ABSTRACT
The graduates of Colleges of Education (Technical) apart from the teaching job are expected to be self-reliant and enterprising. But this is not obtainable, due to the nature of the quality of teachers handling courses in Colleges of Education (Technical). This situation is associated with the fact that these teachers are lacking the required teaching strategies to teach the courses efficiently and effectively. The study was therefore designed to identify the strategies for enhancing the teaching of Foundry technology in Colleges of Education (Technical). The study had three specific purposes, three research questions and three hypotheses formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. And the study is a survey research design. A structured questionnaire of different strategies for teaching was used for data collection and was administered to 79 teachers of Foundry technology in Colleges of Education (Technical) in North western states of Nigeria.  Mean scores and t-test statistic were used for data analysis. Respondents indicated that all the items were acceptable as the required  strategies  for  enhancing  the  teaching  of  Foundry technology Colleges  of  Education (Technical)  in  North western states of Nigeria.  The  three  hypotheses tested  at  0.05  level  of significance revealed that no  significant difference in the responses of lecturers and teachers. Recommendations were made based on the findings, and suggestions for further study were stated.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is an educational program dealing with skill acquisition which has been recognized as a life wire for the economic and technological development of any nation. TVET according to UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (2006) is a range of learning experiences which are relevant to the world of work and which may occur in a variety of learning context, including in educational institutions and workplaces. It include learning designed to develop the skills for practicing particular occupations as well as learning designed to prepare for entry or re-entry into the world of work in general. Osuala, (2004) describes Technical education as an aspect of general education that involves theoretical, scientific and practical skills. Osuala added that technical education is designed at upper secondary and lower tertiary levels to prepare middle level personnel. These middle level personnel are needed to develop and inculcate proper values for the survival of the society. Also, the personnel are to promote and encourage scholarship and community service (Federal Republic of Nigeria, FRN 2004). However, government emphasis on skill acquisition according to Ogbu, (2007) has led to the establishment of Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions at all levels of the nation’s educational system. These institutions include Universities, Polytechnics, Monotechnics, Colleges of Education (Technical) and Technical Colleges.
The Colleges of Education (Technical) are concerns with technical teacher education
programs leading to the award of NCE (Technical) (Alagbe, 2007). College of Education
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(Technical) is a tertiary institution under the control of the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE). Offorma (1994) stated that NCCE handle the curricular of Colleges of Education. The National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) (2008) states that one of the objectives of the College of Education (Technical) is to produce qualified technical teachers. The products/graduates of College of Education (Technical) are expected to acquire both physical and intellectual skills which will enable them to be self-reliant and useful members of the society (FRN, 2004). By extension Nigeria Certificate of Education (Technical) graduates apart from the teaching work are expected to be self-employed and employ others thereby reducing the level of unemployment in the society. Among the employability courses offered in Colleges of Education (Technical) are: Automobile Technology, Building technology, Electrical/Electronic Technology, Metalwork technology and Woodwork Technology.
Metalwork Technology is one of the Technical education courses offered at the Colleges of Education (Technical). It includes trades such as General Metalwork, Sheet Metalwork, Welding and Fabrication, Foundry and Forging and Machine shop practice. Foundry technology is one of the trades in Metalwork technology that involves casting of metal. It is a technical trade which deals with melting of metals and it’s pouring into a mould to make parts for machines, tools etc. Jain, (2008) stated that Foundry technology is the area of metal working processes which involves melting a metal, pouring it into prepared cavity to take the shape and size of the mould. According to Heine, Loper and Rosenthal (2006) Foundry technology is the process of forming metal objects by melting and pouring it into a mould. Crawford (1979) earlier on explained that Foundry technology consists of introducing the molten metal into a cavity and molding of desired shape and allowing it to solidify. Foundry technology is made up of several practical skill areas namely: safety precautions, tools and equipment, pattern and core making skills,
mould making skill and finishing skill. To effectively teach these Foundry technology skills theoretically and practically, teachers should have strategies that will enable them to be able to enhance the teaching of the subject.
The teachers of foundry technology are trained in Polytechnics and Universities. The teachers are responsible for teaching both theories and practical’s aspects of the foundry in Colleges of Education (Technical) (Abdullahi, 2010). Graduates of Universities are referred to as lecturers and those of Polytechnics as instructors. A lecturer handles the theoretical aspects of foundry work and an instructor is the one who teaches the practical parts of the subject. In an effort to make foundry teachers capable of teaching the theory and practical aspects of foundry processes a number of strategies must to be employed.
