How Local Resources Utilization Improves Students’ Academic Performance in Biology
ABSTRACT
Biology is one of the most important science subjects taught in secondary schools because it provides students with a comprehensive understanding of living organisms, their environment, and the interactions that sustain life. The subject serves as the foundation for many professional careers, including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, agriculture, biotechnology, microbiology, environmental science, and other health-related disciplines. Beyond academic achievement, Biology equips students with scientific knowledge, practical skills, and critical thinking abilities that enable them to solve real-life problems and make informed decisions about health, environmental conservation, and sustainable development. As a result, success in Biology is essential not only for students pursuing science-based careers but also for national development.
Despite the significance of Biology in the educational curriculum, many students continue to perform below expectations in internal and external examinations. Reports from examination bodies and educational researchers have consistently identified poor academic performance in Biology as a major concern in many secondary schools. Several factors contribute to this challenge, including inadequate laboratory facilities, limited instructional materials, overcrowded classrooms, ineffective teaching methods, poor student motivation, insufficient practical lessons, and inadequate teacher training. In many schools, especially those located in rural and underserved communities, the absence of well-equipped science laboratories further limits students’ opportunities to develop practical scientific skills, making Biology appear abstract and difficult to understand.
To address these challenges, educators have increasingly emphasized the importance of adopting innovative, learner-centered, and cost-effective teaching strategies that actively engage students in the learning process. One of the most effective approaches is the utilization of local resources during Biology instruction. Local resources refer to instructional materials, specimens, and learning aids that are naturally available within the school’s immediate environment or local community. These resources include plants, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, insects, domestic animals, birds, fish, soil samples, rocks, water bodies, agricultural farms, forests, local markets, botanical gardens, and waste materials that can be transformed into useful teaching aids. Because these materials are readily available and inexpensive, they provide schools with an affordable alternative to costly laboratory equipment while enriching classroom instruction.
The use of local resources transforms Biology lessons from purely theoretical discussions into practical and interactive learning experiences. Instead of relying solely on textbooks and classroom lectures, teachers can guide students to observe, identify, collect, classify, and experiment with real biological materials found in their surroundings. This hands-on approach stimulates curiosity, promotes active participation, and enables learners to relate scientific concepts to situations they encounter in everyday life. Students are more likely to understand topics such as ecology, photosynthesis, reproduction, adaptation, biodiversity, food chains, and environmental conservation when they observe these concepts directly within their local environment rather than merely reading about them in textbooks.
Furthermore, the integration of local resources into Biology teaching promotes experiential learning, inquiry-based instruction, creativity, observation, critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. Students who participate actively in practical activities generally develop better scientific attitudes, improved retention of knowledge, and increased confidence in applying biological concepts to real-world situations. Practical learning also encourages learners to ask questions, investigate scientific phenomena, analyze observations, and draw logical conclusions, thereby strengthening both their cognitive and psychomotor skills. These competencies are essential for academic excellence and lifelong learning.
Another significant advantage of utilizing local resources is that it encourages environmental awareness and community participation in education. Students become more familiar with the biological diversity within their communities and develop a greater appreciation for environmental conservation and sustainable resource management. Teachers can also collaborate with local farmers, healthcare workers, environmental agencies, botanical gardens, and community leaders to provide meaningful learning experiences that extend beyond the classroom. Such collaborations strengthen the relationship between schools and their communities while making education more practical and relevant.
However, despite the numerous benefits associated with the use of local resources, several challenges still hinder their effective utilization in many schools. These challenges include inadequate teacher training on improvisation techniques, lack of awareness of available local materials, limited time for organizing practical lessons, insufficient administrative support, poor funding, and the misconception that only sophisticated laboratory equipment can effectively teach Biology. Addressing these barriers requires continuous professional development for teachers, supportive educational policies, and increased investment in practical science education.
