 AN EVALUATION OF THE NIGERIAN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL
BIOLOGY CORE CURRICULUM FOR REVITALIZATION OF CLASSROOM
TEACHING AND LEARNING
 Presented by
 Dr. AbdulRahaman Ishola Ibrahim
 Sule Lamido University, Kafin Hausa.
 Jigawa State,Nigeria.

 No nation whether developed or developing countries
can rise above the level of its education without
giving adequate consideration for its Human and
Material resources in terms of curriculum to be used.
One of the Basic qualities of a curriculum is
dynamism. This implies that a good curriculum is
never static rather it changes along with changes in
societal needs and aspirations, political and economic
factors. For example in Nigeria the educational
system has witnessed some changes in Content,
Context and Structure (9-3-4 educational systems).
Like most of the countries in the world, the changes
have come as result of the growing awareness of the
need to develop technologically, socially, and
economically.

 According to Majasan and Yoloye (1980), a static
curriculum, that is a curriculum which never
changes cannot produce a dynamic society. To
accomplish most of the required changes and to
bring about development in education we need
to examine the curriculum in used.
 Statement of the Problem
 A curriculum in this study refers to a package
prepared by the government and distributed to
the school for the purposes of assisting teachers
during their lesson presentation. This document
gives description of course objectives, learning
activities, organization of contents, and
evaluation strategies.

 The purpose of this study is to evaluate some selected
components of the Senior Secondary School Biology Curriculum
and the same time examine the availability and utilization of the
available instructional materials.
 In addition to that the study will find out if differences in Sex,
Training, Teaching experience and school location will influence
the perception of teachers as regards the adequacy of the Biology
core curriculum.
Research Questions
 What are the Science teachers’ opinions of the adequacy of the
course objective?
 Are there enough facilities, laboratory materials and specimen for
effective teaching of Biology?
 How relevant are the suggested learning activities for teaching the
course effectively?
 Do the teachers’ opinions differ according to their Qualification or
training?
 Do the teachers’ opinions differ on the basis of their teaching
experience?
 To what extent does schools location (Rural/Urban) influence
teachers’ opinion on the adequacy of the Core Curriculum?

 This study is considered important because it
will reveal among other things the status of
the teachers, qualification and training of the
categories of the teachers handling Biology
subject in schools. Beside it will enable a
reliable data to be generated in terms of
availability of infrastructures and instructional
materials that are available in schools within
different States.

 A descriptive research design using survey was used because
the researcher believes that it is the best design that could
provide enough information on the population opinion on the
appropriateness of the Senior Secondary School Biology core
curriculum. It is considered important to seek opinion of
people to evaluate some selected components of the Biology
Curriculum (Course Objectives, Content, Suggested learning
activities), Available instructional materials as well as
opportunity for Training and retraining of classroom
teachers. A descriptive research design using Questionnaire
was used in this research to evaluate some selected
components of the Biology Core Curriculum.

 Sample and Sampling Techniques

The sample of the study consist of one hundred and four
(104) teachers which were selected using stratified sampling
techniques.


 A researcher designed Teacher Opinion Questionnaire
(T.O.Q) was used after been validated. The teacher
opinion questionnaire instrument for the study was
subject to content validity by giving it to two (2)
Science education lecturers and five (5) Biology
science teachers. The correlation coefficient for this
instrument was found to be 0.85. On the basis of the
above the instrument used was assumed to be valid
and reliable.
 The T.O.Q instrument contains two (2) sections.
Section A, sought demographic data such as the
Name of School, State, LGA, Teachers’ qualification,
Sex, Area of specialization, etc. while Section B,
contains information relating to the research
Questions.

 In attempt to analyze the data quantitatively the
responses on the likert type scale were assigned
scores as follows:
 Strongly Disagree (-2), Disagree (-1), Agree (1) and
strongly agree (2). The scores for each category was
computed and percentage, mean and standard
deviation determined, while the Analysis of variance
was used to answer the research Questions. Using
appropriate computer package several analysis of
variance were done to compare the percentage as
well as the mean scores of the four (4) Categories of
Teachers as reflected in the hypothesis or research
generated. In all cases all the hypothesis were tested
at 0.05 level of significance.

