RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF CLASSROOM PSYCHO-SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT IN GEOGRAPHY

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF CLASSROOM PSYCHO-SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT IN GEOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between students’ perception of classroom psycho-social environment and their achievement in secondary school geography.  To carry out this study, five research questions and three hypotheses were formulated, all derived from the literature review. Two instruments, geography classroom environment scale questionnaire (GCESQ) and cumulative score of SS2 geography students were used to collect relevant data from a sample of 295 SS2 students randomly selected from 10 senior secondary schools in Ika Local Government Area of Delta State. The schools were selected by stratified random sampling technique. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions 1 and 2 while pearson correlation was used to answer research question 3. Stepwise analysis were used to answer research question four, five and also used to test the null hypothesis. The study among other things revealed that psycho-social classroom environmental factors correlated negatively with students’ achievement in senior secondary geography and that location of school whether urban or rural has little or no effect on students’ achievement due to psycho-social factors of the classroom. Hence, there was no significant difference in the achievement between urban and rural students in geography in Ika Local Government Area.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Geography is a branch of environmental sciences.  According to Adekanjo, (2002), Geography plays a vital role in providing knowledge of relevant concepts, environmental and natural phenomena, like; why we have day and night, the reason for rainfall, the ozone layers, avoidance of over exploitation of the natural environment and most importantly, protecting our environment for the future generation. It helps to develop environmental process skills like; classification, description, observation, inference and measurement David, (2000). All these importance of geography notwithstanding, students perform poorly in Geography Dakun, (2001). The West African Examination Council Chief Examiner’s reports (2006) indicates that many students lack the expected geographical knowledge.  According to the same source, this contributed to their poor achievement.  This poor achievement in geography among secondary school students has made a number of geography educators to study the problem empirically with the hope of finding causes and plausible solutions.  Some of the causes identified according to Grossman, & Adam, (2000) are poor background, lack of teaching and learning materials, poor method of teaching, lack of experienced and qualified teachers, insufficient supply of laboratory equipment and teacher behaviour.

In addition to these factors listed above as responsible for poor achievement of students it is suspected that student’s classroom-learning environment may contribute immensely to poor achievement especially in geography. Researchers False; (1990), Talton, and Simpson, (2007) pointed to some environmental factors such as; home and the school environments as some of the major factors that influence students outcome in the subjects. Learning has been known to be influenced by the type of environment, in which an individual learns Osewaren, (2006).  Randhawa, and Michayluk, (005) found out that the inclusion of environment as a variable makes a major difference in the prediction of human characteristics such as general intelligence and school achievement.

In the same vein, Keeves, (2004) suggested an education pattern where an educational outcome is a function of the type of environment in which an individual learns.  There are different types of learning environment such as school environment, home and classroom environment.  School environment according to Walberg, (2001) refers to teacher or students perception of the school moral or social-psychological environment that affects learning.  In order words, it is the external condition and influence in the school that can influence the academic achievement of students irrespective of their intelligent quotient, while the home environment is seen as behaviours and processes on the part of parents to provide intellectual and emotional stimulation for their children.

The classroom is a basic structural unit of our educational system Talton, and Simpson, (2007).  It is a miniature community in which members’ interest influences the behaviour of others.  Classroom environment is therefore the type of environment created as a result of subsequent interactions that occur in the classroom during teaching and learning process Hawkros, and Panick, (2003). In the Nigeria setting the classroom environment appears to be static, not changing with changes in time.

The classroom environment of a school is an embodiment of the physical, sociological, psychological and psychosocial conditions.  The physical classroom environment has to do with the age of the classroom building, colour, level of available furniture, desks and seats, ventilation, lighting, roof, ceiling and floor Akubue, (2001).  The sociological classroom environment or climate refers to the feeling, which the teachers and the learners are able to generate in making the classroom morale high or low Akubue, (2001). The psychological classroom environment refers to the level of the speed of teaching, cohesiveness, distractions, interests, motivations, anxieties, confusion and difficulty of the classroom learning activities Haertel and Walbeg, (2004).

