INCREASING THE PERFORMANCE OF JHS ONE PUPILS IN THE LEARNING OF
INTERGRATED SCIENCE
INTRODUCTION
Science education seek to make known to the learnet knowledge about nature and method of inquiry and a
systemic way processing knowledge about the physical world to the students.
On account of this, science education has provided part of the foating for any knowledge-based effort to
agriculture, nutrition, to improve health family planning industrial purposes or work etc.
Science education point out two main aims. First and foremost of the aims is to promote scientific literacy
among citizens on matters directly affecting our lives and the communities so that we can make decision in
resolutions based on information and the understanding the people have, which is important for making sure
that sustainable development is maintained in these modern age.
The second aim is to put-up a technological capabilities by equipping the workforce with essential sciencebased knowledge and skills by preparing the students for disciplines in the field of science in tertiary lead
education and careers which are sciences-related especially in the health sector.
Practical activities in education are considered as one of the necessary integral part in promoting the
understanding of scientific principles. To bring this idea into reality, equipment and experiments need to be
carefully selected to give the learners a good explanation of the concepts through relevant experiment.
Science as a course of study is broad which has being divided into three main branches, namely biology,
chemistry and physics. Biology is the branch of science that deals with the scientific study of life; whiles
chemistry is the study of substances that is element and compounds. The third branch is physics whose primary
objects of study are matter and energy. Physics is believed to be one of the oldest and probably the most
develop of all sciences, Keith (1996). And as one of the science subject, it remains one of the most difficult in
the school curriculum according to CRDD (2008).
In the year 1969, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) which is a
specialized agency of the United Nations (UN), that aim to promote world peace and security through the
international co-operation in education, arts, sciences and culture, initiated integrated science program to assist
the member countries in promoting scientific literacy in a unified way both at basic and secondary school level,
which comprises the three main branches of science. With an aim believed to prevent people from totally
running away from physics totally as a branch believed to be difficult and obstruct.
Provision of appropriate equipment for lessons is highly needed but not sufficient enough for successful science
lessons. Other factors such as pre-service and in-service teacher training, to be able to handle the equipments
and to use them appropriately to be able to come up with improvised Instructional materials for a lesson to be
successful. The ability of teachers to produce, manage and organize resources for lessons for the students to
acquire the desirable learning competencies can be acquired through training of the teacher in both pre-service
and in-service training.
Agwagah (1999) rightly noted that instructional materials, if used effectively arouse interest, foster stimulation,
self activities, increase retention ability, make the subject matter relevant to life and lessen the burden of
teaching. But it has been noted that most developing countries like Ghana as an example lack instructional
materials in school. Making subject like physic more abstract and difficult for students. And the only remedy
for this problem is to encourage improvisation of instructional materials for physic subject matter like light
energy which always have instructional materials to teach.
It is against this background study, which gingers the interest to research into finding out the appropriate
improvised instructional materials for the teaching of light energy especially in identifying its properties as the
subject matter. Lack of instructional materials in teaching, and to identify some problems teachers may
encounter in the improvisation instructional materials.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The lack of relevant teaching and learning resources has been of a serious concern to science educators. In
which Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS is not in exclusion, which makes the teaching of physics more abstract and
difficult, especially, light energy as a topic.
Light energy is a topic that runs through from the basic to secondary levels of the education. But due to lack of
relevant teaching and learning resources, students in Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS One find it difficult to
understand the topic “Light Energy”. Which has resulted from the low scores obtained by the students from the
short quiz conduction on the topic for the pupils.
It was reported by the integrated science department of the school that students always perform poorly when as
integrated science exam paper is dominated with physic questions.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of this study was to use improvised instructional materials to teach light energy concept at
Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS One to overcome the learning difficulties in the topic.
Improvisation in this condition means the local instructional materials within the environment that are useful in
the teaching and learning process. (Ehikioya 1998). It’s the act of coming-up or producing relevant local
materials for instruction by the teacher or the student, when commercially made instructional materials are not
available.
SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY
This research is geared towards identifying some appropriate improvised instructional materials to teach the
concept of “light energy” in Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS one.
It is also of the interest to identify problems teachers may encounter in the improvisation of instructional
materials.
The research is aimed at entrancing the understanding of the concept of light energy and physic as a branch of
science and to help reveal science teachers attitudes toward improvisation.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following questions guide to research:
1. What is improvisational
2. What instructional materials can be improvised by teachers during the teaching of light energy in
physics at Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS one.
3. What attitudes of science teachers towards the production of improvisation instructional materials at Gbi
Central R.C Boys JHS one.
