6 IMPACT OF CURRICULUM, INSTRUCTION AND EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY ON COGNITIVE ABILITY OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN DELTA STATE

Abstract

The study sought to examine the impact of curriculum, instruction and technology on cognitive ability of public secondary school students in delta state. Two research questions were raised for the study. The target population comprises of 11,112 secondary school teachers across the three senatorial district in Delta State. Simple random sampling techniques was used in selecting 100 teachers from the target population. The questionnaire was the instrument for data collection comprising the four point likert rating scale of strongly agree (SD), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD). The instrument was faced validated by two experts, one from department of curriculum studies and educational technology and the other from department of measurement and evaluation both from the College of Education, Agbor. The reliability of the instrument was ascertain using Pearson product moment correlation statistics which yielded 0.82 reliability co-efficient. Data of 2.50 was used for decision taking on the respondents responses as benchmark. Data collected were analysed using frequency distribution, mean rating scale and standard deviation. Findings revealed amongst others that curriculum as a planned guided learning experience is for desired learners continuous growth; that technology has the potential to enhance instruction in multi-dynamic ways of interactive and collaborative engagement between teachers and learners. It was recommended among others that government should provide necessary technological facilities and electricity supply for effective teaching/learning of educational technology in secondary schools.

Keywords: Curriculum, Instruction, Technology, Secondary schools, Delta State.

Introduction

In the school system the use of Educational Technology is a strong skill known as digital literacy to be possessed by all and sundry in the school curriculum and instruction in order to compete favourable globally in all aspects of life to be successful. In the school system, the use of Educational Technology cannot be overemphasized as it forms the bedrock of all planning with high speed of doing things effectively and efficiently in a digital order.

There is the digital divide still, and it seems as if the gap is widening the more between the non-digital and digital literate persons. The reasons may not be farfetched in the sense that, some teachers are digital phobia, some lack skills to manipulate the devices, economy down turn to purchase the needed gadget(s) is another reason, unemployment, cultural and or religion affinities among others. To bridge this gap essentially, it would take a bold move by the government and the citizens create full interest with open mind, to venture into the Technology enterprise; knowing fully well that, this is the digital order and global language, of doing all things. No one must be left out in the expedition (Faisa, 2010).

There is need for the inclusion of Technology in the Nigerian school curriculum in the recent past; for learners at all levels to become skilful in the enterprise. To this effect therefore, when these learners are digitally skilful, they would be able to compete in all spheres favourably and effectively with peers in global competitiveness in education, economy, business, sports and other ventures. But, to a large extent, its introduction or inclusion has not been felt as such, or given much desired impact as expected in all ladders of the nation’s educational system. This might be largely due to some factors inhibiting its growth and development. The critical factors and underlying conditions for proper growth and development of Educational Technology in Nigerian secondary schools should be studied, looked into critically, and ways to ameliorate or remove the bottle necks inimical to its overall development be fashioned out, so that its full implementation can be attained and sustained (FRN 2012).

Therefore, this paper discusses among other things meaning of curriculum, instruction, Educational Technologies and its impact on cognitive learning of secondary schools in Delta State.

Concept of Curriculum

The word curriculum was translated from its latin equivalent curere. This latin word means a race course or runway or a track. The word curriculum has a tangled definitional history and is shrouded in definitional controversy. Unfortunately, the issue of definition is not trivial because it carries implications for the curriculum worker’s job and for the politics of curriculum as a field within educational scholarship. Put another way, curriculum has become a field in search of a concise definition. Hence Tanner and Tanner (2007) noted that curriculum has undergone marked changed during the twentieth century but contemporary curriculum scholars are far from agreement as to how the term should be defined.

Pinar (2010), has also underscored the fact that curriculum is now a symbolic concept and an extraordinarily complicated discussion. One may ask why is this so? Ornestein and Hunkins (2009) reported that some people believe that the field lacks purpose and direction because it has extensively adapted and borrowed subject matter from a number of other disciplines, including its major principles, knowledge and skills.

Three factors may help to explain this divergence in the conceptualization of curriculum:

1. Curriculum is contextual and means different things to different people depending on the Context in which it is defined, or practiced.
2. Curriculum is associated with ideological leanings and beliefs about education and the world.
3. Curriculum is issues-laden.