The psycho-social classroom environment is a type of classroom that has to do with interactions in the classroom. These interactions involve: teacher and students’ interactions, students and students interactions, students and instructional material interaction, and students, instructional materials and teacher interaction Anyafulude, (2006). It also refers to the extents the students perceive their classroom environment and how they want it to look like. Hong, (2003). In Nigeria psycho-social classroom environment, it appears that there is suppression of students by some teachers who claim to know everything, thereby giving students little or no opportunity to air their views Nwabueze, (2004). The psycho-social environment that students work in is very important. According to Fagbamiye, (2004) successful psycho-social environment is more likely to be a calm place rather than chaotic, to be task oriented and have an orderly climate in Geography class. Fagbamiye continued by saying that in a geography classroom psycho-social environment, teacher/students interaction is very important.

According to Idowu, (2006), teacher/students interaction deals with interaction between the students and their teachers. The relationship may be positive or negative.  This relationship depends on how effective both the teachers as well as the students are able to perform their roles in the relationship. According to the same source, it also deals with teachers’ perception of their students and students’ perception of their teachers.  Some teachers perceive their students as been stubborn, older than their chronological ages, incapable of making decision, good for nothing, unfriendly, etc.  Other teachers perceive their students as being worthwhile, tender, friendly, innovative, intelligent, helpful etc. When the teacher’s perception of his student is positive, it may result to good teacher/student interaction but when he perceives his student in the negative direction, it may result in the negative direction and results to rancour, anger, hatred and poor students/teacher relationship. According to Dewey, (2006) the poor student relationship may lead to poor achievement while good student/teacher relationship may lead to better achievement in Geography.

Another form of interaction in the classroom according to Mgboro and Omebe, (2005) is the students/students interactions.  This form of interaction involves the peer group.  The peer group is a group of individuals who are of approximately equal size, age and status with whom the child finds himself in the same class.  This group fills great and growing need for the child, for with them, he learns to develop new feelings of adequacy and acceptance.  So the peer group appears to be the second in importance to the teacher in the psychosocial classroom environment.  The individual according to Onyehalu, (2004) relies on peers for social acceptances support and solidarity.  When his/her peers accept the him, there is likely going to be a better achievement in Geography than when the student is rejected by his/her peers.

Teachers/students/instructional materials are another form of interaction in Geography psychosocial classroom environment.  It is a means by which students/teachers interact with their instructional materials.  In geography, instructional materials are very important as they bring realities to what the teacher is teaching in geography lesson. According to Fagbamiye, (2004), in a Geography psycho-social classroom-learning environment, the student and teacher interact with each other and use of variety of tools and information resources in their pursuit of learning activities.  The nature of the classroom environment and psycho-social interactions may make a difference in how the students learn and achieve their goals in Geography.

The nature of psycho-social secondary schools classroom learning environment has been found to differ according to location Lawren, (2006).  This difference due to location may lead to students’ different perception of their psychosocial classroom in rural and urban schools, and may or may not result to difference in students’ achievement in rural and urban schools.  According to Murdock (2007) location influence social interaction. Classroom achievement cannot be divorced from the social fabric in which it is embedded. Wentzed (2006) continued by saying that a learner’s concept of his worthiness, competence and other academically related qualities are derived from interactions with others in the academic environment.

Geography knowledge are learnt through social interactions Murray (2001) he continued by saying that location can be rural or urban. According to him, urban population are made up of more of educated population, equipped library, educative television and radio programmer which are likely going to enhance the understanding of the student’s Geography.

Adinna (2007) in the same view sited an example of the eclipse of around 2005/2006 when it was broadcasted at N.T.A Enugu 7 O’clock news. Adinna was invited by N.T.A Enugu to educate the people on the eclipse that is about to occur. Although it was broadcasted on N.T.A Enugu, it was the students of the urban areas that were likely to watch it. This is because of the problem of power supply. Most of the urban population uses generators to substitute power supply. As such may be opportuned to watch such an educative programme. He added that the urban population are more of educated people and so can explain some of these phenomenons to the geography students.

He continued by saying that their rural counterparts because of the nature of the rural population, which ranges from poor power supply, more of illiterate population, may not opportuned to watch such an educative programmes. Even when are opportuned, they may not have enough educated people to explain it to them. He added that such may affect geography achievement.

Ajala (2008) held another view when he said that the knowledge of geography can be learnt from any environment being rural or urban. He continued by saying that geography topics like natural vegetations, running water, landforms are better learnt in the rural areas because some of their natural features are still there. Unlike the urban areas where some of them have been destroyed for constructional purposes like building of houses, bridges and dams. This study intends to find out if location has any relationship with student’s achievement in geography.

