with a mammoth task of having to improvise on teaching resources in a world that is constantly changing and getting even more complex. Teachers also recognized that social studies is a living subject and as such requires them to embark on field trips, however, they expressed that their efforts are void in that there have financial limitations and Ms Neo had this to say: Lack of resources or teaching materials such as computers, globes, lack of funds as teachers are not provided with funds to help in teaching citizenship education. For example, if children are to go out for a trip, parents have to pay the money from their pockets and for those who fail to pay their children do not go for that trip. The government has to pay so that all kids benefit. We do not have places of research as the school library has insufficient resources. Even public libraries sometimes do not have relevant information.
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Ms Thato also expressed concern on her inability to embark on field trips which are essential for students and lamented that: another one is lack of resources, sometimes you will find that we want pupils to visit certain places to take field trips and due to lack of funds it is difficult for us to search such places, for instance, we talked about different religions, our pupils are used to Christianity or African Traditional Religion because in Botswana these are the dominating religions, when we talk about Islam for instance, we dont have a mosque here in... Talking about a mosque which your pupil have never been to that place is very difficult for them to understand it, but taking them in a field trip, lets say to Gaborone to see a mosque, to see the Muslims in real life it becomes difficult. All these teachers expressed concern with the inadequate resources and argued that these problems militated against their efforts to effectively teach social studies and develop citizens in their classrooms. These findings reinforce those of an earlier study (Mautle, 2000) which was conducted among in-service primary teachers where it was found that there was acute unavailability of teaching resources and schools were in dire need of teaching materials. In the 21st century teachers are still required to improvise and teach subjects like social studies in abstraction. It is quite difficult to believe that up to now the recommendation of the Revised National Policy on Education (RNPE, 1994) on equipping students with skills for accessing and processing information through Information technology has not been implemented in primary schools. This situation both devalues and de-motivates teachers who are charged with the responsibility of the development of informed and effective citizens in this ever changing world. The inadequate resources in schools is generally disappointing given the countrys economic growth over the years, one would expect schools to be widely resourced in terms of teaching and learning materials. These findings confirm the findings from previous studies that have found that there was a serious shortage of materials in social studies classrooms (Merryfield & Muyanda-Mutebi, 1991; Mautle, 2000; Adeyemi, Boikhutso & Moffat, 2003). One of the aims of the upper social studies curriculum as stated in the syllabus (MoE, 2005) is that: Learners should have developed skills for accessing and processing of information using information technology (IT). This aim is ridiculous in view of the fact that schools are not equipped with computers and the very few schools that I observed with one or two computers which are white elephants because they are not in use were acquired through donations. Only one school had about twelve computers and all of them were acquired through a donation from the business community through the efforts of the school and their Member of Parliament. Some of the schools I observed did not even have a single computer. The question is how do you expect students to acquire computer skills when teachers themselves do not have them and the majority are computer illiterate? This situation has serious implications for teaching and learning if indeed social studies is meant to facilitate in learners the attainment of knowledge, develop skills and promote desirable attitudes needed to function as informed, productive and responsible citizens (MoE, 2005, p. 147). Given the above mentioned state of affairs, it remains to be seen how teachers can perform miracles of teaching information technology without the required resources.
Low Teacher Qualifications Some of the teachers such as Mr Tau, Ms Kabo, Ms Thato and Mr Kgabo (Pseudonyms) also reiterated on the slow upgrading of teachers from primary teachers certificate to at least a diploma or bachelors degree in primarily education. They attributed the delay to a lack of recognition of primary school teachers and the role they play in the development of children from a tender age; failure to see the need to improve primary education and a political agenda. One of the school-heads, Mr Jeremiah, expressed concern and frustrations when he mentioned that: It has taken the powers that be a long time to upgrade the qualifications of teachers at primary- it has taken time- this has brought a lot of challenges because if you are upgraded to a higher level/qualification, it means that it affects ones salary; therefore upgrading of teachers has financial implications. So it is better for them to leave the teachers at a lower qualifications level so that their remuneration should be there- but it has taken time for people to understand that it is not about paying somebody, it is about bringing quality education because for as long as you are upgraded academically, then you will be able to bring about quality education. The teachers argument was that the slow upgrading of teachers to a higher level is not based on financial implications on the side of the Government but rather on the fact that a primary school teacher cannot earn that
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amount of money. They believe that they are stereotyped and degraded at the expense of the quality of education provided. Teachers believed that as a result of these stereotypes, their morale was very low. This view where teachers are undermined literally compromises the quality of education and negates the Government of Botswanas aspirations of developing a knowledgeable and informed citizenry by 2016 (Presidential Task Group, 1997). These aspirations and the realities of social studies education on the ground are contradictory, hence the nemesis of social studies in Botswana primary schools.
Lack of Understanding of Citizenship Education/ Social Studies Though social studies is aimed at developing citizens in a democracy, teachers expressed the view that they did not know what it means. Almost all of the teachers including school-heads talked about a lack of understanding of what citizenship education is and felt that it was important for the concept to be redefined and re-conceptualized within the Botswana context. This lack of understanding was attributed to the ineffectiveness of teacher education and the governments reluctance to invest in teacher education. Ms Kabo raised an important issue regarding definitional problems that: I think citizenship education is not clearly defined in Botswana, there is need for teachers to understand what citizenship is and the teacher educators have to equip teachers to be with such knowledge. Teacher education has to play an important role in following their students after training to see if they are doing what they are supposed to do. Ms Thato slammed the pedagogical aspects of social studies as attributable to definitional problems and said: social studies, the way it is being taught in primary schools is not that effective, the teachers are not much into developing citizenship as they are more into imparting knowledge because some do not even understand what it is all about. The view held by Ms Thato reinforces other findings from studies undertaken at secondary and tertiary levels of education on the state of social studies classrooms and teaching which have revealed that social studies teaching is teacher dominated, didactic and predominantly authoritarian (Mautle, 2000; Tabulawa, 1998; Harber, 1997). The observation that classrooms are teacher centered is a widespread challenge across the continent of Africa (Harber, 1997; Asimeng-Boahene, 2000) and has remained such despite the fact that such education systems have implemented a number of educational reforms geared towards improving the quality of teaching and learning. This authoritarian nature of schools in Africa has been associated with the colonial legacy of school organization and curriculum institutionalized during colonialism in the first part of the twentieth century, which has come to be regarded as normal or the only available model (Harber,1997, p.3). Classrooms are characterized by silence on the part of students who act as recipients of knowledge and are not challenged to take responsibility of their own learning (Tabulawa, 1998). One of the school-heads, Mr Jeremiah, who has majored in social studies education talked about the controversies that surround citizenship and remarked that: I was saying that may be the theory that supports the understanding of citizenship is not being understood well because proponents of this theory might be different themselves and they might be arguing about it themselves not what is real about citizenship so I am saying we have to have a better understanding of this theory to appreciate what they are telling us to know about citizenship. As a society or community in Botswana, we should understand issues of citizenship as they are taught in schools. We should also review them and make some additions where necessary. From Mr Jeremiahs comments it could be deduced that citizenship education as taught in schools is alien and therefore called for it to be re-imagined. He went further to talk about the ambiguity that characterizes citizenship education as he mentioned that: like I say I dont have much background particularly when we talk about citizenship education, we are just teaching social studies as a subject, we do not go deep to citizenship education; what social studies is and what it can be, how it can influence or change the lives to know what social studies is all about. When you talk of citizenship education, its something that did not come into my mind, that some of these things you