4. What problems are likely to be faced by science teachers when improvising instructional materials at
Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS One at Hohoe.
DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The use of improvised materials in teaching some concepts in science and physics to be specific is an issue that
needs to be in Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS, Hohoe. The study is supposed to have covered the entire topic in
physic at basic school level. But however it has been limited to the topic “light energy”
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
A study will not be free from problems or challenges. During the course of the study some of the challenges
encountered as
1. A few of the students were not following the lesson during the course of delivering the lesson
2. Few of the students have made up their mind the subject is difficult so they were not ready to learn it.
3. Very few of respondents were not willing to give reliable information.
ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
The study has been divided into five chapters; following this chapter is the second which deals with the
literature review of the study.
Chapter three outline the methodology of the study, followed by the fourth chapter which presents the result and
discussion of the study and the fifth chapter, conclusion and recommendation of the study.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter reviews the literature and emphasis on the meaning, advantages and disadvantages of improvised
instructional materials that can be improvised when teaching “Light energy”, teachers attitude towards the
production of improvised instructional materials and the problems science teachers face when improvising
science instructional materials
IMPROVISED MATERIALS
Improvised Materials are materials that we use in the absence of the real, original or delicate object to bring
about the same learning effect that the real or complicated material would have brought. These materials can be
invented or produced from readily available materials within our local environments. A very vivid example is
the use of ashes and unripe orange to teach as the improvised instructional materials in place of the real acid and
base. Because the ashes of wood when dissolve in water is basic in nature and manifest the same characteristics
of an alkaline. The same apply to juice of the unripe orange is acidic in nature so it will also help the pupil
understand the properties better just as if the real acid and base were to be used in the teaching.
Science instructional materials are very essential, in the teaching of science lesson, because it involve the
students in the process of delivering the lesson, which enhance retention and understanding of the lesson.
Especially, taking into consideration the newly introduces curriculum, which is standard based curriculum
emphasis on problem-based lesson delivering by the teachers, which allow the pupils to actively participate
during the cause of the lesson, makes the teacher as a facilitator, which can only be achieved with the
involvement of instructional materials in the lesson delivering.
But most schools lack instructional materials especially Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS. Which has made it
necessary to encourage improvisation of instructional materials, to improve the teaching of science especially
physics that has been identify by students as difficult and abstract, by the use of local materials, to locally
produce instructional materials.
The use of locally produced instructional materials in the teaching situations has many advantages. Some of
these advantages according to Arlin and Asimah (2006) include the fact that;
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They motivate learners through participatory activities during production.
They can be used to teach large classes.
They are cheaper to produce or buy because the raw materials are obtained from the local source.
They encourages class participation
And adding a few advantages to the above mention advantages are

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It improves the understanding of the concept and other scientific principles.
It also improves application of the concept or understanding to the real life situation hence improving
technology.
Improvisation of instructional materials improves critical thinking in the students as they will try to find
the usefulness of most things in their environment.
Improvisation is a way of producing instructional materials, helps students to understand same concept in
science because they all apply in the construction of them.
In improvisation of instructional materials, there are few challenges that may be encountered during the process
leading to some of the disadvantages associated with improvised instructional materials, according to Arlin and
Asimah (2006) include the fact that:

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Improvised materials about the lowering of standards.
They may be expensive so may not be enough for the lesson

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Learning may become boring if the improvised instructional materials are not giving the expected
results.
Available materials may not be suitable for the lesson.
The finding of studies has revealed some of the problem faces by science teachers especially the physics
teachers during improvisation which include financial constraints or limitations, lack of skills and strategies on
improvisation, large class size, time constraints, unavailability of tools and lack of exposure on improvisation,
contributing to the lack of the use of improvised instructional materials in the schools and contributing to some
of the challenges faced by the educators.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS THAT CAN BE IMPROVISED FOR THE LIGHT ENERGY IN
PHYSICS
One of the necessary conditions for technological development, which form the back for high scientific literacy.
And physics forming the major effect for the technological growth, especially in terms of machines.
To achieve this, science education must be available to all, in an understanding form, to boost the interest of
many to learn science, and one of the major ways to achieve that is through improvisation of instructional
materials. Because, the main role of science education in Ghana is to produce and inform citizens rather than
new scientists.
The prevalent and principal opinion among science educators and scientists is that practical work in science
education increase comprehension for scientific knowledge, principles, and the appreciation in the real world.
