The Impact of Personnel Teachers Variables and the Teaching of Practical Physics in Secondary Schools

The Impact of Personnel Teachers Variables and the Teaching of Practical Physics in Secondary Schools

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Physics is essentially a quantitative science and its teaching at the secondary level aims at training students to acquire proper understanding of basic principles and at developing in them, scientific activities. Zubairu (2014), confirms that, “physics is a science that deals with the properties of matter in relation to energy” (p. 339). At the tertiary level, the aim is narrowed to producing physics teachers and researchers in different fields such as engineering, communication, medicine, etc.

Ntuk (2014), summarized that, “effective and efficient teaching leads to effective learning” (p.113). So as important as school subject is, it should be taught well. It is expected that effective teaching of the subject helps the learners to develop noble attributes like, development of cognitive and psychomotor skills as well as inculcation of scientific culture. If the development of cognitive can be done through lecture or teaching of theories, certainly, the development of psychomotor skills requires the implementations of the practical aspects of physics which involves the ability to acquire knowledge of various laws, concepts, theories, expressions and formulae by the students and how they can be used to explain naturally observed phenomena.

However, this acquisition of knowledge of the various concepts, laws, and theories are the contents of physics, and learning objectives fall into the cognitive domain. John (2015), noted that, “cognitive skill embraces cognitive variables such as logical reasoning, scientific thinking and creative thinking”. Activities under the practical aspect involve the ability to manipulate equipment in the laboratory for the purpose of explaining or verifying the concepts and laws learnt in theory.

Laboratory physics entails proficiency in a variety of skills such as plotting of graphs, making measurement in appropriate units, deriving information from the graphs and making useful inferences. Through this, the learners’ power or logical reasoning and observations which involve honesty and carefulness are tested and put into use. These methods of physics and activities fallunder psychomotor and affective domains. Affective domains are objectives which describe changes in attitude, beliefs, values, etc. John (2015), observed that, “manipulative skills have to do with psychomotor variables such as handling of apparatus, manipulation of apparatus and eye-hand co-ordination”.

There have been reported cases of inadequate preparation of physics teachers for teaching. This has hampered effective teaching and learning of the subject at lower level of education. The basic requirement for any successful lesson is planning. Lesson planning includes everything that the teacher puts down on paper as guide to his teaching such as deciding upon his objectives, choosing appropriate methods and materials, deciding on the activities he will undertake as well as activities the students will engage in, how and when it is done, and most importantly, the techniques for teaching and evaluation.

John (2015), stated that, “teaching techniques may be defined as variety of approaches which a teacher adopts to induce, promote and direct learning”. This is a clear indication that the teacher is central to the teaching/learning process and it is the most important factor to be considered when finding causes of failure.

This research is therefore investigating personnel (teachers) variables and teaching of practical physics in secondary schools in Uruan local government area. The teachers’ variables will be considered in terms of the qualification of the teacher, and the years of experience in teaching physics.

The Impact of Personnel Teachers Variables and the Teaching of Practical Physics in Secondary Schools

1.2 Statement of the Problem

There are many factors that are responsible for the general poor performance of secondary school students in practical physics examination. One of the factors is the availability of equipment and apparatus for physics practical.

It is clear from all indications through various researches that most secondary school students have poor academic performance despite a well-equipped physics laboratory. It is based on this that the issue of personnel (teachers) variables and the teaching of practical physics is being considered as the major determinant for this investigation.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

This study is aimed at investigating personnel (teachers) variables and the teaching of practical physics in secondary schools in Uruan local government area. Specifically, the main purpose of this research is to:

1. Determine how the academic qualification of a teacher affects the teaching of practical physics;
2. Investigate the effect of years of teaching experience of a teacher on his/her ability to teach practical physics.

1.4 Research Question

In order to address the problems investigated in this study the following research questions were addressed:

1. How does the academic qualification of a teacher affect the teaching/learning of practical physics?
2. In what way do the years of teaching experience of a teacher affect the teaching of practical physics?

1.5 Research Hypothesis

Carrying out a successful research depends on the guidance drawn. To achieve a credible result for this research, the following hypotheses were formulated. The hypotheses do not span through the entire problem but were selected to represent all the problems.

The null hypotheses are;

1. H0₁: The academic qualification of a physics teacher does not significantly influence his teaching of practical physics.
2. H0₂: The years of teaching experience of a physics teacher does not significantly influence his teaching of practical physics.

1.6 Significance of the Study

This study is significant because of the following reasons:

1. It highlights the effects and relevance of the teacher on the teaching of practical physics.
2. It helps the school administrator in the allocation of teachers to practical classes.
3. It creates awareness to teachers on how they affect the teaching of practical physics.
4. It also assists the educational administrator in further development and training of physics teachers.
5. The findings are of immense benefit to the teacher training colleges, and the tertiary institutions directly or indirectly concerned with the training of teachers, in terms of planning and restructuring their training programs.

1.7 Limitation of the Study

This research work was faced with a number of limitations; one of such was the number of schools visited by the researcher for the study. The number of schools was limited due to tough transport fares within the state. This in turn has an adverse effect on the finance of the researcher. The other control which was beyond the scope of the researcher was the limited time given for this research work.

1.8 Delimitation of the Study

The study was delimited to senior secondary classes in public secondary schools in Uruan local government area.

1.9 Definition of Terms

The following are operational definitions of some terms as applied in the study:

1. Personnel: these are trained people employed in an organization, establishment or organized undertaking such as educational service.
2. Practical Physics: it is a collection of experiments that demonstrate a wide range of physical concepts and processes.
3. Teaching: it is simply the art of helping others to learn effectively or the art of transferring values.