Prior Knowledge Of Lesson Objectives And Chemistry Students’ Academic Performance On The Concept Of Solubility
Chapter One
Problem And Background
1.1 Introduction
The science of chemistry deals with the makeup of the whole universe. Since ancient times, experiments with materials around us have been carried out to feed, clothe, and shelter ourselves. What started as a satisfaction of basic needs has developed into the science of chemistry (Ababio, 2005). The science of chemistry contributed immensely to provide basic needs and improving the quality of societal life. The knowledge of chemistry is applicable in medicine for manufacturing of drugs; in agriculture to produce fertilizers and chemical that kills weeds (herbicides), and pest (pesticides). It is also applicable in building, communication and in transportation (Udoh, 2007).
Chemistry is defined as the study of matter and its properties, the changes that matter undergoes and energy associated with those changes (Jomuke, 1999 and Silberberg, 2003). The impact of chemistry as a raw material for science and technology cannot be over emphasized, in that; the science of chemistry stands at the forefront of change, economic power, and sustenance of the environment. The science of chemistry is useful in our daily life; such as in the petroleum industry and in the preparation of treated sachet water, local alcoholic drinks and in the preparation of yoghurt.
The relevance of chemistry in the senior secondary school among other objectives is to: enable students develop interest in the subject of chemistry, enable students acquire basic theoretical and practical knowledge and skills, to apply the acquired skills in meeting societal needs by creation of employment and wealth; to take advantage of the numerous career opportunities offered by chemistry, and to be adequately prepared for further studies in Chemistry (NERDC, 2007).
For the attainment of the above stated objectives of chemistry, certain approaches should be adopted to enable learners achieve the goal of the subject matter. One of the recent strategies which should be employed is providing learners with the prior knowledge of lesson objectives. Draper (2001) asserted that clearly defined objectives of a lesson provide students with a means to organize their own efforts towards the accomplishment of those objectives.
A lesson objective is an outcome or a statement that captures specifically what knowledge, skills and attitudes learners should be able to exhibit following instruction. Statement of lesson objectives formed the starting point of the lesson plan for an effective teaching and learning process. Uche and Umoren (2003) stated that when a list of behavioural objectives are made available to students, they will focus their endeavour to achieve the objectives of the lesson. This implies that, providing students with prior knowledge of lesson objectives would hamper or overshadow most of the wrong perceptions toward the lesson. This wrong perception on the conceptual knowledge of the lesson may lead to poor performance of students in chemistry. Since the study of chemistry is based on conceptual knowledge and its objectives, students should therefore be exposed before-hand to what they are expected to learn under each lesson plans.
Solubility is an important concept in chemistry, and has various applications in pharmacy, medicine, and in everyday life. Therefore, giving students prior knowledge of lesson objectives on the concept of solubility will engender their efforts and preparation toward maximum achievement.
Prior knowledge is defined by Edinyang(2006) as the knowledge available to the learner before a certain learning task begins. The prior knowledge perceptively may be regarded as showing the learners the objectives of the lesson before the actual lesson delivery. Guat (2002) stated that, students will have more accurate ideas of what is expected of them by working through the list of the objectives.
Inyang-Abia (2003) emphasized that if you know what you want you can always tell when you get it; you can also reject those ones you do not want. Therefore, increasing good performance of senior secondary school two chemistry students in Uyo Local Government could be achieved using prior knowledge of lesson objectives on the concept of solubility as a device.
1.2 Background Of The Study
Science and technology are recognized as the basis for development and are used as parameters for classifying nations as developed, developing and under-developed. The technological development of any society depends on the level of scientific breakthrough in science and technological advancement.
For attaining achievement, proper understanding of chemistry is necessary and imperative. This will serve as a foundation and bedrock for building the society with scientific skills and make exploit in technology.
Science is the organized body of knowledge which ensures the ability to acquire skills. It is a search for meaning or exploration of events in nature and the study of man and his environment (STAN, 2001).
Technology on the other hand, refers to the application of the skills and knowledge acquired from science in practical demonstration.
Scientific and technological development of any society is enhanced by the quality of chemical educators and other scientific personnels the society is able to produced. Students in secondary school need the basic knowledge of chemistry, physics and mathematics to be fully equipped towards the challenges of a changing and challenging global world.
Ali & Anekwe (1997 cited in Okafor (2008), reported that, the level of science education in Nigeria reveals a fluctuating trend on students performance in chemistry at the secondary level. Science educator Okeke (2007) have shown that a number of factors affecting learning outcome have to do with students’ attainment of the objectives of instruction. Some of the factors have to do with the students, teachers, the socio-economic status of the parents, resources for teaching and learning, and the instructional strategies adopted by the teachers.
