1.1 Introduction
Technical Drawing is a medium of communication among technologist, engineers, architectures, technicians and so on and is widely used in many fields and professions. In Nigerian educational system Technical Drawing is in practice as a subject/module at various levels such as post-primary schools and tertiary institutions. According to (Igbinomwanhia et al., 2013) Engineering drawing is used for communicating ideas, thoughts and designs to others. In general, it provides necessary information about the shape, size, surface quality, material, tolerance, manufacturing process etc., of the design. A systematic integration of variety of resources in teaching – learning process and environment produce appropriate learning experiences, which in turn result in effective (active) or meaningful learning.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
The school system in Nigeria have been criticized in recent years for their failure to achieve many of the goals set for them, and for the harmful nature of their impact upon the society, that is producing only job seekers. Their curricular are said to be oriented towards cognitive studies alone and does not give the students the chance to use their hands. Therefore emphasis was placed on technical / Vocational Education in the Secondary School with the hope that, technical subjects are distinct form of training which is practically oriented and has particular solution to the problem of the country.
Kabouridis, (2010) stated that, Technical drawings have been used to communicate ideas from ancient times to the modern era. As the vernacular of industry, technical design, drafting and drawing are essential to the curricula of all technology engineering and design programs.
Technical drawing is a graphical representation of objects and structures and is done using freehand, mechanical, or computer methods. Drawings may be abstract, such as the multi-view drawings shown in, or more concrete, such as the very sophisticated computer model, while, Technical drawing is used to represent complex technical ideas with sufficient precision for the product to be mass-produced and the parts to be easily interchanged. Bertoline and Wiebe (2013)
It is observed that up till date, Nigeria had been craving for manpower especially in the areas of Engineering, Science and Technology. The only vehicle for the achievement of the country’s goal for Technological advancement is vocational education.
The issues involved in these objectives therefore are: economic, political, social and technological development of the country concerned. For a country to develop technologically therefore the rudimentary and basic knowledge of engineering which is Technical drawing must be impacted to students and try all means to enhance the students’ interest in the subject.
The Nigeria Government in an effort to meet the demand of the changing time decided to restructure the system of education in the country. In 1977, the government published a new National Policy on Education which was later revised in 1981. The policy provided that Nigeria would have a new secondary education programme designed to be both functional and practical; a programme that would be structurally and qualitatively different from the existing system.
The introduction of the new system of education sought to remove the destructive effects of the isolation of academic learning from occupational development and real world experience. Concern ourselves as a society with the development of people in the area of practical as well as intellectual and honour good work of any kind. Redress the aimlessness of past post primary students and correspondingly to redress the enormous waste of human energy reflected in the high dropout and unemployed population among our youth. With all the goodies promised by the government for Technical and Vocational education, it has been established from available researchers that the teaching of Technical subjects needs improvement. Students’ lukewarm attitude and lack of interest towards technical subjects’ especially technical drawing should be minimized or if possible totally removed.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Strategies for Enhancing Students’ interest in Technical Drawing in Senior Secondary Schools.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that today’s world of technology has been characterized by the increasing impact of vocational subjects on the life of people. It is clear that the teaching of technical drawing appear to be inadequate in measure with the changing demands of the society.
Lack of qualified teacher to teach technical drawing and high cost of instructional material had resulted into low enrolment of students in Technical drawing which is a consequence of low interest and attitude of students towards the subject.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the Strategies for Enhancing Students’ interest in Technical Drawing in Senior Secondary Schools. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To x-ray how the strategies of teaching Technical drawing in Senior Secondary School can enhance students’ interest.
- To assess the attributes a vocational teacher must possess to enhance students’ interest in Technical drawing.
- To examine the effective use of instructional materials as a factor for enhancing students’ interests.
- To find out how parents can be motivated to encourage their children to develop interest in technical drawing.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What are the strategies of teaching that enhance students’ interest?
- How can parents be motivated to encourage their children to develop interest in technical drawing?
- How can effective use of instructional material be used in enhancing students’ interest?
- What are the attributes a vocational teacher must possessed to enhance students’ interest in technical drawing?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: Parents are not being informed of the importance of Technical drawing in Senior Secondary School.
- H1: Parents are being informed of the importance of Technical drawing in Senior Secondary School.
Hypothesis Two
- H0: There are no significant strategies of teaching that enhance students’ interest in Technical Drawing
- H1: There are significant strategies of teaching that enhance students’ interest in Technical Drawing
1.7 Significance of Study
The aspiration of Nigeria in recent years has been technological advancement and self-reliant economy. In each of the above reasons, the importance of vocational subjects cannot be overlooked, because they are the bedrock or foundation upon which the above aspiration can be built and reliably achieved.
This survey is undertaken because of the feelings that students’ interest and attitude towards Technical drawing is very low. It is expected that the result of this study would;
- Enhance students’ interest towards technical drawing.
- Help teachers teaching technical drawing to develop the right attitude towards their students and subject.
- Also help parent to encourage their children to offer technical subjects.
1.8 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on enhancing students’ interest in Technical drawing in Senior Secondary School in Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo State.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definition of Terms
Enhance: Mean to increase or further improve the good quality, value of student in technical subject.
Vocational subject: This is connected with subject that could lead to acquisition of skill.
Strategies of teaching: Is taken to mean a plan intended to achieve the art of teaching effectively.
Apprenticeship: It means people that are learning skill of doing things.
Attitude: It is a learned predisposition to react consistently in a given manner either positively or negatively to certain persons object or concept.
Achievement: What a person has done successfully especially using his own effort and skill.
Interest: The feelings that you have when you want to know or learn more about something.
