Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM

hdbcuduStatement of the Problem

This study aims to determine the level of effectiveness

of the different instructional materials in the final

examination of criminology students. Specifically, it will

seek to answer the following questions:

1. What is the sociodemographic profile in terms of Gender

of criminology students engaged in different instructional

materials during final examination?

2. What are the roles of different instructional materials

in the final examination to criminology students through:

a) Audio

b) Visual

c) Audiovisual

d) Electronic Interactive

e) Printed Materials

3. What are the level of effectiveness of the different

instructional materials in the final examination to

criminology students through:

 THE PROBLEM | 6

a) Audio

b) Visual

c) Audiovisual

d) Electronic Interactive

e) Printed Materials

Background of the Study

Over the years, the poor performance of students in

final examinations has been blamed on the wrong choice of

teaching methods by teachers/instructors. Teaching and

learning activities have a lot to do with other variables,

such as instructional materials, teacher’s qualification,

school environment variables, student’s factors and so on.

In this study, the level of effectiveness of the different

instructional materials is the main focus in order to unveil

their effects on the academic performance of the students

specially in final examinations. The level of effectiveness

of the different instructional materials in any learning

process cannot be over emphasized. This is for the fact that

such materials enhance, facilitate and make learning easy,

lively and concrete. Instructional materials are the devices

developed or acquired to assist or facilitate teachers in

transmitting an organized knowledge, skills and attitudes to

 THE PROBLEM | 7

the learners within an instructional situation (Nwachukwu,

2006). To be precise, an instructional material are

educational resources used for illustrating the content of

instruction, thereby making learning more concrete and less

abstract. The sequence in which learners encounter materials

has direct effect on the achievement of the task. In

providing closer experience to real situation, instructional

material enhances acquisition and retention of factual

information. Instructional material not only provide the

necessary concrete experience but also help students

integrate prior experience.

Instructional materials refer to those alternative

channels of communication, which a classroom teacher can use

to concretize a concept during teaching and learning

process. Traditionally, classroom teachers have relied

heavily on the 'talk-chalk' method during their teaching.

But recently, instructional materials help to provide

variations in the ways in which messages are sent across. In

using instructional materials teachers and students do not

only extend the range of sense organs we use but also extend

the range of materials used for convening the same message

through the same organ. For instance, in teaching a topic a

teacher can manipulate real objects or use their

stimulators. Instructional materials therefore constitute

 THE PROBLEM | 8

the media of exchange through which a message transaction is

facilitated between a source and a receiver. In addition to

extending the range of materials that can be used to convey

the same instructional message to learner’s instructional

materials also facilitate the 'process' nature of

communication. In this passage, the process nature of

communication implies that both the source and the receiver

of a message are actively involved in a communication

encounter. Infarct, it means that both the receiver and the

source share and exchange ideas, feelings in any

communication (Tyler, 2000, Dike 2001).

Before the coming of missionaries in Tanzania (East

African Country known for its vast wilderness areas),

traditional societies in Tanzania had their own means of

providing education to the new generation, which was growing

up. There was no for education however the young ones were

taught through storytelling, and also through tribal

traditions. Under this system of education, the youth grew

to become brave and skilled men and women; men became

hunters, soldiers and craft workers, while women became good

mothers and food gatherers and craft workers.

The beginning of formal education is traced to 1876

when the missionaries came to establish their mission

 THE PROBLEM | 9

stations. The first mission station was the Free Church of

Scotland at Cape Maclear, and this group opened the

Livingstonia Mission (Pachai, 2000). In the mid-1920s,

government appeared on the education scene with more

assistance and policy formulation. The department of

education established in 1926 worked hand-in-hand with the

missions, and more schools were introduced.

School program in Tanzania started in 1970s when the

government decided to take over all private secondary

schools for the aim of ensuring that all the children had an

equal chance of getting education. Further development of

community tertiary schools in Tanzania took place in 1980s

and 1990s; during this era some major changes took place in

the history of community tertiary education in Tanzania. The

first major change was the re-introduction of community

tertiary schools as a response to the unforeseen increase

requirement for tertiary education. This demand came into

being following the implementation of Universal Primary

Education (UPE) (URT, 2001).

