THE IMPACT OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS ON COMPUTER STUDENTS PERFORMANCE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Learning can take place as a result of a newly learned skill, knowledge, perception, facts, principles, fresh information, and so on. (Adeyanju, 1997) Learning may be reinforced with a range of instructional materials since they excite, motivate, and hold learners' attention for a short period of time throughout the education process. Instructional materials are learning aids and equipment used in schools to facilitate teaching and learning.

According to Akamobi (1998), instructional materials are those resources utilized in classrooms or workshops by students and teachers for instruction or demonstration. Chauha (1973) defined them as actual equipment utilized by learners as a "hands on" procedure to build the degree of skills required by the course of study. Visual aids, audio aids, audio-visual aids, real objects, and many more types of teaching materials are examples. Visual aids such as wall charts, illustrated pictorial materials, textbooks, and so on. Thus, audio teaching resources are those that simply employ the sense of hearing, such as a radio or an audio tape recorder. An audio visual instructional material is therefore a mix of instruments that appeal to both the hearing and seeing senses, such as television, motion movies, and computers.

We may conclude from instructional materials that computer education works with instructional challenges and solutions through the use of diverse visual, audio, and audio-visual resources and equipment. The issue of insufficient teacher preparation to deliver reading instruction (Bello, 1980). This deficiency translates into poor computer reading proficiency and, by extension, poor performance in other subject areas. Students in our different secondary schools also lack fundamental textbooks and other critical tools that would help them learn social studies at that level.

Without adequate instructional resources, teaching computer results in poor performance in other courses. The use of instructional materials facilitates teaching and learning activities, and hence the achievement of lesson objectives. However, this is dependent on the quality and appropriateness of the materials used. This effectively means that learning resources are not chosen at random (Jiya, 1993). Teachers must carefully pick the educational resources that will be used.

Brunner (1961) and Mustapha (2005) both underlined the use of visual aids and improvisation in oral reports. When the genuine item is unavailable or impossible to obtain, improvisation is the skill of presenting a substitute or next best thing. It is also critical that computer teachers employ instructional tools or innovate in order to make learning simple, entertaining, and long-lasting. As a result, computer teachers who want to be good at their jobs must be able to use all accessible educational tools as well as innovate when they are not easily available.

People recall those they've seen, touched, or even played with. The basic goal of teaching is to assist effective learning and comprehension of the subject matter (shoji, 2005). In our classrooms, we should encourage the use of instructional resources that appeal to all learners' comprehension of language phenomena.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Over the years, instructional materials have shown to be an effective tool for improving the teaching and learning processes of students. One of the issues that might contribute to poor performance of computer students is teachers' inability to use instructional resources properly. Computer students' performance may suffer as a result of a lack of expertise about improvising educational materials. Finally, the majority of research has been conducted on the influence of instructional materials, but not a single study has been conducted on the effect of instructional materials on computer student performance. 

1.3   AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

The main aim of the study is to determine the effect of instructional materials on computer students’ performance. Other specific objectives of the study include:

1.  to determine the factors affecting the use of instructional materials on the academic performance of the students.

2. to determine the extent to which the use of instructional materials affect the performance of the students.

3. to determine the effect of negligence of instructional materials in teaching and learning process on the academic performance of the students.

4. to determine the effect of teacher incompetency in the effective use of instructional materials and how it affects the academic performance of a students.

5. to proffer possible solution to the problems.

1.4   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. to determine the factors affecting the use of instructional materials on the academic performance of the students.

2. to determine the extent to which the use of instructional materials affect the performance of the students.

3. to determine the effect of negligence of instructional materials in teaching and learning process on the academic performance of the students.

4. to determine the effect of teacher incompetency in the effective use of instructional materials and how it affects the academic performance of a students.

5. to proffer possible solution to the problems.

1.6   SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

The study on the impacts of instructional materials on computer student performance will be extremely beneficial to all schools in the country since it will allow the government to make available various types of instructional resources that can improve the teaching and learning process. It will also allow instructors to receive training on how to properly use instructional materials and to improve instructional materials in whatever situation in which they find themselves. Finally, the study will add to the corpus of current literature and knowledge in this field of study, as well as serve as a foundation for future research in this field of study.

1.7   SCOPE OF STUDY

The study on the effect of instructional materials is limited to computer student performance.

1.8   LIMITATION OF STUDY

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.9   DEFINITION OF TERMS

Effects: A change which is a result or consequence of an action or other cause.

Instructional Materials: Are any collection of materials including animate and inanimate objects and human and non-human resources that a teacher may use in teaching and learning situations to help achieve desired learning objectives.

Students Performance: is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their short or long-term educational goals.