AN APPRAISAL OF INFORMATION PROCESSING TECHNIQUE BY SECONDARY STUDENT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the study

Because of the development of information engineering, the twenty first century is being called the Knowledge Based Society. Information processing could be seen as the process employed by a person in internalizing information and accommodating new information to the learner’s cognition, in a way that such information could be recalled when needed. Ngwoke (2006) explained information processing as the internal process that deals with the storage of information and the later retrieval of the information in addition to the process that intervenes between the taking in of information and the subsequent retrieval of that information. In the same vein, Nwachukwu (1994) defined information processing as an individual attempt to integrate new information into the knowledge that had already been accumulated in such a way that it could be retrieved at will. Furthermore, Anita (2013) defined it as the human minds activity of taking in, storing, and using information. Gagne (2005) further opined that the act of information processing is highly dependent on a successful encoding of such information into the long term memory. The lifespan of information and technology is shortened, and it becomes difficult to use information that we learned in school, therefore, the ability to choose appropriate knowledge and recompose it is needed in authentic problem situations (Evensen, Hmelo, 2000; Jonassen, 2000). Educators find new teaching methods by reflecting on existing school based teaching methods to meet the demands of the times. It increases the interrelationships of learning materials and allows students to develop a higher degree of thinking ability using in depth interaction, concrete experience, and clue compared traditional learning methods used in the subject ( Barrow, 1994). The aim of teaching any school subject must always be directed towards achieving the aims of education in general. The teaching of any subject must, therefore contribute to the all-round development of the child so that he comes out as socially useful and efficient citizen of the modern  world.

According to the Kothari commission (1964-66) “The destiny of the country is being shaped in her class rooms”. To achieve the above goals and to meet the situation in a suitable way the teacher has to play a very vital role in educational institution and come into the lime light. Teaching is considered both an art and a science. Successful and effective teaching requires two basic things. The teachers should be competent to teach the subject allotted to him/her at the same time he/she should follow new techniques of teaching to make the learning fruitful and interesting. National policy on education (1986) proposed the need for modifying curriculum and methodologies of learning through appropriate research. This can be achieved by the process of sensory integration which plays an important role in the processing information among secondary school students and hence, this research is attempted for the betterment of the teaching learning process. In our system of examination where cramming and rote learning are encouraged, strategies such as information processing will be useful in making learners think originally and critically. It is hoped that the effect of sensory enhancement will promote attention and be get strategies that would help the learner process information in a logical manner. Instead of making the learner simply reproduce the textual materials with or without understanding, the information processing approach will enhance achievement and it will encourage learner to think and understand the subject matter. This will go a long way in making the teaching-learning of subject a purposeful and meaningful activity. Successful and effective teaching requires two basic things. The traditional methods of teaching pay little attention to the psychological, biological aspects of students in learning. The teacher worries or little about the information taught has been processed or not whether it has been retrieved or recalled. Hence a necessity arose to know about the appraisal processing of information technique. This approach deals with the processes involved in receiving storing and retrieving information effectively. The information processing technique applied to the study of human perceptual and cognitive activities is useful in imaging. Now we recognize objects, and how we remember what we have understood. In other words it is based in “Cognition”, which deals with processes through which information coming through the sense is transformed, reduced, elaborated and recovered. Processing information is the main concern of any teacher. If the information is processed effectively, then learning techniques should be right and they should meet the individual needs of all learners and so the teachers should adopt a model of teaching which would be flexible and interactive. The information processing approach technique in teaching any subject should be effective in Secondary school.

• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Results of academic achievement always reveal wide differences in score among students. Therefore there appears to be the possibility that the manner, in which the individuals process information in their environment, could be a contributing factor. Some students’ have been found to be heuristic or shallow processors while others are comprehensive or deep processors (Meyer-Levy 1989). Observation has shown that some male students practically appear to be more active in deep processing while some female students appear to be shallow in processing information. However, sometimes the nature endowment in information processing might not explain the cause for variation in academic achievement of the secondary school students. What could be responsible for the situation of variation in academic achievement? The problem of the study therefore is an appraisal of information processing technique by secondary school student.