PAEDAGOGICAL-CAPACITY BUILDING REQUIREMENTS FOR AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE TEACHERS FOR ACTIVE LESSON DELIVERY IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS  IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA  

ABSTRACT

This study assessed the paedagogical-capacity building needs of agricultural science teachers for effective lesson delivery in secondary schools in Kwara State, Nigeria.  The study was conducted with five objectives and five corresponding research questions and five null hypotheses were formulated and tested. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. A total of 200 agricultural science teachers and principals  were respondents in the study. Structured questionnaire tagged Paedagogical-capacity building Needs Questionnaire (PCBNQ) designed by the researcher was used for data collection. The instrument was face validated by three experts and a sample of 20 teachers and principals were used to determine the reliability of the instrument using Cronbach alpha technique with a coefficient of 0.890. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics to answer the research questions while independent t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. There was no significant difference in the views of respondents on the paedagogical-capacity building needs of agricultural science teachers in all 25 items and Hypotheses no differences was accepted. This study findings among others revealed that there is no significant difference in the mean score of despondence in paedagogical-capacity building need in proper planning of instructions in secondary schools in Kwara State. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended among others that agricultural science teachers should be sent on in-service trainings in the areas of instructional planning and teaching methods to improve paedagogical-capacity building need of teachers for better instructional resource organization in secondary schools. 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODCUTION

1.1        Background to the Study

Education, skills development and life-long learning are central pillars for job performance of educated and trained individuals who teach school subjects including agricultural science who become professional teachers. A profession is connected with any prestige holding occupation that needs special occupational training. Teaching as a profession requires the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitude through a long period of education and training that leads to the award of certificate recognized by the members of the profession, with the aim of providing services in the teaching profession.

A teacher of agricultural science is an individual who is trained in paedagogical and technical areas of agricultural science and is charged with the responsibilities of imparting knowledge, skills and attitude to students. A teacher of agricultural science is a person who performs the specialized function of educating others in formal schools or institutions to bring about learning in the field of agriculture. A teacher of agricultural science performs certain professional responsibilities which include planning the school instruction; organizing instructional resources; implementing instruction; evaluating instruction, managing practicals in agriculture, maintaining student-teacher relationship, maintaining teacher-community relationship and guiding students' career or occupational choice through well coordinated instruction.

According to Ahmed (2000), instruction refers to systematic imparting of knowledge, skills, attitudes and modes of conduct by oral speech and written language of the content to be presented. Ogwo and Oranu (2006) opined that instruction is an interaction between the teacher and the learner (within the interaction, the teacher teaches and the learner learns) to bring about effective lesson delivery. Effective lesson delivery in the view of Nancy and Shirley (2006), is the systematic use of selected techniques, methods and strategies to create a dynamic interface between the curriculum and learners. On the other hand, Stenberg (1998), sees effective Lesson delivery as the use of various techniques and methods of presenting the subject matter or content in an organized manner, focusing presentation on teaching goals and creating possibilities in order to meet the learners’ needs and interests and goals of secondary school education in Nigeria.

Secondary school has been described by the National Policy on Education (2004) as an institution that children attend after primary school. Hornby (2006) explains that secondary school is a place or early adolescents go for education. In Nigeria it is made up of six years duration of three years of junior secondary school and three years of senior secondary school where agricultural science is taught. Among subjects of instruction at secondary school level is agricultural science which according to Emejulu (1995) is the use of land and its resources to grow crops and rear livestock to provide specific produce used by human beings. According to Jacob (2003), agricultural science is the tilling of soil for growing crops, raising of livestock and processing and marketing them for human and livestock use under the guidance of the teacher.  The teacher, during instruction, is very mindful of the achievement of the objectives of agricultural science. The objectives of agricultural science according to Council for Educational Studies and Adaptation Center (CESAC, 1985) for secondary schools are to stimulate and sustain student’s interest in agriculture; enable students achieve basic knowledge and practical skills in agriculture; prepare students for further studies in agriculture; and prepare students for occupation in agriculture. The achievement of these objectives requires the professional competence of a teacher of agricultural science. A competent teacher is one who possesses the required knowledge, skills and attitudes for imparting instruction in agricultural science to the students. Competency in the view of Ely (2010), is composed of essential knowledge and skills obtainable in a profession and those which the professional in the field must possess and be able to demonstrate at optimal level of acquisition functioning. Olaitan and Ali (1997) define competency as knowledge, skills, attitudes and judgment generally needed for the successful performance of a task.

