Abstract
This study focused on the effects of
project and lecture methods on secondary school students’ academic achievement
in Economics in Anambra State. The study adopted quasi experimental research
design. The population consisted of 2243 male and 2528 female students from 49
secondary schools in Nnewi Education Zone. The sample size for this study was
one hundred and forty-six (146) Economics students of S.S.I in Anambra
State. Multi-stage sampling technique
was adopted for the study. The instrument for data collection was a designed
Multiple Choice Economics Achievement Test (MCEAT). Five research questions and
five research hypotheses were stated to guide the study and were analysed using
simple mean, standard deviation for research questions and Analysis of
Covariance (ANCOVA) to analyse the research hypotheses. The finding of this
study shows that: students taught with project teaching method achieved better
than those taught with lecture teaching method; male students achieved better
on the average (i.e. mean) compared to their female counterpart taught using
lecture method of teaching; male students achieved better on the average (i.e.
mean) compared to their female counterpart taught using project method of
teaching; urban students achieved better on the average (i.e. mean) compared to
their students from rural areas taught using lecture method of teaching; urban
students achieved better on the average (i.e. mean) compared to their students
from rural areas taught using project method of teaching. The research
hypotheses tested revealed that: there is a significant difference in the
achievement mean score of students taught Economics using lecture method (i.e.
control group) and those taught using Project method (i.e. experimental group);
there is no significant difference in the achievement means score of male and
female students taught Economics using lecture method (i.e. control group);
there is a significant difference in the achievement means score of male and
female students taught Economics using project method (i.e. experimental
group); the result shows there is no significant difference in the achievement
means score of urban and rural students taught Economics using lecture method
(i.e. control group); the result shows there is a significant difference in the
achievement means score of urban and rural students taught Economics using
project method (i.e. experimental group). Based on the findings, the
recommendations were made that project method of teaching should be applied by
teachers Economics since it makes students to be actively involved in the
learning process. The government, ministry of education, and educational
administrators should organise workshops, seminars, conferences etc. where
knowledge about new innovative techniques could be exposed to the Economics
teachers and how to use them in the classroom.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTROUDUCTION
Background of
the study
Educators are beginning to show an increased
awareness of the importance of the way students learn. Many of the standard
methods of conveying knowledge have been shown to be relatively ineffective on
the students’ ability to master and to retain important concepts (Sharma,
2012). Learning through some methods of teaching is passive rather than active.
The conventional methods (lecture) do not tend to foster critical thinking,
creative thinking and collaborative problem- solving (Blair, 2007).
Lecture method
of teaching is the oldest method applied by teachers. This teaching method is a
one way channel of communication or dissemination of information. Thus,
Students’ involvement in this teaching method is just to listen and sometimes
take down some notes if necessary during the lecture, combine the information
and organize it. Lecture method of teaching has failed to provide
teacher-student interactions and also encourages note cramming without
understanding content. Moreover, students’ attention wane quickly during
lectures and information tends to be forgotten quickly when students are
passive. Lecture method also, emphasizes learning by listening which is
disadvantageous for students who prefer other learning styles. No one can deny
the fact that schools are becoming diverse in terms of students background, and
as a result, teachers are being more challenged to find effective ways to meet
with diverse needs of their students. Educators confront classrooms in which
different students exhibit assorted academic and behavioural characteristics
and they are increasingly looking for successful instructional and classroom
management techniques (Carrier, 2005). It is now being recognized that there
are better ways to learn than through the traditional methods (Wood& Gentile,
2003). One of these ways to learn is through project method.
Project based
learning (PBL) has emerged to become an instructional approach that is gaining
and growing interest within the domain of Economics education community. Healim
and Esche (2000) described project based learning as an instructional method
that challenges students to learn and how to learn and do academic works
cooperatively in groups to seek solutions to real world problems.
In
the word of Pific and Hadgraft (2009) addressed the key ingredients of project
based learning and postulated that it should not be confused with design
projects or case studies where the focus is predominantly on the application of
existing knowledge and integration of what is already known. Project based
learning goes beyond this, students will encounter some concepts for the first
time and therefore they need strategies for acquiring this new knowledge. The
application of this approach to the study of certain concept is motivated by
several factors derived both from the research literature and teaching
experience.
According to Binnie
(2002) in reported in a study conducted in South Africa pointed out that “the
use of projects method was very helpful in assisting the learning of the
students. Their active involvement in the tasks encourages them to think which
enhance their learning. The use of real data collected by them motivates them
because they will want to know the conclusions of what they have done.
