PERCEPTION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS ON THE UTILIZATION OF GAMES AND SIMULATION FOR INSTRUCTIONAL PURPOSES

CHAPTER ONE 
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Education is an instrument “per excellence” for eff ecting National development. This statement indicates the importance of Education to every Nigerian citizen, which begins at the primary level of education. This is the bedrock of education. She goes further to describe it as a process that an idea passes through before meaning is achieved while Trager (2001), describes language as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group co-operates. Language therefore can be defined as a means of expressing thoughts and ideas between two or more persons.

Language has been a major factor for learning in Nigerian. The National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004), recommended L1 and L2 as the language of

instruction for both the lower and upper secondary school level. Manuel (1998), claims, that for student to be able to understand, critique and learn from spoken information, which is as necessary as the ability to read and write with precision on daily basis, to interact with peers, decode and interprete complex audio visual messages, greet and converse with people and deal with a lot of challenges in their private and academic lives. Student at the upper secondary school school level are now faced with the challenges of speaking, reading and writing in the language they are not familiar with because the use of English as a medium of instruction has adverse effect on teaching and learning situation.

The implication is that the, Nigerian school child is faced with problems of vocabulary development and word recognition. Word recognition is the development of a set of process by which words in print are recognized. It is an important factor to reading development because before student can begin to read, they need to understand the relationship between a combination of symbols and the sound they represent and the ability to sound out or decode words is an important step to reading.

The reason for this persisting poor academic achievement and examination according to Okpara (1995), could be that teachers are using conventional talk or lecture method rather than the strategies that will involve the students in active participation. Researchers such as Kolawole, Adepoju and Adelore (2000), identified teachers choice of method as one of the main factors of poor performance in reading. There is therefore the need to adopt a method that will engage the student in active learning and participation and that is games.

It is expedient to note that young student learn by doing things. It will be absolutely difficult for them to remember what they are taught without practical experience to demonstrate the ideas. They may hear but forget, they may see but cannot remember, they may do things but cannot understand Harins (1984). Harins further stated that there is need for practical demonstration and the essence is to employ games for the teaching of reading. Games activity are natural to student. All learning activities of student involve games, hence, game is used as the central agent and motivating force for all aspects of student’s learning. Igboabuchi and Azubuike (2006). In the light of Teoria (2007), games are indispensable part of teaching materials. They are usually fun, and it is well known with studies on the field of pedagogy most student learn better when they are having fun. Games are activities carried out by a group of people which involve cooperation in other to achieve stated objectives. According to Hartgill (2008), games helps student develop reading skills that can be used for student demonstrating reading difficulties or disabilities. Maduewesi (1990) cited in Chukwu (2001), stated that games can be used to teach English, mathematics, social studies among other. Therefore, if games can be used to teach reading in secondary school schools, the students may likely do better.

Furthermore, gender is a factor that has been linked to reading. It is a relevant variable in the achievement of learners. Mboto and Bassey (2004) describe gender as the behaviour expected of individual on the basis of being born a male or female. Canadian council on learning (2009), opined that boys predominantly held negative attitudes towards reading stating that reading is a feminine activity. Nigeriama (1974) sited in Chukwu (2001), asserted that girls achieve better than boys in general academic achievement. Gambell and Hunter (2000), on the other hand, claim that boys do less well than girls in reading regardless of the criteria used to assess competency. Okeke (1999) opined that some socio-cultural impediment such as role stereotyping and the belief that reading is a male gender subject pose obstacles to female students participation in student assessment. So far, it appears that gender issues on performance are inconclusive.

Secondary school Education level is the formation stage of student and as such, it is expedient for teachers in secondary school schools to device the adequate strategy to improve learning situation in schools. As Adekpoju and Adelore (2000), identified teachers choice of method as one of the main factors of poor academic performance. Hence, this study is motivated by the desire to adopt games in the teaching of student assessment in secondary school schools in Oshimili South Local Government area of Delta State.

Statement of the Problem
Student assessment is an indispensable tool for learning and as such, it can only be meaningful if it is understood. It is therefore important that every student assessment activity student are introduced to must make sense in print. Student need to understand the relationship between symbols and sounds they represent which is an important step to student assessment. Observation has shown that Nigerian secondary school education students read at frustration level and they are still lacking literacy skills especially in student assessment. The reason has been attributed to teachers use of conventional talk or lecture method rather than the strategies that will involve them in active participation. Several questions come to mind considering how student are taught using conventional method, the students will not be able to experiment, practicalise, construct and explore considering the fact that the national policy on Education stipulated that in secondary school schools, teaching shall be by practical, exploratory and experimental methods.

Games however may likely be an effective teaching strategy and have been used in other subjects whereby student participate actively. Although, literature abounds on the use of games in teaching young learners, there are no literature to show that such a study has been carried out within our cultural context especially Oshimili South Local Government Area of Delta State. This study is therefore concerned with teaching secondary school school students student assessment using games. What then will be the effect of selected games on students performance in word recognition.

Purpose of the study
The purpose of this study was to examine the perception of secondary school teachers on the utilization of games and simulation for instructional purposes. Specifically the study seeks to find out:

1.                 Secondary school teachers perception on whether there is significant difference in the mean achievement scores of students taught student assessment using games and those taught using conventional method.
2.                   Secondary school teachers perception on gender related differences in the mean achievement of male and female students exposed to the use of games in student assessment
Whether there is interaction effect of treatment and gender on students using games in student assessment.......

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Item Type: Project Material  |  Attribute: 66 pages  |  Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word  |  Price: N3,000  |  Delivery: Within 30Mins.
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