And due to that it has emphasized in the new and modern curriculum (standard-based curriculum) implemented
in the educational system in Ghana (2019). And the only way to praticalize lesson, can only be added with
instructional materials but the major challenge now in the educational system in almost all developing countries
is lack of instructional materials to teach. And one of the most suitable way and better way to handle such
situation is to improve upon “hands-on” or practical lesson through improvisation of instructional materials for
the teaching. Especially science, making it more specific physic which is believed to be more abstract and
difficult. Through the practical activities, scientific concepts are develop and providing opportunities for the
learner to investigate on some of the concepts.
In the study I have come to identify some improvised instructional materials that can be used to help the
learners to understand better the concept of light energy and its characteristics in physics, a subject in science. A
transparent rubber bottle, with water and fine sand, using a perforated hard card to improvise an atmosphere to
study the light energy for a better understanding, using a touch light.
PRODUCTION OF AN ATMOSPHERE FOR EFFECTIVE LIGHT DIFFUSION

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Get a transparent bottle that can contain liquid between 350ml and 500ml for an effective result
Fill the transparent bottle with clean water.
Add a teaspoon of fine sand to it to have partial dirty water.
Cut a hard card with the same height of the bottle that can be fold into three faces, to engulf the bottle.
Perforate the card at the middle, between the lengths of 3 to 4mm from the bottom of the card.

Shark and place the bottle with water in between the three face card and on a torch light from the
perforated hole to create a pointed source of light to pass through the partly dirty water, to clearly
observe the light rays, from the beam of light.
NOTE
When the transparent bottle has rings on it, like the voltic bottle the production of the hard card is not necessary,
just get a point source of light and light it through the partly dirty water after sharking, moving the light gently
up and down to observe the properties of light.


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The use of the perforated card is just to produce a pointed source of light.
And make sure just after the sharking of the bottle content, light the torch to pass through it.
And the light source through the perforated hole can also be moving gently up and down by the sharked
partly dirty water in the transparent bottle.
PROBLEMS FACED BY SCIENCE TEACHERS WHEN IMPROVISING INSTRUCTIONAL
MATERIALS
There appears to be lack of organized improvisation instruction in science education, more especially physic.
Most teachers do not seem to be making room for improvisation in their lesson delivering for students to
participate in creative activities in the class.
One of the major problems with science education in most of the developing countries in which Ghana is not in
exclusion is lack of creativity. Which will actively involve the students especially at the basic level, which
serves as the foundation of the science education and education. It is based on this the maximum impact of
scientific knowledge to the social life is not felt. Because the foundation is weak. And is a result of not building
certain concept that luck instructional materials on improvisation to be able to make maximum use of local
things in our society making the science education real and applicable. Authors have come out with few reasons
why improvisation has not been implemented effectively as possible. To bring out the best out from learners.
According to Riveire (2006) improvisation may be sacrificed due to shortages of resources including time,
money, lack of teacher experience in improvisation. Adding to that, is to say that in order to prepare children to
live in this ever civilizing and technological world. Teachers must make much effort as far as science education
is concern, to enrich their lives with solid and good foundation at the basic level with improvisation even in the
absence of real material, to make the scientific knowledge applicable their immediate environment. Which can
expand or broaden their understanding through aesthetic awareness and creative thinking.
Though teachers must consider the amount of class time available whiles planning the scope of curriculum,
improvisation is a skill that can contribute uniquely to a student’s learning experience and creative thinking.
Lack of personal experiences may also be one of the factors affecting improvisation in science education.
According (Riveire 2006) as teachers emulate the method used in their own education, lack of improvisation in
their training may discourage them from using it, which means that improvisation will aid the teacher to
reproduce whatever method is being learnt everywhere at anytime. Because it gives more clarity to those
methods to be creative in using them.
Again, Riverie (2006), Volz (2005), when a teacher is fearful, lack confidence or does not value the use of
improvised materials used on previous experience, there is a higher likelihood it would not be included in his or
her instruction.
To produce improvised materials, it involves going round to get and gather materials even much more
information much time is always spent than going to buy the already made instructional materials. And this
prevents most science teachers from producing improvised instructional material.
Improvisation always sounds like an addition or extra work for the science teachers. As the teacher always
thinks their work is to go to the classroom and teach. But leaving the fact that is also their responsibility the
students understands what you are teaching, to ginger them to adopt different ways especially improvisation to
make them less clear, but not being so abstract as how the physics has being made to look abstract and difficult
for the students. For this reason of looking at improvisation as an extra work, they tend to ignore improvisation
activities with the motion that it is not part of their work.