The implementation of UPE created unparalleled social

demand for secondary and tertiary education. The increase in

the enrolment in primary schools resulted in the expansion

of Secondary and Tertiary education through a strategy of

 THE PROBLEM | 10

constructing community secondary and tertiary schools in

each ward in Tanzania. A circular was issued by the

government in 1984 to initiate a ten year programme for the

expansion of secondary and tertiary education. The programme

was not implemented until in 1986 when it started and was to

be completed by 1995 with the constructions of secondary and

tertiary schools which were to be distributed in such a way

that each region was to build three schools. Essentially,

community secondary and tertiary schools are government

schools in which both local communities and the central

government have the responsibility to run the schools (URT,

2001).

The government through Ministry of Education and

Vocational Training (MoEVT), with the help of foreign

donors, members of the community, development partners,

contributions from local government, government through

internal and external sources took the initiative to start

building community secondary and tertiary schools all over

the country in each ward as pointed earlier. To the large

extent, community secondary and tertiary schools supported

by government, community contributions, development partners

and local government contributions have provided education

to children from poor families, who are mostly found in

rural remote areas, while government provided schools with

 THE PROBLEM | 11

financial and technical support such as paying teachers’

salaries.

Secondary and tertiary school education in Tanzania

refers to that full time program of education provided in

accordance with Government approved curricula and availed to

students who have completed primary education (URT, 2001).

According to the Education Policy of 1995, this level of

education consists of two sequential phases; ordinary level

secondary education which last for four years and a two-year

of advanced level tertiary education (URT, 2001). The

standards that the Ministry of Education and Vocational

Training (MoEVT) has stipulated, selection of students to be

enrolled into community schools are made on the ‘basis of a

pre-set national standard cut-off point of performance’ in

the National Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) (URT,

1995). Students enrolled in these community schools need to

have a minimum of 100 scores in their Primary School Leaving

Examination (PSLE).

On the other hand, selection and enrollment into

community secondary and tertiary schools is the same as that

which is done in other schools. The selection is done after

5 students’ attainment of appropriate credits in the final

examination. In all cycles the emphasis has been on

 THE PROBLEM | 12

development in terms of access and improved quality of

teaching and learning (URT, 2004).

Instructional materials are considered important in

teaching and learning in all levels of education because

textbooks and other resource materials are basic tools.

Absence or inadequacy makes teachers handle subjects in an

abstract manner, portraying it as dry and non-exciting

(Eshiwani, 2003). For example, textbooks, charts, maps,

audiovisual and electronic instructional materials such as

radio, tape recorder, television and video tape recorder

contribute much in making learning more interesting

(Atkinson, 2000). The importance of instructional materials

is also evident in the performance of students (Adeogun,

2001).

According to Adeogun (2001), schools, whose teachers

use more instructional resources perform better than

schools, whose teachers do not use instructional materials.

This corroborated the study by Babayomi (2000) that private

schools performed better than public schools because

students and teachers are provided with sufficient and

quality teaching and learning resources. From this

importance, schools at all levels of education have been

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advised to have quality and adequate instructional

facilities to raise academic performance of their students.

The advice emanated from the fact that instructional

facilities have a potent factor to qualitative education.

The dictum is that “teaching is inseparable from learning

but learning is separable from teaching.” This means that

teachers do the teaching to make the students learn, but

with quality and adequate instructional facilities, students

can learn without the teachers. According to Akande (2003),

learning can occur through one’s interaction with one’s

environment. Environment here refers to instructional

facilities that are available to facilitate students

learning outcome.

Instructional materials such as the size of classroom,

sitting position and arrangement, availability of tables,

chairs, chalkboards, shelves on which instruments for

practicals, are important in the teaching transaction

(Farrant, 2002 and Farombi, 2003). According to these

scholars, availability of instructional materials can work

best if other conditions are met such as the quality of

classroom. I would add, the quality of teachers to use these

resources. While acknowledging the importance of

instructional materials, there is little agreement on their

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roles on academic performance and this difference in

understanding, is the focus of this study.

Studies have been conducted mainly focusing on

pedagogical and curriculum trends. However, studies on the

role of instructional materials in academic performance for

a country like Tanzania are highly needed due to the

importance discussed above and the challenges facing the

education system. Academic performance according to the

Cambridge University Reporter (2003) is frequently defined

in terms of examination performance. Academic performance is

normally measured by the examination results because this is

one of the major goals of a school. Hoyle (2006) reiterated

that schools are built in order to provide knowledge and

skills to those who go through them and behind all this is

the idea of enhancing good academic performance. In this

study, academic performance was characterized by performance

in classroom tests, in course work and performance in the

final examinations.

