Perceived as Difficult in Geography by Secondary School Learners

Chapter One Of Perceived as Difficult in Geography by Secondary School Learners

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Publishers for textbooks up to junior secondary schools incorporate pictures and graphics to aid student performance and commitment in their curriculum. This has been found to help in the engagement of students in Mathematics whose fear inducement mostly have nothing to do with the subject of the general fear associated with it. This is the same to any subject one fears. Studies show that children (primary and secondary school students) will find a particular subject difficult if certain associations have been made with it. Like a particular topic or an incident associated to the subject.

Other times it is the attitude or the teaching style of the teacher that come to bear upon the student’s attitude to the subject so that if the students hate a particular subject, chances are that they will project the same affect on the subject. Even in most cases, it is particular topics in a particular subject or range of topics. In this case teachers have to employ special methods in teaching them to students.

Statement of the Problem

Teaching some topics to students tend to be more difficult than others. Whether it is the particular set of students, their academic backgrounds, the topics or their cultural backgrounds, these topics prove difficult to the students or most of them. And once a teacher begin seeing a pattern developing or a prior tendency of the topic proving difficult for the students, there is need to research upon it so that a solution would be found. This is the background question that has brought the present research into being to studying certain topics that are found difficult by geography students at senior secondary school level.

Research Questions

1.3.1      what are the topics found difficult by senior secondary school learners of Geography.

1.3.2      What are the academic and cultural backgrounds/ factors that bear upon this.

1.3.3      What methods and tricks can be employed in and outside the curriculum to make these topics better understandable and relatable to the students.

Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this research work include:

• The identification of some of the topics that through a pattern recognition are perceived as difficult by students of Geography in Nigeria and the processes that culminate into these problematic perceptions.
• The research will compare schools based on the topics students of a particular school perceive as difficult in Geography with others so that the patterns that emerges will throw more light on the source of the issue, whether it is the subject teacher’s attitude and style of teaching or the textbooks and modules used in teaching.

Significance of the Study

The research will shed on the factors that influence the students difficulty in understanding some topics in Geography and how these factors are formed. With this the findings and recommendations of the work will go far in providing working grounds for teaching these topics. Also, the study will also point at ways of not presenting particular topics to students so that they don’t come to perceive them as difficult even before it has been introduced to them.

Research Hypothesis

This research works with the assumption that the majority of difficulty that students find in the learning of Geography in secondary schools are based majorly on students perception of those topics.

Scope of the Study

The scope of the research will be on a selected senior secondary schools in Nigeria that teach Geography. The research will conduct a questionnaire on sight survey on both the students and teachers of Geography to ascertain a pattern and the highest numbers of topics perceived as difficult by the students would be treated in the course of this study as the ones mostly seen as difficult among learners of Geography.

Limitations of the Study

The major limitations of this research work is firstly the time factor to complete the required study within the given time irrespective of the volume of research that should go into the work. Another is that of resources to fund to conduct the length of observation needed arrive at a conclusion and make recommendations which did not come in the needed amount hence, reflecting, though minutely, on the work.

Definition of Terms

Geography

This is the subject that teaches at senior secondary school level in Nigeria the aerial and landscape description and peculiarities of the earth or select a particular part to study.