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just do them in principle, not knowing that we are educating citizens, how their expectations should be like particularly that they are the rulers of tomorrow The findings in this category raise serious issues with regards to the teachers understandings and interpretations of citizenship education in primary schools in Botswana. There is clear evidence that not only are teachers faced with these challenges but even school-heads who are the drivers of curriculum implementation and change have shown that they do not understand what social studies or citizenship education is all about.
RQ 2: Socialization and Cultural Practices Almost all of the teachers felt that the socialization and culture of their students presented challenges for them in that social studies calls for inquiry based and participatory learning. However, the socialization process that students come from is totally the opposite of what is required in school. Teachers argued that some students were not participating in class due to their perceptions on education and their socialization.
Lack of Participation Teachers also cited the lack of participation by students in class activities as a challenge for developing citizens in social studies classrooms. This lack of participation was attributed to the socialization of the girl-child and the boy child in the Setswana culture. Teachers argued in their focus groups that that from a tender age boys and girls are socialized differently being told that a man should be strong and never cries and that a woman is not heard but seen. This differential treatment of girls and boys at home impacts negatively on their participation in class activities. Almost all the teachers talked about the challenge of students participation. Teachers provided reasons for some of their students not participating in class. Some teachers argued that the way the girl child is socialized at home may be responsible for their lack of participation in class. Mr Tau said that: Culture is also a problem as girls dont want to become leaders in school but we try as much as possible to encourage them to be positive and have an input. Ms Batho though not focusing on the girl-child also talked about the socialization process saying: Whereas some due to how they have been brought up cannot feel free to say some issues concerning them and are at times unwilling to share their ideas with others. It is also crucial to note that the school culture where students have to participate through asking questions, speaking directly looking at the teachers eyes, and supporting arguments totally contradicts the home culture where asking questions may be seen as being rude or inquisitive, and looking directly at an adults (teachers) eyes when talking to them and answering back (deliberation) may be viewed as disrespect. The teachers arguments are supported in Tabulawa (1998) who contends that the Tswana society emphasizes structures of domination and subordination of the child to his or her elders and children internalize these at a tender age and when they come to school they bring with them that cultural baggage. This, therefore, shows how the home experiences and relationships influence the teaching and learning process in the schools.
Perceptions on Education Teachers felt that the socio-economic status of some students basically impacted their perceptions about education and the extent to which they participate in class. Mr Kgabo talked about the family background as influencing students participation and said: Some lack motivation because of their family background, some are from poor families, their parents dont know the importance of education, so when the kids come here in school, they only wait for the bell to ring to go home. They just come because they are told to come but the parents dont tell them the importance of education
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The challenges raised by these teachers under this category are important in that they reflect disparities between the realities of the school and the home. These realities are indicative that the culture of the school and the home are totally different which may explain why students are passive in class and call for teacher educators, curriculum developers and teachers to reconsider the cultural milieu that students bring to school and how it impacts their learning process.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The findings in this study reflect serious flaws in the way social studies and citizenship education in particular is perceived, interpreted and enacted in primary schools in Botswana. Teachers are demoralized as they find themselves teaching a subject that appears to be a white elephant as it is not monitored with no Head of Department or at least a Senior Teacher. The state of the teaching resources is still appalling more especially the lack of provision of basic technology such as computers and internet despite the Revised National Policy on Education (RNPE, 1994) recommendation for students to be equipped with Information Technology (IT) skills since they live in a technologically changing world. These findings have implications for policy makers. Policy makers need to be reminded that democracy is not genetically inherited, it has to be learned, cultivated and practiced for it to prosper (Harber & Serf, 2006) and citizens do not spring from nowhere as they need to be taught desirable attitudes, values, beliefs, skills and knowledge requisite for them to become effective citizens in a democracy. This can only be facilitated by the recognition of the importance of Social Studies in Botswana primary schools. The situation that the social studies teachers find themselves in needs an immediate redress in order for it to achieve its intended goals. Paradoxically, Botswana is a democracy, and it is surprising that it does not take Social Studies serious. One wonders; what happened to the impetus that saw the development of Social Studies in the country and its implementation across the school curriculum? The contradiction lies with the waning of the subject within the school establishment and the purported intent of providing Social Studies in primary schools which basically poses a dilemma for the social studies teacher. The status of social studies within the school establishment has turned out to be its nemesis as it now militates against the growth of the subject. There is need for policy makers to also recognize the role that Social Studies teachers play in developing and nurturing citizenship by creating a post of responsibility for Social Studies as their discontent may militate against any effort towards citizenship development. The teaching of Social Studies also needs to be re-imagined and reconceptualized within Botswana primary schools otherwise it will remain an illusion rather than a reality. The following recommendations are suggested for consideration: 1. 2. 3. 4. During teacher preparation citizenship education through social studies should be re-conceptualized to take into consideration the contextual factors. Ministry of Education must insure that posts of responsibilities are introduced for social studies teachers to cater for professional development, monitoring and assessment purposes. Policy Makers have to be cognizant of the role social studies plays in a democracy and insure that teacher development promotes equality among educators. Ministry of Education should equip schools with relevant resources and materials such as computers to promote learning required in the 21st century.
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REFERENCES