What then are some of these definitions and how have they helped to shape school curriculum? To help make sense out of several definitions of curriculum it is important to do a grouping of some sort. For our purpose here, the different definitions of curriculum may be grouped thus:

1. Curriculum as experiences provided by the school.
2. Curriculum as a socio-cultural phenomenon.
3. Curriculum as process and product (that is curriculum as technology).
4. Curriculum as programme of studies, activities and guidance.

The curriculum is the plan made for guiding learning in schools, usually represented in retrievable documents of several levels of generality, and the actualization of those plans in the classroom, as experienced by the learners and as recorded by an observer; those experiences take place in learning environment that also influences what is learnt (Glatthorn, Boschee, Whitehead & Boschee, 2012).

Relationship between Curriculum and Instruction

Curriculum and Instruction go hand in hand. The relationship between the two is one that is closely related as the delivery of the curriculum would constitute an instruction. The term instruction is usually referred to as teaching and it is the direct result of lesson planning on which the teacher carefully plans ahead the delivery, tools, and resources that will be used in order to instruct the present curriculum.

Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) is a field within education which seeks to research, develop and implement curriculum changes that increase student achievement within and outside schools. The field focuses on how students learn and the best ways to educate.

According to Random (2016) the term Instruction is derived from the late middle English word intruccioun meaning to provide structure and direction. The relationship between Curriculum & Instruction is intimate. It is so intimate that it is often said that its one word. Curriculum provides direction for instruction, since the instruction is the method of delivering academic curriculum. Instruction may exist without curriculum but would serve no direct purpose. Curriculum and Instruction must be compatible and maintain a close relationship in order to maximize students learning.

Concept of Educational Technology

Educational technology as an innovation in education is playing a great role in teaching and learning process to the extent of using organized combination of people, materials, facilities, equipment and procedure which interact to achieve educational goals. This is as a result of series of researches in education, on how to teach, what to teach, what to learn, and how to learn it.

These variables have created challenges in education over the years but can be tackled by application of technology (Olugbemi, 2015).

Educational Technology is concerned with the systematic application of science and technology in the field of education in order to further the cause of education (Mangal & Mangal, 2013). Aruind (2017), pointed out that educational technology helps to grip future generations to tap into their creativity which is simply their ability to create solution out of thin air through a powerful sense of imagination. The use of digital or electronic technologies and materials to support teaching and learning, recognizes that technology alone does not enhance learning. While exploring wide ranging technology forms, the guide recognized the centrality of programme design and implementation, teacher support and outcome measurement, clear and specific curriculum focus, relevant curriculum materials, and focusing on teacher development and pedagogy are identified as characteristic of effective educational technology programme. There is need to support teachers to develop appropriate relevant practices using educational technology, how such practices are enacted in schools, and what factors contribute to or militate against successful outcomes (Alikem, 2014).

Teachers play an important role in the teaching-learning process. They are the agent that will make use of technology in the classroom. The curriculum has shifted from, “Content-centered” to “Competence-based” the mode of curriculum delivery has now shifted from “teacher-centered” forms delivery to ‘Student-centered” forms of delivery.

The Impact of Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Technology on Cognitive ability of Students in Secondary Schools.

Educational technology helps to individualize instruction, it helps to take care of individuals academics needs and abilities through the use of modern instructional technology. Through the adoption of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) and programmed instruction (PI) in a textual form, individual learners progress in their studies at their own pace/rate and convenience.

Educational technology also cares for large number of learners at the same time through the use of audio-visual materials to commutate information in the classroom to all learners at the same time. It makes all the members of the class to be taught at the same time. Whatever hardware and software that would be essential in reaching all learners at the same time would be used in the accomplishment of education technology roles. Olugbeomi (2015), identifies the following as the impact of educational technology in teaching and learning:

1. The use of educational technology processes and devices help to making learning more permanent it creates impressions that are so vivid and powerful that the learners hardly forgets the experience into which he was exposed;
2. Educational technology awakens learners’ interest by its ability to arise the curiosity to know more. Once more, the use of audio-visual aids makes the learners to be more alert and effective. It captivates their interest and they would like to follow the explanation, procedures, or the exercise sequentially and faithfully in order to get the precise meaning of the whole event. There is usually the natural desire to want to have more;
3. Educational technology provides more scientific base. The field provides frame work necessary for designing conditions of learning that are more closely based on what is known about how human beings learn. Educational technology guides research into asking the right questions also how to apply research result to school and colleges;
4. Educational technology provides and proffers solutions to problems of designing, producing and utilizing instructional materials for effective teaching and learning. Teachers are encourage and taught how to improvise instructional materials during seminars, workshops and conferences organised by experts of educational technology and
5. Educational technology enhances the standard of teacher’s performance through effective media integration and use of verities of methods in classroom interaction. With the use of educational resources, teachers are able to combine other pedagogical strategies like demonstration, experimental, study trips project, peer teaching and dramatization methods of teaching.

