IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON POLITICAL EDUCATION OF COLLEGE OF EDUCATION STUDENT IN ABIA STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background Of The Study

According to Kavangagh (1972), education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, morals, beliefs, habits and personal development. It is believed that education is an effective instrument for socializing of both young and old  through the promotion of desirable sociocultural values, creation of political awareness which prepares the youth to perform their functions to the nation effectively as they grow up as adults.

DuBey (1972) opined that, educational institutions in Nigeria are considered as having a very important role. Educational techniques include teaching, training, storytelling, discussion, and guided study. It may also be described as the act or process of transmitting or gaining broad information, developing reasoning and judgmental abilities, and generally intellectually preparing oneself or others for mature life.important role in socialization of the Nigerian students. Jaros (1973) argued that schools are especially meant to teach political ideals to tertiary education students who would later become tomorrow's leaders.

Political education may be defined as the fundamental ideas and facts that are required to understand the substance of public discussion. Political education encompasses all formal and informal teaching and learning procedures aimed at developing civic skills. The concept of political education has however been interpreted in various ways by educationists. In traditional socialization studies, the term political education was used synonymous with political literacy to mean the goal of political education.

 As a democratic country, full engagement of students in national political life is a desired aim, necessitating the necessity for political education in higher institutions. Colleges of Education are perhaps the best place for students to learn about political education values and principles.

This is so because Colleges of Education uses a very easy approach to teaching and learning, gives increased chances for development, initiates learning skills before work etc. Interestingly, Social Media is one of the major means used to effectively and easily accomplish these goals.

Social media refers to technology that facilitate social communication and allow users to interact with one another. Because social simply means contact, social media is when individuals begin to communicate. Social media is one of the most significant technological breakthroughs, and it is currently one of the most popular and frequently utilized tools for teaching and learning.

1.2       Statement Of The Problem

Students academic outcome is affected by a large number of factors but the impact of social media on the outcome of students is more important than any other factor. Using social media by University students is without doubt an interesting part of research for educationists and researchers.

There has been various opinions which recognized four major advantages of social media use in higher education. These include, enhancing relationship, improving learning motivation, offering personalized course material, and developing collaborative abilities. There have also been recognized disadvantages which has had adverse effects on students academic performance and learning.  Students have been known to be politically brainwashed and radicalized through the use of social media. Thus, it is expected that classroom instructions in political education and  would be executed through effective and reliable classroom techniques.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The primary objective of this study is to look at the impacts of social media on political education of College of education students in Abia State. Other objectives include:

i.          To find out if there is a relationship between social media usage and academic performance of political education students.

ii.        To find out the extent at which the use of social media has helped the students of political education students.

iii.      To identify the problems of political education students in Colleges of  education  in the use of social media.

iv.      To highlight possible solutions  to the problems that may arise due to the usage of social media by political education students.

1.4 Research Questions

i.          What is the relationship between social media usage and the academic performance and political  education students?

ii.        To what extent has the use of social media helped the students of political education?

iii.      What are the problems of political education students in Colleges of  education  in the use of social media?

iv.      What kind of solutions will address the problems gotten by the students of political science due to their usage of social media?

1.5 Significance Of The Study

This study would be very useful to educators and academics since it looks at the influence of social media on political education among college education students. The study looked into the influence of social media effectiveness on the students political education courses, political leanings, and political beliefs in particular. This is because we need effective political participation and inclusion by and from students especially students learning political education.

This study will also be of great importance to students as to how beneficial and destructive social media is to them. Furthermore, it will be beneficial to  the tertiary institution lecturers as they will be able to use the social media properly in the lecturing of students.

1.6 Scope Of The Study

The target of this study are political education students of the College of education in Abia State. One of the most important aspect of this study's scope was putting the sampled population to a series of tests to see how social media affected their learning and what lessons they learned from using social media in their learning process. This study shall be delimited to Political Education students in Abia State College of Education. 

1.7 Limitations

The study did not cover the entire populace of the students in college of education in Abia State due to limited resources and  not all of the students were receptive. This study did not also cover other tertiary institutions in the state and thus the results cannot be applied to other higher institutions of learning and can not also be effectively used in other parts of the state and the country as a whole.

1.8 Definition Of Terms

The following concepts, used in the study are operationally defined as indicated below:

Impact: This can be said to be a marked effect on influence

Political education: means those formal and informal experiences which promote the development of political knowledge and attitudes

Students: a person studying or other higher institutions of learning.

College of education: a higher institution of learning that awards educational degrees.

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