Adeyemi, M.B. (2008). The expectations of social studies teachers in Botswana. European journal of social sciences, 6 (2), 145-150. Adeyemi, M.B., Boikhutso, K., & Moffat, P. (2003). Teaching and learning of citizenship education at the junior secondary level in Botswana. Journal for pastoral care and personal social education, 21(2), 35-40. Adeyemi, M.B. (2000). Social studies in Nigeria. In M.B. Adeyemi (Ed). Social studies in African education, pp. 247-264. Gaborone: Pyramid. Adler, S.A. & Sim, J. B-Y. (2008). In D.L. Grossman and J. Tin-Yau Lo (Eds). Social education in Asia: Critical issues and multiple perspectives, pp. 138-163. Charlotte: Information age publishing. Ajiboye, J.O. (2009). Strengthening civic education in Botswana primary schools: A challenge to traditional social studies curriculum. The African symposium, 9(1), 125-133. Asimeng-Boahene, L. (2000). Social studies in Ghana. In M.B. Adeyemi (Ed). Social studies in African education, pp. 185-204. Gaborone: Pyramid Banks, J.A. (2008). Diversity, group identity, and citizenship education in a global age. Educational researcher, 37(3), 129-139. Chishimba, C.P. & Simukoko, R.K. (2000). Social studies in Zambia. In M.B. Adeyemi (Ed). Social studies in African education, pp. 281-302. Gaborone: Pyramid. EDC/CREDO, (1968) Report of a conference of African educators, EDC and CREDO on social studies. Mombasa, Kenya: Educational development centre. Glesne, C. (1999). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction (2rd Ed.). New York: Pearson. Grant, A. & Asimeng-Boahene, L. (2006). Culturally responsive pedagogy in citizenship education: Using African proverbs as tools for teaching in urban schools. Multicultural persectives, 8(4), 17-24. Hahn, C. (2001). Democratic understanding: Cross-national perspectives. Theory into practice, 40(1), 14-22. Harber, C. (1997). Education and democratic political development in Africa. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. Harber, C. & Serf, J. (2006). Teacher education for a democratic society in England and South Africa. Teaching and teacher education, 22, 986-967. Kissock, C. (1981). Curriculum planning for social studies teaching: A cross-cultural John Wiley and Sons. Lincoln, Y. & Guba, E. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. LeCompte, M.D. & Preissle, J. (1993). Ethnography and qualitative design in educational research. New York: Academic press. McLaren, P. (2003). Critical pedagogy: A look at the major concepts. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano & R. D. Torres (Eds). The critical pedagogy reader, pp. 69-96. New York: Taylor & Francis. approach. New York:
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Marri, A.R. (2008). Connecting diversity, justice and democratic citizenship: Les alternative US history class. In J.S. Bixby and J.L. Pace (Eds). Educating democratic citizens in troubled times: qualitative studies of current efforts, pp. 58-80. Albany: University of New York. Mautle, G. (2000). Social studies in Botswana. In M.B. Adeyemi (Ed). Social studies in African 157-168. Gaborone: Pyramid. education, pp.
Merriam, S. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass. Merryfield, M.M. & Tlou, J. (1995). The process of Africanizing the social studies. Social Studies, 86(6), 1-19. Merryfield,M.M. & Muyanda-Mutebi, P. (1991). Research on social studies in Africa. In J.P. Shaver (Ed). A handbook of research on social studies teaching and learning: A project of the National Council for the social studies, pp. 621-631. New York: Macmillan. Merryfield, M.M. (1986). Social studies education and nation development in selected African nations. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington. Mhlauli,M.B. (2010). Social studies teachers perceptions and practices for educating citizens in a democracy in upper classes in primary schools in Botswana. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Columbus: The Ohio State University. Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd Ed). Newbury Park: Sage. Preece, J. & Mosweunyane, D. (2004). Perceptions of citizenship responsibility amongst Botswana youth. Gaborone: Lightbooks. Presidential Task Group (1997). Vision 2016, Towards prosperity for all: Long term vision for Botswana. Gaborone: Presidential Task Group. Republic of Botswana (2005). Upper primary syllabus. Gaborone: Curriculum Development Unit. Republic of Botswana (1994). Revised National Policy on Education: Government paper No.2. Government Printer. Gaborone:
Republic of Botswana (1993). Report of the National Commission on Education. Gaborone: Government Printer. Ross, W. (2006). The social studies curriculum: Purposes, problems, and possibilities (3rd Ed.). Albany: State University of New York. Said, E.W. 1978). Orientalism. New York: Random House. Salia-Bao, K. (1991). African social studies programme: A handbook for teachers. Ibadan: Evans Brothers. Sim, Jasmine B-Y. (2008). What does citizenship mean? Social studies teachers understandings of citizenship in Singapore schools. Educational review, 60(3), 253-266. Strauss, A.L. & Corbin, J. (1994). Grounded theory methodology: An overview. In N.K.Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln (eds). A handbook of qualitative research, pp. 286-323. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Tabulawa, R. (2003). International aid agencies, learner centered pedagogy and political democratization:a critique. Comparative education, 39(1), 2-26. Tabulawa, R. (1998). Teachers perspectives on classroom practice in Botswana: implications for pedagogical change. Qualitative studies in education, 11(2), 249-368.
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Thornton, S.J. (2005). Teaching social studies that matters: Curriculum for active learning. New York: Teachers college, Columbia University. Tickly, L. (2004). Education and the new imperialism. Comparative education, 40(2), 173-198. Tlou, J. & Kabwila, V. (2000). Social Studies in Malawi. In M.B. Adeyemi (Ed). Social Studies in African education, pp. 217-222. Gaborone: Pyramid. Waghid, Y. (2004). Deliberation and citizenship: closing some of the gaps related to the Values education initiative in South Africa. South African Journal of education, 24(4), 278-283.
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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT VARIABLES AND STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EGOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, EDO STATE, NIGERIA.
ROSELINE O. OSAGIE* and CHUKUJINDU J. OKAFOR Department of Educational Studies and Management, Faculty of Education University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria *E-mail address for correspondence: rosarugue@yahoo.co.uk
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: This is a quantitative study which investigated how human resources management variables impacted the academic performance of students in secondary schools in Egor local government area of Edo State in 2006 and 2007. Four hypotheses were formulated. A questionnaire of the human resources management variables was administered to test the hypotheses. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was used to analyse the relationship between the four dimensions of human resources management variables and the academic performance of students. Findings demonstrated support for the hypotheses relative to three dimensions of the variables and students performance. Keywords: Human resources variables, management, students performance, secondary schools, Edo State. _________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
Over the years, educational institutions have developed into complex and functional field of endeavour from the previous simple experiences. Changes in technology, economic, social and political sectors have contributed immensely to this development. Therefore, for educational institutions to stay abreast in this rapidly changing environment, they must adapt to the new technologies and the changing life world. These issues pose many problems and challenges for school managers. Consequently, the management of physical and human resources in the school system are of the utmost importance in order to achieve the overall goals and objectives of the schools. Technological advancement has resulted in the use of new methods of teaching while government intervention in education has induced constant changes in national educational policies in Nigeria. Also, the demand for better pay, more benefits, less work by the staff and the lack of basic infrastructure in the schools are some of the problems the human resources manager has to cope with and manage properly to enable him meet the set goals and objectives of the school system ( Peretomode and Peretomode, 2005). Human resources management in education implies effectively coordinating the activities of staff, students and parents so as to achieve educational aims and objectives (Adeniyi, 2004). The National Policy on Education (2004) clearly spells out the broad responsibilities of managing schools as employment, promotion, deployment and discipline of teachers among others. Successive governments in Nigeria have made efforts towards the effective management of human resources in educational institutions. However, certain challenges still persist with staff training and development, teachers