Contribution of Educational Technology to Curriculum and Instruction.

Educational Technology has contributed immensely to curriculum and instruction in the following ways:

1. Inadequate and irrelevant curriculum: The field Educational Technology has assisted in the development of new curriculum innovations and designs. This is possible by establishing flexible instructional strategies including modules and programmed materials in textual form (Alikem, 2017);
2. Inadequate equipment, materials and facilities: Education technology can assist in the development and production of inexpensive, low cost but high quality technologies. It also helps in determining and developing alternative strategies to cater for the unavailable equipment (Aruind, 2007);
3. Shortage of adequately qualified teacher. This is handled by the development of modules, audio tapes and video tapes, which could be reproduced and utilised extensively for different groups of people irrespective of their location and population.
4. Inadequate programmes for the training of teachers’. Educational technology can assist by developing appropriate competency-based teacher education programmes as used as the utilisation of microteaching strategies and facilities. (Stosic, 20l5);
5. Educational technology is designed to support policy makers, education planners, practitioners and advocates strengthening the design, implantation and evaluation of programmes as needed in innovative curriculum and
6. Educational technology is defined as the use of digital or electronic technology alone does not enhance learning while exploring wide ranging technology forms, the guide recognise the centrality of programme design and implementation1 teacher support and outcome measurement. Clear and specific curriculum focus, relevant curriculum materials, and focusing on teacher developments and pedagogy are identified as contributions of detach to curriculum (Mongai, 2013).

Solutions to Problem and Practices of Curriculum Instruction through Educational Technology

Solution to problem and practices of curriculum instruction through Educational Technology are as follows:

1. Educational technology has helped in the development of new curriculum designs to replace irrelevant and inadequate curricula. This is possible by establishing flexible instructional strategies including modules and programmed materials in textual form (Esu 2013);
2. By using instructional materials in teaching and learning in our classrooms, educational technology tends to evoke the various senses of seeing, smelling, hearing, feeling and tasting. This discourages rote learning and encourages meaningful learning (Youniss, 2013).
3. There is a problem of inadequate and qualified teacher, educational technology helps by the development of modules, audio tapes and video tapes which could be reproduced and utilized extensively for different groups of people irrespective of their location (Okorn 2014);
4. Nigeria does not only lack computer technology infrastructure, it also lacked the human skills and knowledge to fully integrate computer technology in Secondary Schools in Nigeria. (Alikem, 2017).

Purpose of the Study

Specifically the study sought to:

Investigate the extent to which curriculum, instruction and educational technology have an impact on the cognitive ability of the secondary school students in Delta State

Examine the extent to which Educational Technology have an impact on the cognitive ability of the secondary school students in Delta State.

Research Questions

The study was guided by the following research questions:

1. To what extent does curriculum, instruction and educational technology have an impact on cognitive ability of secondary school students in Delta State?
2. To what extent does Educational Technology have an impact on cognitive ability of secondary school students in Delta State?

Research Methodology

The type of Design adopted for this study is known as descriptive survey design. This is because a representative sample of the total population was used to collect data from the respondents. The population for this study comprises 11,112 teachers from public secondary school in Delta State. Simple random sampling techniques was used in selecting 100 teachers from the target population.

The questionnaire was used to gather information from the respondents. The instrument was faced validated by two experts, one from the department of curriculum studies and educational technology while the other was form the department of measurement and evaluation both from the College of Education, Agbor. The instrument consisted of 10 items, structured and designed by the researcher tagged “Impact of Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Technology on cognitive ability of secondary school students in Delta State. (ICIEDTCAS). The items in ICIEDTCAS were grouped into two parts. Part A is on the respondent personal data while part B has 10 items which addressed Impact of Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Technology on secondary school students. The questionnaire items were structured on a four (4) point rating scale of Strongly Agree (SA); Agree (A) Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD) and was rated 4,3,2 and 1 point(s) respectively. The respondents were expected to choose from any of the options.