Class size is also one of the factors that hinder the use of improvised instructional materials in science
education. Large class size always deters teachers from introducing improvisation to teach. Because a lot of
such instructional materials needs to be produced to reach the class. Aside that also, controlling large classes is
also another challenge which is mostly look at in such an activity by most teachers, thereby discouraging the
use of improvised instructional materials.
The use of improvisation to develop teaching materials in the delivering of science education enables the
students to develop the skills, helping them to produce them on their own. By so doing they develop the
likeness for science especially physics which is seen to be difficult and abstract. As children begin to exhibit
those kind of behavior and characteristic, it help to create the awareness and the importance of science
education to the society, serving as the beginning of enhance and promoting technology.
Bringing to a close, the chapter throws light on the literature review by experts in different field of study in
connection to the subject of study as well as the researchers on the topic. The whole discussion in the chapter
was based on the meaning of improvised instructional materials, its merits and demerits. The chapter also
discussed the production of some improvised materials on light energy that can be used to explain the topic very
well. Again, the attitude of some science teachers and some challenges faced by some science teachers when
improvising were also discussed.
METHODOLOGY
In the context for this study, improvisation means the production of locally made instructional materials within
the environment for the teaching and learning process. According to (Ehikioya 1998) it is the act of providing
relevant local materials for instruction by teacher or the students, when commercially made instructional
materials are not readily available.
So the principal focus of this study was to use improvised instructional materials to teach light energy to the
students of Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS One in Hohoe.
This chapter discusses the research which has being employed for this study. It include sample and sampling,
population, the study context, research design, techniques, research instruments used to collect data, preintervation, intervation design, post-intervation and the summary of this chapter.
STUDY AREA
The study was conducted in Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS in Hohoe, in Hohoe Municipality and in the Volta
Region. The municipality form part of the Northern Volta which share boundaries with Oti Region, one of the
popular newly created regions in the country Ghana and the republic of Togo municipality is one of the 25
administrative districts of the Volta region of Ghana. It was carved out of the former Kpando District as it was
established by the legislative instrument of 2012. According to the ministry finance stated in the composite
budget from 2021 to 2024 for Hohoe municipality, the municipality has a total land area of 1,172km which is
5.6% of the land of the Volta region. Hohoe is a commercial town filled with a lot of commercial activities. The
majority of the inhabitants are into small-scale businesses and farming in the nearby villages and the outskirt of
the town, which has support the growth of commercial activities in the town and overall development of the
town.
According to national population census (2021), the total population of Hohoe municipality is 114,472. The
ethnic group or composition of Hohoe is comprised mainly of the Ewe group as the main inhabitants. However,
there are some groups of the Guans such as Lolobi, Likpe and some Dangombas.
In terms of
education, Hohoe township is privilege to have three tertiary institutions. To be more specific one university
and two colleges of education. In addition to that, two training institutes namely midwifery and wider-training
institute, with about twenty-three (23) basic schools and two second cycle schools in the township of Hohoe
which has made Hohoe a well civilized society.
RESEARCH DESIGN
The major aim of is to investigate the effectiveness or to explore the strengths of the use of improvised
instructional materials in the teaching of physics as a branch of sciences. So action research was carried out for
this investigation. As it has been found more useful and effective in finding out how improvised instructional
materials can help in the teaching and learning of science. To be more specific, the study seeks to improve the
understanding of light energy as topic using action research.
According to Alhassan (2006) an action research is a problem solving research devoted to the solution of an
immediate problem in a given situation. In a clear term, it means action research used to find solution to
practical problems which informs decision-making in situations. So it has being employed to practically find out
how the use of improvised instructional materials will improvised the understanding of the concept of “light
energy” in physics and science as a whole, especially in Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS One.
RESEARCH POPULATION
Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS has three years groups of students, year one, year two and year three, which is
commonly referred to as JHS one, JHS two and JHS three respectively. Each year or level of the school has an
average student number of about 50, where each level comprises two classes each; class “A” and class “B”. The
staff strength is (14) with two national service personnels on the teaching staff. The total population of Gbi
Central R.C Boys JHS is (150) in average due to the continuous admission in the school currently.
SAMPLE AND SAMPLING PROCEDURE
The research instruments used for the data collection were in two phases and in both phases; questionnaire and
test (practicals) were employed. Questionnaire is one of the most used instruments for data collection, where the
use of test (practicals or hands-on test) is rarely used to carry out research and only used if the results need to be
tested and verified. Just as the topic under study.
