BIOLOGY TEACHERS AWARENESS AND UTILIZATION OF INNOVATIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES IN OYO SOUTH SENATORIAL DISTRICT, NIGERIA. AN M.Ed. RESEARCH PROPOSAL. BY: GBADAMOSI, Ahmatullahi Folakemi. (11/68ON004) DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, ILORIN, NIGERIA. SUPERVISOR: PROF. I.O. ABIMBOLA

 The place of science in the development and fulfillment of the needs of any country is no in doubt  The knowledge of biology is the backbone of many invention in science such as biotechnology, genetic engineering, DNA technology, pharmaceuticals, Health Education, Environmental Education etc.  Buseri(2010), contends that to meet up with the rapid scientific progress in technology requires the presence of well-trained, efficient, knowledgeable and skillful teachers who are versatile in discharging their duties and responsibilities.

 However, in recent years, researchers in the area of science teaching has claimed that the focus is on the learning of content, this is said to lead to apparent fall in the standard of education in the country. (Awodi, 1984;Madu, 2004; Okebukola, 2005).  A possible reason for the difficulty science teachers experience in putting their lessons across to learners is probably because they are not abreast with some fairly new and innovative teaching methods.

 Science Education is said to be the most appropriate and fastest vehicle for the planned transformation of any society(Jegede et al.,1995). Despite its’ importance to mankind and the effort of researchers to improve its’ teaching and learning, students’ performance in the three pure science subjects thought in Nigeria remains low.  The issue of what the problem is, needs to be addressed in Biology Education, various teaching strategies exist,yet, poor teaching and learning of biology seems to continue unabated.  This observable problem has been blamed on a number of factors, namely, inadequate teachers, inadequate material resources, lack of using effective methodology for the teaching of the subject in secondary schools.

The purpose of the study is to provide answers to the following questions :  Are secondary schools biology teachers aware of innovative teaching strategies?  Are the innovative strategies effectively put to use by the teachers?  Does the mean utilization of the strategies differ across teachers’ gender?  Does the mean utilization of the strategies differ across teachers’ teaching experience ?  Does the mean utilization of the strategies differ across teachers’ qualification ?

 To what extent are the biology teachers in Oyo state, aware of some selected innovative teaching strategies?  To what extent are the innovative strategies put into use in the teaching of biology in Oyo state ?  To what extent does the mean utilization of the strategies differ across teachers’ gender?  To what extent does the mean utilization of the strategies differ across teachers’ teaching experience?  To what extent does the mean utilization of the strategies differ across teachers’ qualifications?

The following research hypotheses will be tested:  HO 1 : There is no significant difference in the mean utilization of the innovative teaching strategies by male and female biology teachers.  HO 2: There is no significant difference in the mean utilization of the innovative teaching strategies based on the teaching experience of the biology teachers.  HO 3 : There is no significant difference in the mean utilization of the innovative teaching strategies by qualified and unqualified biology teachers.

The research work is limited in scope to the awareness of teachers on the utilization of innovative strategies in the teaching of Biology. It does not view other pure science subject. The study is limited to the nine Local Government Areas which make up the Ibarapa Educational Zone and the two Ibadan Educational Zones, known as Oyo South Senatorial District. The study is on public secondary schools in Oyo South Senatorial district and not all schools in Oyo state.

 Innovative Teaching  Teaching  Qualification  Science Teaching  Qualified Teacher  Unqualified Teacher

 Biology  Awareness  Utilization  Teaching Experience  Innovative Strategies  Gender  Teaching Strategy

Findings from this research work is expected to be relevant and useful to:  Students,  Teachers,  Curriculum Developers,  Government Agencies,  School Proprietors,  Textbook Publishers,  Researchers.

This chapter focuses on the review of literature under the following headings:  The nature and objectives of science education in Nigeria.  The importance of biology as a science subject in Secondary Schools  The quality and status of biology teaching in Nigeria  The teachers ‘roles in biology learning  Innovative teaching strategies  Teachers’ experience and students’ performance  Teaching strategies and students’ academic performance  Appraisal of reviewed literature

This chapter discusses the method and procedure to be used in this study. It is discussed under the following sub-headings:  Research type,  Sampling and sampling technique,  Research instruments,  Validation of research instrument,  Procedure for data collection,  Data analysis technique.

The research is a descriptive research. Specifically, a survey research because it involves gathering and interpreting data for describing the population of the study.

 Population: The target population include all biology teachers in Oyo State.  Sample: The sample include 250 biology teachers in Oyo South Senatorial district, Nigeria.

The research instrument is a structured questionnaire designed by the researcher known as the Innovative Teaching Strategies Questionnaire.(ITSQ).

The copy of the questionnaire adopted will be given to the researcher’s supervisor and two other lecturers in the Department of Science Education, Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin. The lecturers are to identify and amend the mistakes in the questionnaire, and ensure that the statements involve all relevant areas in the study.

A copy of the questionnaire will be directly administered by the researcher to each of the biology teachers and the instrument will be collected the same day, it is administered.

 The results will be analyzed using the percentage and mean statistics. This method is a used to represent raw streams of data as a percentage or a part in 100% for better understanding of the collected data.  The hypothesis will be tested using t-tests and ANOVA

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