The process of determining the paedagogical capacity-building needs of agricultural science teachers is known as assessment. Assessment is require a process through which the quality of an individuals’ work or performance is judged. According to Okoro (2000), assessment is a process of estimating the worth, quality or effectiveness of a programme or instruction through collected data. Okoro (2007) further reveals the level of quality or standard of instruction or performance of the objectives of the agricultural education programme. He further states that assessment is the process of judging or deciding the amount, value, quality or importance of a programme or teachers instruction in a teaching-learning process.

Needs assessment as explained by Anyakoha (2010), is a type of evaluation research used in determining various areas of need or discrepancies in education. Need assessment is the process of determining the difference between the level of knowledge, skills and attitudes possessed and what is expected by teachers in the areas of instruction in agricultural science. This process gives a value called need gap. The actual process, of estimating the amount or quantity of need gap is called need gap analysis which could give rise to capacity-building.

Capacity-building as contained in the report of United Nations Development Programme

(UNDP, 2002), is the process of equipping individuals with the understanding, skills and access to information, knowledge and training that enable them to perform better. It states further that capacity-building focuses on a series of actions directed at helping individuals in the development process to increase knowledge, skills and understanding they possess and to develop the attitude needed to bring about desired developmental change in them. In the opinion of Olaitan, Alaribe and Nwobu (2009), capacity-building is an efforts geared towards improving the level of knowledge, skills and attitude possessed by an individual for proficiency in a given task or job.

In order to establish the paedagogical needs of the agricultural science teachers in the study area, it is required that necessary training and re-training of teachers through capacitybuilding intervention programmes such as seminar, workshop and in-service on competent improvement to up-date their knowledge, skills and attitudes for effective lesson delivery is imperative. Therefore, it is in view of this, the study tries to identify professional-competency, of agricultural science teachers for effective lesson delivery in secondary schools in Kwara State.

 1.2      Statement of the Problem

Agricultural science teachers in senior secondary schools in Kwara State are employed to impart knowledge, skills and attitudes in their subject’s area to the students. The teachers who are NCE and university graduates, are expected to teach the content of agricultural science towards achieving the stated objectives. Therefore the system accorded them the sole responsibility of teaching agricultural science to students for the performance of the states objectives. Despite the activities of teachers to see that the objectives of teaching agricultural science in senior secondary schools are achieved, it is evident from West African School

Certificate Examinations (WASCE) and National Examinations Council School Certificate Examinations (NECOSCE) results of 2011-2013 that students performed poorly in agricultural science.

The interaction of the researcher with some parents of senior secondary school graduates in one of the parents teachers association meetings at Lafiagi Secondary School and Government Secondary School Gbugbu, among others in 2015 revealed that parents were having growing concern about the low level of performance of their children in SSCE and NECO examinations. Parents therefore requested for a change for better result in future examinations. With the researchers’ observation above, it was opined that teachers’ paedagogical-capacity building needs on instructional delivery need not to be compromised. It is based on this assertion that the researcher became interested to find out the paedagogical-capacity building needs of agricultural science teachers for effective lesson delivery in secondary schools in kwara state Nigeria

1.3       Objectives of the Study

The major objective of the study was to determine the paedagogical capacity-building needs of agricultural science teachers for effective lesson delivery in secondary schools in Kwara State, Nigeria.  Specifically, the study sought to determine the paedagogical-capacity building needs of agricultural science teachers in the area of:

1. Proper planning of instruction in agricultural science in secondary schools in Kwara

State.