DATA COLLECTION WITH THE USE OF QUESTIONNAIRE IN THREE PHASES. AND AS THE
COMMONLY USED INSTRUMENT FOR DATA COLLECTION
In the application of the practicals was aim to help the students to have more ideas, and to help them to answer
the questions that will be put on their questionnaire properly based on their experience and understanding, to
give accurate answers. Because some of the students may not have any idea about improvisation and may have
never experience it in their life. And the responses that the pupils will give on the questionnaire have informed
how helpful and effective this particular study will help the pupils as far as the study of physic and science as
whole is concern.
Now, data collection with the use of questionnaire comes in three phases. As it is the commonly and widely use
instrument for data collection as far as research is concern.
The first phase of the questionnaire was to find out the instructional materials available in the school and how
often the teacher go for them and use if they are available with only three (3) items to tackle and answer.
The second phase of the questionnaire involves the collection of data on the teacher’s attitudes and the problems
the science teachers face in the production of the improvised materials.
The third phase is divided into five parts, in which the first part seeks to find out about the background of the
students with five (5) items. The second part also collect data about how often science teachers make use of
instructional materials in their lesson delivery. The third part deals with collection of information about whether
teachers often come to class with improvised materials and the fourth and the last seek to gather information
about if the pupils are actively involved in the production of improvised materials with only 5 items.
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE INSTRUMENT
VALIDITY
According to Nitko (2001), validity is the soundness of the interpretation and uses of student’s assessment
results. So in this content, it can be referred to as how accurately a method measures what it is intended to
measure. A research can be said to have high validity, as it produces results that corresponds to real properties,
characteristics and variations in the physical or social world, and it has the ability to accurately bring clarity to
the topic under study. In order to ensure the validity, the few science teachers were involved to examine and
analyze the responds from the pupils on the questionnaire and allow them to give their verdict and suggestions
for improvement.
RELIABILITY
Reliability is about how well a method measures something, which refers to the consistency of a measure when
reproduced. In simple terms, regarding a study as research, its reliability is the degree to which the research
method produce stable and consistent result with respect to the instrument used. So reliability is an essential
characteristic of a good study to produce consistent results. Because the instrument must be subjected by other
researchers and supervisors by scrutiny for another proof reading to be sure the instrument used to justify that
the research is good and consistent with the results.
DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE
The data of the study was obtained from the questionnaire which was administered. Arrangement was made
with the teachers teaching integrated science in the school (Gbi Central R.C Boys
JHS) to assist in the data collection as some questionnaires were administered to them, then the students as they
were informed to remain indoors for it within a duration of about 15 minutes.
PRE-INTERVENTION
To ensure that the anticipated problem really exist, three sets of questionnaires were devised; one for the science
teachers, and another one for the pupils, and the last one for the headmaster. The questionnaire given to the
science teachers and the headmaster was collected the following day. But the questionnaire for the students was
self-administrated and collected the same day within the duration of about 15 minutes.
INTERVATION
The intervation strategies adopted after analyzing the questionnaire was that the sample pupils (JHS One) were
taken through the concept of “light energy: using the few available original teaching and learning materials, as
the topic itself lack teaching and learning materials. The sample students (JHS One) were taken through the
intensive teaching throughout the whole one week, which comprise of six periods in total with two periods at a
time, which is made up of (70 marks) in total for the whole week, the time used was 210 minutes. After which
the pupils were assessed at the end of the week.
Scores obtain after using original instructional materials
Table 1
Number of Pupils
5
2
5
8
7
9
6
5
5
Total: 52
Scores
1
2
3
4
5
7
8
9
10
Table two (2)
Scores obtain after using improvised instructional material
Number of Pupils
2
5
5
8
7
5
9
5
Total: 52
Scores
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Table 3
Scores obtained after using both original and improvised materials to teach concept of “Light”
Number of Pupils
1
2
3
5
5
7
9
9
10
Scores
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Mean:
Mean:
POST-INTERVATION
The post-intevation aimed to find out the effectiveness of using the improvised teaching materials to teach ‘light
energy’. After which a discussion was held between the researcher and the teachers involved on the campus.
SUMMARY
This chapter was mainly focused on discussing the methodology used to do the study.
CHAPTER FOUR (4)
This chapter focused mainly on the analysis and discussion about the study conducted data collected. In this
chapter, tables, pie charts and bar graphs will be use to illustrate the information in the discussions. Also the
data collected from the science teachers, the head teacher and the pupils of Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS using the
questionnaire will be analyzed separately, to see their views about the use of improvised instructional materials
for teaching and learning integrated science, and to be specific physics in basic schools.
The number and percentages of the study o each stage will be calculated to help in the calculating and
discussing of the results of the various stages of the study.
