LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
This chapter would be devoted to the review of the literature related to the
study.
This literature would review the importance of teaching and learning materials in JSS Science teaching, why improvisation of Science teaching and learning materials, types of improvisation and the process of filtration of water.
2.1 The Importance of Teaching and Learning Materials in JSS Science Teaching
Several educational philosophers and writers have references to the importance of the effects of the environment of a child’s development.
Froebel (1826) identified two faces of a child’s activity. In one, he said, “the child’s reaction to materials have effect of modification on him to a greater or lesser extent. Understanding and knowing the nature and purpose of anything depends on the appreciation of its relationship with other things”. Froebel, therefore, insisted that a child must “study things in their natural existence”.
Montesori (1910) emphasized the importance of children’s activity in the learning process. However, children are most often made to sit in the classroom passively and take any concept from an instructor (teacher) without any involvement whereby their inquiry and manipulative skills would be tapped.
In Science teaching and earning, there must be continuous interaction between the learner and his environment and if the child is involved in new experiences, his mind is affected, so also his mental picture of the world is gradually built up.
2.2 Why the Improvisation of Science Teaching and Learning Materials
Many a student finds some difficulty in understanding Science or study the subject when its teaching is devoid of practical work. Bajah (1892) stated that, there has been greater concern of how to organize lessons in line with the demands of the process approach and this is why Science teaching presently emphasizes on 3H’s i.e. Head, heart and hand and no more the outdated 3R’s Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.
The teacher, therefore, must be seen as a facilitator of learning and not the teacher of facts. This means that the teacher must be a catalyst in the learning process. If possible, the teacher must be part of the learning process. It shouldn’t be the case where the teacher would play the domineering role, relegating the pupils to the background.
Etuk (1985) describes Science as “painstaking and perseverance; it is going out to fetch actual specimen rather than drawing pictures of them on cardboard”.
It is experience rather than dictation and it is testing rather than the authority of the instructor (teacher).
The use of improvised learning material is a supplementary approach to learning Science, a reinforcement an extra to experience obtained in practical Science learning methods.
To make Science very practicable and meaningful the Ghana Education Service has instituted the hands-on-Science program which provides pupils the opportunity to interact with objects and materials so that they get first hand information from these materials. These methods are often recommended to teachers on the grounds that they improve pupils’ attitudes.
Gyimah (1968) stated in the Ghana Teacher’s Journal that “aids” may be argued whether they are personal things which fit into individual lessons and an “aid” may be used effectively by one teacher but in the hands of another, it may be ineffective”. For this apparent reason, JSS Science teachers in our schools, together with students, should be able to develop their own ideas or modify other people’s ideas of improvising teaching and learning materials which would suit their situation best.
Recent trends in Science education at the basic level for that matter the JSS emphasize on “Hand-on Science” approaches which go with the Chinese proverb which says “I see, I remember; I hear, I forget; I do I understand”. These approaches go a long way with integrated science activities which would help both the teachers and the learners to develop using locally available materials in their environment to perform simple experiments. As the JSS pupil is able to use any materials found in his own environment, construct it or modify it into a workable Science material, he could handle and use it better in his work without fear of damaging the apparatus.
Lewis (1972), stated that the building of attitudes, learning techniques and strategies of Science couldnot by achieved except by putting the children through the process of doing it. The child is therefore better helped if these experiences
are brought to him through sight and handling of learning materials even if they are
improvised so that he understands concepts better without much difficulty. One important reason for improvising of Science teaching and learning materials is that, the ready made materials are scarce whilst there is great demand for such materials in all schools in the country. Similarly, on the onset of the JSS Science teaching, almost all schools are provided with Science kit boxes which contained woefully inadequate materials. With the growing involvement of pupils in schools both teachers and pupils find these boxes ineffective because the contents could not meet the demands of the students. It is therefore clear that materials should be improvised by teachers and pupils to make the teaching of Science in the JSS very effective.
At a workshop organized by UNESCO / BREDA on teaching methods at Winneba, Ghana in October, 1987, it is observed that equipment like tape recorders, radios, television, filmstrips, projectors and overhead projectors are now being used all over the world for effective teaching and learning. More so in Science, there should be practicality in everything that the student does in order to go through the Science process to come out with the facts.
The question now is, in Ghana, with our limited resources, how many schools could be supplied with these new systems of education and every village having a JSS and every student in the JSS is to benefit from the Science Program. Which schools would be supplied with such equipment and which schools would be left out if there comes the need to purchase some of these equipment? These are difficult questions to answer and difficult tasks to undertake.
Fortunately, the absence of these sophisticated equipment, which could never be supplied to these many schools, teachers and pupils should endeavor to
improvise, using materials found in their environment and other locally made
materials and therefore should not relax but put their forces together in the preparation of simple Science materials to make teaching and learning of Science successful in our Junior Secondary Schools.
