STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF QBASIC PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN ENUGU EBONYI AND ANAMBRA STATES

Abstract

The  study  is  focused  on  the  strategies  for  improving  the  teaching  and learning of QBasic programming language in colleges of education. This survey study was conducted in the south east geopolitical zone of Nigeria namely Ebonyi, Enugu and Anambra States aimed at identifying the strategies for enhancing teaching and learning of QBasic programming language. Data were collected with the use of structured questionnaire containing 58 items. Descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation and t- test statistical tool were used for analyzing data. No sample was taken. The population consisted of 295 respondents (35 Instructors, 25 lecturers, and

235 computer students). The instrument was subjected to face validation by three experts’, it was further pilot tested on 20 respondents who were used to establish   the   internal   consistency  of   the   instrument.   The   reliability coefficient was calculated to be 0.98, 0.99, 0.98, 0.98 and 0.99 respectively for each section of the instrument and 0.99 as the overall coefficient. Based on data analyzed, it was found out that technical skill strategies can be used to improve the teaching of QBasic programming. Also, teaching methodology strategies, instructional facilities utilization strategies among others can be employed by computer educators to improve the teaching and

learning of QBasic programming in colleges of education. Consequently, it was recommended among others that school administrators should ensure that computer educators are sponsored on retraining programmes at least once every year by organizing workshops, seminars and conferences to enable them learn the modern technological skills in their chosen career. In order to make the art of programming responsive to the needs of the society, computer students should be made to spend at least six months in computer and  ICT  programming firms  during  their  industrial work  experience  to enable them acquire the relevant skills required to excel in the world of work while School administrators should ensure that adequate instructional facilities are provided to every computer laboratory to enable students learn and master sound programming skills.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) occupies a central position in the teaching and learning of computer programming in higher institutions where computer education is offered as a course. This is because QuickBasic (QB) is the first introductory programming course of study offered by first year computer students in higher institutions, including colleges of education in Nigeria. QuickBasic is therefore highly portable and suitable for teaching BASIC programming to beginners. This is because  its  characteristic  features  make  it  a  vital tool for  teaching  and  learning of computer programming. The teaching and learning of QB language lies in its interactive user interface, which provides immediate feedback on syntax and run-time errors. Like other structured programming languages such as PASCAL, FORTRAN, PL/I, ADA, ALGOL etc, it is a procedure oriented language, which employs the technique of problem solving and uses English syntax in the solution of problems in a form understandable to human beings.

The teaching and learning of QB lies in its defining characteristics as a procedure oriented language, which among others the expression of a BASIC in an algorithmic form which is a series of finite sequence of precise, step-by-step instructions for performing some task (Bakpo, 2005). Then the use of flowchart which is a graphical or pictorial representation of flow of a computer program steps using connecting lines with arrows to indicate the flow of a computer program steps and finally the coding of the program steps which is sequentially executed.

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It becomes imperative to teach and learn QB considering the goals of tertiary education as noted in the National Policy on Educational development of high level manpower training, development and inculcation of right type of values for the survival of the Nigerian society and  individuals, development of the  individual’s intellectual capabilities for the acquisition of physical and intellectual skills necessary for individuals to be self-reliant and be useful members of the society (FGN, 2004).

These noble goals are to be pursued through teaching and learning, research and development, generation and dissemination of knowledge and so on (FGN, 2004). It is in line with these goals that the Nigerian Colleges of Education (NCE) offer a number of programming courses and  as  such  began  to  harness  the  potentials  of teaching  and learning of computer programming for technological advancement. Thus the Nigerian Colleges of Education offers a number of programming courses such as BASIC (QUICKBASIC), FORTRAN, COBOL, PASCAL, and VISUALBASIC (VB) programming languages in other to equip the students with appropriate programming skills needed to become self-reliant as well as excel in his/her work related task. The National Commission for Colleges of Education minimum standard however maintained that BASIC Programming (CSC 112) among others should be taught to students of Nigerian colleges of education (NCCE, 2005). The degree of sophistication in numeracy through the use of computer has become very pronounced all over the world and Nigeria cannot afford to ignore the role which computer literacy plays in achieving the national goal of technological development. Hence her resolve to introduce the teaching and learning of object oriented programming languages in addition to the structured programming courses in the Computer Education curriculum of National Colleges of

Education. To achieve these objectives and for effective acquisition of programming skills and knowledge as a school subject, it should be effectively taught by qualified computer educators. Effective teaching  of QBASIC requires application of different strategies or techniques to make it interesting and meaningful. Akpan (1991) opined that teaching (strategies) technique is the practice and refinement of presentation which a teacher uses to make his teaching more effective, interesting when using specific method or teaching aid. Obi (2005) observed that teaching techniques are strategies employed by the teacher to enhance his teaching.

