The Effect of Demonstration Method on Secondary School Students’ Physics Performance in Ibesikpo Local Government Area. This study aimed to investigate how demonstration teaching method affects the Physics performance of secondary school students in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents relevant and related literature as discussed under the following headings:

The concept of teaching
The concept of demonstration teaching technique
Demonstration technique and students’ academic performance
Summary of literature review

2.1 The Concept of Teaching

The concept of teaching has been an area of intense philosophical analysis by philosophers and educationists all over the world. This has been so to distinguish the teaching activity of the teacher from that given by parents, churches, and other agencies. Akinboye (2008) maintained that the two major concepts of teaching that had been in place from the medieval period till now are the belief that “effective teachers” are ‘born” and the belief that “effective teachers” are made. The author considers teaching as a set of stimuli initiated by the instructional agent (teacher) and monitored to bring about desirable learning outcomes. This implies that it is a set of stimuli initiated and regulated by an individual who has been professionally trained to do so. This means that teaching techniques are learned and not automatically manifested in individuals.

Ayodele (2009) defines teaching as the guidance of learners through planned activities so that they may acquire the richest learning possible from their experiences. This implies that learning is an active process that goes on in a learner when he/she is guided.

Clark and Starr (2009) see teaching as an act of helping someone acquire skills or knowledge. The task of the teacher is to guide the process to bring about the desirable changes in the behavior of the learners. Success in teaching is measured by the degree to which the teacher can achieve the desired objectives.

Zadra (2007) describes teaching techniques as a stand that a teacher adopts to explain a subject matter to a learner or group of learners. The selection of appropriate instructional techniques depends on the nature of the subject matter, the age of the learners, and the teacher’s competency in handling such methods or techniques. Hence, for effective teaching to take place, the teacher must stimulate, encourage and maintain the active participation of the learner through the selection of appropriate teaching techniques and methods. This will require a balance between what is taught and how it is taught. Thus, effective teaching does not depend on the teacher’s mastery of the subject matter, but also on the teaching methods and techniques adopted by the teacher.

2.2 The Concept of Demonstration Teaching Technique

The demonstration instructional technique has been variously defined by authors. Ekanem (2006) defined the demonstration teaching method as an instructional technique in which the teacher usually demonstrates the working of an object while the learners watch. The author maintained that it typically involves showing learners the correct use of apparatus, illustrating a technique, and performing an experiment that is either dangerous, difficult, or expensive for individual pupils’ use. The author further explains that in many school subjects, the demonstration method is often the only feasible method of attaining the course objectives. This can be said to be true if such subjects like physical and health education, Physics, integrated science, and other pure science subjects as well as Mathematics.

Oyegwe (2008) stated that demonstration involves showing by offering an example of how something works or the steps involves in a process. Adekunle (2009) describes demonstration as the repetition of a series of planned actions designed to illustrate certain phenomena. According to him, the demonstration is meant to make instruction clearer and facilitates students’ understanding. It can be used as a starting point for a particular lesson. It is economical in terms of teaching hours and materials.

Ekanem (2006) classified demonstration into three major types. These are:

class demonstration
groups demonstration
individual demonstration

The author explains that class demonstration involves the use of demonstration as a teaching method for the entire class. Since it involves the class, the teacher’s time is saved as there will be no cause for some students to bother the teacher to repeat the procedure or give them the basic information. Generally, this type of demonstration stimulates interest among learners especially as the entire class members are actively involved in watching the teacher and asking questions on some points not clear to them. The group demonstration as explained by Ekanem (2006) is presented to a section of the class while the rest of the class is engaged in another assignment which may or may not be related to the topic being handled. As a result of individual differences in abilities and aptitudes in learners, some may complete a given task ahead of others, thus creating a gap in maintaining a uniform demonstration. Group demonstration has an advantage over the class demonstration as it makes it mandatory on the part of the teacher to divide the class into sections to assign projects to the learner based on their abilities.

Nevertheless, Ekanem (2006) maintained that there are times when the need to teach individual students in a workshop or a laboratory may arise. This is based on the theory of individual differences among students such as differences in background, mechanical aptitude and general learning ability, irregularity in attendance as well as the difference in speed. The ultimate objective here is to show individual students in detail the procedure to follow in accomplishing a given task.

Ekong (2007) stated that demonstration is a process by which a teacher uses his voice, movement of his body, his chalk, drawing of diagrams and illustrations on the chalkboard, experiment, etc. to facilitate students’ understanding of instruction.

Olatoke (2010) maintained that the use of demonstration methods requires skills to make it effective. According to the author, the author states that the teacher should adhere to certain guidelines when demonstrating. These include assembling the equipment needed for carrying out the demonstration; the atmosphere should be conducive to enable students to pay attention to the teacher. The sitting or standing position should allow all students to see what the teacher is doing. The teacher should explain what he wants to demonstrate before going to the demonstration proper, the teacher should go at a speed appropriate to the age of the learners and should pause at intervals to entertain some questions and make sure that the learners follow. At the end of the demonstration, the teacher should ask some questions on key points to find out if the students have assimilated what the teacher has done.

Discussion of Findings

Results of data analysis in Table one revealed that students taught using class demonstration techniques performed significantly better than their counterparts taught without in Physics. In Table two, it was found that students taught using group demonstration performed significantly better than their counterparts taught without in Physics.

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In Table three, the result of data analysis showed that students taught using individual demonstration performed significantly better than those taught without in Physics. The findings of the study are supported by Zadra (2007) who found that the demonstration method has a significant positive effect on students’ academic performance. The findings are corroborated by that of Nzewi (2008) who found that students performed better when taught using the demonstration method than the lecture method. The findings backed that of Abdulhamid (2010) who found that the demonstration method is more effective than the discussion method in teaching and learning Physics. The findings further support that of Akpan (2010) who found that students taught using the demonstration method performed significantly better than those taught using the lecture method.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND CONCLUSION

This chapter presents the summary of findings, recommendations, and conclusion.

5.1 Summary

The study investigates demonstration techniques and students’ academic achievement in Physics in secondary schools in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area. The findings of the study revealed that students taught using class demonstration performed significantly better than those taught without. It was also found that students taught using the group’s demonstration technique performed significantly better than those taught without. The findings further revealed that students taught using the individual demonstration technique performed significantly better than those taught without in Physics. Consequently, the null hypotheses of the study were rejected in favor of the alternative.

5.2 Recommendations

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

Physics teachers should adopt the demonstration teaching technique in teaching the subject to facilitate students’ understanding of the concepts taught and improve their academic performance.
Teachers should ensure that the teaching technique adopted is suitable for a particular lesson as well as the age of the learners.

iii. Curriculum plans should incorporate suggested teaching methods in the curriculum of different subjects. This will guide the teachers in the choice and application of the teaching method most suitable for a particular lesson.