This article examines the relationship between local resources utilization and the academic performance of students in Biology, highlighting how locally available instructional materials can improve students’ understanding, interest, participation, and overall academic achievement. It also explores the benefits of integrating local resources into Biology teaching, the challenges affecting their effective utilization, and practical strategies that teachers, school administrators, and educational stakeholders can adopt to enhance Biology instruction and promote better learning outcomes. By embracing locally available teaching resources, schools can provide more engaging, affordable, and effective Biology education that prepares students for academic success and future scientific careers.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Purpose of the study
1.4 Significance of the study
1.5 Research Questions
1.6 Research Hypotheses
1.7 Delimitation of the study
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms
CHAPTER TWO – REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Concept of Local Resources
2.2 Effect of Local Resources on Academic Performance of Students
2.3 Gender Differences and Academic Performances of Student
2.4 Summary of Literature Review
CHAPTER THREE – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Area
3.2 Research Design
3.3 Population of the study
3.4 Sample and Sampling Technique
3.5 Research Instrument
3.6 Validation of the Instrument
3.7 Administration of the Instrument
3.8 Scoring of the Instrument
3.9 Method of Data Analysis
CHAPTER FOUR – DATA ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
4.1 Data Analysis/Presentation
4.2 Discussion of Findings
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
5.1 Summary
5.2 Recommendations
5.3 Conclusion
5.4 Suggestion for further studies
References
Appendix
Local Resources Utilization and Students’ Academic Performance in Biology: Causes, Benefits, and Research Findings
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Biology is one of the core science subjects taught in secondary schools, providing students with the knowledge and skills needed to understand living organisms, their environment, and the relationships that exist among them. Despite its importance, many students continue to experience poor academic performance in Biology due to factors such as inadequate instructional materials, ineffective teaching methods, and limited access to practical learning resources. As a result, educators are increasingly exploring innovative and cost-effective approaches to improve students’ understanding and achievement in the subject.
One of these approaches is the utilization of local resources in the teaching and learning of Biology. Local resources refer to materials, specimens, and learning aids that are readily available within the school’s immediate environment or local community. These may include plants, animals, insects, soil samples, rocks, water bodies, agricultural farms, local markets, and other natural materials that can be used to illustrate biological concepts. By incorporating these resources into classroom instruction, teachers can make lessons more practical, interactive, and relevant to students’ everyday experiences.
The use of local resources not only reduces the dependence on expensive laboratory equipment but also encourages experiential learning, critical thinking, observation, and problem-solving skills among students. When students actively participate in practical activities using familiar materials, they are more likely to retain knowledge, develop a positive attitude toward Biology, and perform better in examinations. This teaching approach also helps bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world application, making Biology more meaningful and easier to understand.
This article examines the relationship between local resources utilization and the academic performance of students in Biology, highlighting the importance of integrating locally available instructional materials into Biology education. It also discusses the benefits, challenges, and practical strategies for effectively utilizing local resources to enhance teaching effectiveness and improve students’ academic achievement in Biology.
1.1 Background to the Study
Learning and teaching is the concern of a trained teacher but learning is a complex process. It can however be defined as a change in disposition, a relatively change in behaviour over-time and this is brought about by experience. Learning can occur as a result of newly acquired skill, knowledge, perception, facts, principles, new information at hand etc (Adeyanju, 2007).
According to Agun (2003), learning can be reinforced by the teacher with teaching resources improvisation of different variety because these learning aids stimulate, motivate as well as arrest learner’s attention during the instructional process. He further said teaching resources are instructional materials and devices through which teaching and learning are done as far as Biology as a subject is concern in schools.
Okunronifa (2007) have examples of teaching resources to include visual aids, audio aids, audio-visual aids, real objects and many others. The visual aids are designed materials that may be locally made or commercially produced. They come in form of wall charts, illustrated pictures, pictorial materials, puppets and models. There are also audio-visual aids. These are teaching machines like radio, television and all sorts of projectors with sound attributes.
Akanbi (2008) specifically notes that whenever teachers taught with some teaching resources, their students get more stimulated because the learning aids used make the learners (students) to become more attentive. In addition, students positive attitude generate more interest for the lesson they teach. As a result, students participate better in class activity. This in-turn enhanced academic achievement of students in Biology in secondary school.
