Availability of Instructional Materials and Interest of Secondary School Students in the Study of Physics in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to investigate the relationship between availability of instructional aids and students’ interest in studying physics in secondary school. This research was conducted using physics students in public senior secondary schools in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. The specific purpose of the study was to find out the instructional aids that are available for teaching physics in secondary schools. It also investigated if the deployment of these materials in teaching physics influenced the interest of secondary school students in learning different topics in physics. The study utilized the correlation design while the population comprised all SS II students who offered physics in public senior secondary schools in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo state with a total number of 1,223. Out of the population, 123 physics students, that is 10%, were selected using the simple random sampling technique, and this formed the sample of the study. The instrument used for this study was a questionnaire which elicited the respondents’ biodata, checklist of instructional aids for teaching physics and items designed to measure students’ interest. Mean, percentage, standard deviation and Pearson product Moment Correlation were the statistics used for analyzing the data generated. Findings showed that most of the instructional materials needed by the teacher for effective teaching of physics were available but not functioning; the students used for the study had high level of interest in learning the different topics in physics. However, it found that there was no significant relationship between availability of instructional aids and students’ interest in studying of physics in public senior secondary schools in the area of study. As a sequel to the findings of the study, it was recommended that government and school administrators should provide teachers with instructional materials relevant to the teaching of physics in senior secondary schools in Edo State; teachers should regularly deploy instructional materials when teaching physics in senior secondary schools in Edo State. Finally, teachers are encouraged to design simple instructional aids that could be used as alternatives for teaching relevant topics in physics in senior secondary schools in Edo State in the absence of standard teaching devices.