Full Project – FACTORS AFFECTING THE PERFORMANCE OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS STUDIES STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. (A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KEFFI LOCAL GOVERNMENT NASARAWA STATE)

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ABSTRACT

The study examined “factors affecting the performance of Christian Religious Studies students in secondary schools”. The study objectives are to: Insufficient numbers of qualified teachers affects students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects; Unavailability of instructional materials for teaching of Christian Religious Studies subject affects students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects; The previous socio-economic backgrounds of the students affect them in studying Christian Religious Studies subject; and the attitude and interest of students towards the nature of Christian Religious Studies subject contribute deeply to their mass failure in SSCE. The study employed the descriptive survey design. The nature of the problem was duly considered in the study. The research design used for this study is the survey design. The reason why this design was adopted was because the researcher would make use of the primary data obtained through the questionnaire. The area of the study covers students of five selected secondary schools located within Keffi Local Government Area, Nasarawa, Nasarawa. The target population consists of public secondary school students in Keffi Local Government Area, Nasarawa. Simple random sampling technique was adopted for the study. The researcher useD a total of one hundred (100) students from five (5) selected public secondary schools in Keffi Local Government Area, Nasarawa. The research instrument used was questionnaire. The data collected was analyzed using simple percentage while hypotheses were tested using Chi-Square Statistics. The study recommended that Government both at the federal and state levels should employ more qualified teachers for secondary schools to ensure efficiency and optimal performance in Christian Religious Studies subject. The study also recommended that Teachers should develop positive relationship with students and stress classroom activities, that will involve active teaching-learning process and students participation in the class. The study concludes that insufficient numbers of qualified Christian Religious Studies teachers and instructional materials for teaching affects Christian Religious Studies subject.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Christian Religious Studies is a multi-disciplinary academic field devoted to research into Christian beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes compares, interprets, and explains Christian Religion, emphasizing systematic, historical and cross-cultural perspectives.

Christian religious studies serve as the vehicle of thinking. A real study of science is not possible without the facilities of this fact. Idah (2007) said “as a subject, Christian religious studies are at the base of all the science and environmental professions”. In industry, a Christian religious study is needed for the production of guided missiles and is useful in aerospace technology. In communication, Christian religious studies are also very useful. If one is mathematically literate, on can communicate precisely and present his argument in a logical manner because Social studies helps one in logical thinking. Indeed, there is hardly any field where Christian religious studies are not useful. The farmer, the hunter, the house wife etc. All use Christian religious studies although they may not be of this fact.

The right way to introduce young pupils to Christian religious studies is not to teach Arithmetic, Algebra, Statistics and Geometry as separate branches, each with its own technical apparatus and methods. The ideal thing is to treat Christian religious studies as a science in which the topics are chosen so as to develop a grasp of mathematical idea. Therefore, the early stage of Christian religious studies teaching is very important since the pupils’ future performance in the subject depends on how well he performs at this stage. Christian religious studies are a way of thinking about pattern and relationship of numbers and shapes. It includes arithmetic, algebra, geometry, statistics and trigonometry.

The attitude of students to Christian religious studies whether positive or negative and affected by many factors. Most students are biased towards Christian religious studies before they start to study it. They are told that Christian religious studies are very difficult. With this in their mind, they feel that they can never grasp the subject no matter how hard they try.

Another factor is the career expectation of those concerned. Many students who aspire to become doctors, engineers etc develop interest in the subject as early as possible. This interest is seen in the effort made to understand the subjects. Although some of this type of students may have problems in understanding the subjects due to level of aptitude for them, the interest already developed assist in no small measure in their performance.

Another factor that can affect the attitude of students is the method of teaching Christian religious studies in secondary schools. The traditional method of verbal learning and memorization had led to formal and abstract approach to Christian religious studies teaching.

Effective teaching of Christian Religious Studies is a process by which a Christian Religious Studies teacher adopt all the possible method used in teaching in the classroom to make sure that students understand Christian Religious Studies and be able to respond positively during assessment or to produce a good result. Teachers’ effectiveness is exhibited in the teaching method, classroom managements, the material as well as the way students are being handled, a good teacher always bear in mind the individual differences of the students while presenting the lesson and frequently check the student’s understanding of his or her points to make sure that they are getting of understanding his lesson. This also includes the ability of the teacher to answer question asked by the students, having knowledge about his or her subject matter and ability to show students how to conduct appropriate research.

Effective teaching is crucial, in order for students to reach educational success in and outside classroom setting, therefore, there has been some factors militating against effective teaching of Christian Religious Studies in Junior secondary school in Nsukka Local Government Area, which some of them are as follows:

Unqualified Christian Religious Studies teacher: Inappropriate training background of science teachers especially Christian Religious Studies teachers and qualification of Christian Religious Studies teachers are the major factor that militate against effective teaching of Christian Religious Studies because some Christian Religious Studies teachers in some Junior secondary school did not undergo enough training to enable them get skills, qualities and enough knowledge of the subject matter and how to impact the knowledge to the students.
Poor method of teaching Christian Religious Studies in Junior secondary school: For teaching to be effectives one must use different methods of teaching. According to Eke (2001), teaching is effective if only it produces or yields the desired results, the ability of the teacher to adapt to different situations and produce a desired result in the classroom is a mark of teaching effectiveness. Vennier and Faith (2001) are of the opinion that all the teaching activities are supposed to produce learning, so that test of effective teaching will be amount of learning that occurs.