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workload, performance evaluation, supervision of instruction, conditions of service, staff turnover and motivation, disciplinary problems among students and teachers, promotion policies and so on. To adequately handle the forgoing challenges, efforts should be geared towards the effective management of staff and students in secondary schools. The importance of human resources management has been stated but there is not much information on its relationship with the academic performance of students in secondary schools. High academic performance is one of the objectives of secondary education in Nigeria. For secondary schools to achieve high performance in the public examinations, they must recruit qualified teachers, they should secure modern buildings, adequate facilities and equipment should be provided to enhance teaching and learning while supervision of teaching is carried out for quality control. Other bodies that could influence students academic performance are administrators, managers, guidance counsellors, Parents Teachers Association (PTA), curriculum specialist, funding agencies, non teaching staff, inspectors and examination boards. There are diverse schools of thought on how students should be measured or evaluated to show academic performance. According to Marlow (2003), teachers written tests have been used for at least one hundred and fifty years to determine students academic performance. The report of Coleman (1966) supports the view that non school resources inputs such as students family background factors contribute more to students academic performance than the impact of school resources such as expenditure on teachers salaries, laboratory facilities and equipment, books and quality of teachers. These variables according to Coleman (1966) have negligible effects on students academic performance. Any organisation that does not plan for its human resources will often find that it is meeting neither the personnel requirement nor its over-all goals effectively (Stoner, 1978). For example, a school may decide to introduce new subjects into its school curriculum, if the school does not make adequate arrangements for the teachers to handle these new subjects, the subjects will remain on the time table without being taught. To further buttress this point, when the federal government launched the 6:3:3:4 system of education, it spent huge financial resources on equipment for technical education. However, the human resources required to operate the equipment was not considered. Consequently, the equipment were left to rot in the rain and many of the equipment were eventually stolen by hoodlums. With regards to the current educational policy, the supervision of instruction is the process of overseeing the work of teachers with the aim of assisting them to solve their instructional problems so that students can benefit maximally from classroom activities ( Igwe, 2005). This can be effected with the involvement of the principal or any other official appointed by interacting with teachers and students in the classroom regularly to monitor the teaching and learning process. According to Nwagwu (2004), the supervisor has the responsibility of monitoring and evaluating all staff activities and programmes of their organisation. The major reason for this is to ensure dutiful compliance of all staff with established laws and declared goals through quality assurance, maintenance of standards and quality control. This view is in line with the National Policy on Education (2004) which declared that supervision is a device for quality control. The goals of the school can be achieved through the continuous supervision of the teaching staff and the non- teaching staff. The evaluation of staff is conducted as it determines their performance, in as much as it also determines the academic performance of students. In performance evaluation of staff, care should be exercised to ensure that it is the performance and not the personality of the employees that are evaluated (Okafor, 2006 ). In the study by Akposheri (1994), she found out that there was significant relationship between teachers who were highly rated during evaluation and the academic performance of students. Another aspect of human resources management in the school is the workload of the staff. This is the amount of work assigned to a teaching position. Staff workload include teaching subjects, administrative duties, supervision of students and other activities. In the research findings on teachers workload by Naylor and Malcomson (2001), teachers saw their workload increased because they spent fifty-three hours a week preparing their lesson notes for teaching and marking scripts. The teachers reported that they modified their teaching methods to enable them cope with the stress of the workload. When that happened, it was difficult for them to accomplish all their objectives because of the lack of time. Consequently, the performance of the teachers and the students was impaired. Ikworayebe (2005) stated that in Edo State the allocation of teaching load to teachers is done through the number of periods of teaching. The maximum teaching workload per teacher is twenty-five periods while the minimum is eighteen per week. This policy is not strictly adhered to. Some teachers may be allocated less than the minimum teaching periods while others may have more than the maximum. This affects students academic performance. In the junior secondary schools in the federal capital territory, Abuja, teachers workload was one of the factors that inhibited students performance ( Nwwikina and Nwanekezi (2010). They also stated that some teachers taught as much as thirty-five periods a week while others taught less than six periods. Such
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discrepancy indicated that the workload was not equitably distributed in the school. It would be preferable to have a uniform policy that will ensure an equitable distribution of teachers workload that will enhance teaching and learning. The National Policy on Education (2004) stipulates a teacher student ratio of one to forty. However, a visit to some of the schools in Egor local government area revealed a clear departure from this policy. Teachers had classes with over a hundred students. This is due to the population explosion and the inability of the local government to employ more teachers. This situation has led to too much workload for the teachers. This certainly affects the academic performance of the students
PURPOSE OF STUDY The central research question that guided the study was, What is the relationship between human resources variables and the academic performance of students in Egor local government area of Edo State, Nigeria? The human resources variables employed for this study were: planning, staff supervision, staff evaluation and staff workload. Hypotheses 1 2 3 4 There is no significant relationship between human resources planning and students academic performance. There is no significant relationship between staff supervision and students academic performance. There is no significant relationship between staff evaluation and students academic performance. There is no significant relationship between staff workload and students academic performance.
METHODOLOGY The research is a relationship study with ex -post facto design. The design was found suitable as the interactions between the dependent and independent variables have occurred before this study. The population of this study consisted of public senior secondary school teachers and SS3 students in Egor local government area of Edo state in Nigeria. All the teachers and SS3 students in these schools constitute the target population for this study. The four hypotheses were tested using Pearson Product- moment correlation coefficient (r) to determine the level of relationship between the variables and academic performance of the students.
RESULTS
It was hypothesized that there is no significant relationship between human resources planning and students academic performance.
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Hypothesis 1 Descriptive statistics
Human Resources Planning (HRP) Mean HRP 2.40 Std. Deviation .1218 N 11
Correlations Human Resources Planning (HRP) Stud Perf Stud Perf Pearson Correlation Sig. (2tailed) N HPR Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N 1.000 11 .392 .233 11 HRP .392 .233 11 1.000 11
Note: Positively correlated but not significantly related The hypothesis was accepted. The calculated correlation coefficient r was 0.392. Though it was not significant there was a positive relationship. Thus, the more there is human resources planning the better is the students performance. 2 It was hypothesized that there is no significant relationship between staff supervision and students academic performance.
Descriptive statistics
Staff Supervision (Staff Sup) Mean Staff Sup 2.80 Std. Deviation .1914 N 11
Correlations Staff Supervision (Staff Sup) Stud Perf Stud Perf Pearson Correlation Sig. (2tailed) N Staff Sup Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N 1.000 11 .273 .417 11 Staff Sup .273 .417 11 1.000 11