In this study, I explored conceptions from teachers’ on

understanding of the importance of instructional materials

in improving teaching and learning in tertiary school

education in Tanzania. In conducting this study, I have been

interested in a reciprocal availability of instructional

 THE PROBLEM | 15

facilities, where the number of schools and enrollments are

increasing while instructional materials are inadequate or

in sorry state (see MoEVT, 2010). This reciprocal

relationship is creating inefficiency gap between the

governmental intentions stipulated in the Secondary

Education Development Program (SEDP) and the realities

existing in different schools. The gap has led to the

emerging criticism that community schools are not effective,

as a large number of students do not acquire required skills

and hence perform poorly in their final examinations.

A research carried out by Sumra and Rajani (2006)

indicated that a number of learner’s finish tertiary

education without acquiring essential skills that are needed

in life. This shows that increase in number of students has

been prioritized over the number and quality of

instructional materials (Haki elimu, 2007; Makombe et al,

2010). Some studies have specifically shown that teaching in

community secondary and vocational schools is poor as these

schools lack necessary teaching facilities such as furniture

for staff and students, books, science equipment, games and

sport equipment (Benell and Mukyanuzi, 2005).

Moreover, teachers lack essential skills to make

quality teaching, learning aids and giving final

 THE PROBLEM | 16

examinations. According to a National Audit report, some

schools are completely lacking material resources such as

textbooks, charts, maps, audio-visual and electronic

instructional materials such as radio, tape recorder,

television and video tape recorder.

Inadequacy of quality instructional materials is not

confined to Tanzania, as this is a worldwide phenomenon.

Even in developed countries for example, United States of

America especially in schools whose majority of population

are the poor and minority students are less funded and lack

essential quality instructional materials. In addition,

policies associated with school funding, resource

allocations, and tracking leave minority students with fewer

and lower-quality books, curriculum materials, laboratories,

and computers (Post and Darling, 2000).

A study conducted in the District of Columbia school

system found, after controlling for other variables such as

a student's socioeconomic status, that students' examination

results were lower in schools with poor building conditions.

Students in school buildings in poor condition performed

badly, that is, 6% below schools in fair condition and 11%

below schools in excellent condition (Edwards, 2000). The

situation is more critical in less developed countries. For

 THE PROBLEM | 17

instance, studies done by Carron and Chau, (2006) in India,

and Willms (2000) in Latin America indicated acute shortage

of school facilities such as classroom materials and

inadequate library which led to poor academic performance in

the areas most affected by this problem in these countries.

A survey which was conducted by UNICEF/UNESCO in 1995 in 14

least developed countries showed that the size of classes

ranged from fewer than 30 students in rural and urban

Bhutan, Madagascar, and the Maldives, to 73 in rural Nepal

and 118 in Equatorial Guinea (Postlewaithe, 2002).

In most African countries there is an endemic lack of

adequate instructional materials most especially in rural

areas. A research done by Gogo (2002) on the input of cost

sharing on access, equity and quality of secondary education

in Rachuonyo district in Kenya indicated that the quality of

education had not changed much for a number of years due to

inadequate teaching and learning materials and equipment.

Further, studies done in other parts of Africa reveal the

same problem.

One Research was conducted by BSIT students in Leyte

Normal University, Philippines regarding the views and

preferences in the development of instructional materials

for IT courses. They come up with the results wherein

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instructional materials is apreeminent factor toward

academic performance it is remarkable for the teacher to

develop instructional materials to guide the students in

their academic performances with the presence of this

instructional materials, the learning process can be fun

because of the healthy exchange of information from the

student and teacher it is recommended that there is an

evaluation of the instructional materials that is being

develop to know the effectiveness of these instructional

materials in the learning process and improvement of

academic performance of the students.

A competency training that was conducted in Baguio City

Philippines regarding 2dimensional animation for

instructional learning materials wherein it focuses to the

human and non-human materials and facilities that can be

used to ease, encourage, improved and promote teaching and

learning activities. They are whatever materials used in the

process of instruction.

