1.1 Introduction
Agricultural science is one of the core vocational curricular subjects taught at both junior and senior secondary schools in Nigeria. According to Egbule (2004) agricultural Education can be defined as a process of training learners in the process of agricultural productivity as well as the techniques for teaching of agriculture. Agricultural science education as a broad multidisciplinary field that deals with the selection, breeding and management of crops and domestic animals for economic production. It is a subject taught in secondary schools as a means for self- reliance and preparation for further studies. Agricultural science is therefore designed to inculcate the necessary skills for the practice of agriculture for effective citizenship and contribution to food security for national sustainability (Wikipedia, 2009).
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
In Nigerian secondary schools, agricultural science has been recognized as a core curriculum subject because agriculture remains an important sector of the Nigerian economy. It has a high potential for absorbing unemployed and underemployed persons; provides raw materials for industries; provides food and at the same time generates foreign exchange for the country.
The Federal Republic of Nigeria (2009) outlined the major objectives of teaching and learning of agricultural science to reflect ability to: stimulates students’ interest in agriculture, enable students acquire basic knowledge of agriculture, develop basic agricultural skills in students, enable students integrate knowledge with skills in agriculture, expose students to opportunities in the field of agriculture, prepare students for further studies in agriculture and prepare students for occupations in agriculture.
According to the National Policy on Education, for effective teaching and learning, the teacher students’ ratio shall be 1:40 (National Policy on Education, NPE, 2009). But the practice is far from this policy. Cases of a teacher facing a class size of more than 50 students are common (Oafor, 2002). With such a number of students in a classroom much of the instruction time will definitely go into classroom management. If there is any time left for instruction, only a little can be achieved by the teacher. A remedy for this would have been more classrooms and more teachers.
Field trip involves any activity carried out by a group of learners outside the classroom under a close supervision of the teacher (Sanders, 2015). It involves taking students outside the classroom setting to have first-hand experience of what happens in the environment or real life situation. Aliyu (2008) observes that field trip involves taking students out of the classroom to places where they can see concrete illustration of classroom theories. It also offers direct observation and interpretation of the substance in their natural surroundings. Field trip on the spot requires the use of basic scientific skills that include observation, identification, classification and manipulation of substance in the natural surroundings. Field-trip provide real life context for the material being learned. Studies also conducted by Urulor, (2000) showed that a greater percentage of what is heard, seen and touched during field trip is remembered than what is merely heard. Field trip provides outdoors experiences and observations from which the students learn. It could cover a few hours and could last as long as a couple of weeks.
Field trip could mean visit from the school to farms, wildlife parks, zoos, agro-allied and agro-based industries or public places of interest such as the kings' palace, railway station, airport and post-office, all within the neighbourhood. Experiences acquired during field trip are usually long lasting and cannot be easily forgotten by the students. According to Olayinka (2012), field trip provides opportunities for direct observations and develops the skill for keen observation in the students; it helps to generate and sustain student interest in the subject and help the student to develop interest in certain professions. However, it is time consuming; it could be expensive and disruptive especially when the field trip lasts several days.
Academic performance is an important parameter in measuring success in students. Students’ academic performance refers to students’ achievement in the topic taught based on the stated objectives. Edinyang and Ubi (2012) define academic performance as the outcome of education which reveals the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved educational goals. Academic performance or achievement is commonly measured by examinations or continuous assessment (Abdulhamid, 2013). According to Denga (2002), learning is says to occur if there is a positive change in behaviour or performance which is a
result of experience and practice and which makes individuals face later situations differently. Hence, an individual is assumes to have learnt techniques and skills if there is a remarkable change in his academic performance during and after the course of his programme (Camilus, 2011). Academic performance is an outcome of interest to both researchers and professionals within the field of education and is generally an outcome desired by many parents, stakeholders, educationist and youth. An important question that is raised by educators, parents and often society is how high academic performance in students can be promoted and what factors or contexts have an influence on academic performance throughout a child’s development.
There are several micro and macro contexts that have an impact on students’ academic performance and one of the contexts that have been studied is the classroom context. Kounin and Gump (2005) add that the classroom context has distinctive forces or “signals” different to other contexts which pull events and participants along with them. A lot of argument had gone on the impact of class size and field trip on academic performance of students. Wosyanju (2005) maintains that large classes pose some teaching challenges such as difficulty in student control during field trip, delayed feed-back provided to students¸ no high quality individual feedback resulting in inefficiency and poor quality of students, reduction in teaching, less assignment so as to reduce marking and avoiding assessment which encourages shallow learning. Class size as one of the sub-variables of school quality exerts significant influence on teachers’ task performance in terms of field trip, assessment of students’ academic performance and classroom management. Small class size enhances academic performance.