Note: Positively correlated but not significantly related
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This hypothesis was accepted as the calculated correlation coefficient r was 0.273. Though it was not significant, staff supervision was positively related to students academic performance. Thus, the more the staff are supervised the better is the students performance. 3 It was hypothesized that there is no significant relationship between staff evaluation and students academic performance.
Descriptive statistics Staff
Evaluation (Staff Eval) mean Staff Eval 2.49 Std. Deviation .1344 N 11
Correlations Staff Evaluation (Staff Eval) Stud Perf Stud Perf Pearson Correlation Sig. (2tailed) N Staff Eval Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N 1.000 11 .400 .223 11 Staff Eval .400 .223 11 1.000 11
Note: Positively correlated but not significantly related The hypothesis was accepted as the calculated correlation coefficient r was 0.400. Though it was not significant, staff evaluation is positively related to students academic performance. Hence the more the staff are evaluated the better is the students performance. 4. It was hypothesized that there is no significant relationship between staff workload and students academic performance.
Descriptive statistics
Staff workload (StaffWor) mean Staff Wor 1.79 Std. Deviation .2038 . N 11
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Correlations Staff workload (StaffWor) Stud Perf Stud Perf Pearson Correlation Sig. (2tailed) N Staff wor Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N 1.000 11 -.106 .756 11 Staff wor -.106 .756 11 1.000 11
Note: Negatively correlated and not significantly related The hypothesis was accepted as the calculated correlation coefficient r was -0.106. Staff workload has a negative relationship with students performance. This implies that the lower the workload of staff, the better is the students performance.
DISSCUSSION OF RESULTS
The positive relationship in human resources management planning is expected because planning is the bedrock of any organisation which intends to make an impact in society. The fact that there is no significant relationship indicates that much needs to be done in human resources planning sector in Egor local government area. The government should spend a considerable effort to recruit adequate staff in terms of quantity and quality and in particular to fill the areas of the most pressing needs. Inservice training of staff should be a continual exercise, especially in their subject areas. Staff should be given the opportunity to attend seminars and workshops which would expose them to new methods of teaching and learning. On staff supervision, the more the staff are supervised the better is the performance of the students. The insignificant relationship implies that supervision is not well conducted in senior secondary schools in Egor LGA. In a study of one thousand and eight primary and one hundred and five secondary schools in Edo State, only fifteen supervisors were in the inspectorate department of the Ministry of Education and only six of the supervisors had degrees in Educational Supervision (Ogunu, 2001). The present study has provided an insight into how supervision is carried out in secondary schools in Egor local government area. Since supervision is an important element in human resources management, it is therefore recommended that the inspectorate division of the Ministry of Education should be strengthened with more personnel to effectively carry out the function of staff supervision that will have a meaningful impact on students performance. Staff evaluation is also an important human resources management variable. The more the staff is evaluated the better is the students performance. This result agrees with the views of Nwagwu (2004) that staff evaluation should be carried out to determine their performance because their performance also determines students performance. Staff workload has a negative relationship with students academic performance. Hence the lower the workload of staff, the better is the students performance. This finding agrees with those of Naylor and Malcolmson (2001) who reported that teachers had to adjust their teaching methods to enable them cope with the pressure of the workload. The finding from this study also agrees with the work of Nwikina and Nwanekezi (2010) who found out that in the federal capital territory (Abuja), teachers high workload hindered students academic performance but when their workload was reduced, students performance improved.
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CONCLUSIONS
There is no doubt that to achieve quality learning that will improve the academic performance of students, it is important that a system is put in place that will ensure that teachers, students and management are guided toward the desired goals and objectives of the school. This study explored such a system, that is, human resources management variables and how these variables influenced the academic performance of students. The study determined that staff workload had a negative correlation with students performance while human resources planning, staff supervision and staff evaluation had a positive correlation to students academic performance. However, they were all not significantly related to students performance. The findings were consistent with those in the literature on school improvement.
REREFERCES Adeniyi, (2004). Psychosocial Environment and Human Resource Management in Educational Institutions. Journal of Educational Management and Planning vol1 No1 p141 Akposheri, R. O. (1994), The Relationship Between Students evaluation of Instruction and Students Academic Performance. An Unpublished Masters Thesis. University of Benin, Benin City. Coleman, J. (1966). Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington D.C Department of Health Education and Welfare offices of Educations. Igwe, S. O. (2005). Supervision, Evaluation and Quality Control in Education. In current Issues In Educational Management In Nigeria (Eds.) In N. A. Nwagwu., E. T. Ehiametalor, M.A Ogunu, Mon Nwadiani (Eds). Current issues in Educational Management in Nigeria ( pp. 32-45). Association for Educational Administrator and Planning (NAEAP). Ikworayegbe, M. G. (2005). The study Of Teachers Workload In Private and Public Secondary Schools in Edo North Senatorial District. Unpublished M.Ed Project, University of Benin, Benin City. Marlow, E. (2003). Philosophy and Measurement of School Achievement. Journal of Instructional Psychology. http://www.findarticles.com National Policy on Education (2004). Lagos: NERDC Printing press Naylor, C. and Malcolmsom, J. D. (2001). A study of workload of English teachers in B.C. secondary grades. BCTR Research Report. RT01-0036 pp 16-17. Nwagwu, N.A. (2004) Personnel Management. In N. A. Nwagwu., M. E. Ijeoma., C. C. Nwagwu (Eds). Organisation and Administration of Education. Perspectives and Practices (pp 48 -55) Benin City. Festa Printing Press Ltd. Nwikina, L. and Nwanekezi, A. (2010). Management of job-related teacher burnout in Nigerian schools. Academic Arena. 2(7). Ogunu, M.A. (2001). Problems of School Inspection in Nigeria. In N.A Nwagwu, E.T Ehiametalor. M. A. Ogunu and Mon Nwadiana (Eds). Current issues in Educational Management in Nigeria ( pp 60-65 ). Benin City. Association of Educational Administrator and Planning (NAEAP) . Okafor, C. A. (2006). Organisational Characteristics, Practices, and Performance in Nigeria. Dissertation Submitted to School of Postgraduate studies, University of Benin, Benin City. A Ph.D
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Peretomode, V. F. and Peretomode, O. (2005). Human Resources Management. Principles, polices and practices. Lagos: Onosomegboho Ogbinaka Publishers Ltd. Stoner, J. A. E. (1978). Management; New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc.
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GENDER DIFFERENCES AND STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND RETENTION IN SOCIAL STUDIES AMONG JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EKITI STATE
