CURRICULUM INTERESTS OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
CURRICULUM INTERESTS OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
No Thumbnail Available
Date
1975
Authors
Uzomah, Hyginus Oduenyi
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
In Secondary Schools, many subjects are taught.
The subjects offered in many schools range up to fourteen
or more. But students are required to pass at least
six subjects to obtain the west Vfrican 3chool Certificate.
However, each student is allowed to choose a maximum of
eicht subjects; but those offering additional Mathematics
are allowed to offor up to nine Subjects.
Sometimes some s-tudonta offor a minimum, of six subjects,
when one looks into the subjects offered in a single school
by various students one finds wide difference. in their
choices. This fact becomes more pronounced when one
takes account of the variety of subjecta offered by
students from, different schools. This creates a problem
situation whereby an interested educator is forced to
inquire for the reasons why students make the choices
of subjects they offer.
The objectives of this investigation were therefore:
(1) To find out the popularity 3tatus of each subject
offered in Secondary /schools.
(2) To find out the reasons why students tend to
like or dislike individual subjects offered in School.
(3) To suggest measures that could be taken to
improve the interests of students towards school subjects.
Specifically this study was meant to answer the following
questions:
(1) What subject or subjects are most liked by the students?
(2) What subject or subjects are most disliked by
the students?
(3) What are the factors which influence students*
interests in making the choices of subjects they offer?
To make this study more meaningful, the following
assumptions were made:
(1) That secondary School students while in school
think of what professions they would pursue on completing
the secondary education. The profession or career a
student chooses will invariably affect his interest in
making choices of subjects to offer in the West African
School Certificate Examinations.
(2) Educationists contend that any subject could
be taught at any level in a way that could be meaningful
to the learner and therefore interesting to him. If a
teacher lacks good methods of teaching he is likely to
kill the interests of the students because he would not be
capable of challenging them and thus arousing their
interests. The researcher, thus, assumed that teachers'
method of teaching plays a great role in the choice of
subjects that students offer in the West African School
Certificate Examinations.
(3) Positive reinforoement enhances interest in
any human endeavour. When a student constantly scores
high marks in certain subjects, he feels a sense of
honour, reward and security. The reverse would be the
case where a student constantly scores low marks in
certain subjects. It is therefore likely that marks
students obtain in various subjects might affect their choices of
subjects to offer in the West African School Certificate
Examinations.
(4) Often people dislike any task when they find
it difficult to tackle and look for easier ones. It
is likely that students, like most human beings, might
behave in the same way in making choces of subjects to
offer in the West African School Certificate Examinations.
As a guide to this investigation, the hypotheses
below stated in null form were advanced to test the
relationships of the variables under study.
(1) No relationship exists between the vocational
value of subjects and students1 interest in school subjects.
(2) No relationship exists between teachers1
method of presentation or teaching and students1 interest
in school subjects,
(3) No relationship exists between marks obtained
in school subjects and students1 interest in school
subjects.
(4) No relationship exists between the difficulty
of subjects and students* interest in School subjects.
The idea here was to see the degree to which the
independent variables, the vocational value of subjects,
teachers' method of presentation, marks obtained in
school subjects and the difficulty of subjects affect
the dependent variable - students' interest in
school subjects.
After analysing the data and testing the hypotheses,
it was found that English language, Bible knowledge and
Biology were the most popular subjects among boys and
girls. The most disliked subjects were French, Igbo
and G-eography, History also was not popular among the
students.
It was also found that the vocational value of a
subject was the strongest factor that affectr students'
choico of subjects to offer in the West African School
Certificate Examinations. This was followed by the
difficulty of a subject. This factor was almost as strong
as the first. Lastly marks obtained in school subject
was another factor that affects students1 choice of
subjects to offer. Statistically no relationship was
found to exist between teachers1 method of presentation or
teaching and students1 interest in school subjects and
hence "he choice of stibjects they offer in the West
African Hchool Certificate Examinations.
When the responses of boys and girls were treated
separately the findings took another dimension.
For boys only, the vocational value and the difficulty
of a subject were the only factors that were found to
affect their choice of subjects to offer in the West
African Examinations and these factors were really
very strong among them.
For the girls only the foremost reason for liking
& Subject was whether they received high marks in it, or
whether it is easy and interesting (Table XI, P. 55.).
Other reasons for liking a subject were the vocational
value of a subject and teachers' method of presentation
or teaching. For the girls the vocational value of a
subject was not as strong a factor in the choice of
subjects they make as it was for the boys.
In the light of the above findings the following
recommendations are made:
(i) Some considerations might be given to the
possibility of core curriculum based on English language,
Bible knowledge (or religious knowledge) and Biology.
From the point of view of National economy as well as
children's interest, rather more emphasis should be placed
on Biology. The interests of children in biological life
around them should be exploited to the full from as early
an age as possible. Furthermore, this natural interest
in Biology can be used as a foundation work in language.
If every biology teacher can also look upon himself as a
teacher of English and if every teacher of English can
acquire some local biological knowledge, which he can
utilize in his English lessons, then something whould
be gained from the point of view of making the Secondary
School course more meaningful than it is at the present.
(2) Much of what is taught in History and Geography
should be oriented towards the students1 immediate
environment. This is where it becomes necessary to
emphasize the introduction of Social studies into Nigeria
School|'starting from the primary school level.
(3) The popularity of Biology due to its immediate
functional application to life around the -'tudents makes
a good argument for integrated Science incorporating Physics
find Chemistry.
(4) If we are committed to the principle of child
centred education, surely teachers should take account in
their methods of presentation, and the comments made by the
students themselves. Individualized instruction is very
important to enhance the interests of students towards
school subjects. Teachers should set tasks that are within
the ability of the children to tackle.
(5) Guidance services should be established in our
Secondary Schools.
(6) Igbo and other Nigerian languages should be
introduced into the Nigerian Universities and studied up
to decree level in order to turn out qualified teachers in
our active languages.
(7) Teachers should show interest in the subjects
they teach and the welfare of their students.
(8) Teacher - student planning should be adopted as
much as possible.
Description
A Research Project
Presented To
The Department of Education
Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.
In Partial Fulfillment
Of The Requirements For the DEGREE
Of Master of Education
{Curriculum and Instruction).
Keywords
CURRICULUM,, INTERESTS,, SECONDARY SCHOOL,, STUDENTS