Influence of Instructional materials on Academic Achievement of Secondary School Students in Social Studies in Southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

Instructional materials are resources that teacher uses to facilitate the teaching and learning 
process.Most good teachers appreciate the need for instructional materials in the teaching and 
learning process. However, permanent learning can take place only when pupils actively participate 
in a variety of learning activities that challenge them to think creatively.This study investigated the 
influence of instructional materials on the academic achievement of secondary school students in 
Social Studies in Southwest, Nigeria.Thepopulationconsisted of 3,482 Junior Secondary 2 students 
and 36 Social Studies teachers were randomly selected from all Junior Secondary School 2 students 
and all JSS2 Social Studies teachers in Southwest, Nigeria.Two research instruments –
Instructional Materials Questionnaire (IMQ)( =0.75)and Social Studies Achievement Test (SSAT)
( =0.652)were developed and used for data collection. Two research questionswere formulated 
and answered. For data analysis, descriptive statistics of frequency, mean, percentages and standard 
deviation was used. The results showed that instructional materials can be improvised by teachers 
(x =3.39), instructional materials can be improvised with the use of local materials ( x = 3.25), 
instructional materials makes a teacher vibrant ( =3.25), a teacher without instructional materials 
is x incomplete ( =2.81), teaching without instructional materials is obsolete and futile ( = 2.75), 
xx classroom lesson cannot be effective without the use of instructional materials” ( =2.58), 
teachers x cannot teach well without instructional materials ( x =2.36), many teachers use 
instructional materials just to please supervisors ( = 2.25). Lastly, only government can provide 
instructional x materials ( =1.58). The results also showed that there was significant relationship 
between the use x of instructional materials and academic achievement of students in Social Studies 
(r = 0.62, p <0.05). It can be concluded that the use of instructional materials can help teachers of Social Studies to 
perform better in teaching. It was suggested that teachers of Social Studies should make all efforts 
to use instructional materials in teaching and encourage students to get local materials in their 
environment.