According to Ogwo (2005), the teacher is essentially a facilitator of learning. As much  as  possible,  the  teacher  facilitates  learning  by  permitting  the  learner’s  own interests, attitudes, aptitudes and experiences to influence the kind of learning that will take  place.  He  maintained  that  the  teacher  is  a  parent  to  the  students, a  model,  a dispenser, a cultivator and a technician. The computer teacher must be knowledgeable in programming, maintenance and troubleshooting, networking, installation, web design e.t.c. and above all, posses teaching qualification. A computer educator in Colleges of Education is therefore expected to have a minimum of B.Sc. (Ed) in computer education or a B.Sc. in computer science with a postgraduate diploma in education (NCCE, 2001).

Teaching according to Fafunwa (1982) is a conscious and deliberate effort made by a matured or experienced person to impart knowledge to immature or less experienced person with the intension that the latter will learn or come to believe that he is taught on good grounds. According to Obi (1996), learning is a process by which a learner acquires knowledge, skills, attitude, concepts, tradition, values and the ability to comprehend, analyze and evaluate through an active involvement and participation in the process

which ultimately leads to mental, social, spiritual and physical growth and development. Obi (2005) identified four essential activities that constitute teaching and learning namely class organization, class control, lesson plan and evaluation. Class organization is concerned with the establishment of some routines understood by all the class members in such matters as submission and collection of class assignments, sweeping of the classrooms and maintaining the chalkboard. Class controls enable the teacher to keep the students busy from the beginning to the end of the lesson. Course or lesson planning activity enables the teacher to prepare the scheme of work based on the school syllabus or curriculum. This scheme of work so planned as a whole is broken down into workable units to facilitate teaching and learning (Obi, 2005).  Lesson plans are brief notes of how the teacher intends to go about his classroom instruction and lastly evaluation though a continuous process is conceived as the determination of the congruence between performance and the objectives (Mehrens and Lehmann, 1978). It provides the basis for re-teaching in the effort to develop mastery in learners.

Unfortunately, the goals of teaching and learning of computer programming have not been fully actualized considering the lack of interest accompanied with poor performance of students in the learning process of QB. The teaching and learning of QB is therefore one area of computer education curriculum in which students can be prepared to acquire appropriate skills, abilities, and competences as equipment for the individual to live in and contribute to the development of the society. The role of QB programming language in the developmental process is vital and is directly related to the effectiveness of the economy in providing the requirement of trained manpower for development process. The objectives of computer education for her graduates of Nigerian Colleges of

Education are therefore to contribute to national development by producing teachers who will teach computer studies at the primary and junior secondary school levels, write programs and process data with maximum speed and accuracy, and demonstrate reasonably high level of competence for further studies in computer science (NCCE,

2004: 37).

However, all these important national objectives are factors of major variables. For  instance,  we  cannot  boast  of adequate  skilled  manpower to  man  the  country’s economy, if the programme implementation for manpower development is faulty. Therefore, evaluation of students’ performance is essentially an evaluation of the programme itself (Okoro, 1993). The outcome of any educational curriculum is used to determine the index of success or failure of that system of education.

Besides, there are certain competencies a teacher of computer education should posses and  be  able  to  demonstrate in classroom. One  of these  competencies is  the programming skill, which has to do with possession of problem solving abilities needed to analyze BASIC programming problems and also the pedagogical competency, which has to do with the skills in methods of imparting the various technical skills to the students. The quality of a teacher according to Ukeje (1997) in Gana (2003) is a strong predictor of student’s quality. It is widely acknowledged that “no education system can rise above the quality of its teachers” (NPE, 1981). From the foregoing, it is then clear that if certain strategies are adopted to improve the teaching and learning of QB programming in Colleges of Education it can help to motivate students’ interest thus yield better performance and competency since teaching and learning of QBASIC programming is a major step towards skill acquisition and manpower development.

Statement of the Problem

The cost of programming has risen because of shortages of skilled personnel as required for programming which have pushed up labour costs, whereas; the costs of hardware have fallen because of technical innovation and increased automation (French,1996). He  maintained that  it  will  be  ideally wrong to  reduce programming standards in  order to  achieve greater  programmer output  because of the  potentially damaging effects of errors, high correction and maintenance and difficulties experienced in transferring substandard programs from one computer to another.

Though there is need to reduce programming cost, and at the same time strive for increasing the quality of programming in colleges of education. Computer programming at  the  National Certificate on Education (NCE)  level contributes to  nation  building through training and production of quality computer programmers that should man the industrial and technological sectors of our economy through self or paid employments. Unfortunately this singular objective is still far from being actualized most importantly when one looks at the general quality of NCE computer graduates. The performance of the students of computer education in QuickBasic programming course in Colleges of Education   in   Anambra,   Enugu   and   Ebonyi   States   has   consistently   been   very discouraging. Available records from fives Colleges of Education in Enugu ,Anambra, and Ebonyi States for the year 2003 – 2007 as shown in appendix 1 showed an overall entries figure of 1331 candidates with only 607 complete passes representing 46%. This situation is rather pathetic and as such has become a  matter of concern to a lot of

Computer Educationists, employers of labour and parents in Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu

States.