2.3 Types of Improvisation
According to Eminah (1996), improvisation could be considered under three main types. These are:
• improvisation by substitution,
• improvisation by construction and
• improvisation by modification.
2.3.1 Improvisation by Substitution
In this type, the JSS Science teacher substitutes conventional laboratory equipment e.g. microscope, beakers, flasks (just to mention a few) with all kinds of bottles of different shapes and sizes. These materials are very common in the learner’s environment and there could be a lot of experience with them. With this, they could be very adequate too for the pupils to use.
2.3.2 Improvisation by Modification
This type involves a change in the standard equipment or materials to make it suitable and possible for use. The extent of alteration depends on the use which the materials is meant or put. Example of this type of improvisation is the conversion of burette from a stopcock type to a pinchock type or conversion of a millimetre into a voltmeter using a multiplier.
2.3.3 Improvisation by Construction
This is the most important type as it involves practical experience in addition to industry, skills and interest on the part of everyone involved in the teaching of Science in the JSS. Both the teacher and the pupils make something from other pieces of material obtainable from the market, carpenter’s shop, fitter’s shop, refuse dump or at the school.
2.4 How Improvised Materials Help Solve the Problems on Science Teaching And Leaning
For a good work to be done in Science teaching, the teacher needs to prepare instructional materials from locally available materials. Improvised materials encourage the use of local materials and thus promote ingenuity, creativity, and acquisition of problem solving skills. It also ensures a more reliable, accessible and invariably effective maintenance service. Due to explosion in school enrolment and the poor state of the nation’s economy, it has created a serious scarcity of Science equipment (Boakye-Ansah, 1997). He further argued that teachers should be able to device or create a substitute for pieces of equipment that are lacking but necessary for effective teaching. The teacher must be resourceful and creative both in thinking and in manipulative skills. The use of improvised materials helps students to overcome the abstract nature of new concepts and be familiar with their environment when performing activities using improvised materials. Improvised materials erase the perception in students’ minds that Science is difficulty. According to Nash (1978) pupils enjoy greatly when they play with improvised materials. Hans (1987) is also of the view that
active playing with instructional materials yields a better performance than demonstration alone.
2.5 The Process of Filtration of Water
The Ghana Senior Secondary School Science stated that purification of water for public use and consumption involves two major processes. These are:
• filtration and
• sterilization
The book further went on to explain that water from rubbish-free sources is pumped through filter beds with consecutively finer layers of gravel and then sand. Both organic and inorganic debris are retained by them. The filtered water is next treated with powdered potash alum (potassium, aluminium, tetra-oxo-sulphate (VI)) in a sedimentation tank. Here the alum encourages the fine particles in the water to settle at the bottom of the tank. The clear water is then treated with a carefully controlled quantity of chlorine to kill the harmful microbes and bacteria. This treated water is finally pumped into a storage tank from where it is carried in pipes to our homes and factories.
Bill .W. Tillery in his book Physical Science (page 610-611), also described
the process of filtration of water. He wrote that as raw sewage enters a treatment plant, it flows through a screen to remove large floating objects such as rags and sticks that might cause clogs. After this initial screening, it passes through into a grit chamber where cinders, sand and small stones settle to the bottom. A grit chamber is particularly important in communities with combined sewer system along with rain, mud and other stuff, all with the storm water. After screening and grit removal the sewage is basically a mixture of organic and inorganic matter
along with other suspended solids. The solids are minute particles that could be removed in a sedimentation tank. The speed of the flow through the largest sedimentation tank is slower and suspended solids gradually sink to the bottom of the tank. They form a mass of solids called raw primary sludge, which is usually removed from the tank by pumping. The sludge may be further treated for use as a fertilizer or disposed off through incineration if necessary. If the treatment is for a primary stage only, the effluent from the sedimentation tank is usually disinfected with chlorine, then discharged into receiving tank. Chlorine is fed into the water to kill pathogenic bacteria and reduce unpleasant odours.
The process, as explained by the Ghana Senior Secondary School Science Book and Bill, W. Tillery, is a clear indication that teaching a topic of this nature needs an improvised material which is constructed in a way that it would help pupils to get the concept even without visiting the site where water for public consumption take place and at the same time have the understanding better and relationally.
2.6 Summary of Literature Review
The performance of students in general is appalling. According to Boakye- Ansah (1997), an overwhelming number of pupils who have gone through the educational system have indirectly become slaves and not masters of learning in a society full of opportunities. He contented that they simply couldnot use a great deal of their knowledge for productive living and useful citizenship. Acquah (1996) drew the attention of JSS Science teachers to the need for improvisation of material for effective teaching and learning of Science concepts in the attempt to help students overcome the abstract nature of Science concept is the bringing in
the activity method and child oriented approach designed by Anamuah Mensah and Apafo (1992) for effective teaching of Science. There is the need for this study because a search in the literature revealed that the effect of improvised instructional materials have not been investigated and evaluated.
