WELCOME TO KENTERPRO:
ASSESSMENT OF AVAILABILITY AND UTILISATION OF TEXTBOOKS IN TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN PANKSHIN LGA

 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Education has been defined differently by several scholars. The new Encyclopedia Britanica (1974) defined Education as “the transmission of the values and accumulated knowledge of the society”. It is then designed to guide an individual into learning a culture, moulding his/her behaviour towards adulthood and eventual positive role in society. Education is a process of developing individual potentials through exposure to and acquisition of experience in form of knowledge, skills and values. The essence is to transform behaviour and make such an individual acceptable and useful member of his/her society (Anaza, 2008). The United Nation Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) affirm that education is the passing of culture from one generation to the other. Wisdom is passed from one generation to another through different means of imparting knowledge, skills, attitude and values assisted by deliberate or accidental learning. Education should be adopted to the mentality, aptitudes, occupations and traditions of the various peoples to enable them to conserve all sound elements in local tradition and social organization while at the same time, functioning as an instrument of progressive and evaluative learning (Ogunlade, 2007).

Educational assessment is the systematic process of documenting and using empirical data on the knowledge, skill, attitudes, and beliefs to refine programs and improve student learning. Assessment data can be obtained from directly examining student work to assess the achievement of learning outcomes or can be based on data from which one can make inferences about learning. Assessment is often used interchangeably with test, but it is not limited to tests. Assessment can focus on the individual learner, the learning community (class, workshop, or other organized group of learners), a course, an academic program, the institution, or the educational system as a whole. For the purpose of this study, assessment is the evaluation of the availability of certain facilities or equipment in a school setting. Therefore, assessment here means the process of determining whether or not there are sufficient textbooks for teaching reading comprehension.

According to Schunk (2012) learning involves acquiring and modifying knowledge, skills, strategies, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. People learn cognitive, linguistic, motor, and social skills, and these can take many forms. At a simple level, children learn to solve 1+1, to recognize y in the word daddy, to tie their shoes, and to play with other children. These are concepts that simple ones can be built upon. At a more complex level with maturity, students learn to solve long-division problems, write term papers, ride a bicycle, and work cooperatively on a group project. To Sequeira (2017) learning is about a change: the change brought about by developing a new skill, understanding a scientific law, changing an attitude. The change is not merely incidental or natural in the way that our appearance changes as we get older. Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour, usually brought about intentionally. When we attend a course, search through a book, or read a discussion paper, we set out to learn. Other learning can take place without planning, for example by experience e.g. riding a bicycle and driving a car both need experience. Generally, with all learning there is an element within us of wishing to remember and explaining why something happens and to do it better next time. An important feature of learning is that it involves a complex interactive system including environmental, social, motivational, emotional and cognitive factors (Baron & Byrne, 2003).

According to Wikipedia (2019) teaching is the process of attending to people’s needs, experiences and feelings, and making specific interventions to help them learn particular things. To Caleb (2002) teaching is to cause the pupil to learn and acquire the desired knowledge, skills and also desirable ways of living in the society. It is a process through which learner, teacher, curriculum and other variables are organised in a systematic and psychological way to attain some pre-determined goals. In the view of Yiljep (2018), teaching is a process by which one individual teaches or instruct another individual. Teaching is considered as the act of imparting instructions to learners in the classroom situation. It is watching systematically.

As one of the oldest and important profession, playing a critical role in preservation of societies, teaching requires changes due to influence of instructions and technology. Teachers must be creative to face challenges of time. The creativeness can be done through application of psychological, sociological and knowledge of instructions. The application is a systematic way of designing, carrying out, evaluating the total process of learning and teaching in terms of specific objectives, based on research on human learning and non-human resources to bring about more effective instruction (Rao, 2007). Among the resources, are instructional resources which Dalhatu (2009) refer to as those materials which a teacher uses or manipulates in the process of his teaching in order to enhance learning process. Anaza (2008) describes instructional materials as collection of materials and equipment used for teaching so as to promote effective communication in classroom setting. They are a collection of teaching –learning materials that constitute an integral component of instruction or training process and are utilized in delivering educational information to learners with the hope of facilitating effective and efficient communication in the teaching process. Ughamadu (2008) enumerates different types of instructional materials which include textbooks, film, slides, transparencies, journals, magazines and describes textbooks as superbly, compact, economical and practical devices of storing (in print forms) and retrieving information and knowledge.

Language is a learned behaviour that can be brought about by a setting where subject matter is selected, graded and activities are organized to promote use of the language. In Nigeria, English Language is being learnt as a language for general purposes and for instruction in educational settings. Areas where emphasis were necessary in teaching the language as a second language have been spelt out and certain consideration applicable for the choice of methodology and materials can be used in classroom were advanced. Thus, learning a language is influenced by the content and activities to which the students are exposed (Alaoye, 2008). Williams (2009) explained that English Language teachers should have knowledge of variety approaches to second or foreign language teaching. A typical example is listening and speaking which are regular features in a lesson devoted to reading, comprehension or written composition. Availability of resources to overcome common difficulties especially where the language of instruction included the English or L2. Measures to tackle problems of large number of students in a classroom by breaking them into small groups.

Textbooks for teaching reading comprehension have potentials of helping to improve reading skills of learners and also have ways of helping teachers with instructional problems. Classroom teachers determine what to teach and at what period or duration; recommending instructional materials to be used, the methodology to adopt, equipment and space to be used. Ogunlade (2005) affirms that teachers’ key roles include ability to handle application of system approach to instruction; appropriate selection and utilization of instructional materials, application of research findings, improvement of learning, development of enthusiasm in improvisation, use of tool of reasoning in analyzing learning tasks, needs and evaluation of learning. The study is to ascertain the availability and utilization of the textbooks for teaching reading comprehension as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of teachers in use of the textbooks.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

There have been speculations that it has been long Pankshin LGA Government distributed textbooks and other instructional resources for teaching reading comprehension in Senior Secondary schools. Kajuru (2017) laments that the total material procurement in a year in Pankshin LGA Senior Secondary Schools does not go beyond chalk, duster and registers.

In 2008 the state government made an intervention to the schools by supplying English textbooks for teaching reading comprehension with a limited quantity to cover only few classes or two third (2/3) of a class population of 90-120 students for a stream of five classes. Teachers carry the textbooks to the classes with the view to distribute to the students to share. Classroom activities in form of exercises and drills were done in the classes by distributing the textbooks to the ratio of one to three students. Students had no privilege of taking the textbooks home for home reading assignments. That is where there are few reading comprehension textbooks available for use some of the teachers do not make effective use of them. However, it is in the light of the aforementioned problems this study seeks to investigate the availability and utilisation of textbooks in teaching of reading comprehension Language in Senior Secondary Schools in Pankshin LGA.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

            The main purpose of this study is carry out an assessment of the availability and utilisation of textbooks in teaching of reading comprehension in Senior Secondary Schools in Pankshin LGA.

            Specifically, the study sought to:

1. Ascertain the availability of textbooks for teaching reading comprehension in Senior Secondary Schools in Pankshin LGA.
2. Determine the extent to which English Language teachers are utilising textbooks for teaching of reading comprehension in Senior Secondary Schools in Pankshin LGA.
3. Determine problems associated with the utilisation of textbooks in teaching reading comprehension in Senior Secondary Schools in Pankshin LGA.

1.4 Research Questions

1. To what extent are textbooks available for teaching reading comprehension in Senior Secondary Schools in Pankshin LGA available?
2. To what extent do Teachers of English Language utilize these textbooks effectively for teaching of reading comprehension in Senior Secondary Schools in Pankshin LGA?
3. What are the problems associated with the utilisation of textbooks in teaching reading comprehension in Senior Secondary Schools in Pankshin LGA?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

            The following research hypotheses have been postulated which will be answered at the end of the research:

            The following null hypotheses were raised

H₀: Textbooks are not available for teaching reading comprehension in Senior Secondary Schools in Pankshin LGA.

H₀: Teachers of English Language do not utilize textbooks effectively for teaching reading comprehension in Senior Secondary Schools in Pankshin LGA.

H₀: There are no problems associated with the utilisation of textbooks in teaching reading comprehension in Senior Secondary Schools in Pankshin LGA.

1.6 Significance of the Study

This study will benefit the teachers of English Language, the students and the state government as well as the future researchers. The significance of this study would be of immense assistance to the Pankshin LGA Government to determine the extent of shortage of textbooks and other instructional resources for teaching in Senior Secondary Schools in the State.

In the same way the Government would be in a position to draw plan in empowering the teachers in utilisation of textbooks in teaching reading comprehension.

The study will in no doubt encourage the English Language teachers if not the entire teachers in the State to put more efforts in delivery of good lessons.

The students will highly benefit from the professional development of their teachers; their level of performance will increase and be motivated to have more interest in deep learning. When both the teachers and the students are encouraged to gear up in the process of teaching, the schools’ image will be portrayed good and the students/parents who are parts and parcel of the community would be happy to contribute more to the development of education.

The findings of this study will serve as reference materials for future researches on the availability and utilisation of textbook and instructional materials for teaching reading comprehension in secondary schools. Finally, it will serve as a basis for theory building on instructional material and textbook in schools.

1.7 Scope/Delimitation of the Study

This study is delimited to an assessment of the availability and utilisation of textbooks in teaching reading comprehension in Senior Secondary Schools. The study is restricted to twenty selected senior secondary schools in Pankshin LGA. However, despite the fact that the study is restricted to the selected Local Government Area, the findings can be generalised to other parts of the country.

1.8. Operational Definitions of Terms

            The following terms are defined as they are used in the context of this study:

Assessment: Assessment is the process of determine whether textbooks for reading comprehension are available and used.

Availability: The degree to which reading comprehension textbooks are found in schools.

Utilisation: The act of using textbooks, how often they are used by both students and teachers in teaching and learning of reading comprehension.

Textbooks: A textbook is a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study. In this study, it is English textbooks for teaching reading comprehension.

Learning: learning involves the degree or extent to which the students understand what they read in reading comprehension using textbooks in the classroom.

Teaching: Teaching is the process of imparting knowledge from teachers to students.

Co-Educational: These are schools that are mixed between boys and girls, public and private schools.