B.O. ABDU-RAHEEM Department of Educational Foundations and Management, Faculty of Education, University of Ado-Ekiti, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. E-mail address for correspondence: dr_boabduraheem@yahoo.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract: This paper examined gender differences and academic achievement and retention of students in social studies among Junior Secondary schools in Ekiti State. The study adopted quasi experimental pre-test, post-test control group design. The sample for the study consisted of 240 Junior Secondary school class II students selected from 6 schools, 3 boys only and 3 girls only in Ekiti State. Simple random sampling was used to select 40 students from each single-sex school. The instrument used for the study was the Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT) designed by the researcher. Section A of the SSAT contained the bio-data of the respondents while section B consisted of 40 multiple-choice items designed to find the level of achievement and retention of students in social studies. 6 hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The data were analysed using ANOVA and ANCOVA statistical analyses. The findings indicated that there is no significant difference between the achievement mean scores of male and female students in the experimental and control groups. There is no significant difference between the retention mean score of male and female students in the experimental and control groups. It was concluded in the study that gender does not play any significant role on students achievement and retention in social studies. It was therefore recommended that female students should be more encouraged both at home and school in order to develop their untapped intellectual resources and erase the old gender stereotype against them. Keywords: Gender differences, academic achievement, retention significant relationship, stereotype, significant role, significant difference, social studies, junior secondary schools ____________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
One of the most topical issues in the current debate all over the world has been that of gender differences and academic achievement among students in schools. Over the years, there has been a growing awareness of the role of women at home, in schools, and community in general. However worries have equally been expressed about the role of women in the political, social, cultural, psychological, economic, spiritual, scientific and technological
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development of the nations. A major area of concern has been the effects of gender differences on academic achievement and retention of students in secondary schools. However, the major focus of this paper is to examine the differences between the achievement mean scores of male and female students and the difference between the retention mean scores of male and female students. Also, the paper will find out whether or not there is a significant relationship between gender and academic achievement of students in school. The study will therefore give insight on the effects of gender on students academic achievement and retention in social studies in secondary schools in Ekiti State. Fisho-Oridedi (2001) in her book The Girl Child noted that the Nigerian population in 1991 was 88,514,501. The population of men (male) is 44,544,053 which is 50.32% while that of women (female) is 43,969.970 which is 49.7% of the total population. The above data indicate that women constitute almost half of Nigerian population and their potentialities in contributing to the national development cannot be over-emphasised. Ibraheem (2001) confirmed the above statement that women constitute about 50% of Nigerian population and their potentiality in contributing to the national development cannot be ignored. In African culture, girls are not familiar with toys that promote interest in science and technology. Their major duty is home management and child-bearing. They are expected to cook and clean while the boys engage in activities such as playing football, making bows and arrows, playing with catapults, flying kites and so on. Bozimo (1991) noted that these activities promote scientific knowledge and thus give them an edge over girls. Babalola and Adedeji (1997) also confirmed that women, throughout the ages and everywhere in the world, have always been considered inferior to men. Scottish local authorities did not introduce gender policies until the early 1990s (Ridwell 2000). Jekayinoluwa (2005) lamented that schools and the nation at large are making profound contributions to the creation of positive learning environment that could motivate learning achievement more in boys than girls. In their own study, Jegede and Inyang (1990) worked on gender differences and academic achievement in integrated science in Junior Secondary Schools. They confirmed that males performed better than females. They affirmed that males demonstrated significantly more positive attitudes towards science than females. Schibbeci (1984) also noted that females exhibit more positive attitudes towards Biology and males towards Physics. Owuamanam and Babatunde (2007) noted that the girls tend to go for courses that do not require more energy and brain tasking such as home making while boys looked for jobs in management, engineering, banking and other brain-tasking professions. In her own research carried out in London, Osler (2002) confirmed that girls excluded or self-excluded from formal education were rampant among African girls than White girls. In another research carried out in London, Claire (2005) highlighted the high number of black girls being excluded from school and also looked at the way language is used in education. Both ethnicity and social class are factors which combined with, and interacting with gender, are seen as having a direct bearing on achievement (Plummer 2000 and Arnot 2003). Archer (2003) noted that gender inequalities are interwoven with social class, ethnicity, sexuality and disability. Another factor identified as influencing attainment is ethnicity (Arnot 2003). In his own findings, Murphy (2001) linked academic achievement with patterns of behaviour. He noted that there are signs of boys being vulnerable to becoming disaffected. He explained further that boys tend to be less careful about rules and more indifferent to being reprimanded. Head et al (2002) revealed that boys are also more likely to be referred to Behavioural Support Services. Younger et al (2005) cautioned by pointing out that there are many boys who continue to do well in school and only few of them become affected. Of particular interest is the fact that girls, to a large percentage, avoid physical science subjects when choice is offered. Studies indicated that girls are more satisfied with school life and their school-related attitudes are more positive than those of boys (Balogun 1983 and Yoloye 1983). They explained further that the intellectual potential of girls is an untapped labour resource for science and technology. Average levels of attainment for boys are lower than those of girls at all stages and across almost all areas of the curriculum (Croxford, 2000). A similar picture can be observed in England and Wales (Younger et al 2005). In Social Studies, sex factor has no influence on the academic achievement of students. Their achievement is based on their levels of understanding and commitment. In his study on differences in the cognitive achievement towards Social Studies, Akinbote (1999) confirmed that there is no significant difference between the cognitive achievement and attitude towards Social Studies of boys and that of the girls. In his own contribution, Adeosun (2002) confirmed that there is no significant difference in the achievement score between males and females while conducting studies
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on effects of multimedia packages on students achievement and retention in Social Studies. Abdu-Raheem (2010) also concluded that gender does not play any significant role on students achievement in Social Studies.
Statement of the Problem In spite of the fact that women constitute almost half of the Nigerian population and contribute immensely to economic development, they are still been discriminated against by the society especially in the African countries. It has also been observed that the stereotype against ladies is affecting their academic achievement adversely. This paper therefore aims at investigating the effects of gender on students academic achievement and retention in Social Studies in Ekiti State Secondary Schools.
Research Hypotheses 1. There is no significant difference between the achievement mean scores of male and female students in the experimental and control groups. 2. There is no significant difference between the retention mean scores of male and female students in the experimental and control groups.
Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is to proffer a lasting solution to the problem of gender differences and its effects on academic achievement and retention of students in Social Studies in schools. The outcome of this study could also create enabling situation for girls to develop their untapped intellectual sources and improve on their achievement.
METHODOLOGY
The study is a quasi experimental pre-test, post-test control group design. The sample consisted of 240 Junior Secondary School class II students selected from 6 single-sex schools(3 boys and 3 girls) in Ekiti State. Simple random sampling was used to select 40 students from each school for the study.
Instrument The instrument used for the study was the Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT) designed by the researcher. The instrument consisted of 40 multiple choice items used as pre-test, post-test and retention test respectively. The validity of the instrument was ascertained by the experts in Educational Management, Guidance and Counselling and Social Studies. Face, content, construct validity and item analysis procedure were done to validate the instrument. The reliability of the instrument was determined through test-re-test and estimation of internal consistency. The reliability coefficient of 0.73 and 0.71 were obtained respectively.