Recently, instructional innovations by science teachers association seems to reflect concern for the development of teaching techniques that can facilitate learning. Bekee (2008) indicated that the instructional strategies employed by teachers can only influence the cognitive and affective outcome of the students’ performance, while Bloom in Zull (2009), on the other hand, has hypothesized that learning can be organized in such a way that all students in a class can achieve at a high level, has failed but accomplished only by the best students. The acceptance of Bloom’s assumption that almost all students can learn to a high level has psychologically stimulates researchers as well as teachers to search for approaches such as provision of prior knowledge of lesson objectives to learners, which are synthetically updated to promote learning abilities of all and not just for some students.
Nkwo (2006) defined an objective as intent communicated by a statement of what the learner is to be like when he has successfully completed a learning experience. The objective is therefore a description of a pattern of behaviour that learners are expected to be able to demonstrate; letting students be aware of the lesson objectives and emphasizing specifically to the intent of the learners some review questions before a teacher proceeds to deliver the lesson could have a facilitative effect on learning.
Kujawa and Huske (2010) view prior knowledge as a lens through which we view and absorb new information. It is a composite of who we are, based on what we have learned from both our academic and everyday experiences. Prior knowledge influences how the teacher and the students interact with the learning materials as both individuals and a group. It is the proper entry point for instruction, which should build on what is already known, and a major factor in comprehension – that is, making sense of our learning experience.
Many researchers (Peshkin, 2009; Protheroe, & Barsdate, 2008 and Lee, 2005) emphasized the important of incorporating parallels between a student’s cultural background and the curriculum’s design. As the world changes, students must learn to understand and appreciate the experience and contributions of people from different background. Prior knowledge of lesson objectives could play an increasing role in teaching learning experience, such that, it links curriculum, instruction, and assessment to the students’ experiences, language and culture, in other words, to their prior knowledge. Once prior knowledge of lesson objectives on the concept of solubility is assessed, there will be a range of potential responses depending upon the type of course, the uniformity of results, and the availability and type of supplemental materials and alternative employed in teaching the students.
Recently, several findings have been carried out (Gay, 2007 and Lambardi, (2011), to ascertain the effectiveness or otherwise of lesson objectives as the instructional aids. The results of such finding have been however, proved to be inconclusive. The number of studies that have found facilitative effect for the use of objectives equals the number that did not find any such effect (Davis, 2004).
It is therefore the interest of this study that, prior knowledge of lesson objectives on the concept of solubility be investigated in this study. The question therefore is, what are the effects of prior knowledge of lesson objectives on the concept of solubility on chemistry students’ performance?
1.3 Statement Of The Problem
The rate of dropouts and the inability of chemistry students to relate what are taught in classroom to real life situation attests to the ineffective delivery of certain concepts like solubility in the classroom (Bergstorm, 2007).
Despite the improvement in the training of the chemistry teachers and their teaching capacities and long term experience, students achievement in chemistry continue to be low (WAEC Chief examiners report on senior secondary school certificate examination for the year 2000-2007 indicated this), (Akpan, 2009).
Edoho (2006) identified that, one of the reasons for this low performance is lack of knowing the objectives of the lesson. Lesson objectives, therefore, act as destinations specifying where one intends to go (Onogwere, 2000). Solubility as an important concept in chemistry with enormous applications should be taught in such a way that what is taught is felt and meaningful to enable students retend the knowledge felt on the concept. Students find difficulties in learning any concept where they have no pre-knowledge about. Enukoha, Esu and Umoren (2002) asserted that methodical study on the effect of lesson objectives on students’ retention of difficult concepts in senior secondary school chemistry becomes very necessary. They reported also that clearly stated lesson objectives enhance students’ performance.
In view of the above stated opinions against effective teaching and meaningful learning of chemistry, Okebukola (2002) maintained that teacher-related difficulties arise from unqualification, preparation problems and lack of experience, all being the basis of prior knowledge.
To achieve effective learning outcome, instruction must set up experiences that involves students to construct their understanding through prior knowledge of the lesson objectives for themselves hence, promoting the numerical abilities of the students. Since solubility is a concept in chemistry that involves calculations and deeper understanding, it is therefore pertinent for the teacher to show students the objectives of the lesson that will enable the student achieve the desire goals since Dochastel and Marrill (2003) reported that “to provide some objectives prior to instruction could provide some organization to the subject matter of the lesson. Lack of prior knowledge brings about much failures and misconception.
Failures occur when misunderstandings and misconception are created by lack of prior knowledge of objectives of the instruction. Prior knowledge of lesson objectives therefore can be considered effective and facilitative if it reduces the number of misunderstanding and then, enhance maximum performance on the concept of solubility in senior secondary school two (SS2) chemistry students.