Strategy is a planned series of actions for achieving something. Hornby (2004) defines strategy as a plan that is intended to achieve prticular purpose or the process of planning something or carrying out something in a skillful way. According Davis (2001) strategy is a plan, a method or the series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result. In this context strategy refers to a design employed by Foundry teacher in the classroom or workshop, a series of activities and actions taken to facilitate effective teaching of Foundry technology. In the opinion of Aggarwal (2009) strategy in teaching requires comprehensive instruction that include attention to propositional knowledge (what to do), procedural knowledge (how to do it) and conditional knowledge (when and why to do it). Akuezuilo and Okon in Olowodun, (2006) states that teaching strategy include not only the manner of presentation that the teacher employs but everything that should be done in the way of arranging conditions, grouping students, guiding activities, making assignments and providing information to aid learning. However, for the teaching activities to be effective it has to be enhanced in order to achieve the desired end.
Enhancing is an act of improving something. It is a process of improving or making something better in terms of quality, values and usefulness. This can be made by ideas, objects or processes more desirable by adding or removing components (Aggarwal, 2009). It is no doubt that strategy for enhancing teaching will have a positive impact on the performance of foundry technology teachers. This is because use of non-enhanced strategies by teachers lead to poor performance (Olowodun, 2006). So, to make the delivery of lesson effective strategies must be devised to improve the pedagogical skills of Foundry technology teachers. It is highly needed due to the advancement and innovations in the aspects of foundry operations. The improvement will provide the teachers with relevant practical and theoretical training in order to enhance the skills and teaching pedagogy (Fore and Mbohwa, 2010). However, the pedagogical skills improvement must be centered on such areas as instructional strategies, utilization of Instructional materials and evaluation strategies.
Instructional strategy is the procedure of how the act of teaching is to be carried out gradually. According to Saskatoon, (2009) instructional strategies determine the approach a teacher may take to achieve learning outcome. Kameenu Cernine, (2009) opined that instructional strategies are methods that are used in the lesson to ensure that the sequence or delivery of instructions helps students learn. Merill, (2010) maintains that if an instructional experience or environment does not include the instructional strategies required for the acquisition of the desired knowledge or skill, then effective, efficient and appeal of the desired outcomes will not occur. In this context, therefore, Foundry technology teachers must acquire instructional strategies to make teaching effective, efficient and appealing to the objective of NCE (Technical) program. This act will help to enhance the teaching of foundry operations when and consequently improve students’ performance. The term instructional strategy is used to
describe the process a Foundry technology teacher employ to sequence and organize content specify learning activities and decide how to deliver the content and activities (Dick & Cary,
2005). So, it is through instructional strategy that a Foundry technology teacher deals with how to actually teach students the different aspects of foundry work. Nwachukwu, (2006) views instructional strategies as decision about organizing people, material and ideas to provide learning. As such instructional strategies play vital role of promoting active engagement and participation of students in teaching- learning process which can result to enhanced teaching. Based on this background, the need arises for Foundry teachers to examine and employ various instructional strategies suitable to his situation in order to enhance the teaching of Foundry technology in Colleges of Education (Technical). However, use of different instructional strategies for improving teaching will only have the required impact when supplemented with good utilizations of instructional materials.
Instructional materials are devices a teacher uses in teaching to assist him to change students attitudes and behavior. According to Ajidagba, Olumorin & Yusuf (2009) instructional materials are those materials that help a teacher to teach with ease and learners to learn without stress. It is essential to foundry technology teachers to possess strategies for utilization of instructional materials because the teaching of foundry processes will be done at ease and student will learn without pressure. Strategies for utilization of instructional materials are the overarching description of an initiative, its goals and the approach for attaining the objectives of using instructional materials (Ward and Parkin, 2006). According to Gonzalo (2010) in utilization of instructional materials is intended to help educators in the planning, development and implementation phase of instruction. Nwachukwu, (2005) opined that instructional materials in Vocational Technical Education are all the practical and skill developing resources that would
facilitate the processes of teaching, learning and evaluation of vocational and technical skills. However, in this context instructional materials can be described as any device employed by the foundry technology teacher to transmit facts, facilitate skills knowledge acquisition and improve on attitudes and understanding of students (Ogwo & Oranu, 2006). In fact, the use for these devices in teaching is indispensable as it help teachers to capture attention and interest of the students. Therefore, a good utilization of instructional materials in the teaching of Foundry processes will give a teacher an opportunity to employ different strategies for evaluating teaching-learning outcomes for the purpose of improving the teaching of Foundry processes in Colleges of Education (Technical).