The reliability of the instrument was tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Statistics which yielded 0.82 reliability co-efficient indicating a high reliability index of the instrument. The instrument was administered on the respondents by the researcher with the help of research assistants. There was on the spot retrieval of all the questionnaire. Data collected were presented in frequency tables, Mean and Standard Deviations were used to answer the research question of the study. Decision rule of 2.50 was used as Benchmark: Strongly Agreed (3.5 – 4.00); Agree (2.50-3.49), Disagree (1.50 – 2.49) and Strongly Disagree (.050 – 1.49).

Sample Size of the Study

Presentation of Data/Result

Research Question 1: To what extend does curriculum, instruction and educational technology have impact on cognitive ability of Secondary School Studies in Delta State?

Table 1: Mean Ratings with Standard Deviations on Impact of curriculum, instruction and educational technology on Cognitive ability of Secondary School students in Delta State

Table 1 above, revealed that 70% out of 100 teachers agreed that curriculum, instruction and educational technology have impact on the cognitive ability of students to cope with the present digital skills. They responded positively to items 1 – 5 which has the following mean score of 2.6; 2.1; 2.85; 2.63; and 2.83; respectively. The total grand mean of the five items is 2.92 which were above the benchmark of 2.50 indicating that Educational Technology has impact on the cognitive performances of students.

Research Question 2: To what extent does Educational Technology have an impact on cognitive ability of secondary school students in Delta State?

Table 2: Mean rating with standard deviation of impact on Educational Technology on cognitive ability of secondary school students in Delta State.

Table 2 shows that items number 6 – 10 had mean rating scores above the cut-off point. The mean rating of these items are as follows: Item 6: 2.85, item 7: 2.63; item 8: 2.85, item 9: 2.16, item 10:2.92 and the Grand mean of the five items are 3.2 which were above the bench mark of 2.50 indicating that lack of educational technology facilities have an impact on the cognitive ability of secondary school students in Delta State.

Discussion of Findings

It was found out that in research question 1, table 1, the respondents were of the view that Curriculum, Instruction and Educational Technology in secondary schools have impact on the cognitive ability of the students. This is in line with Aruind (2017) who pointed out that Educational Technology help to grip future generations to tap into their creativity which is simply their ability to create solution out of thin air through powerful sense of imagination. Okorn (2014), is in agreement with the above opinion when he indicated that the use of Technology transforms the learning/teaching proves in which students deal with knowledge in an active, self directed and constructive way.

The findings in Research question 2, table 2 revealed that lack of Educational Facilities have an impact on the cognitive ability of secondary school students. It is in line with Alikem (2017) who opined that Nigeria does not only lack computer technology infrastructure it also lack the human skills and knowledge to fully integrate computer technology into secondary schools in Nigeria. Again respondent in item 8-10 are in agreement that lack of trained personnel and relevant materials has impact on cognitive ability of students which is in line with Stosic, (2015). Curriculum, Instruction and Educational technology seems to be an array of tools that might be helpful in advancing students learning.

Conclusion

Educational technology, curriculum and instruction which is a new innovation in education has contributed immensely to curriculum innovation through the way teaching and learning has been accessible to both teachers and learners thereby leading to increase in cognitive ability. The use of information and communication technology (ICT) has created a powerful learning environment and its transformation in the teaching -learning process in which students deal with knowledge in an active, self-directed and constructive way. No adequate funding to maintain few equipment and devices provided; as well as gross inadequate of skilled personnel (teachers and supports staff) to drive Technology meaningfully in Nigeria schools especially in Secondary schools in Delta State.

Recommendation

Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made:

Government should ensure that Educational Technology Policy statements are translated into reality;

Qualified skillful teachers in Computer Technology should be posted to various secondary schools in Delta State;

Computer Technology should be integrated into secondary school curriculum without further delay and also be considered as examinable subject at secondary school level as one of the criteria for providing sound background for the study of computer in tertiary institutions;

The Federal Ministry of Power should work towards stabilizing electricity supply in secondary schools;

Regular in-service training for teachers must be pure ICT based package and

Government should provide necessary technological facilities for effective teaching/learning of Educational Technology in Secondary Schools in Delta State.

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