The Effect of Geography Teaching Methods on the Students’ Academic Achievement of Form Five Geography Students of Government Bilingual Grammar School Molyko Buea
Department: Curriculum Studies and Teaching
No of Pages: 61
Project Code: CST5
References: Yes
Cost: 5,000XAF Cameroonian
: $15 for International students
ABSTRACT
The
study was set to fine out the effect of geography teaching methods on students’
academic achievement of form five geography students of Government Bilingual
Grammar School Molyko Buea.
The
objective of the study was; the effect of lecture illustration teaching method
on the academic achievement of form five geography students, to determine how
cooperative learning teaching method affect students’ academic achievement in
geography.
The
sample population was 3 teachers and 8 students of Government Bilingual Grammar
School Molyko that were interview making a total of 10. The major finding was;
from the interview, students agreed that cooperative learning method of
teaching enhance good academic achievement.
Students
also agreed that, lecture illustration method of teaching increases their academic
achievement in geography. By this, the research concludes that an eclectic
method of teaching is preferable in the enhancement of a good academic
achievement in Geography.
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Introduction
This
chapter will lay emphasis on the background of the study, statement of the
problem, objective of the study, research questions, significant of the study
and operational definition of terms.
Background of the Study
Historically,
before the use of formal education, there had been the existence of indigenous
education around (1884) before the German annexation. According to Tambo (2003)
under educational administration, there existed indigenous education which
governs the lives of the indigenous community.
The
indigenous society used formal method to transmit knowledge from the elders to
the children, before the coming of formal education of the western world, the
methods used for the study where communalism which is an approach parents used
to raise their children within a community and each individual saw his or her
wellbeing as tide to the welfare of the community.
According
to Kellough (1988) most parent and teachers where very interested in teaching
their children to grow deeper in the knowledge using different method without
using text books which will help them improve on their performance.
Again
during that time, teachers were untrained unlike today that teachers are
trained and yet performance is still low and students are less active in class,
this is due to the lack of interest by the teachers to use these methods
appropriately.
The
evolution trend of the formal method of teaching in the past has evolve the
used of modern methods introduced by the western world as formal method are
used to transfer knowledge from a more knowledgeable to a less knowledgeable
person. With the evolvement of technology, modern methods are introduced like
the use of cooperative learning, lecture illustration, lecture demonstration,
laboratory method and discussion method.
These
methods of teaching have greatly influenced the performance of the students in
different subjects. Santock (2004) supported the fact that lecture illustration
is one of the best method used in the teaching of geography.
According
to Benson and Doval (2002), lecture illustration is a modern method used to
teach and that the main function of the teacher is to explain and illustrate
and to test the learners, to find out if the students have learned.
Another
modern method used to teach geography is cooperative learning strategy which is
supported by Johnson et la, (1984) and Widemen and Eadie (1990) that students
in cooperative work in small groups of two, three, four, five. These
educationalists say that when students are shared in to small groups of four to
five they turn to share idea easily without any difficulty and thus perform
very well.
Contextually,
Geography is a subject which is taught both practically and theoretically. The practical part are field trips and map
work, these are the practical sections in geography and during exam every
student is expected to answer a question in each of these sections. Some
teachers tend to neglect this practical part of carrying students out for field
trip.
They
feel so reluctant to take students to the field for them to acquire knowledge
for themselves. Instead, they tend to concentrate on the theoretical and
statistical sections which students always escape from it or pay less interest
on.
Since
field trip is something which lies cannot be told when written. Many students
abandon the section to the statistical part which requires a lot of
calculation. This caused them to perform
poorly in their exams and also makes them to have little or no knowledge
concerning field trip. The teaching of geography goes along side with diagrams
or illustration. So geography cannot be taught without the teacher explaining
it with diagrams.
When
the teacher comes to class to explain the note, they don’t longer draw diagram
on the board for students to see instead they tend to give it to students as an
assignment. So in the next class some of the teachers do not bother checking if
the students have drawn the right diagram or not, or to checked if they have
the right diagrams or not.
They
are situation where, when assignments are given for students to do it at home
like drawing of maps some students go drawing the wrong one even though the
title is boldly written on it. it might be the outdated one so, teachers need
to check student’s book whenever an assignment is given, because they might go
drawing the wrong map or diagram in their exams which might affect their
academic performance.
Theoretically,
according to Kolb (2011), learning involves learning from experience. The
experiential theory proposed by Kolb takes a more holistic approach and
emphasis how experience includes cognition, environmental factors and emotional
influence. He gave an example of experiential theory as field work conversion,
group work in and out of the classroom, open ended discussion activities.
When
learners are put in group for them to perform a given task it makes them gain
more experience. Also when any explanation is accompanied with a presentation
like presenting color print maps, globes, it makes the students to learn new
things from that lesson thought and gain more knowledge in explaining that
particular topic or concept without any problem.