The  problem of mass  failure  in  QB examinations negates ensuring adequate manpower training in the areas of computer education. It is therefore pertinent to find out the problems militating against effective teaching and learning of QuickBasic programming language as well as the strategies that can be employed in order to improve the teaching and learning of QuickBasic programming language in Colleges of Education in Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi States.

Purpose of the Study

The major purpose of the study is to determine the strategies for teaching and learning of QuickBasic (QB) Programming language in Colleges of Education in Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu States. The study specifically sought to:

1.  determine the strategies for improving the technical skills of the teachers for the teaching of QB in Colleges of Education in Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu States.

2.  determine the strategies for improving the teaching methodology required for the teaching and learning of QB in Colleges of Education in Anambra Ebonyi and Enugu States.

3.  identify the strategies for improving the utilization of instructional facilities for the teaching and learning of QB programming in Colleges of Education in Enugu, Ebonyi and Anambra States.

4.  identify the strategies for improving learning environment for the teaching and learning of QB programming in colleges of Education in Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu States.

5.    Identify  strategies  for  improving  administrative  needs  for  the  teaching  and learning of QB in Colleges of Education in Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu States.

Significance of the Study

This study was motivated as a result of growing evidence in poor performance of NCE Computer students in learning of QB programming and what effort could be made to encourage students’ interest in learning of computer programming. It  is therefore hoped that, the findings of the study will in no little way provide adequate information on the strategies of enhancing the teaching and learning of QB programming. Hence the findings may be of benefit to the following ministries (Education, Labour and productivity), school administrators, information and communication industries, curriculum planners, students, lecturers, parents and the society at large.

The  ministries  at  both the  federal  and  states  level  is  instrumental to  policy formulations, the strategies that may be generated from this study might help the policy makers in making necessary review and further contribution in the policy formulation process that may encourage the employers in hiring NCE computer products. Besides, it may also help to erase the erroneous impression the society have about poor quality programme of computer education. The result of these findings will invariably stimulate the students’ interest on the bounties of opportunities associated in possession of skills of QB programming in being job creators rather than job seekers. Consequently, this will help to retain and improve the job opportunities, retraining and career progression for the students.

The findings that may be generated from this study will help to improve quality of educational institutions, facilities for training, teacher capability, curriculum issues and

methods of knowledge delivery thereby enabling curriculum planners to conform to the societal and institutional needs. The findings of this study may also serve as a reference for redefining the remuneration pattern of the computer Lecturers, System Analysts and Programmers in general, the cost of education, and prompt payment of staff salaries. All these may help the educational administrators (Provosts, H.O.D’s, Deans, Registrar) etc on a better management as it will motivate both staff and students.

The findings of this study may also help the administrators on suggestion of strategy on change of educational structure of computer programme so that the rightful candidates  who  are  really  interested  in  learning  computer  programming  are  truly admitted.

Research Questions

1.  What are the strategies that can be employed to improve the technical skills of teachers for the teaching of QB in Colleges of Education in Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi States?

2.  What are the strategies that can be employed for improving teaching methodology of QB programming in Colleges of Education in Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi States?

3.  What are the strategies for improving the utilization of instructional facilities for the teaching and learning of QB programming in Colleges of Education in Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi States?

4.  What are the strategies for improving the learning environment for teaching and learning of QB programming in Colleges of Education in Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi States?

5.  What are the strategies for improving administration needs required for teaching and learning of QB programming in Colleges of Education in Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi States?

Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study and will be tested at 0.05 level of significance.

H01:     There is no  significant difference (p < 0 .05) in the responses of lecturers’ possessing a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science/Education and those possessing HND degrees with regard to the technical skills required for teaching and learning of QB in Colleges of Education in Enugu, Ebonyi and Anambra States.

H02:     There is no significant difference (p < 0.05) between the mean responses of Lecturers’ with B.Sc. degrees and those with HND degrees with regard to the teaching methodology required for teaching and learning of QB in colleges of education in Enugu, Ebonyi and Anambra States.

H03:    There is no significant difference (p < 0.05) between the responses of lecturers’ with B.Sc. degree and those with HND degree with regard to the use of instructional facilities   required for teaching and learning of QB   Colleges of Education in Enugu, Ebonyi and Anambra States.

Delimitation of the Study

This study is delimited to the strategies for improving the teaching and learning of QB programming language in colleges of education in Enugu, Ebonyi and Anambra states.

The study is also limited to National Colleges of Education (NCE) computer science students and lecturers in colleges of education in Enugu, Ebonyi and Anambra States where QBasic programming is offered as a course of study in computer science education department namely Federal College of Education Eha-Amufu, Enugu State College of Education Technical, Ebonyi State college of Education Ikwo, College of Education Umunze and Nwafor Orizu College of Education Nsugbe in Anambra State.

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