In all we have 55 responses during the data collection. One from the head teacher, two from the science teachers
on the teaching staff of the school, Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS and 50 responses from the pupils in JHS One
classes, which comprises of “A” and “B” classes of which 28 from ‘B’ and 24 from ‘A’ class.
This chapter is in two sections. Section one describes the bio-data of the pupils in school (Gbi Central R.C Boys
JHS) for discussion and while the second section presents issues on the research questions.
SECTION ONE: BIO-DATA
Background characteristics of students respondents.
This part of the analysis seeks to find out the various differences that exist among the pupils (respondents). It’s
very important to know the background characteristics of the sample (pupils) used to conduct the study in order
to make an informed decision about their competency on this study.
Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS is a single sex school made up of only boys as the pupils, making the respondents to
be males only, whereby the teaching staff is made up of both sexes that is both men and women.
Age distribution of the pupils
According to the information gathered using the questionnaire gives us the age distribution as followed in the
table and graph.
Table 4
Age distribution of the pupils in the table
Age (years)
12
Frequency
2
Percentage
3.9%
13
25%
10
19.2%
7
13.5%
9
17.3%
6
11.5%
5
9.6%
13
14
15
16
17
18
Total: 52
Total: 100%
From the table 4, shows the age distribution of pupils (respondents) or the sample. The age ranges from 12 to
18. From the table above only two of the pupils is 12 years of age having 3.8%
SECTION TWO: RESPONSES TO THE RESEARCH QUESTION
This section is aimed at discussion of the responses the participants gave or gathered from the sample with the
help of questionnaire to address the issue under study. The responses that emerged from each question has being
paraphrased and discussed in the following sub-topics.
Question 1: This section looks at views of the improvised instructional materials from the head teacher,
teachers and the pupils.
According to the head teacher improvised instructional materials are instructional materials which are produced
by the teacher from the local materials from the environment for teaching and learning.
The teachers also gave similar view about the improvised materials. With two science teachers, one stated that
improvised instructional materials are produced from discard materials from the locality. Whiles the second
teacher believed the materials are produced from the materials from the environment not necessarily from the
discard materials only.
To represent the responses of the teachers about the production of the improvised materials in a pie chart is as
follow, where one teacher holds a portion of 30% with the total of two teachers.
From discard
Materials
50%
From materials in
the environment
50%
MAJOR FINDINGS FROM THE ANALYSIS OF THE QUESTION
The responses on this question has throw light on the issue that, improvised materials can be obtain from our
immediate environment, mainly from discard materials and also any material from the locality
VIEW OF STUDENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF IMPROVISED MATERIALS
According to the views of the pupils on the preparation of the improvised materials, out of the 52 pupils, 29 of
them agreed that the improvised materials are made from materials from the local environment, whiles 23 of the
pupils believed they are made from the discard materials in the environment. The pie chart below is the
representation of the above pupils view on the materials used to produce improvised materials.
MAJOR FINDINGS FROM THE ANALYSIS OF THE QUESTION
The responses on this question has thrown light on the fact that improvised materials can be obtained from our
immediate environment mainly from discard materials and also any available local and useable materials.
Research Question Two: What are the attitudes of science teachers toward production of improvised
materials?
HEADMASTER’S VIEW:
According to the head teacher, he confirmed that, the improvised materials are prepared by the teachers
themselves but not with the pupils, as represented in the table below.
Statements
Science teachers improvised instructional
materials by themselves
Responses (%)
Total (%)
Strong Agree Agree Strong Disagree Disagree
1 (100%)
Science teachers improvised instructional
materials with their pupils
1 (100%)
1 (100%)
1 (100%)
TEACHERS VIEW:
According to the teachers they agree and confirmed that they receive some help from the students and also do
the production of the improvised materials by themselves, from the two science teachers from the school Gbi
Central R.C Boys JHS.
Statements
Often produce science instructional materials by
yourself.
Produce instructional materials in collaboration
with the pupils.
Strong
Agree
Responses (%)
Agree
Strong
Disagree
Total (%)
2 (50%)
1 (50%)
2 (100%)
1 (50%)
2 (50%)
2 (100%)
Disagree
Produce instructional materials in collaboration
with the school.
1(50%)
1(50%)
2 (100%)
Produce the improvised material to generate
money for the school.
1 (50%)
1(50%)
2 (100%)
And according to the table the teachers do not produce them to generate money nor in collaboration with the
school.
PUPILS VIEW ABOUT THE ATTITUDE OF THE TEACHERS ON THE IMPROVISATION OF
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS.
