THE ROLE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS IN PUPILS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: A CASE STUDY OF SOME SELECTED PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN IKPOBA OKHA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EDO STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Research has proved beyond questions that learning is more effective when as many serve as possible are used and of all the serve sight is powerful. The need, therefore to present information to students visually as well as verbally is now generally accepted. In school today, emphasis is laid on qualitative and quantitative, curriculum contents techniques and methods of teaching of qualified teachers with great increase in the number of school as well as students enrollment is on increase, and the quality and quantity of teachers are needed to match this increase in enrollment of students and in this regard. Educational technology cannot be rules out as an instructional innovation. According to Broom and Thornton (1960) “The gradual shift towards the use of instructional materials in education has been encouraged by increased availability of eective appropriate and convenient materials, devices, machines and classroom facilities designed for improving instruction.

Throughout history, media and technology for learning have influenced education. Recently, the computer has invaded instructional settings such tills offer powerful possibilities for improving the learning process. The use of instructional materials is necessary to supplement the available instructional resources and qualified teachers. The current use of instructional materials in Nigeria school is very low and unsatisfactory. The following are ways instructional materials can contribute to qualitative education. 1. Instructional materials provides for the teachers tools to carryout creativity in the minds of the students. 2. Instructional materials makes learning process to be easy 3. It helps the teacher to be able to stimulate pupils to learn.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Statistics has shown that most of our primary school teachers no longer make use of instructional materials when teaching and this have a negative effect on the teaching and by extension having negative effect on the academic performance of the pupils. Some of these effects include, the pupils will not be able to concretize the lesson that is been taught, they are unable to visualize what the teacher is teaching because the pupils do not have a mental picture of what the teacher is passing across to them.

This makes the students to easily forget what they have been taught in the school. without the use of instructional materials, learning becomes boring to the pupils and they can easily lost interest when there is nothing like instructional materials to motivate them to learn, so whatever the teacher is teaching them, they cannot assimilate it easily. Again, when instructional materials are not used when teaching, it makes the pupils to be passive, they don’t have the chance to participate in class activities. They mainly become passive listeners and this reduces their thinking ability and they are unable to reason out things on their own. Statistics has also shown that most primary schools lack these instructional materials in their schools and also they lack trained teachers who know how to use these materials. it is this lack of instructional materials in the teaching learning process that prompted the researcher to investigate the role of instructional materials and its effects on the performance of pupils in primary schools.