INVESTIGATION OF LESSON PLANNING PRACTICES AMONG BUSINESS STUDIES TEACHERS IN SHOMOLU LAGOS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Nigerian Educational System has gone through various developments and changes viz-a-viz curriculum issues. The dynamic nature of the curriculum process informs the concept of effective planning of integrated science curriculum in secondary schools. This is so because science education plays a vital role in the lives of individuals and the development of a nation scientifically and technologically (Aleboisu and Ifamuyiwa, 2008). It is widely and generally acknowledged that the gateway to the survival of a nation scientifically and technologically is scientific literacy which can only be achieved through science education. This starts from giving students a good foundation in integrated science from junior secondary level. But government in this direction can not be said to have yielded much fruits given the dwindling nature of student’s performance in integrated science in junior secondary school and the low rate of students offering science in senior secondary school as well as their performance in core science subjects. Disturbed by this ugly development, researchers in the field of science education in Nigeria embarked on series of studies to find the logic behind this ugly development.

They found that the problem stemmed from the first form of science a child comes across at the junior secondary school level that is integrated science. Integrated science provide students sound basis for further science education study, hence a child that is not well grounded in integrated science at this level would not show interest in offering core science subject (Biology, Chemistry and Physics) at Senior Secondary Schol level which are pre-requisites for studying science oriented courses at the Nation’s tertiary institutions. They also found that lack of qualified teachers, lack of practical work as well as lack of equipments and facilities for teaching, insufficient allotment of time for integrated science on the school time table and poor methods of teaching are the major factors militating against the successive implementation of the core curriculum in integrated science (Ajuwape and Olatoye, 2004). It is against this background that the researcher seeks to investigate the subject matter of this research:

The impact of effective planning and curriculum development on teaching and learning of integrated science in secondary school.Lesson planning in secondary schools often require teachers to turn in their lesson plans and to complete them in a certain format, it is important not to fall into the trap of completing lesson plans simply to meet the proprietor or principal’s requirement.

Rather, teachers need to plan their lessons in order to ensure that they are taking the most thoughtful approach possible to get their students where they wish them to be. Regardless of the particular format their district might require, they will need to be sure that they are making the format work for them, and that they are writing the plan not in order to meet a particular requirement but rather to ensure that their students actually accomplish the objective.Lesson plan is a written description of education process in which it is shown what, when, where and with which method learners should learn and how they should be assessed. Lesson plan is one of the key factors in the educational process.The importance of lesson planning has been over emphasized for professional development of teachers, especially in this current era of educational reform, largely because it can facilitate teacher learning (Ball 1996; Little 1993). Lesson plan is a written description for this process; where the materials, the method, the time and the place of education as well as methods for evaluating the students are described in detail. According to Farrell