COMPARATIVE EFFECTS OF PROBLEM SOLVING AND DEMONSTRATION TEACHING METHODS ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of the Study
Financial Accounting is one of the vocational subjects offered at the senior secondary school level in Nigeria. Eze, Ezenwafor and Obidile (2016a) defined Financial Accounting as the classification and recording of monetary transactions and presentation of the financial results of the activities of an entity for decision making. Financial accounting is concerned with recording, classifying, selecting, measuring, interpreting, summarizing and reporting financial information of an organization to the users for objective assessment and decision making (Monday and Joel, 2017). It also involves the collection, recording, summarizing, analyzing and reporting in monetary terms, information about a business organization to the users of such information. Knowledge of financial accounting is very indispensable for every individual, particularly those who are involved in business. According to Akpanobong and Asuquo (2015), this is because accounting records help businessmen to evaluate the performance and profitability of the business organization, prevent frauds, monitor the enterprise progress and making economic comparisons.
The National Examinations Council (2010) stated that the objectives of Financial Accounting at the senior secondary school level include, among others, (a) to enable senior secondary school students appreciate the basic roles, functions and principles of accounting and (b) to enable the students understand the basic accounting principles, practice and their applications to modern business activities. The achievement of these laudable objectives of Financial Accounting depends, to some extent, on the teaching method used by the teachers.
Teaching methods are the various ways in which the teacher present the lessons to the learners and engage them in learning the curriculum contents (Ogwo and Oranu, 2006). Teaching methods can also be seen as the various processes and strategies adopted and used by the teachers to present the skills, knowledge and appreciations to the learners in the classroom to facilitate their learning of the curriculum contents. There are several teaching methods used in the teaching of Financial Accounting at the secondary school level. These include, among several others, the lecture method, project method, discussion and demonstration methods. Eze, Ezenwafor and Obidile (2016b) noted that the teaching method adopted by the teacher affect the students’ academic performance to a large extent. This source noted that the traditional methods of teaching Financial Accounting such as lecture and demonstration methods seems inadequate to encourage the students to develop a wide range of knowledge and skills that will make them gain and sustain employment. As the number of topics that need to be covered in Financial Accounting continue to increase, the traditional methods of instruction seem to fall short of achieving the intended objectives, hence, the continuous poor examination results. One of the possible strategies that could be used to enhance students’ academic performance in Financial Accounting is problem solving method.
According to Ozalkan (2010), problem solving method is a method of teaching that involves using problems as well as problem solving steps and strategies. The author defined a “problem” as something that usually indicates a challenge, the meeting of which requires study and investigation. The author therefore defined problem-solving as the frame work or pattern within which creative thinking and learning takes place. It is a process of overcoming difficulties that appear to interfere with the attainment of a goal. Preven (2010) maintained that teaching with problem-solving method entails the teaching of strategies, or heuristics, in order to solve problems. It also involves application of critical thinking and reasoning to various kinds of problems encountered in life.
Ozalkan (2010) stated that there are four major problem solving steps that could be used with the problem solving method. These are understanding the problem, devising a plan, carrying out the plan and looking back and extend. Understanding the problem involves restating the problem on which the unknown would be decided. Devising a plan entails recollecting the previously learned knowledge and deciding on which calculations or computations will be used. Carrying out the plan entails implementing the plan formerly devised. Ozalkan explained that the last step, looking back and extend involves reconsidering the result and the path that led to it in order to consolidate the knowledge and generalize it to develop an ability to solve other similar problems.
Ozalkan (2010) and Ali, Hukamdad, Akhter and Khan (2010) contended that there are a number of problem solving strategies that are used in the problem solving method for solving problems. These include working backwards, finding a pattern, adopting a different point of view, solving a simpler, analogous problem and considering extreme cases. Others are making a drawing, intelligent guessing and testing, accounting for all possibilities, organizing data, logical reasoning as well as deriving an equation. Four of these problem solving strategies would be applied in the problem solving method in this study for teaching Financial Accounting. These are working backwards, finding a pattern, intelligent guessing and testing as well as logical reasoning.
According to Ali, Hukamdad, Akhter and Khan (2010), working backwards involves solving a problem from the last step to the beginning while finding a pattern entails analyzing the given data or knowledge and looking for a pattern on them. The third problem solving strategy, intelligent guessing and testing entails guessing the solution or the exact value that is asked in the problem and testing to see if it is correct or not while logical reasoning entails analyzing the relationship among the given values or knowledge and using the information to solve the problem (Ozalkan, 2010).
COMPARATIVE EFFECTS OF PROBLEM SOLVING AND DEMONSTRATION TEACHING METHODS ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS