USE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL IN EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF INTEGRATED SCIENCE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

According to the trend and research in educational technology in Nigeria, written by Imogie I. (ed) 1991. An Instructional material is the materials that add beauty to teaching. It is the material and equipment, specimen and objects that make teaching and learning to be more effective. Instructional material is the material that makes the lesson really practical. In addition, to practicalise the lesson, the use of instructional material makes teaching and learning process more interesting and easier. Instructional materials can be used at the beginning of the lesson to arouse the students’ interest toward some expected goals. Furthermore, Instructional material is regarded as the sequential arrangement of materials and equipment for a specific learning environment which is targeted towards bringing about available learning/teaching outcome in the recipient. It is viewed that Instructional materials in teaching and learning of Integrated Science provides opportunity for effective learning by students and it also increase their chances of building insight in their ways of life.

It helps the teacher to cover the syllabus on time and also help in easing problems in the teaching and learning process. Besides, it involves planning the content to confirm with definite scopes and sequence. It includes motivating students and the use of lesson presentation strategies for optimum teaching and learning benefits. These Instructional materials are divided into three as follows: ·

Visual · Audio Visual materials: as the name implies could be referred to as the type of Instructional materials that are seen practically. These materials ease teaching and learning in schools and colleges. Visual materials are materials that convey information through the sense of sight. They can therefore be seen and touched. They include, charts, photographs, pictures, posters, maps, specimen, diagram, coins, ball, black board e.t.c. ii. Audio materials: these are the materials that we can see them but cannot feel them.

These are teaching materials that convey information through the sense of hearing. They are called auditory materials because of their sound characteristics. These materials includes the radio, record, players, gramophone, drums,whistles, audio tape e.t.c iii. Audio–Visual material: these are those materials that combine auditory and visual characteristics to convey information. They thereby communicate through the ear and eye. Some of them can also be called multi-media. Example of these kinds of aid include films (with sound), television, sound projector e.t.c. In addition to these technological advances has also come along way to include video cassettes of some topic in subjects taught in schools were recorded and can be replayed for the students.

.2 LEARNER ASSESSMENT

Learner analysis identifies those characteristics of the learner that will influence the selection of instructional materials and activities. Learner characteristics are the result of genetics, development of personality, motivation, and adaptation to the environment. Most of these characteristics are neither good nor bad and some learners will possess a given characteristic to a high degree, some to a moderate degree and some not at all. Physiological characteristics that affect learning include obvious aspects like blindness, deafness, inability to use arms or legs. Also important are characteristics like preference for working in well-lighted vs dimly lighted environments, preference for learning at certain time of the day, need for mobility, tactile stimulation, kinesthetic learning, amount of sound in the environment, and the like. Of affective characteristics, motivation is perhaps the most important. Learners are motivated by a variety of things — whether they like to work in groups or alone, whether they prefer spelled-out instructions or prefer unstructured tasks. Many student learning style instruments exist. Some examples of the dimensions considered by these instruments include: Audio linguistic (learner prefers to learn through the spoken word Visual linguistic (learner prefers to see words in order to learn Auditory numerical (learner learns easily from hearing numbers and oral explanations) Visual numerical (learner prefers to see numbers in order to learn) Audio-visual-kinesthetic combination (learner likes a combination of the three basic modalities) Individual Learner (learner prefers to work alone) Group learner (learner likes learning with others) Oral expressive (learner prefers to share knowledge by telling others Written expressive (learner prefers to share knowledge by writing Generally, it is recommended that educators attempt to individualize instruction on the basis of learner characteristics and directed to a learner’s strengths, although learners should also be encouraged to strengthen areas of secondary preference.