Moreover,
group work activities go along side with cooperative teaching method which is
one of the most effective methods used in the teaching of geography. When
students with mixed ability are grouped together to work it helps them to build
their communication skills and self-confidence. Kolb in his theory also started
field trip conversion as an example of experiential learning.
Learning
becomes more effective when the have experience on something the can construct
knowledge on their own. When the teachers take students out for field trip
which is one of the best tools that can be used to provide every student with
real- world experience, whether these students are carried to a museum or
community garden experience can still be gotten from there.
Each
experience that a student participates in contributes to his or her
understanding. When the students leave the classroom they see the connections
between what is happening at school and in the real world, they begin to see
that what they learn within the walls of the classroom can help them solve
problems, have a direct impact on who they become as a people.
Teaching
becomes more interesting when the teachers use the most appropriate method.
Geography is not a subject that requires only verbal discussion. It required
students to discover knowledge by going to the field and getting some experience.
The
constructivism theory by Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), state that learners
construct new understanding and knowledge, integrating it with what they
already know. The constructivism stated that students learn best when engaged
in the learning experience rather passively receiving knowledge.
Learning
becomes more effective when learners are actively involved in the process. When
students participate in the teaching and learning, process they learn many
things, they participate or take part in the process by asking questions in
class. If it is practical work the learner should be the one working and the
teacher should only be there giving direction to take.
When
the students allow only the teacher participate in the teaching and learning
process it makes learning become inactive because the goal of education is for
the students to understand what the teacher is teaching.
Learning
is inherently a social process because it is embedded within a social context.
Students and teachers work together; it builds knowledge because knowledge
cannot be directly imparted to students. The goal of teaching is to provide
experience that facilitates the construction of knowledge.
Conceptually,
the following concept will be reviewed; teaching method, cooperative learning, and
lecture illustration. Teaching method are important aspect of teaching and
learning. It determined the activities of teachers and students, the quality of
the teaching process, implicitly sending a message about what teaching is, how
children learn and what knowledge is.
According
to Tambo (2003), teaching method are important component for the curriculum for
they determine how effective the objective would be attained. Figuring out the
best way you can used to delivered information to students can sometime be even
harder than what students go through in discovering how they learn best.
This
is because every teacher needs a variety of different teaching method in their
theoretical teaching bag to pull from depending on the lesson. Using this
different teaching method like lecture illustration and cooperative learning
which are effectively used in the teaching of geography.
This
method would not only make the teachers to reach their full potentials, but
more importantly engage, motivate and reach the students in their classes
whether in person or online. But if this teaching method is chosen wrongly its
will tend to affect the academic achievement of students leading to poor result
in both class and public exams.
Cooperative
learning teaching method, the purposed of cooperative learning is to make each
member a stronger individual in his or her right. Student learn together so
that the can subsequently perform higher as individual and for them to gain
experience. How students interact with each other is a neglected aspect of
instruction.
Much
training time is devoted to helping teachers arrange appropriate interaction
between student and materials (that is textbooks, curriculum programs) and
sometimes is spent on how teacher should interact with one another is
relatively ignored it should not be. How teachers structure students- student
interaction pattern has a lot to say about how well students learn.
Cooperative
learning is now an accepted and often the preferred instructional procedure at
all level of education. In the late 1940, one of the Lewins graduate student,
Morton Deutsch, extended Lewins reasoning about social interdependence and
formulate a theory of cooperation and competition (Deutsch, 1949 1962).
Deutsch
conceptualized three types of social interdependence, positive, negative and
none. Deutsch basic premise was that the type of interdependence structure in a
situation determine how individual interact with each other, which intend
largely determine outcome.
Lecture
illustration is a teaching method where explanation is accompanied with some
illustration Tambo (2003). Illustrations like the use of globes, diagrams,
graphs. In this method, the teacher explained and tests if the student has
understood. The teacher can test by asking them question and to illustrate. It
is important that when using this teaching method the illustration most be
available beforehand. It should be visible and colorful.
Statement of the Problem
The
academic performance of the students in geography can be greatly influenced by
the method used in teaching. Each method has its way of teaching which depends
on the level of the students and the subject.
Some
teachers use lecture method to teach Geography in secondary school without
considering the age of the students. Thus making students not to participate in
the class and not giving them inferential thinking skill, leading to a
situation where students are not active in the classroom and not having
interest in the subject, causing poor performance.
Poor
performance may lead to school dropout. It is for this reason that, this study
seeks to find out the effect of lecture illustration and cooperative learning
method on students’ performance in Geography among form five students in Bilingual
Grammar School Molyko Buea.
General Objective
- The general objective of this study is to find out the effect of lecture illustration and cooperative learning teaching methods in geography on student’s academic achievement of form five students of Government Bilingual Grammar school Molyko.
Specific Objectives
The
specific objective of this study is to find out the effect of;
- Lecture illustration-teaching method on the academic achievement of form five geography students of Government Bilingual Grammar school Molyko Buea.
- Cooperative learning teaching method on the academic achievement of form five geography students of Government Bilingual Grammar school Molyko
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