Despite the fact that there are those against the notion, mainly due to the financial implications, most professionals in the field believe that smaller classes are conducive for effective learning which makes students to have a better study environment and lead teachers to teach more effectively.
Teaching large classes affects the morale motivation and self-esteem of teachers. When teaching large classes, teachers spend more time in organizing class activities, field trips and not enough time on meeting students need individually. Field trip when conducted in a proper process can improve students’ performance in several ways by motivating their learning activities. Considering these relationship between the variables, the researcher examined the “effects of class size and field trip on academic performance of agricultural science students in senior secondary schools in Rivers State.”
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Value of Field Trip for Student Achievement in Agricultural Science in Rivers State.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Agricultural science is a practical subject that requires to be taught in conducive classroom and practically by making teaching situation as real as possible. Despite the importance placed on agriculture it is very disappointing to note that students’ performance in the subject at both internal (terminal school examination) and external (WASSCE and NECO) examinations has remain consistently poor (Okafor, 2002). The large class size of agricultural science students in senior secondary schools is not encouraging (Blatchford, Bassett and Brown, 2011). Pedder (2006) observes that most students in large class size classrooms do not copy notes because they think that since the class is large the teacher might not notice them. He also adds that noise making is much and setting up of activities; making limited resources go a long way is tedious; making most students to be unserious with their studies.
Field trip involves taking students out of the classroom to places where they can see concrete illustration of classroom theories. Thus, individual differences among the students will be addressed since they are able to see, touch and do. Urulor (2000) observes that few teachers of agricultural science take their students on field trips in senior secondary schools. Throughout the researcher’s four years of experience as an agricultural science teacher, the researcher was never opportune to take students to areas of agricultural interest for studies.
The increase in examination malpractices cannot be separated from poor seating arrangement in classrooms due to large number of students (Pedder, 2006). The quantity and quality of interaction in the classroom and during field trip are likely to be adversely affected, due to lack of space for moving round the class, difficulty in controlling a large number of students during field trip and the overwhelming number of students that the teacher has to deal with and manage within a forty-minute lesson (Pedder, 2006). It is based on these problems that this study is carried out to determine the effect of class- size and field trip on academic performance of agricultural science students in senior secondary schools in Rivers State with a view to making solutions that could help alleviate the problem.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to examine the Value of Field Trip for Student Achievement in Agricultural Science in Rivers State. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To determine the effect of field trip on academic performance of agricultural science students in senior secondary schools in Rivers State.
- To ascertain the effect of academic performance of male and female students taken to field trip in agricultural science in senior secondary schools in Rivers State
- To investigate the factors affecting the value of field trip for student achievement in agricultural science in Rivers State
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:
- Are there factors affecting the value of field trip for student achievement in agricultural science in Rivers State?
- What is the effect of field trip on academic performance of agricultural science students in senior secondary schools in Rivers State?
- What is the effect of academic performance of male and female students taken to field trip in agricultural science in senior secondary schools in Rivers State?
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: There are no significant factors affecting the value of field trip for student achievement in agricultural science in Rivers State
- H1: There are significant factors affecting the value of field trip for student achievement in agricultural science in Rivers State
1.7 Significance of Study
The findings of this study will be of importance to educational planners, government, teachers, students, parents, agricultural farms, agricultural industries and researchers. This research study will provide useful data and recommendations to educational planners and government as they make decisions in the future to restructure the agricultural science curriculum to make more rooms for field trips in the senior secondary schools. It will provide support for government to maintain the status quo of normal classes in many of the senior secondary schools.
Secondary schools teachers will benefit in this research work in terms of having recommended class sizes to teach and will encourage them to use field trip for difficult concept in agricultural science. It will also provide teachers of agricultural science with information regarding the usefulness of field trip in supplementing theoretical lesson done in the classroom.
The study will encourage the active participation of students in the classroom and field trip which will help in meaningful learning. It will also minimize the high failure rate of senior secondary school students in agricultural science.
Parents will benefit by seeing the importance of the knowledge of field trip on their children/ wards and therefore encourage them to pay for them to go on field trip. The study will provide agricultural farms and industries knowledge on the importance of field trips in teaching and learning of agricultural science and as a result may not hesitate in hosting students who are interested in visiting their farms or industries.
The findings of this research work will lead to further in-depth study on the impact of class size and field trip on the academic performance of students in Nigeria as it will serve as a contribution to knowledge in the subject area. In this regard, it will be useful for other researchers who might want to carry out research in related areas.
1.8 Scope of the Study
The scope of the study focused on the value of field trip for student achievement in Agricultural Science in Rivers 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).