Project work
approach seems to have the components to motivate teachers and students to
develop a cooperative work mainly aiming at the students to perceive and
understand all the necessary stages required to arrive at logical conclusion
(Biajone, 2006). Project-based learning is a systematic teaching method that
engages students in acquire knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry
process structured around complex authentic questions and carefully designed
products and tasks. Research shows that learners not only respond by giving
useful information but they also actively use what they know to explore,
negotiate, interpret and create.
Lecture and
project based learning methods can be used by Economics teachers to improve
their students skills, knowledge and retention in the subject. This could be
achieved through engaging or involving students in the learning process or make
them to be actively involved especially when dealing with the practical aspect
of economics which the theoretical knowledge gained through the use of lecture
method could be applied. Economics is one of the elective subjects’ offered in
the senior secondary schools. Economics is a social science that studies human
behaviour with reference to resource allocation in terms of production,
distribution and consumption of goods and services.
According to Robbins (1935) defined Economics
is a social science that studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends
and scarce means which have alternative uses. This definition is said to be the
most appropriate and widely acceptable. This is because Economics studies the
behaviours of consumers at the market with respect to how they buy and price.
Also, in time of scarcity of goods, Economics knowledge can help one to
comprehend and interpret what is really wrong. These are part of the aims of
Economics.
According to the Federal Ministry
of Education (F.ME) in her National Curriculum for Senior Secondary School
Economics Curriculum (2008), the objectives of the subject economics is to
enable students:
- Understand
basic economic principles and concepts as well as the tools for sound economic
analysis.
- Contribute
intelligently to discourse on economic reforms and development as they affect
or would affect the generality of Nigerians.
- Understand
the structure and functioning of economic institutions.
- Appreciate
the role of public policies on national economy.
- Develop
skills and also appreciate the basic for rational economic decisions.
- Become
sensitized to participate actively in national economic advancement through
entrepreneurship, capital market and so on.
- Understand
the role and status of Nigeria and other African countries in International
economic relationships.
- Appreciate
the problems encountered by developing countries in their effort towards
economic advancement.
The study of
Economics is very important to human being since the knowledge acquired in
Economics will help the individual to make the best use of scarce resources.
Economics is very important to the growth and development of our nation. It
plays an important role in the development of the human and natural resources
of a country.
A good knowledge
of Economics can help an individual in a good decision making. For instance: an
entrepreneur with the knowledge of Economics is bound to make more rational and
rewarding business decision than his counterpart without such knowledge. The
study of Economics enhances good citizenship in the sense that much of
government policies today are Economics in nature. For instance, issues like
inflation, unemployment, income, inequality, population explosion, external
debts, balance of payments disequilibrium etc. are the things that dominate
government policy today.
The study of
Economics prepares a student for a career. Economics provides a good background
for careers in business administration, banking, marking, politics etc. It
provides training for students intending to become professional economists who
serve as special advisers in governments and research specialists in business
corporations and universities. This could be achieved if these students are
well taught in the classroom using methods of teaching like project method of
teaching that would make have knowledge about the subject from their own
effort. Also, the exposing of these students to practical nature of economics could
help them be specialist in business in the future because this idea could only
developed based on how the teachers have taught them to love and have interest
in the subject to that level. Therefore the subject Economics is very important
that teachers teaching it are expected to apply methods which they think could
help students appreciate it. The teachers are also expected to follow the
guidelines or procedure in the recent Economics curriculum.
Economics
is one of the subjects in education curriculum of senior secondary school. In
recent review, the former twenty six (26) themes have been restructured into 16
themes with 49 topics spread over the three years of senior secondary school.
The study of Economics makes a student to be a rational human being and as well
think critically when engaged in their daily activities. The students of
Economics will apply the knowledge acquired from the subject to other fields of
studies like Mathematics, Social studies, Business finance etc. the knowledge
of Economics will make a student to make a reasonable choice. They will also
allocate their resources to productive ventures.
Economics
is a living subject which when properly taught and learned in a more practical
and realistic way will result in a good academic achievement. Academic
achievement has been one of the most important goals of the educational
process. (Karthigeyan & Nirmala, 2012). Karthigeyan and Nirmala (2012) also
added that academic achievement is a major goal which every individual is
expected to perform in all culture.
Academic
achievement refers to knowledge and skills attained by a student in school
subjects. Igbo and Ihejiene (2014) defined academic achievement as the
successful result of an interaction between a teacher and a student. There are also factors that influence
academic achievement of every learner like parental education, parental
occupation, type of family, family size, age of the learner and gender.
Gender
refers to society’s division of humanity, based on sex, into two distinctive
kinds. Gender could be defined as more than biological differences between men
and women (Ministry of Women Affair, 2014). It is the perceptions male and female have about themselves. In
academics, it has been argued that on most occasions, the male students could
do better in class than the female students. Most studies show that on average,
girls do better in school than boys (cited in Zembar & Blume, 2011) which
implies that girls get better or higher grades compared to boys. In calculative
and more practical subjects or courses, boys tend to perform better than girls.
However, Abdu-Raheem (2012) reported in a study that there is no
significant difference between the achievements means scores of male and female
students in the experimental and control groups. The author went further to add
that there is no significant difference between the retention mean score of
male and female students in the experimental and control groups. Also, the
author noted gender does not play any significant role on students’ achievement
and retention in social studies.
Gender has
remained a burning issue and has also remained relevant in education because it
has been linked to achievement and participation in certain professions
(Solonade, 2004). Certain cultures restrict particular gender to certain
professions like farming, engineering and trading to mention a few (Olaloye and
Afuwape, 2004). However, there have been conflict finding on how gender
influence academic achievement. It seems the influence of gender varies according
to school subjects.
Academic
achievement could also be influenced by other factors other than gender. School
location may positively or negatively have effect on academic achievement of
students. Location is the place or position where someone or something is or
where something happens (Macmillan dictionary online, 2009). In most remote or rural areas, secondary
schools lack teachers who are qualified to teach Economics as a subject. Even
as a result of the rural area, some qualified teachers might be posted there,
but most a times, they would rather work their ways to remain in the urban
schools. Owoeye and Yara (2011) asserted that the academic achievement of urban
schools were better than rural schools. Also, a study conducted by Osokoya and
Akuche (2012) revealed that school location had a significant effect on
students’ outcomes in practical Physics. This implies that location could have
effect on students’ academic achievement in Economics with respect to location.
The poor performance of students in
Economics has been consistence with respect to the WAEC Chief Examiners Report
of 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2009 which has been partly ascribed to inadequate
teaching and instructional methods adopted by Economics teachers Derek (2007)
in supporting this view reported the seriousness of the deplorable performance
of secondary school students in science subjects and identified persistent use
of the traditional mode of instruction as one of the major short-coming
affecting the learning and higher achievement in science subjects. Economics is
both mathematical and theory based subject. The subject is bulky in nature. The
subject teachers usually adopt lecture method in teaching in order to cover the
syllabus within the stipulated time and this do not give room for proper
understanding of the subject. The Chief WAEC Examiner Report also noted that
the rush over the topics to cover could be responsible for the poor
performance.
Statement
of the Problem
The new national
policy on education (2008) for senior secondary school made Economics an
elective subject and is expected to be studied at the senior secondary school
level. Sometimes, poor handling of the subject have resulted to the poor
performance of the students. Some teachers assigned to teach Economics in some
schools are not qualified to do so due to the fact that they are not
specialists in the subject. As a result, such teachers only read about the
subject topics from a textbook and in a parallel form use the lecture method to
deliver the topic to the students. This has led to the poor performance of the
students.
In Nnewi
Educational Zone of Anambra State, research has unveiled that students’
achievement in Economics in some schools is poor, according to WAEC Chief
Examiner’s report of 2003 identified
student weaknesses as disobedience of the rubrics, poor coverage of the
syllabus, illogical presentation of facts, outright misinterpretation of some
questions and inability to draw and label diagrams properly, 2004 report identified students weakness as
disobedience of the rubrics, outright misinterpretation of the questions,
inability to draw and label diagrams properly, inadequate communication skills,
poor coverage of the syllabus, 2007 report identified students weakness as lack
of basic mathematical skills to tackle the questions in the data response
section; disobedience of the rubrics, mere listing of points without proper
explanations; outright misinterpretation of the questions, inability to draw
and label relevant diagrams properly; inadequate coverage of the syllabus and
2009 report identified students weakness as poor coverage of the syllabus,
inability to draw and label diagrams properly, outright misinterpretation of
the questions, and disobedience of the rubrics. These reports from the Chief
Examiner of WAEC concerning students poor performance in Economics was also
found in the report of 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. All these imply in general
that students out-rightly misinterpret some questions. Students have poor
mathematical skills to tackle questions in data. Students could not explain
points they have listed. This could be that students were not taught with
teaching methods that are practical oriented and they were not deeply involved
or did not fully discover their knowledge on their own and gain experience for
themselves in the subject Economics. This study is therefore intended to seek
solutions to the following questions.
- Can
project method of teaching improve students’ academic achievement in Economics
as a subject compared to lecture method?