The essence of producing instructional materials, is

to facilitate the teaching learning process. The essence is

not to use such instructional materials as objects of

decoration in our classroom or as objects to be presented

during award winning national exhibitions on improved

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instructional materials. If the essence of producing

instructional materials is to use such materials to

facilitate teaching learning, it therefore seems logical

that the best approach to adopt in any production exercise

is to predict out production on research findings on how

individuals learn. Besides, there are for instance, many

factors that affect attention of human beings. There are

also ideas about how we perceive objects. Hence, for a

classroom teacher, who wants to produce instructional

materials, his production has to be on sound principles;

While presenting various learning theories, one has to be

sure that a classroom teacher is guided by expert ideas

during his production and utilization of instructional

materials; They supply a concrete basis for conceptional

thinking and reduce meaning less work responses for pupils

as it makes learning more permanent; Instructional materials

have a high degree of interest for the learner; for they

offer a reality of experience, which stimulates self-

activity on the part of pupils; Instructional materials

develop a continuity of thought, this is especially true of

motion pictures, as they provide experiences not, easily

obtained through other materials and contribute to the

efficiency, department and variety of learning. Therefore,

the use of instructional materials in teaching/learning

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process exposes the learner to primary experiences and this

enriches learning.

The result of the study will be a great benefit to the

College of Criminology Dean, gathered data will help the

dean on how different instructional materials used in the

final examination of criminology students affects their

performances. The results will enable the dean to improve

what the different academic subject’s lack. Data gathered

will help the dean initiate collaboration among faculty

members and chairpersons to help plan the advancement of

criminology education in relation to the new curriculum; To

the class Instructors, the result of the study will help the

instructors evaluate the academic performance of criminology

students during their examination. Results would also

develop the instructor’s teaching/learning skills and

evaluating strategies in enhancing knowledge, skills and

attitude of the students; To the students, this study will

provide information regarding what effects to their

performance during their final examination will bring when

using different instructional materials. This study will

also evaluate their academic performances; To the

criminology department, this study will help improve the

school in the development of criminology education. This

study will foster new ways of enhancing knowledge, skills

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and attitude, thus preparing globally competitive

criminologist in the future. This study will also help the

advancement of school management and teaching-evaluating

approach.

The study intended to find the impact of levels of

effectiveness of the different instructional materials in

the final examination to criminology students. The knowledge

obtained would help the government most especially local

government and educators to reflect and make evaluation of

different instructional materials apart from classroom

alone. Since the beginning of tertiary schools, the

government and local communities have been putting more

emphasis on the construction of new classrooms and

laboratories. However, provision of quality tertiary school

education requires more than just classrooms and laboratory

buildings. The evaluation of instructional materials, along

with other reform movements, allows educators and planners

to plan for appropriate environment for teaching so as to

provide quality tertiary school education.

The study would also influence education planners to

consider appearances of physical structures such as

classrooms and availability of other teaching and learning

materials as some of the important factors that can

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influence parents to send their children to particular

schools which have attractive physical appearance and

variety of other facilities. Attractive environment and the

availability of other learning resources can influence

students to stay in universities and stimulate learning.

This study would be helpful for fulfillments of the

requirement of Master of Education degree in Administration,

Planning and Policy studies.

Also the knowledge acquired from this study would be

very important to other researchers who have interest in

demographic dynamics of criminology students in relation to

planning of school facilities. If the study concludes that

students in tertiary schools perform poorly due to the lack

of sufficient instructional materials, this knowledge will

enable education planners to re-think the range of services

the government and local communities can provide to

criminology students, and the wider community, and to find

creative ways of improving school facilities that would

otherwise be ineffectively utilized due to funding

pressures.

Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks

Instructional material theories assume that there is a

direct link between the materials that the teachers use, and
 THE PROBLEM | 23

the students’ learning outcomes. These outcomes include

higher abilities to learn, quality strategies to learn and

perform classroom activities and positive attitude towards

learning. Further, these theories assume that instructional

materials have the capacity to develop into students the

highest order of intellectual skills as they illustrate

clearly, step by step how to follow the rules/principles and

elaborate on the concepts, all of which have positive impact

on 16 solving new problems by analyzing the situation and

formulating a plan (Gagné et al. 2005). According to Gagne

et al, instructional material can be used to develop higher

learning abilities to the learners through self-teaching or

guided learning. This implies that the instructional

materials mainly comprise “eliciting performance” and

“providing feedback on performance correctness,” in addition

to “providing learning guidance” for guided discovery

learning. Many of Gagné’s 9 ideas have broad implications

for tertiary instructors in community tertiary schools in

Rombo district. Many of these ideas have capacity building

undertones with themes of students’ acquisition of critical

thinking and problem-solving skills. However, the theory

does not relate to whether or not students can think

critically in what aspects or how they can solve a

particular problem by themselves. However, I have the

 THE PROBLEM | 24

opinion that the purpose of instructional materials or

technology in education is to stretch students’ imagination

and to encourage them to solve problems in their lives.