A conducive psycho-social classroom learning environment does not only serve the child’s emotional developmental needs but also encourages intellectual development by giving the child opportunity for experimentation, exploration and self-knowledge.  Allen, (2004) contented that a stimulating psychosocial classroom environment provides motivation for a child to become a miniature researcher through the process of reading, recalling, self-achievement and actualization.  Hence, the mind of the learner and his interest is in what he is presented with and conditioned by the stimuli in his psycho-social learning environment.  If this is the case for the maximum learning to take place, it follows that a psychosocial classroom learning environment for children should be well planned and stimulating for this may help them develop positive attitude towards a particular classroom and enhance their achievement in Geography.

Achievement in education refers to school progress made by a student from one class to another Agbafe, (2007).  Achievement according to the new International Webster’s comprehensive Dictionary of English Language (2003:12) is the act of accomplishment or attainment of educational goal.  It is a performance through a standardized test for measuring an individual’s progress in the mastery of a subject to be learned.  Achievement can be defined as a measure of student’s present level of knowledge or skills.  Students should go through the appropriate experience, which will enable them to learn or gain the ability to perform tasks, to acquire certain skills or behaviour in a deserved way. According to Akukwe, (1990), level of achievement derives from objectives of planned school experience is usually closely tied to them.  Being more dependent in specific class instructions and a measure of achievement may be environmentally influenced.

According to Ebenebe, and Unachukwu, (2001) students have different psycho-social classroom experience, but because they bring different prior experience with them, they perceived the classroom environment differently. Psycho-social Classroom environment assessment has been found to bear strong and consistence links with student’s achievement and attitude to furnish useful criteria in the evaluation of educational programmes and to provide a sound basic guide to teacher’s practical attempt in improving their psychosocial classroom Fraser, (1991).  What is lacking in school research and psychological theory in school learning is the consideration of student perception of the social – psychological environment of their classes and the direct / indirect linkage of perception to measures – students outcome such as standardized tests, performance, interest in the subject, self concept as a learner and students behaviour that are of interest to policy makers, education practitioners, parents and students. Psycho-social classroom environment can thus be studied using three approaches namely: systematic observations, case study and assessing students and teachers perceptions Fraser, (1991).

However, some research on the relationship between classroom environment and student achievement based their works on the physical design of the classroom environment Ogu (2005), classroom psychosocial environment Walberg, and Haertel, (2005), Fraser, and Fisher, (1992), emotional climate and teacher’s behaviour, Ade, (2005), interaction Pattern Okebukola, (2004), Most of these research works were done outside Nigeria.  Therefore, the result of these studies cannot be generalized to Nigeria due to differences in the characteristics of these countries level of education, social-cultural and social-economic settings, which also contribute in no small measure to the strength of the factors in relating significantly to achievement.  Even those research works done in Nigeria were not done on the area of relationship between students’ perception of classroom psycho-social environment and achievement in geography.  Thus, the issue of exactly how psycho-social classroom environment in Nigeria especially geography psycho-social classroom and how students interpret the psycho-social factors or characteristics of their geography psycho-social classroom environment remains unresolved.  This study wants to investigate the relationship between student perception of classroom psycho-social environment and achievement in geography and relationship between locations be it rural or urban. Therefore, the researcher is of the view that since location of classroom and students’ perception of classroom psycho-social environment may have influence on their achievement in geography, the issue is worth investigating.

Statement of the Problem

Classroom achievement as explained earlier refers to school progress made by a student from one class to another. In measuring achievement, it is believed that students should go through the appropriate experience which will enable them to learn or gain the ability to achieve tasks to acquire certain skills in a deserved way.

Geography as a branch of environmental science is a subject that the society cannot do without. This is because it deals with the environment and man cannot neglect his environment. As such the need to achieve high is a world wide cry.

Despite these importance mentioned above, students have not developed positive attitude and interest towards their geography classroom environment Darmar, (2006).  This according to some researchers could be due to the nature of their psychosocial classroom environment, which arises as a result of some classroom environmental factors like the physical environment, teachers’ behaviour, teaching method and interaction in the classroom.