Evaluation is concerns with determining or attaching value to something. According to Okoro, (2005) evaluation is the appraisal of the worth or value of things or action and the making of appropriate decision on the basis of such appraisal. Nwachukwu, (2006) sees evaluation as the process of determining how much learning the learner in an educational setting has acquired. On the other hand, evaluation strategy is an act of organizing a complete evaluation structure. According to Ward & Parkin, (2006) evaluation strategy is a process which produce useful actionable and meaningful data, around which entire learning program can be built. Ward & Parkin added that in learning evaluation a strategy constructs a means of relating measured changes in performance based on training back to organizational goals. Massey, (2005) views strategy for evaluation of teaching as a system that provides information useful to teachers for teaching improvement. Teaching improvement occurs when motivated Foundry technology teachers acquire new and valued knowledge which is obtainable through use of evaluation strategy (Hoyt & Pallet, 1999). In this context therefore, it is important for Foundry teachers in
Colleges of Education (Technical) to employ both formative and summative evaluation strategy in order to enhance teaching of Foundry technology.
However, the importance of orienting Foundry technology teachers in Colleges of Education (Technical) to acquire strategies for enhancing teaching will not be over emphasized. Basic Foundry functions which where hitherto carried out manually are nowadays undertaken using machines. In addition, Foundry can now be produced using specially designed and computerized pattern making machine. Chinda (2000) states that the application of technology in the foundry technology brought about both improvement in quality, rate of production, reduced human labor and error in delivery time and rate of turnover. In addition, the growth of technology resulted to the need of multi-skilled workers by employers and the changes and innovations in aspects of Foundry work. In the view of Riodan & Rosas in ogwo & Oranu, (2006) there is need for educational institutions to adjust to the technological changes and new forms of work organization in order to ensure production of employable labor force. Likewise, innovations in educational technology have produced a lot of new teaching strategies and methods which school teachers should master and use more especially in teaching technically oriented courses like Foundry technology (Lubis, 2010). As a result of this emerging trends in foundry processes and innovations in educational technology call for the need on Foundry technology teachers in Colleges of Education (Technical) to devise strategies for enhancing teaching to keep in pace with the new development.
In Nigeria, Colleges of Education (Technical) is TVET educational institution saddled with the responsibilities of producing graduates who are expected to serve as teachers and also to be self-employed and employ others (FRN, 2004). But it is unfortunate to note that the performance of these graduates is below expectation. This trend is associated with untrained and unqualified
teachers at all levels of education both in quality and quantity which resulted in low quality graduates (Jen, 2010). According to the conference of Ministers of Education of the African Union (COMEDAF) (2007), the delivery of quality TVET is dependent on the competence of the teachers. Competence is measured in terms of theoretical knowledge, practical skills and pedagogical skills as well as being abreast with technologies in the world of workplace. COMEDAF explains that taking into account the key strategic issues and guiding principles, the main goal of the strategy may be to promote skills acquisition through competency-based training with proficiency testing for employment, sustainable livelihoods and responsible citizenship. Against this background therefore, it has become imperative to evolve strategies for enhancing the teaching of Foundry technology in Colleges of Education (Technical) in Northern Western states of Nigeria in order to address this occurring shortcoming.
Statement of the Problem
The current technological advancement taking place globally resulted in changes in operations, concepts, materials and techniques employed in the industrial sector of the economy. The advancements came up with refinement in aspects of foundry works. Basic Foundry operations which were hitherto carried out manually are nowadays undertaken using machines. Likewise, cast components can be produced using specially designed and computerized pattern making machine. Chinda (2000) contended that the application of technology has brought about both improvements in quality, rate of production, reduced human labor and error in delivery time and rate of turnover. According to Lubis, (2010) innovations in educational technology have produced a lot of new teaching strategies and methods which school teachers should master and use in teaching. This emanate from the type of training they received during the pre-service
period. The curriculum on which the long serving foundry teachers were trained is inadequate in terms of modern teaching pedagogy strategies (Onyemachi, 2004). This menace gave birth to producing non competent NCE (Technical) graduates whose performance is below expectation. In reality, the Foundry technology teachers in Colleges of Education (Technical) need to acquire concepts, principles and procedures of the new teaching strategies in order to teach the course efficiently and effectively.
Ideally the purpose of tertiary institutions is to provide the recipients with both physical and intellectual skills which will enable individuals to be self reliant and useful member of the society (FRN, 2004). But, it is unfortunate to note that this noble objective is not fully realized taking into consideration the caliber of Nigeria Certificate of Education (Technical) graduates. This is so because it appears that the teachers in Colleges of Education (Technical) are not competent enough to teach the course. One of the major constraints is the untrained and unqualified nature of teachers at all levels of education both in quality and quantity resulting in the low production of qualitative graduates (Jen, 2010).