Similar ideas are held by Lev Vygotsky, a Russian

psychologist who held a view that tools and signs, which are

in a form of instructional materials, have the capacity to

develop in student’s higher level of thinking, which is

important in problem-solving activities. However, since they

are considered to be domain-specific, the ways instructional

materials can start cognitive development is yet to be

studied with respect to classroom teaching. Thus, this study

stretches these views.

In his study Adeogun (2001) revealed a strong positive

link between instructional resources and academic

performance. According to Adeogun, schools that possess more

instructional resources performed better than schools that

have less instructional resources. This finding supported

the study by Babayomi (2000) that private schools performed

better than public schools because of the availability and

adequacy of teaching and learning resources. Adeogun (2001)

noted that there was a low level of instructional resources

available in public schools and hence commented that public

schools had acute shortages of both teaching and learning

 THE PROBLEM | 25

resources. He further commented that effective teaching and

learning cannot occur in the classroom environment if

essential instructional resources are not available.

Fuller and Clark (2006) suggested that the quality of

instructional processes experienced by a learner determines

quality of education. In their view they suggest that

quality instructional materials create into the learners

quality learning experience. Mwiria (2001) also supports

that student’s performance is affected by the quality and

quantity of teaching and learning resources. This implies

that the schools that possess adequate teaching and learning

materials such as textbooks, charts, pictures, real objects

for students to see, hear and experiment with, stand a

better chance of performing well in examination than poorly

equipped ones.

Audio media can make several unique contributions to

the teaching-learning process: self-study for non-readers,

realistic foreign practice, stories to stimulate the

imagination, and music for physical activity, to name a few.

Casettes, records, and CD’s are abundantly available in

every curricular area and are easy to use. To use audio

media effectively requires an understanding of the hearing-

 THE PROBLEM | 26

listening processes and thoughtful selection of materials

based on your objectives (Wijayanti, 2016).

Visual aids arouse the interest of learners and help

the teachers to explain the concepts easily. Visual aids are

those instructional aids which are used in the classroom to

encourage teaching learning process. As Singh (2005)

defines: “Any device which by sight and sound increase the

individual’s practice, outside that attained through read

labeled as an audio visual aids”. Visual aids are those

instructional devices which are used in the classroom to

encourage learning and make it easier and motivating.

Audio visual aids are important in education system.

Audio visual aids are those devices which are used in

classrooms to encourage teaching learning process and make

it easier and interesting. Audio -visual aids are the best

tool for making teaching effective and the best

dissemination of knowledge (Rasul, 2011).

Electronic Interactive Learning Materials are learning

modules that are being developed to stimulate and engage

student’s learning. It can promote immediate feedback to the

learners. In addition, it can support specific interaction

between the software and the user, which can help save time

and effort both for the students and the teacher. Electronic
 THE PROBLEM | 27

Interactive learning can induce easier recognition and

mastery of a specific topic. Lastly, it can arouse student’s

interest to listen and participate in class. Lastly, since

the use of computers in high school is now indispensable, it

can easily be accessed making it convenient for the students

(Dimasuay, 2015).

Print-based instructional materials have been more

popular than any other medium for teaching practical skills
during the delivery of technical and vocational education
and training via distance learning. Print materials are
readily available and easy for teachers to use.  Since
teachers and students are quite familiar with these print
materials, then using them don’t require an intensive
orientation/training (Donkor, 2010).

Figure 1 describes the paradigm of the study wherein

the input consists of the following: the socio-demographic

profile of criminology students engaged in different

instructional materials during final examination as to their

gender; level of effectiveness of the different

instructional materials in the final examination to

criminology students through: Audio, Visual, Audiovisual,

electronic interactive and printed materials. Process

variable is the role of different instructional materials in

the final examination to criminology students through:

Audio, Visual, Audiovisual, electronic interactive and

printed materials. The output is the level of effectiveness

 THE PROBLEM | 28

of the different instructional materials in final

examination of criminology students.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

1. Socio-

demographic

profile in terms

of gender of

criminology

students engaged

in different

instructional

materials during
Roles of What are the
final
different level of
examination
instructional effectiveness

2. Roles of materials in of the

different the final different

instructional examination to instructional

materials in the criminology materials in

final students final

examination to through: examination of

Figure 1. Research Paradigm of the Study