2. Organization of instructional resources in agricultural science in secondary schools in Kwara State;
3. Implementation of instruction in agricultural science in  secondary schools in Kwara

State;

4. Management of practicals in agricultural science in secondary schools in Kwara State.
5. Evaluation of instruction in agricultural science in secondary schools in Kwara State. 4              Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study.

1. What are the paedagogical-capacity building needs of agricultural science teachers for proper planning of instruction in secondary schools in Kwara State?
2. What are the paedagogical-capacity building needs of agricultural science teachers in organizing instructional resources in agricultural science in secondary schools in Kwara State?
3. What are the paedagogical-capacity building needs of agricultural science teachers in implementing instruction in agricultural science in secondary schools in Kwara State?
4. What are the paedagogical-capacity building needs of agricultural science teachers in managing practicals in agricultural science in secondary schools in Kwara State?
5. What are the paedagogical-capacity building needs of agricultural science teachers in evaluating instruction in agricultural science in secondary schools in Kwara State?

1.5Research Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were tested in the study:

Ho₁ There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of teachers and principals on the paedagogical-capacity building needs of teachers in proper planning of instruction in public secondary schools in Kwara State.

Ho₂ There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of teachers and principals on the paedagogical-capacity building needs of teachers in organizing instructional resources in public secondary schools in Kwara State.

The study will be conducted based on the following assumptions:

1. Teachers and principals will be honest in responding to the items in the questionnaire.
2. The questionnaire items are properly worded to elicit the required information from the respondents
3. The views expressed by the respondents will be strong enough to be used to generalize the views of the wider public on the variables under study.

1.7       Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will benefit the teaching service commission, principals, teachers, students, policy makers and future researchers. The findings of this research will provide information to the teaching   service commission of Kwara State on the need to retrain teachers so as to improve the competencies required by the teachers for effective teaching and learning of agricultural science in secondary schools in Kwara state.

The Principals of various schools will use the information generated from the study to encourage their teachers in recommending  re-training that will improve teachers competencies for effective lesson delivery for effective  teaching and learning of Agricultural science. Also, outcome of this research will provide information that will motivate principals to make recommendation to state ministry of education for the procurement of agricultural facilities in schools to enhance agricultural skill teaching and learning.

Agricultural science teachers will be sensitized on their paedagogical-capacity building to seek for sponsorship from their administrators in order to attend re-trainingprogramme to equip them on the effective teaching of agricultural science. Teaching for skill acquisition is a very crucialissue in educational process. In order tomaximize the gains of vocational education; in skill training, exposureand background experience matters a greatdeal as such, findings from this study will motivate agriculture teachers to always attend conferences, seminars and workshops organized by the government for in-service agriculture teachers in a bid to retrain and keep them abreast of measures aimed at skill learning andacquisition. Students will benefit from the findings of this study with a view to improve their interest in agricultural science.

Findings from this study will help policy makers to adjust or revise programmes, reformulate policies, and design innovative solutions to respond to and anticipate training needs. This can be summarized in a coherent evaluation policy guided by a public policy approach skills development. Similarly, evaluations play an important role in contributing to generate and improve skills development systems and policies. If a country is trying to develop a coherent policy for human resource development, evaluations should be able to generate input to contribute to that goal. Hence, outcome of this research work will reveal the importance of evaluation in skills development systems.

Expectedly, future researchers will be significantly benefited from this study as it will show other areas where further research need to be carried out.

1.8       Delimitation of the Study

The study will be delimited to the paedogogical capacity-building needs of agricultural science Teachers for effective lesson delivery in senior secondary schools in Kwara States in the area of planning, organizing, implementing, managing farm practicals and evaluating instruction.

The research was conducted at Kwara State to include only from agricultural science teachers and principals in the selected senior secondary schools in Kwara state through the use of questionnaire.

PAEDAGOGICAL-CAPACITY BUILDING REQUIREMENTS FOR AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE TEACHERS FOR ACTIVE LESSON DELIVERY IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS  IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA