Abstract

This research was aimed at finding out “Geography related teaching method and its effect on secondary school student’s performance in Geography in Buea municipality”. Following the objectives, four research questions were formulated to guide; the study the effect of lecture illustration methods in teaching affect students’ performance in geography, to examine the effect of lecture demonstration method in teaching geography affect students’ performance, to find the influence of cooperative method of teaching affect students’ performance in geography, to investigate the effect of discussion method of teaching affects students: performance in geography.

One Government, (B.H.S. Molyko) one Mission (B.H.S. Buea) and one Private (ST.I.C. Molyko) secondary school were used (selected). The views of some authors related to the study were reviewed under the variable of the study. The sample survey was used in carrying out the study. The population consisted of all secondary school students within the Buea Municipality.

The simple random sampling technique was used. The sample size was made up of 60 students. The instrument used to collect data was the questionnaires which the researcher personally carried out. The data collected was analyzed using the mean, standard deviation and the coefficient of variation using concepts and ideas emerged from the data. Calculations were based on the findings obtained.

The results revealed that, the methods used such as (Discussion, lecture illustration, lecture demonstration and the cooperative methods) influences students’ academic performance represented in Bar and Histogram Charts. More so, it concluded that the activities undertaken under discussion and cooperative and illustration methods are of great importance as they have an influence on students’ performance.

It is recommended that stake holders should endeavor to organize seminars, workshops, and refreshed courses to train teachers on how to use different teaching methods effectively. Furthermore, suggestions for further research were made.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Education is important in Cameroon and in every country for it contributes to the political, social, and economic development of every community. More so, education is a basic human right and it is a basic instruction for achieving the goal of national unity, political stability, equality and mobilizing all the potentials of a nation.

Add to, education is the process of facilitating learning, knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits of a group of people which are transfer to other people through storytelling, discussion, teaching and training or through research. Successful teaching and learning emanate to a large extent from careful planning, preparation and the methods used in giving out the materials. Before this can be done the teacher must be fully aware of the subject matter and various teaching methods of teaching. This was according to (Okpala, 1980).

Education describes the total process of human learning by which knowledge is impacted, faculties trained, and skills developed. Nkeng and Mambeh (2008) viewed teaching methods as those techniques and strategies used by teachers in their efforts to facilitate students learning. It is an activity that translates curriculum goals and objectives into experience that students acquire during their interaction with their teacher. Therefore, the ability of the teacher appropriate use the different strategies will go a long way to improve on the students’ academic performance.

According to Tambo (2003), teaching methods are important components for the curriculum for they determine how effective the objectives would be attained. The teaching methods are chosen based on the objectives to be attained. Learning outcomes according to Tambo (2003) are of many types. There are many higher order learning outcomes and lower order learning outcomes.

While lower learning outcomes only helps an individual to remember information higher order leaning outcomes helps an individual to solve problems which is the goal of education. The teaching methods used are a factor of the kind of learning outcome. With reference to secondary education in Cameroon, various subject has been included in the curriculum to enable pupils acquire knowledge and skills. Certain subject is categorized as core while others are either vocational electives or non-vocational electives.

Geography is found under core and non-vocational electives categories. This shows the importance of Geography in achieving educational goals. However, teaching of Geography as a social science subject in senior secondary schools is not without some problems. Poor academic performance in Geography has been documented by many researchers. This has also collaborated by high failure in public examination in the country such as G.C.E (General Certificate of Education). This has been attributed to the fact that strategies used in our classroom, the different methods used are not very effective.

Effandi and Iksan (2007) stated that the quality of education that teachers provide to students is dependent upon what the teacher does in the classroom. The use of traditional teaching method such as lecture in Geography classroom has been the underlying factor for students’ poor performance in the subject. Clar and Lalarham (2003), observed that Geography has traditionally used a wide range of teaching methods than any other subjects. Because of the nature of the subject which has both physical and human, it calls for paradigm shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered instructional strategies that permit the involvement of learners.

Hunter (1984) and Reinhartz (1980), says that teaching is a constant stream of professional decisions that affects the probability of learning decisions that are made and implemented before, during and after interactions with the students explaining, defining, giving examples, stressing critical attributes and demonstration. A teacher must set a test to find out if students have learned well and the students should show whether they have understood the lesson by their academic achievement.

In the past most parents and teachers were very interested in teaching their children to grow deeper in the knowledge using different methods without using textbooks which will help to improve on their performance. Again, during that time teachers were untrained unlike today that teachers are trained and yet performance is low, and students are less active in class, this is due the lack of interest by the teacher to use this method appropriately.

Some teachers use this methods just as they have seen them without the understanding that each methods has its way of teaching which depend on the level of the students and the subject, for instance, most teachers use lecture method in all subjects and classrooms both secondary and high schools without considering the age of the students thus, making students not to participate in class or give them inferential thinking skills leading to a situation where students are not active in the classroom, this is because most students learn by doing and not listening.

Furthermore, some of these teachers use these methods not because they have seen them but because they are not trained. For a teacher who has not gone through training, he or she might not be able to apply these methods appropriately, this cause them to be ignorant about the methods used in teaching Geography which will arise students’ interest thereby leading to desirable performance. Education today is geared towards student-centeredness which means that the teacher must be trained in order for them to use the appropriate teaching methods well; this is because they need to direct the students on how these methods are used for the students to perform well and also become active in the teaching and learning process.

Statement of the Problem

The academic performance of students in Geography can be greatly influence by the methods used in teaching. It was observed during teaching practice experience that Geography was taught using general teaching methods which do not enhanced effective learning in a subject like Geography and thus affected the academic performance of Geography students in public exams like G.C.E.

This has prompted the researcher to carry out a research on the methods used in teaching Geography and their effects on students’ academic performance. This research is therefore aimed at investigating the specific teaching methods like lecture illustration, lecture demonstration, discussion, and the interactive (cooperative method), and fine out how their use in the teaching of Geography influence the teaching and learning process and the academic performance of Geography students in the Buea Municipality.

The objective of the Study

General Objective

This research seeks to investigate the different methods used in teaching Geography and how they influence students’ academic performance in Buea Municipality.

Specific Objectives

The study seeks to;

1. To find out the effect of lecture illustration method (direct method or teacher-centered) in teaching affects students’ academic performance in Geography
2. To investigate the use of lecture demonstration method (direct method or teacher centered) in teaching affects students’ academic performance in Geography.
3. To find out the influence of the interactive method (indirect method or student-centred) of teaching affects students’ academic performance in Geography.
4. To investigate the use of discussion method (indirect method or student-centred) of teaching affects students’ academic performance in Geography

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