Experimental Procedure The students were first exposed to pre-test to check their knowledge base line. The students were then randomly assigned to experimental and control groups where they were exposed to different treatment. The experimental were
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exposed to treatment through problem-solving and discussion methods while the control group continued with their lessons through the normal conventional lecture method.
Data Analysis The data were analysed using ANOVA and ANCOVA statistical tools.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Hypothesis 1 There is no significant difference between the achievement mean scores of male and female students in the experimental and control groups. Table 1:ANCOVA Summary of Gender and Treatment on students Achievement in Social Studies. Source Corrected model Covariate (pretest) Sex Group Sex Group Error Corrected Total Total P>0.05 The null hypothesis is accepted (F=.482, P>0.05). Therefore, there is no significant difference between the achievement mean scores of male and female students in Social Studies. The interaction of gender and treatment on students achievement in social studies is not statistically significant at 0.05 level (F=1.952, P>0.05). However, the main effect of treatment on students achievement is significant at 0.05 level (F=1626.882, P<0.05) Ss 36625.918 126.429 5.390 36392.432 43.668 3948.205 40574.122 275992.000 Df 6 1 1 2 2 353 359 400 Ms 6104.320 126.429 5.390 18196.216 21.834 11.185 Fcal 545.773 11.304 .482 1626.882 1.952 Ftable 2.09 3.84 3.84 2.99 2.99
Hypothesis 2 There is no significant difference between the retention mean scores of male and female students in the experimental and control groups.
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Table 2: ANOVA summary of Gender and treatment on Retention Mean Scores of Social Studies Students Source Corrected model Sex Group Sex Group Error Corrected Total Total P>0.05 Table 2 shows that Fcal (.299) is less than F table (3.84) at 0.05 level of significance. The null hypothesis is accepted. Therefore, there is no significant difference between the retention mean scores of male and female students in the experimental and control groups. Similarly, the interaction effect of gender and treatment on retention mean scores of the students in social studies is not statistically significant at 0.05 (F=1.74, P>0.05). However, the effect of treatment on retention mean scores of students in Social Studies is statistically significant at 0.05 (F=2414.263, P<0.05). Ss 46036.656 2.844 46000.572 33.239 3372.500 49409.156 249726.000 Df 5 1 2 2 354 359 360 Ms 9207.331 2.844 23000.286 16.619 9.527 Fcal 966.463 .299 2414.263 1.744 Ftable 2.21 3.84 2.99 2.99
DISCUSSION
The study showed that there was no significant different between the achievement mean scores of male and female student in the experimental and control groups. This is an indication that gender has no significant contribution to the achievement of student in Social Studies. The male and female students exposed to the same treatments have nearly the same achievement scores. In support of the above argument, Akinbote (1999) reported that there is no significant difference between the cognitive achievement and attitude towards Social Studies of boys and that of girls. Adeosun (2002) also concluded that there is no significant difference in the achievement mean scores between male and female while conducting studies on effects of multi-media packages and students achievement and retention in Social Studies. The study also reveal that there was no significant difference between the retention mean scores of male and female students in the experimental of control groups. The study confirmed that the main effect of gender on students retention in Social Studies is not significant. The male and female students exposed to the same treatment do no differ significantly in their retention means scores. This is contrary to Adeosun (2002) who found that girls have better retention than boys in his research carried out on effect of multi-media packages on students achievement and retention in Social Studies. However, it was believed that girls achieved and retained equally with boys because of the facts that education of the girl-child is now given better attention by the government and the society generally. This opportunity gives room for girls to use their untapped intellectual potentials effectively and erase the old stereotype that places boy above girls on academic issues.
753
Conclusion and Recommendations It was concluded in the study that gender does not play any significant role on students achievement and retention in social studies. It was therefore recommended that girls should be assisted and encouraged by the parents, teachers and the society in order to develop their untapped intellectual resources, to improve on their academic achievement.
REFERENCES
Abdu-Raheem, B.O. (2010). Relative effects of problem-solving and discussion methods on secondary school students achievement in social studies. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis, University of Ado-Ekiti, Ado-Ekiti. Adeosun, O.V. (2002). Relative effects of three multi-media packages on students achievement and retention in social studies. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Ado-Ekiti, Ado-Ekiti. Akinbote, O.A. (1999) Sex differences in the cognitive and effective outcomes in social studies of primary school pupils. African Journal of Educational Research 5(1). 34-38. Arnot, M. (2003). Male working-class in identities and social justice: a reconsideration of Paul Williss Learning to Labour in light of contemporary research. Inc Vincent (ed.) Social justice, education and identity. London: Routledge Falmer. Balogun, T.A. (1983). Obstacles to teacher effectiveness in Nigeria school setting. Paper presented at the 2nd International Conference of Curriculum Organisation of Nigeria, University of Jos, September. Bozimo, H. (1991). Role modelling and concomitant attitude change strategies as determinants of achievements of girls in integrated science. An unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Ibadan. Claire, H. (Ed.) (2005). Gender in education 3-19-A fresh approach. London: Association of teachers and Lecturers. Pdf http://www.atl.org.uk. Croxford, L. (2000). Gender and national curricular: shifting agendas in the UK and Europe. London: Routledge. http://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/pubs2000/promoting%20boys%20achmt.htm. Fisho-Oridedi, D. (2001). Developing the potentials of the girl-child-A National challenge. Nigeria: The REGENT Printing & Publishing Ltd. Head, G. Kane, J. & Cogna, N. (2002). An evaluation of behaviour support in secondary schools in south Lanarkshire. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/education/lacr03.asp. Ibraheem, I. (2001). Winning more girls and women for science and technology: A challenge for Women. In O. Busari, (Ed) Women in science, technology and mathematics education in Nigeria, 43 rd STAN Annual Conference Proceedings. Jegede, O.J. & Inyang, N. (1990). Gender difference and achievement in integrated science among junior secondary school students: A Nigerian study". International Reviews of Education, 36 (3), 364-368. Jekayinoluwa, R. (2005). Sex-role stereotypes and career choice of secondary school students. Unpublished M.Ed Thesis. University of Ife, Nigeria.
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Murphy, P. (2000). Equity, assessment and gender. In J. Salisbury and S. Ridwell, (eds.) Gender policy and educational change shifting agenda in the UK and Europe, London: Routledge. www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/education/lacr-03.asp. Osler, A. Street, C. Lall, M. & Vincent K. (2000). Not a problem? Girls and school exclusion. London: National Childrens Bureau. Owuamanam, T.O. & Babatunde, J.O. (2007). Gender-role stereotypes and career choice of secondary school students in Ekiti State. Journal of Educational Focus. 1(1): 103-110 Plummer, G. (2000). Failing working class girls. Stoke-on Trent: Trentham Books. Ridwell, S. (2000). Equal opportunities in Scotland in J. Salisbury & Ridwell (Eds.). Gender, policy and educational change: shifting agendas in UK and Europe. London: Routledge. http://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/pubs2000/promoting%20boys%20achmt.htm. Schibeci, R.A. (1984). Attitude to science: An update. Studies in Science Education. 11, 26-59. Yoloye, E.A. (1983). The evaluation of teaching. Paper Presented at the Workshop on Effective Teaching, Institute of Education, University of Ibadan. Younger, M., Warrington, M., Gray, J. Rudduck, J. McLellan, R. Bearne, E. Kershner, R. & Bricheno, P. (2005). Raising boys achievement. DFES Research Report 636. London: http://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/pubs2000/promoting%20boys%20archmt.htm.
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European

VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1 FEBRUARY 2012

A PEER REVIEVED INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL

European Journal of Educational Science

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Volume 4, Issue 1, February 2012

Samia Abdel Aziz-Ahmed Sayed, National Research Center, Egypt

European Journal of Educational Science

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Volume 4, Issue 1, February 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012 2012 Ozean Publication

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

Training Level Beginner Intermediate Advanced

Frequency (sessions per week) 3 4-5 5-6

Duration (minutes) 20 30-45 45-60

Intensity (VO2 max or HR) 40%-50% 50%-75% 75%-85%

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

Medical history and physical activity Yes No Total

03(10.0) 27(90.0) 30(100.0)

03(14.3) 18(85.7) 21(100.0)

10(31.2) 22(68.8) 32(100.0)

02(05.6) 34(94.4) 36(100.0)

02(10.0) 18(90.0) 20(100.0)

20(14.4) 119(85.6) 139(100.0) 22.13 0.05

22(73.3) 08(26.7) 30(100.0)

15(71.4) 06(28.6) 21(100.0)

08(25.0) 24(75.00 32(100.0)

09(25.0) 09(25.00 18(50.0) 36(100.0)

05(25.0) 10(50.0) 05(25.0) 20(100.0)

22(15.8) 56(40.3) 61(43.9) 139(100.0) 32.58 0.05

Types of Physical Activities Mild Moderate Hard Total

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

Requirement Preference Best preference a Good preference Poor preference Total

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012 2012 Ozean Publication

JOB SATISFACTION STATUS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN OTA, NIGERIA

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

Operating Engineers Office Supervisors

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

0 (0.00) 1 (0.70) 1 1 (0.72) 0 (0.00) 1 1 5.26) 0 (0.00) 0 (0.00) 0 (0.00) 1

Mean Square 3543.743 207.969

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012 2012 Ozean Publication

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

European Journal of Educational Studies 4(1), 2012

Research-related Affective Behaviour

Before EFF 641

After EFF 641