When the following methods are used, teaching of Christian Religious Studies can be effective. According to Bigmen (1999), activity method, inquiry method, and discovery method which elicit student’s interests and enhance their level of attainment or comprehension of Christian Religious Studies. Activity method the methods that encourage students to participate actively during the lesion while teaching at the same time. Oforkansi (2008) defined activity method as a method whereby the students learn through active involvement rather than being passive or being at the receiving end.

According to Ofokansi (2008), discovery means finding out. Exploration, manipulation and experimentation are components scientific enquiry that help one to discover. This approach demand that the teacher create the problem and allow the pupil/students to find answer for themselves. The author also said that enquiry involve active participation by the student/pupil rather than transmit a preconceived notion about situations.

3.Inadequte supply of Christian Religious Studies equipment: In some schools, many laboratories equipments like microscope, glass tube, Beaker, slide, Bones of vertebrates etc. charts of different animals development, systems, organs, etc, work book for practical and textbooks are not adequate for the students in learning of Christian Religious Studies. Christian Religious Studies is a science subject which is all about practical and also when combined with other science subject one will be able to study courses like medicine, nursing, pharmacy etc in higher institution. Beaty and Woolnough (1990) are of the opinion that the obsolete and insufficient teaching of Christian Religious Studies in Junior secondary schools. They stressed that the teacher may be competent enough and have all the qualities to impact the knowledge to the students but to the obsolete and insufficient availability of biological equipment the aim is defeated.

Teachers attitude towards the teaching of Christian Religious Studies: the teachers personalities such as the way the teacher walks, talks, reacts to issues, his/her code of conduct and dressing code has become the major factors which leads to the ineffective teaching of Christian Religious Studies. It goes with the saying that the personality of such teacher affect the effective teaching of Christian Religious Studies in a great way. Enwieme(2001) continuous to stressed that teachers personality invariably affect the effectiveness of teaching of Christian Religious Studies. Oforkansi(2008)opinion that personal qualities do not only enhance teaching and learning but also promotes the tone of the school as well as the profession.

In summary, ineffective of teaching of Christian Religious Studies in Nuskka Local Government Area could be due to the several reasons such as classroom management, communication, teachers qualification, supply of Christian Religious Studies equipment, teachers personality, negligence of seminars, and workshop by the teachers of Christian Religious Studies, inadequate illustration and practical aspect of Christian Religious Studies is another factors, infrastructural facilities and absences of laboratories etc.

Notwithstanding, it has been observed that there are many problems militating against the teaching and learning of Christian Religious Studies in Post primary schools as enumerated by many writers on problem of Christian Religious Studies in Nigeria. They attributed the high level of failures in Christian Religious Studies to lack of students concentration in the classroom, their view steamed from observed students performance in Christian Religious Studies.

Thus, observed failure could be as a result of inability of the students to understand economic terms, lack of finance to buy relevant textbooks, inadequate teachers, inability of the students’ to interpret Christian Religious Studies table and graph, inappropriate and ineffective method of teaching, lack of control over the attitudes of students and teachers and others which have contributed to low level of teaching Christian Religious Studies in secondary schools.

Okorie (1979: 152) suggested that for the effective teaching to take place, the skillful teacher needs to use the many effective method and techniques effectively because in them his success and failure depends. He further emphasized that the success in the use of methods depends on the intelligent analysis of educational purposes, pupil in the class and the curriculum content of the moment.

A few moment reflection is sufficient to reveal that every society faces crucial issues and problem in education which have very serious economic angles that cannot be overlooked easily for instance, the production of education as well as the acquisition of education both require the use of large qualities of scare resources (Production of education requires conducive classrooms, administrative blocks, personnel, librarians, laboratories while the acquisition of education requires expenditures on tuition fees, book, travels, uniform, lodging etc. and students time.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Christian Religious Studies is been taught in secondary schools in Keffi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State and it has been observed that students in government secondary school Ajah performed poorly in the 2012 May/June Junior Certificate Examination. It has also been observed that there are lots of factors militating against the effective teaching and learning of Christian Religious Studies in secondary schools in the study area.

poor performance in Junior WAEC is caused by many factors such as; students ineffective study techniques, quality of teachers and method of teaching, the parents inability to provide useful materials like textbooks, exercise books and school fees and problem of inadequate instructional materials for teaching and learning of Christian Religious Studies in schools.

However, the pivoting problems of Christian Religious Studies is complex and can minimally be solved if the teachers and students change their attitude towards teaching and learning in schools generally and to Christian Religious Studies in particular.

