Learning Environment as Correlate of Students’Academic Achievement in Junior Secondary School Integrated Science (Published)
Environment plays an important role in the learning of integrated science. Environment means all the classroom conditions that facilitate teaching student’s perception in their classroom and their academic achievement in integrated science. Both human and material resources as well as interaction and attitudinal behaviors in the classroom setting make up the classroom learning environment. In order to carry out this study, two research questions were posed and a null hypothesis was formulated. The design of the study is a correlation survey. The population comprised the entire JS2 integrated science students from five secondary schools drawn randomly from the entire schools in Ogba-Egbema Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State. Mean, standard deviation, Pearson’s product moment correlation and t-test statistical techniques were used in analyzing the data. The result revealed that there is low mean perception of students of integrated science on their classroom environment. There is also positive significant relationship between their mean perception and their academic achievement. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made which include that integrated science teachers should be made to be aware of the influence of their environment on the achievement of students through seminars and workshops.
Keywords: Academic Achievement, Correlate of Students’, Integrated Science, Learning Environment, junior secondary school
Evaluating Teachers’ Professional Development for ICT Use: Towards Innovative Classroom Practices (Published)
This paper describes an evaluation study designed to investigate the impact of an ICT-Instructional digital innovation in teaching Mathematics, English and Integrated Science subjects from the teacher capacity building professional development programme to classroom implementation at senior high school levels in Ghana. Interviews and survey data were used for data collection following a week professional development programme on the instructional digital learning training. The study demonstrated that the teachers increased in ICT proficiencies but this was limited to their own professional development and not so much of classroom implementation of ICT which results when transfer of learning takes place from training to practice. The study reported that teachers faced a complex mix of factors that when combined, contributed to challenges in transferring the ideas gained in the training programme to the classroom situation. It was evident from the findings that more systematic efforts are needed at the school levels and at the level of stakeholders who implement in-service teachers’ professional development programmes to move the goal of transforming teaching and learning through ICT-based innovations. Based on the outcomes, the study discussed recommendations to help smoothen the transition from teacher professional development programmes to actual classroom implementations in Ghanaian senior high schools and such similar contexts.
Keywords: Classroom, Developmenr ICT, Digital Innovation, English, Ghana, Integrated Science, Mathematics, Teacher