In the opinion of Agun (2003), there is need for teachers to improvise teaching resources for effective delivery of lessons effectively in the classroom. Accordingly, the dwindling of economic fortune of the country makes it imperative that Biology teachers should improvise teaching resources using resources available within the local environment. Most educational institutions cannot afford to depend on imported materials; hence, there is need for teachers and their students to improvise teaching and learning materials. For example, scale models of human anatomy, such as the human skeleton, muscular system and nervous systems can be used to show students what parts of the human body looks like up close. This is by engaging students and by providing 3-dimensional models related to the current area of study in Biology. This can enhance effective teaching and learning of Biology thus improves academic achievement of school students in the subject.
Local resources from the immediate environment used by the teachers in the teaching-learning process have strong impression on the minds of the students. Its effect on the students helps to bridge the gap between reality and abstract. According to Ogunbi (2011), when teaching resources are from the immediate environment and use effectively, it makes learning more interesting and lively. It also helps to retain interest of the learners during the delivery of Biology lessons in the classroom. As put forward by Akanbi (2008), improvised teaching resources are relatively cheaper than the imported or standard resources. They are easily available for use by Biology teachers. Also, improvisation of teaching resources by the teacher creates an opportunity for students to participate in the provision of teaching materials. It affords students the opportunity to exhibit such creative skill while participating in the provision of some of the teaching resource use for the delivery of Biology lessons. This will aid greatly in their academic achievement.
Moreover, students interpret instructional activities in terms of what they already know; they actively seek to relate new concepts, attitudes or skills on their prior set of concepts, attitudes or skills. Therefore, for better outcome of teaching/learning processes, two components should be considered which are input and outputs. Inputs consist of human and material resources while outputs are goals realization of the teaching learning process. These human and material resources which are termed instructional resources are important to the teaching of Biology in the school curriculum. This resource arouses students’ interest and at the same time helps train learners to think things out themselves, in-depth understanding of such a lesson and makes learning interactive thereby motivating them to learn. Therefore, this research shall attempt to find out local resources utilization and students academic performance in Biology in Ukanafun Local Government Area.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Biology as a subject is activity oriented and resource-based. This is inadequate utilization of learning resources within the learners’ environment by Biology teachers. This suggests that the mastery of Biology concepts cannot be fully achieved without the use of learning materials in teaching the subject. So the teaching of Biology without learning materials might result to poor academic achievement and lack of interest in the subject among students. It should be noted that many Biology teachers lack the skills and basic tools for designing and producing of teaching resources. They also lack the will or determination to improvise teaching resources and the culture of improvisation has not been well developed in our teacher education programme. This has greatly resulted in poor academic achievement among Biology students. The study therefore, attempts to investigate the influence of improvised teaching resources on academic achievement of Biology students.
Unfortunately, despite the important of this subject, students’ academic performance has experience a continuous fall in it and this is worrisome and called for investigations. However, the chief examiner of West African Council Examination (WACE) in 2015 reported that out of 616, 370 candidates who sat for the examination representing 38.68% obtained five credits and above including mathematics and English Language with this result, the expected percent is not achieved. The chief examiner attributed this to several factors such as lack of teaching equipment, school variables and home local variables amongst others (Adesulu, 2015).
In the authors view, poor academic performance is science is due to lack of teaching resources in secondary schools in Ikot Ekpene senatorial district. This trigger the researcher’s interest to ask; could the use of local resources influence the academic performance of students in Biology particularly in secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area? Finding answer to this question motivated the researcher to investigate on local resources utilization and academic performance of students in Biology in secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area.
Local Resources Utilization and Academic Performance of Students in Biology
1.3 Purpose of the study
The main purpose of this research was to find local resources utilization and academic performance of students in Biology in secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area. Specifically, the study intends to:
- Investigate the academic performance of students taught using local resources and those taught without local resources in Biology in Ukanafun Local Government Area; and
- Examine gender difference and academic performance of students taught using local resources in Biology in Ukanafun Local Government Area.