1.4 Purpose Of The Study
The broad purpose of this study was to investigate into the relevance and effects of prior knowledge of lesson, objectives and chemistry students’ academic performance on the concept of solubility. Specifically, the study has the following objectives;
1) To find out whether prior knowledge of lesson objectives before the lesson enhances the academic performance of chemistry students on the concept of solubility in senior secondary schools.
2) To identify the appropriate time of presenting lesson objectives for maximum performance of chemistry students.
3) To determine the difference in the performance of students based on gender when they are provided with prior knowledge of lesson objectives before the actual lesson.
4) To ascertain the difference in the performance of male students provided with prior knowledge of lesson objectives and those without prior knowledge of lesson objectives.
5) To examine the performance of female students provided with prior knowledge of lesson objectives and those without prior knowledge of lesson objectives.
1.5 The Research Questions
For the purpose of this study, the following research questions were posed:
1. What are the significant effects of prior knowledge of lesson objectives on the performance of chemistry students on the concept of solubility?
2. How does the time interval between when the lesson objectives are presented and when the lesson is delivered significantly affect the performance of students on the concept of solubility?
3. What significant difference exists between male and female chemistry students when provided with prior knowledge of lesson objectives on the concept of solubility?
4. How does the performance of male students provided with prior knowledge of lesson objectives differ from those without prior knowledge of lesson objectives on the concept of solubility?
5. What significant difference exists in the performance of female students provided with prior knowledge of lesson objectives and those without prior knowledge of lesson objectives on the concept of solubility?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
The following null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study and were tested at 0.05 alpha level of significant.
1. There will be no significant difference in the performance of students provided with prior knowledge of lesson objectives and those without prior knowledge of lesson objectives on the concept of solubility.
2. The time interval between when lesson objectives are presented and when the actual lesson is delivered does not significantly affect chemistry students’ performance on the concept of solubility.
3. There will be no significant difference between male and female chemistry students provided with prior knowledge of lesson objectives on the concept of solubility.
4. There will be no significant difference in the performance of male students provided with prior knowledge of lesson objectives and those without prior knowledge of lesson objectives on the concept of solubility.
5. There will be no significant difference in the performance of female students provided with prior knowledge of lesson objectives and those without prior knowledge of lesson objectives on the concept of solubility.
1.7 Significance Of The Study
The effects of prior knowledge of lesson objectives on learning task are very outstanding (Docky and Okebukola, 2002). If it is ascertained that prior knowledge of lesson objectives improves chemistry students’ academic performance in senior secondary school, then students will seek to know and embrace the objectives of each lesson before they proceed to study their notes and textbooks in preparation for maximum performance in examination.
Teachers can employ presentation of objectives to students before actual teaching as a device to maintain and also improve on the academic performance of secondary school students.
The study will also help school administrators in formulating policies on effective presentation of lesson objectives to learners before teaching learning process, to enhance students’ achievement.
Principal, school inspectors and administrators will insist that teachers show learners the lesson objectives before the lesson, and also may include it in their routine checks. Educational agencies such as WAEC, NECO and JAMB will see it interesting to stem their examination items for the set objectives in the curriculum.
Curriculum planners will also find this work useful to select and to state the prior objectives of lessons in curriculum – clearly.
The study will help Government to enact a policy that textbook authors should outline objectives in each chapter of books written for easy learning and understanding. Also, will serve as a guide to Government on formulation of education polices and objectives for effectives achievement of a desired goals.
This study will be useful to parents in examining their children understanding on a concept taught in school and will also help parents to reasoned why certain training should be given to their children, owing to it objectives for future advancement.
1.8 Delimitation Of The Study
This study is delimited to prior knowledge of lesson objectives and students’ performance on the concept of solubility in chemistry. This research work is concerned with students’ performance in schools randomly selected as experimental and control groups in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
The study is restricted to senior secondary school two (SS2) chemistry students.
1.9 Limitation Of The Study
This research study was limited by some factors such as time constraint because school was in section with lectures, assignments, tests, and examinations.
Another major constraint was disruption due to school extra-curricula activities such as compound work, games, and fee drive.
Financial constraint was also a major constraint as information been collected from state ministry of schools in Uyo Local Government was done rather by estimation.
1.10 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS
The following terms used in the study are explained below:
Prior knowledge: This refers to the awareness of an embedded knowledge or intents of a lesson subject matter and expectation on a particular concept.
Solubility: This is a concept in chemistry, defined as the maximum number of moles of the solid which will form a saturated solution with 1kg of the solvent at a particularly temperature (Udoh, 2007).