From the table above, the pupils have agreed and confirmed that the teachers produced the improvised materials
by themselves and sometimes they help them to produce it.
Statements
Science teachers produced the improvised instructional materials by
themselves
Responses (%)
Agree
Disagree
32 (62%)
20 (38%)
Science teachers produced the improvised instructional materials with
the pupils
29 (55.8%)
23 (44.2%)
Total (%)
52 (100%)
52 (100%)
MAJOR FINDINGS
From the analysis from the question, it brought to a conclusion that most of the work to improvise the
instructional materials is done by the teachers, with the pupils offering help to the teachers sometimes, in the
form of supplying the teachers with some materials for the preparation of the instructional.
Question Three (3): What problems are faced by science teachers when in the production of improvised
instructional materials.
HEAD TEACHERS VIEW:
Science teachers mostly receive little financial commitment from the school due to lack of funds from the
government to the schools for the purchasing of some of the materials needed to be purchased. Which leave the
science teachers to take up the sole responsibility to produce such instructional material for pupils.
VIEWS OF SCIENCE TEACHERS:
The teachers disagree about getting any financial support from the school administration. And they produce the
improvised instructional not from any resource centre since the school do not have it. But rather they produce
them from home as it’s represented in the table below.
Statements
Responses (%)
Agree
Disagree
All (2)
Get financial support from the school
Do not produce the improvised instructional materials from resource
centre.
Produce the instructional materials from home
Total (%)
2(100%)
All (2)
2 (100%)
All (2)
2 (100%)
PUPILS VIEW
Out of the study with the pupils, it was brought to light that, some of the pupils offer help to their teachers,
specifically to the science teachers by providing them with some of the materials that will be useful for the
production of the improvised instructional materials such as discard materials like empty rubber bottles. And
also assist their teacher in setting them up in the class in the cause of the lesson as demonstrated in the practical
aspect of the study but do not help them to produce them.
Statements
Agree
Assist the science teachers in production of the improvised materials
Responses
Disagree
All (52)
Assist in looking for materials to produce the instructional materials
Some ( )
Some ( )
Help set up the improvised instructional materials in the class
Some (
Some (
)
Total (%)
52(100%)
52 (100%)
)
52 (100%)
MAJOR FINDINGS FROM THE ANALYSIS OF THE QUESTION THREE (3)
It was revealed from the analysis that the teachers mostly use their own fund (money) to produce the improvised
instructional materials with little support from the school. With the pupils also helping to get some readily
available from the local environment that will be useful for the production of the instructional materials. And
the science teachers produce the instructional materials at home due to lack of resource centre in the school.
CHAPTER 5
This chapter presents the summary, conclusion, recommendations and suggestions for further studies.
SUMMARY
The basic focus behind the study is to compare the effectiveness or how useful is the use of improvised
materials are to the original teaching and learning materials to the understanding of the learning in science, and
physics to be specific. So action research was considered to be the most effective in finding answers to the
questions. The total population (sample) used for the research was (55), having fifty two (52) pupils, two (2)
science teachers on the staff, and the head teacher.
FINDINGS
The findings of the study are group under the following headings
Research Question1: What is meant by improvised materials?
Research Question 2: What instructional materials can be improvised by teachers in Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS
to teach light energy?
Research Question1 3: What are the attitudes of science teachers in improvisation of teaching materials.
Research Question 4: What problems are faced by science teachers when improvising instructional materials.
IMPROVISED MATERIALS
Out of the study, it was underlined that improvised materials can be attained from the local environment using
discard materials and any useful material from the environment. Again, it was brought to light from the study
that in the absence of the original materials, improvised materials can be used to help the learners understand
the topic especially physic making the subject less abstract and less difficult to understand.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS CAN BE IMPROVISED IN THE TEACHING OF LIGHT ENERGY.
It was made clear and well understood in that a lazy or unclear atmosphere can be improvise to allow a good
amount of light to pass through it. Using a plane bottle or container with a reasonable amount of fine sand.
ATTITUDE OF SCIENCE TEACHERS TOWARD THE PRODUCTION OF IMPROVISED
MATERIALS
The study has brought to light that teachers prepare the improvised instructional materials by themselves with
sometimes little involvement of the students or no involvement of them.
And out of the study it made clear that materials from the environment are used in the preparation of improvised
materials.
The study also reveals that the teachers do not prepare the improvised instructional materials to make money
but rather to teach by helping the pupils to understand what they are teaching, bring to the understanding that in
basic school instructional materials are used to teach. In which the teacher does the majority of the work in the
preparation before bringing it to the class for teaching.