- Is it possible that the
use of project method can affect male and female students’ academic achievement
positively in the subject Economics?
Purpose
of the study
The major
purpose of this study is to find out the comparative effect of project and
lecture method on secondary school student academic achievement in Economics.
Specifically
the study is aimed at investigating:
- The
mean achievement scores of students taught Economics with lecture method and
those taught with project method.
- The
mean achievement scores of male and female students taught Economics using
lecture method.
- The
mean achievement scores of male and female students taught Economics using
project method.
- The
mean achievement scores of urban and rural students taught Economics using
lecture method.
- The
mean achievement scores of male and female students taught Economics using
project method.
Significance
of the Study
The findings of this study will be
of practical benefit to students, teachers, curriculum planners, and
educational administrators.
Students will benefit from the
findings of this study in such a way that their academic performance will
improve or they will achieve better in Economics as a subject as a result of
the project teaching method applied by the Economics classroom teacher. In addition, if students’ achievement is
enhanced, they would achieve better in national and international examination
like WAEC, NECO, and JAMB with respect to Economics papers.
Teachers will benefit from the
findings of the study in that they will become aware of the fact that the use
of lecture teaching method cannot enable students to achieve better in the
subject Economics. Also, it will serve as an eye opener to the teachers to be
testing other teaching methods that will be students-centred where students
will be deeply involved in the learning process. That is to say that the
findings will be of good help in deciding a particular method to adopt as a
strategy for teaching Economics in the senior secondary which will greatly help
students to comprehend and retain what they will be taught.
Curriculum planners will benefit from
the findings of this study in that they will instruct teachers teaching
Economics to apply teaching methods that will involve students greatly and not
just the Economics teachers playing a greater part. The findings will make the
Curriculum planners to include in the Economics curriculum the teaching methods
which are likely to be of great benefit to students and result to better
performance.
Educational administrators will
benefit from this study in that they will try to work with government to make
them know that Economics teachers need to be trained and re-trained, workshops
and seminars need to be organized and conferences as it will be of great
benefit to them. Also, the professionals invited to train and educate the
Economics teachers will expose them to new methods and approach of teaching the
subject to bring about better understanding of the subject in the classroom.
Theoretically, the significance of
this study will be based on Ausubel’s
theory of meaningful learning. Ausubel theory of meaningful learning focused on
teaching learners’ new topic which has a relationship with something they had already
known before or topic which they could comprehend using their previous
knowledge. This theory will be of great benefit to study as it will help
teachers to always make any topic they intend to teach to have a link or
relationship with the previous topic they had taught the students before. With
this, students could borrow idea from what they had known before to comprehend
the new topic.
Scope of the Study
The geographical scope of this study was
Nnewi Educational Zone of Anambra state. The content scope of this study will
be comparative effect of project and lecture method on secondary school student
academic achievement in Economics. Also, the study examined the effect of
project and lecture methods on students’ academic achievement in Economics with
respect to gender and location. The students for the study was Senior Secondary
School I students. The rationale for this decision is that the topics to be
taught during the field work are junior secondary school topics which are
related and have been taught to students at the junior secondary school level.
These topics are in the Economics curriculum for Senior Secondary School I.
They are measures of central tendency which include arithmetic mean, median,
mode, bar chart, pie chart. Students were taught these topics in Mathematics in
their junior secondary school days and they are just entering senior secondary
school I. This implies that such knowledge could still be in them. Also, the
theory of production is a topic they were taught in Business study under
production and manufacturing in junior secondary school II and III.
Research
Questions
- What
is the mean achievement score of students taught Economics with lecture method
and those taught with project method?
- What
is the mean achievement score of male and female students taught Economics
using lecture method?
- What is the mean achievement score of male and
female students taught Economics using project method?
- What
is the mean achievement score of urban and rural students taught Economics
using lecture method?
- What
are the mean achievement scores of male and female students taught Economics
using project method?
Research
Hypotheses
The
following research hypotheses were formulated by the researcher to guide the
investigations and to be tested at the significant level of 0.05.
Ho1: There is no significant
difference in the achievement mean score of students taught Economics using lecture method and those
taught using project method.
Ho2: There is no significant
difference in the achievement mean score of male and female students taught
Economics using lecture method.
Ho3: There is no significant
difference in the achievement mean score of male and female students taught
Economics using project method
Ho4: There is no significant
difference in the achievement mean score of male and female students taught
Economics using lecture method.
Ho5: There is no significant difference in the achievement mean score of urban and rural students taught Economics using project method.
COMPARATIVE EFFECTS OF PROJECT AND LECTURE METHODS ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN ECONOMICS