 A summary of the findings from the teachers sampled
revealed that many of the teachers held the opinions that;
the course objectives and sequence of the course content
are adequate; and the suggested learning activities are
relevant. However, there was indication from the teachers
sampled that there are no enough teaching materials and
no enough training services made available for teachers
for effective implementation.(Table 1)
 In addition to that it was revealed that where instructional
material are available teachers do not make use of them
during their lesson. As per the hypothesis tested, findings
revealed that male and female; trained and untrained;
experience and less experience teachers as well as
location do not significantly affect the opinions of these
teachers on all the areas examined (Table 2).

 In curriculum development three major areas are identified
namely: 1.Designed and Planning stage, 2.Implementation
stage and 3.Evaluation stage. While some researchers in the
past are in one way or the other focused more on the first two
stages, many have neglected the Evaluation aspect which
would have been more useful to bring about desired changes
in the citizens or among the students. In Nigeria, for example,
the educators or curriculum planners are very much interested
in output of the materials or policy being planned instead of
looking like other components which will assist in the
effective implementation of the new policy.
 While in some countries like Japan and Finland effort is made
to examine critically all those factors that could affect
implementation, in Nigerian culture the government is only
interested in bringing out a new policy with the intention of
punishing or putting down a political opponent for
incompetency or for the purpose of accumulating wealth
through contract awards. From this study there are indications
that many of the Biology teachers do not know and
understand both the objectives as well as the philosophy of
the course.

 Rosswork (1977) reported that setting specific goals or
objectives leads to higher level of performance than when the
required objectives are not understood and specific. That is to
say that its necessary that course objectives should always be
stated clearly to make it easier for the teachers to select the
course content, use appropriate teaching materials as well as to
evaluate course outcome.
 In table 1 the result obtained in the area of adequacy of
sequence of course content can be said to be inconclusive
because many of the teachers were of the opinions that the
course content are inadequate and that they find some course
content very complex and above the level of the students.
According to Laurence (1985) any discussion about classroom
teaching and learning should begin with assessment of both
the human and material resource for effective implementation.
 In the area of Training service and conferences many teachers
were of the opinion that conferences, workshops and In-service
training were not enough or are in adequate to make up for the
deficiencies or to update their knowledge in accordance with
their professional ethics. Ozigi (1977), reported that In-service
training in most cases helps the teachers both the new and the
old, to acquire new skills.

 On the basis of the above findings the following
recommendations are offered:
 All the teachers of Biology or teaching sciences should be
made to have a copy of the core curriculum in order to
master the goals and objectives of the course.
 Government should make effort to employ more trained
and qualified teachers in each subject areas to promote
effective teaching by these teachers at times a teachers
trained in agriculture or other sciences are given biology
to teach because of its peculiarities.
 Government should try to make available adequate
infrastructural materials, laboratories, specimen and other
essential resource materials to promote teaching and
learning of sciences in schools.

 There is need to improve the pedagogical competence and skills
of teachers handling sciences generally through workshops,
conferences and in-service training. By this it will help update
and upgrade knowledge and capabilities of practicing teachers on
the rudiment and current techniques of science teaching.
 There should be some flexibility in the use of curriculum content
such that teachers can decide on what to teach as a content in
relation to what is available within their immediate environment.
This is an aspect of improvisation.
 Where necessary some Cooperate bodies, Associations and
agencies should be encourage the to review some studies carried
out on effective teaching towards producing better study guide
and text books.
 Whenever there is new policy enough time should be giving to
have everything required for his implementation before they are
sent out to schools for implementation.
 Further studies could be carried out in more details to
determined why training and years of experience have little
influence on teachers opinion in the area of the Biology Core
Curriculum.
 Government should put more funds in to educational sector in
order to be able to achieve the kinds of progress made in the
developed countries.