The above situation came up due to the fact that Foundry technology teachers in Colleges of Education (Technical) have deficiencies in terms of teaching pedagogical skills of technical and vocational education courses. This situation need to be addressed when viewed in line with the saying that no system of education can rise above the quality of its teachers (FRN, 1998). It then follows that teachers involved in TVET program must possess the requisite teaching skills. Bridging this shortfall is the focus of the study. Therefore, the problem of the study can be posed by the question: what are the strategies for enhancing the teaching of Foundry technology in Colleges of education (Technical) in North Western states of Nigeria?
Purpose of the Study
The major purpose of the study is to investigate the strategies for enhancing the teaching of Foundry technology in Colleges of Education (Technical) in North Western States of Nigeria. Specifically, the study seeks to find out:
1. The instructional strategies for enhancing the teaching of Foundry technology.
2. The utilitarian strategies for employing of Instructional materials for enhancing the teaching of Foundry technology.
3. The evaluation strategies for enhancing the teaching of Foundry technology.
Significance of the study
This study finding if executed will be of immense benefit to authorities of Colleges of education (Technical), foundry technology teachers, students, parents and guardians, the entire society and the Foundry technology industries.
The findings of the study will be of immense benefit to the authorities of Colleges of Education (Technical) as the Foundry technology teachers adopted improve instructional strategies, strategies for utilization of instructional materials and evaluation strategies that will upgrade their teaching capabilities. The outcome of this action will enable the teachers to carry out teaching work at optimum level. And consequently, the standard and quality of colleges of Education (Technical) will be better. Hence, objectives of establishing the colleges will be achieved.
The findings of the study will be beneficial to the foundry technology teachers as it will upgrade the competency of these teachers in handling the course efficiently and effectively. This will be possible as the management of Colleges of Education (Technical) will give further training to these teachers on modern teaching methods. As such the teachers will get enhanced instructional strategies, utilitarian strategies for employing of instructional materials and evaluation strategies of teaching Technical, Vocational, Education and Training subjects. This will improve the competency and motivation level as a result the teachers will be able to make teaching and learning of course interesting and meaningful to the students in Colleges of Education in Colleges of education (Technical).
The findings of the study will be beneficial to students as teachers will employ new teaching methods in their teaching processes. As such they will be well trained and oriented in foundry work. Hence, apart from being able to teach the subject at secondary level very well, the students can utilize the knowledge and skills acquired of foundry work to be self-reliant and enterprising. That is to say on graduation they will not be job seekers but job providers.
The findings of the study will be beneficial to parents and guardians as the effort on educational development of their children and wards will not be in vain. As a result of the training, the children received that will give them the opportunities to get employment or establish business enterprises. Such graduates will actively participate in taking the responsibilities of some members of the family and in other respects.
The findings of the study will be beneficial to the society on the ground that the foundry technology training acquired by the graduates will create employment opportunities to the youth
and level of unemployment will be reduced in the society. Consequently the rate of crime and other social vices will be minimized.
The findings of the study will be beneficial to industries because the rate of production will improve and that will justify more employment opportunities in the industries. This will give birth to the industrial growth thus qualitative and new products will be produced. Hence, there will be available foundry products such as farm implements, spare parts of machines, powered and hand tools plumbing parts and cooking utensils. As a result of this development, the country will be technologically and economically independent nation because the rate of importation of cast components will be minimized thereby saving its foreign exchange.
Research Questions
Three research questions have been formulated in line with the purpose to guide the study as follows:
1. What are the instructional strategies required for enhancing the teaching of Foundry technology?
2. What are the utilitarian strategies for employing of instructional materials for enhancing the teaching of Foundry technology?
3. What are the evaluation strategies for enhancing the teaching of Foundry technology?
Hypotheses
Three null hypotheses have been formulated and will be tested at 0.05 level of significance.
H01: There is no significant difference in the mean responses of foundry technology lecturers and instructors on the instructional strategies for enhancing the teaching of Foundry technology.
H02: There is no significant difference in the mean responses of foundry technology lecturers and
instructors on the utilitarian strategies for employing of Instructional materials for enhancing the teaching of Foundry technology.
H03: There is no significant difference in the mean responses of foundry technology lecturers and instructors on the evaluation strategies for enhancing the teaching of Foundry technology.
Scope of the study
The study was delimited to foundry work of metalwork technology trade. Fitting, Welding, Fabrication, machine shop practice and forging work were not included. The study also covered Colleges of Education (Technical) and other tertiary institutions offering N.C.E. (Technical) program in the North Western states of Nigeria.
This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research
STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCING THE TEACHING OF FOUNDRY TECHNOLOGY IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION (TECHNICAL) IN NORTH WESTERN STATES OF NIGERIA>
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