PROBLEMS FACED BY SCIENCE TEACHERS WHEN IMPROVISING INSTRUCTIONAL
MATERIALS.
Bringing up something new to solve a problem will surely encounter problem. Among the problems faced and
are likely to be faced by the science teachers in the preparation of improvised materials is lack of readily
available resources which therefore involve more work to be done to get the needed sources for the work.
Lack of support and financial commitment by the school authority in most cases and assistance from colleagues,
making it the sole responsibility of the science teacher and end-up being a burden for the teacher to solve. Gbi
Central R.C Boys do not have a resource centre or a separate room as store room to keep such improvised
instructional materials after use for future use again.
CONCLUSION
The effective and proper use of instructional materials increases the understanding of the students in the
teaching and learning process, it was identify that improvised instructional materials also has the same
understanding of the students.
The school, Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS lacks a resource centre making the production of the improvised
instructional materials difficult and their storage difficult.
The producing of the improvised instructional materials was quiet challenging despite its success due to a
certain problem encountered by the teacher which are: Lack of readily availability of
resources, lack of support and financial support from the school authorities and lack of assistance from
colleagues and students.
Another issue is that most of the students do not like science especially the physics topic which they presume it
was difficult due to lack of proper understanding of the subject.
RECOMMENDATION
The study has helped to reveal how effective the improvised material contributed to the better understanding of
the concept light energy. Hence science teachers should be recommended to use improvised materials in
teaching in the absences of the original teaching and learning materials especially topics with less or no
teaching and learning materials. By instilling the desire in them through workshops or in-service training or preservice training.
Again the basic school specifically Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS should be equipped with a small science resource
centre to help in the production and storing of the materials when produced to limit the financial cost in the
product of such instructional materials.
Since the improvisation of the teaching and learning materials increase the understanding and ability to apply
the knowledge the students should be involved in preparation or production of such improvised materials to
widen their understanding of science in general.
Last but not the least, the school headship and the stakeholders of the school especially the Roman Catholic
Church (St. Augustine) because of the school being a mission school should also accessionally produce
assistance to the school and the teaching for works like producing instructional materials to the school either by
financially, or purchasing the items for the school.
SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER STUDIES
It’s much work has done by the teacher about the topic, but great vacuum is left to be filled and much more
simple improvised instructional materials can be studied to bring more and varies materials in teaching science
and physics to be more specific. They can undertake similar topics as there is a great vacuum in different basic
schools; to get a better representation of the entire production if similar result will be attained.
The researcher would also like to suggest that emphasis should be placed on improvising instructional materials
for teaching in different topics in science and for teaching different subject area.
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ST. FRANCIS COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, HOHOE
HELPING JHS ONE PUPILS OF GBI CENTRAL R.C BOYS JHS TO UNDERSTAND THE
CONCEPT OF LIGHT ENERGY BY USING IMPROVISATION
BY
JULIUS NYASORGBOR
SEPTEMBER 2022
DECLARATION
Candidate’s Declaration
I Julius Nyasorgbor thereby declare this work original with exception of the quotations and references contained
in this publication. To be submitted to St. Francis College of Education Science department for the awarding of
a degree in basic education.
Candidate’s Name: Julius Nyasorgbor
Index Number:
Signature: .........................................
Date: ..................................................
Supervisor’s Declaration
I thereby declare that, the preparation and presentation of this publication were supervised in accordance with
the guidelines of supervision of project work laid down by the St. Francis College of Education.
Name of supervisor: Mr. Kotoka Isreal
Signature: ......................................
Date: .............................................
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to investigate how effective Improvisations of Instructional Materials (IIM) in
teaching physics as an aspect of science will improve science education in Ghana and beyond. Focusing on the
effectiveness of IIM in the teaching of science.
In the teaching of Light Energy at Gbi Central R.C Boys JHS, Hohoe. Unclear atmosphere was improvised for
light pass through, helping to identify some of its properties, using four transparent bottles filled with water and
fine sand, with four pointed sources of light.
It was found out that, understanding the properties of light was easier, practical, easy to retain, relatable and
applicable.
Keywords: Improvisation, physics, effectiveness, teaching.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Mr. Kotoka Isreal for his supportive and
sightful comments and selfless support which has made the accomplishment of the study a success.
My special thanks are extended to my lead Mentor, Mr. W.K Akpakli, my mentor Madam Attah Pearl Asayah
and Mr. Yorlekeh Emmanuel and Madam
DEDICATION
I dedicate this book to my ever supportive parents and siblings