1.4 Significance of the study
This study shall be significance in the following ways:
- The findings of this study shall reduce abstraction in Biology thereby concretizing learning concept which directly increases the academic performance of students
- The findings of this study will serve as a guide to teachers on the effective use of local resources during the teaching learning process.
- The study will be of help to curriculum planners as it assists them in taking into considerations the use of local resources in Biology teaching.
- Government through the Ministry of Education can now assess the provision of teaching resources in our secondary school for the teaching of Biology in schools.
- The study will serve as the reference point to other students/scholars who will be researching in the same topic.
1.5 Research Questions
The following questions were formulated to help the study:
- Could the academic performance of students taught Biology using local resources significant difference from those taught Biology without using local resources?
- Could there be any significant difference between academic performance of (gender) male and female students taught using local resources?
1.6 Research Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses were stated to guide the study in line with the research questions:
- There is no significant difference between academic performance of students taught Biology using local resources and those taught without local resources
- There is no significant difference between academic performance of (gender) male and female students taught Biology using local resources
1.7 Delimitation of the study
This study focused on local resources utilization and academic performance of students in Biology in secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area.
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms
The following terms were defined as used in the study:
Local Resources: These are those materials gotten from the immediate environment which are used to support teaching and learning process.
Utilization: This is the process of making use of local resources in teaching.
Academic Performance: This is the extent to which a student achieves in an examination or test that is the grade or scores of the student.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
This chapter deals with the summary, recommendations and conclusion of the research findings.
5.1 Summary
This study was on Local resources utilization and Academic Performance of Secondary school Students in Biology in Ukanafun Local Government Area.
In order to achieve these, three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated by the researcher. The review of the related literature was as a guide in establishing principles for the study. The population of the study comprised of all SS2 students in all the public secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area which was 1016 who registered for Biology in 2015/2016 academic section. The total number of one hundred students was the sample size. The instrument used was Biology Performance Test (BAT) which was used to obtain data from the study. Independent t-test was used to test the hypotheses.
Based on the findings, it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between student taught Biology using local resources and those taught Biology without local resources. Also there is no significant difference between Biology male and female students taught with local resources in secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area.
5.2 Recommendations
From the result obtained, the following recommendations were made:
- Teachers should always incorporate local resources in their teaching in other to reduce abstraction on the teaching and learning of Biology
- Teachers should be encouraged by school authority and the government to use local resources in teaching/learning process through seminars, work-shop, in-service programmes and symposium
- Curriculum planners should include the use of local resources in school curriculum for effective teaching-learning where necessary
- Government and philanthropical organization should provide local resources in teaching and learning of Biology.
- Parents should always create a conducive environment in their home to allow the students to explore their environment.
5.3 Conclusion
From the result obtained, it can be inferred that proper understanding of concept in Biology can be improve through the utilization of local resources which reduces abstraction and increases students’ participation as well as giving the students to explore their environment. Also that gender difference does not influence the academic performance of students taught using of local resources. This is because male and female students in Ukanafun Local Government Area that were taught using local resources performed academically better.
5.4 Suggestion for further studies
Further studies research related to this study can be made on the following headings:
- Students participation and academic performance of students taught Biology using local resources in secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area
- Students’ attitude towards the use of local resources in secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area.
- Level of availability of local resources in secondary schools in Ukanafun Local Government Area
Conclusion
The effective utilization of local resources plays a significant role in improving students’ academic performance in Biology by making learning more practical, engaging, and relevant to everyday life. When teachers incorporate locally available materials such as plants, animals, soil samples, and other environmental resources into classroom instruction, students gain a deeper understanding of biological concepts through hands-on experiences. This approach not only enhances knowledge retention but also promotes critical thinking, creativity, and a positive attitude toward learning Biology.
To achieve better learning outcomes, schools, teachers, and educational stakeholders should encourage the regular use of local resources as instructional materials in Biology lessons. Providing teachers with adequate training and support on how to identify and utilize these resources can further enhance teaching effectiveness. By embracing this cost-effective and learner-centered approach, schools can improve students’ academic performance, increase their interest in Biology, and contribute to the overall quality of science education.