Christian Religious Studies is one of the core science subjects, which is supposed to be the most interesting subject to students in Junior secondary schools. It has been discovered that the effective teaching of Christian Religious Studies has been very important. But the rate at which students fails Christian Religious Studies in result time’s shows that effective learning has not been attained by these students. Aganga (2000) observed that “Many secondary schools, especially the public schools have insufficient competent teachers as well as biological equipment in their different schools”. Therefore, there is the need to answer certain questions to re-enforce their effectiveness in teaching.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

Study has been undertaken with a view to identify the problems involved in the teaching and learning of Christian Religious Studies in secondary schools and Keffi Local Government Area and factors responsible for these problems. Specifically, the study sought to find out if:-

Insufficient numbers of qualified teachers affects students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects.
Unavailability of instructional materials for teaching of Christian Religious Studies subject affects students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects,
The previous socio-economic backgrounds of the students affect them in studying Christian Religious Studies subject.
The attitude and interest of students towards the nature of Christian Religious Studies subject contribute deeply to their mass failure in SSCE.

Research Questions

In assessing the purpose of the study, this research project will answer the following questions:

Does insufficient numbers of qualified Christian Religious Studies teachers affects students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subject?
Does unavailability of instructional materials for teaching of Christian Religious Studies subject affects students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects?
Does previous socio-economic background of the students affect them in studying Christian Religious Studies subject?
How would interest of students towards the nature of Christian Religious Studies subject contribute deeply to their mass failure in SSCE?

Research Hypotheses

In carrying out this research work the following theoretical statements are buttressed to serve as a direction on which the work will be premised:

H₀: Insufficient numbers of qualified Christian Religious Studies teachers does not affects students’ mass failure of students in Christian Religious Studies subject

H₁: Insufficient numbers of qualified Christian Religious Studies teachers and instructional materials teaching affects Christian Religious Studies subject.

H₀: There is no significant relationship between availability of instructional materials for teaching of Christian Religious Studies subject and students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects.

H₁: There is significant relationship between availability of instructional materials for teaching of Christian Religious Studies subject and students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects.

1.6 Scope of the Study

The research work seeks to examine the factors militating against effective teaching and learning of Christian Religious Studies in secondary. The study will be limited to five selected schools in Keffi Local Government Area, Nasarawa.

1.7 Significance of the Study

There is need to apply knowledge from Christian Religious Studies to many area of our life in other to benefit the society. The achievements of the objective necessitates an understanding of the basic teaching of Christian Religious Studies. We cannot attain national objectives in the light of poor or average performances in examinations and lack of application of Christian Religious Studies to life students.

Without doubt, improved teaching and learning of Christian Religious Studies will spur us into greater heights. This study will help to make our educational administrators to see the need to have qualified Christian Religious Studies teachers to handle the subject effectively for the benefit of the students and society at large.

This study will help to sensitize the educational administrators to appreciate the need to make available the necessary materials, example, chalkboard, graphs, audio-visual materials etc. that will enhance effective learning of Christian Religious Studies if they are not available.

This study will if need be direct the Christian Religious Studies teachers’ attention to the need for them to adopt more appropriate teaching method in order to bring about the above mentioned desirable experience in the learners. This study will have a great significance because it is going to provide information to Christian Religious Studies teachers for formation and evaluation of their plans.

It will be useful to learners for through this, they will be able to identify the factors militating against the proper teaching and learning of Christian Religious Studies. This study will help to produce sound Christian Religious Studies students that will function very well in the economy such as:

(a) Knowing how to use scarce productive resources with alternative uses to meet prescribed ends and be able to apply the principles of Christian Religious Studies.

(b) The product of Christian Religious Studies that should be able to pick employment within a limited employment opportunity in any economy.

This work will serve as a source of encouragement to students and teachers that will come across it. It is hoped that the findings of this study would also form the basis for further research work by future researchers on this issue.

1.8 Definition of Terms

Christian Religious Studies: Christian Religious Studies education focuses on teaching children about their world so they can establish their own views about society and culture.

Instructional Materials: These are materials that are used to aid in the transference of information from one student to another in Education arena.

Teaching: the act or profession of a person who teaches.

Job Performance: This is the work related activities expected of an employee and how well those activities were executed.

Remuneration: Reward for employment in the form of pay, salary, or wage, including allowances, benefits (such as medical plan, pension plan), bonuses, cash incentives, and monetary value of the noncash incentives.

Condition of Work: Regulations governing on-the-job standards and conditions of work such as those affecting health and safety of workers.

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Full Project – FACTORS AFFECTING THE PERFORMANCE OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS STUDIES STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. (A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KEFFI LOCAL GOVERNMENT NASARAWA STATE)

Full Project – FACTORS AFFECTING THE PERFORMANCE OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS STUDIES STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. (A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KEFFI LOCAL GOVERNMENT NASARAWA STATE)

Full Project – FACTORS AFFECTING THE PERFORMANCE OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS STUDIES STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. (A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KEFFI LOCAL GOVERNMENT NASARAWA STATE)

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