Though much effort has been made by the State and Federal Government to improve geography education in Nigeria, geography achievement at the senior secondary school level is still low W.A.E.C chief examiners report (2006). This achievement of the objectives of  geography knowledge may depend on the environment in which learning takes place.  Psycho-social classroom environment is one of the condition in the school which affects a child. Could it be that much attention has not been given to the psycho-social characteristics of students during geography learning or due to the way students perceive their geography classroom psycho-social environment or due to the location of their schools?

Students’ achievement in geography may not be improved unless there is provision for ideal psycho-social classroom environment in which geography will be best taught at secondary schools.  It is also not certain whether geography students in rural and urban schools perceive their classroom psych-osocial environment in a similar manner, and if the differences in their perception relates to their achievements.

Hence, the problem of this study stated as a question is, what is the relationship between student perception of classroom psychosocial environment and their achievement in senior secondary school geography?

Purpose of the Study

            The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between students’ perception of classroom psychosocial environment and the achievement in senior secondary school geography.  Specifically, this study intends to find out:

1. The students’ perception of their geography classroom psychosocial environment.
2. How urban and rural students perceive their geography classroom psychosocial environment.
3. The relationship between students perception of classroom psychosocial environment and their achievement in senior secondary school geography
4. The relationship between students’ achievement in geography and the perception of their classroom psychosocial environment in urban schools.
5. The relationship between students’ achievement in geography and the perception of their classroom psychosocial environment in rural schools.

Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will help the curriculum planners and developers on the information regarding the quality of psycho-social classroom environment in which geography will be best taught in secondary schools, with a view to guiding them in recommending the ideal psychosocial environment for geography, thereby incorporating it in the curriculum to enhance students’ achievement.

Again, the findings of this study will provide information to the geography teachers and educators on the students’ perception of classroom psychosocial environment and their achievement in geography.

The result will provide information to the government on the level of students’ perception and achievement in geography in rural and urban schools, knowing this will help improve the psycho-social environment in geography, by increasing educational conditions of such schools that will enhance geography achievement in Nigeria.  Both the study and its result may open up a research field for geography educators and researchers.  Thus, similar studies may be carried out in other classes, schools and subjects.

Both the study and its beef up literature on achievement and psycho-social environment may sensitize teacher taumers to help create a better interaction in the classroom.

The school administrator will not be left out.  This work will help them in the sense that they will be able to guide their teachers in creating a better psycho-social environment.

The government, if aware of psycho-social environment can make a rule for examining bodies to monitor psycho-social environment.  The work will also serve as a resource materials to researcher who may be interested in the area.  Additionally, it will provide the frame work for other researchers to build on.

Findings of this study will help to increase the knowledge base of what is known already about psychosocial classroom environment and also guide the teachers in providing conducive learning atmosphere by arranging and organizing the classroom in a way that the students will like.  This will increase their interest towards their psycho-social classroom and will enhance their achievement in Geography. Also, the findings of this work will help the psychologist especially the environmental psychologist. Also the findings of this work will be generalized to other secondary school subjects like physics, chemistry, biology to mention to a few. This will go a long way to improve geography education in Nigeria.

Scope of the Study

The study is limited to SSII geography students in Ika Local Government Area of Delta State.  This is because, the researcher does not want to use people in external  examination classes because they are preparing for their examination or beginners because they might not have gotten enough knowledge of geography as the teaching of geography starts from SS 1.  As such, the researcher considers it more appropriate to use SS 2 and the content scope is the psycho-social geography classroom environment of Ika local government area of Delta state.

Research Questions

To guide this study, the following research questions were stated

1. What is the students’ perception of the psycho-social environment of their geography classroom?
2. How do urban and rural students perceive the psycho-social environment of their geography classroom?
3. What is the relationship between students’ perception of their classroom psycho-social environment and their achievement in senior secondary school geography?
4. What is the relationship between students in urban schools perception of their geography classroom, psycho-social environment and their achievement in geography?
5. What is the relationship between students in rural schools perception of their geography classroom, psycho-social environment and their achievement in geography?

Hypotheses

Two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. They will be tested at 0.05 level of significance.  The hypotheses are:

1. There is no significant relationship between the students’ mean perception scores of classroom psycho-social environment and their mean achievement in geography.
2. There is no significant relationship in the students’ mean achievement score in geography and their mean perception score of classroom psycho-social environment in urban schools.
3. There is no significant relationship in the students’ mean achievement score in geography and their mean perception score of classroom psycho-social environment in rural schools.