Media Improvisation of Lecturers in the State-Owned Colleges of Education in the South-West, Nigeria

1. Introduction

Instructional media or materials are inevitable in teaching and learning in educational institutions in Nigeria especially in college of education which is a teacher training college for teachers’ preparation towards teaching in primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. Media resources are information carriers (Egunjobi & Ogunwuyi, 2017; Shittu & Dauda, 2018). Media resources utilisation is very essential in colleges of education because of the benefits which they provide in teaching and learning processes. In real sense, not all necessary media resources are available and accessible in all colleges of education. Some are expensive to purchase and not available for teaching and learning while some of the available ones are obsolete for planning, executing and evaluating teaching activities. As a result of these situations, it is necessary for the lecturers to improvise for unavailable and obsolete media resources.

Media improvisation is a creative and innovative ability of the lecturers to generate media resources and integrate them into processes of instructional delivery (Ogunwuyi, 2018). Media resources improvisation is a solution to the problem of unavailability and lack of accessibility to media resources essential for instructional delivery of lecturers in colleges of education. The challenges of communication and information dissemination in teaching brought about initiation of media improvisation in schools. Media improvisation is a key to the functionality of any college of education in Nigeria. Based on policy of National Commission for Colleges of Education, evidence of media improvisation is one of criteria for approval of any college of education in Nigeria.

According to National Teacher Institute (2009), media resources improvisation is the making of substitute from local materials when the real or original ones are not available. The concept simply refers to construction, invention and production of materials for teaching and learning activities in absence of commercially made ones (Nwabunwanne, 2009; Adu & Adu, 2014). Media improvisation is essential in colleges of education in Nigeria based on policy and practice. This is more reason why Centre for Educational Technology (CET) was created in all colleges of education. Also, libraries and laboratories in schools of Education, Arts and Social Sciences, Languages, Sciences and Vocational and Technical Education were structured to mention a few. These structures are to make media resources available and accessible to lecturers (Egunjobi & Ogunwuyi, 2017; Ogunwuyi, 2018). Therefore, there is need for lecturers to collaborate with other staff members in the CET and laboratories and libraries to improvise for media resources for utilisation in teaching.

According to Berk and Trieber (2009) improvisation of media resources can be achieved through the following steps which include identification of items to be improvised, understanding the basic principles involved in designing. Then, making a list of materials needed, production, trial testing and evaluation of the prototype should be done before re-designing and mass production of the media resources.

Media improvisation is a technical, innovative, creative and resourceful activity of lecturers in collaboration with their students for effective training of pre-service teachers in colleges of education. According to Ogbe and Omenka (2017) media improvisation helps in providing cognitive bridge between abstraction and reality to students. It saves cost and makes positive efforts towards effective teaching and learning. Actually, it makes lecturers to find out cheaper and faster methods of making process of teaching easier for teaching and learning. Therefore, this study investigated the pattern of media improvisation among lecturers in schools (Science, Art and Social Science, Education, Languages and Technical and Vocational Education) that are common to state-owned colleges of education in South-West, Nigeria.

2. Literature Review

The present study is anchored on Media Richness Theory developed by organizational scholars (Daft & Lengel, 1986). The theory presents effectiveness in the use of communication channel by matching the richness of a medium and equivocality of task. The theorists emphasized that quality or richness of information in organisation can reduce the uncertainty and equivocality in organisation. Uncertainty was described as lack of information while equivocality is the state of confusion or lack of understanding. The richness of the medium of communication which is determined by immediate feedback, multiple cues, language variety, and personal focused can promote communication in organisation. This theory is most effective in face to face communication followed by phone, written, address document e.g flier. This theory can be applied to teaching in college of education to eradicate lack of information, understanding and confusion through improvisation of media resources that are rich for teaching and learning activities.

Media improvisation promotes curiosity, alertness, and learning in education. It is discovered as a collaborative or collective effort involving more than a person as against individualized effort in teaching (Lidia & Sara, 2010). Many studies such Taiwo (2008), Jude and Dankoro (2012), Aina (2013) conducted on media improvisation of teachers are essential to guide this present study. The improvisation of media resources has been observed in science education as a bridge between scientific theory and reality especially when models are utilised in teaching of science subjects (Gilbert, Justice, & Arsela, 2003). Improvised media resources promoted active teaching in molecular biology instruction against the passive use of illustration during teaching (Udosen & Ekuikianam, 2014).

Improvised media resources helped in enhancing effective teaching in environmental concept in Art and Social Science and Science Subjects (Onwumere, 2006) and a good source of enriching science lessons in technology and mathematics (Wasaga, 2000). In another study by Ezeasor, Opara, Nnajiofor and Chukwukere (2012), Science lecturers in colleges of education did not improvise for media resources and hardly use improvised media resources during teaching. Also, Jude and Dankoro (2012) submitted in another study on media improvisation in a college of education that ICT resources were not available but lecturers improvised by bringing their own computers while Aina (2013) showed that there was shortage of instructional media resources in physics but teachers improvised resources in physics teaching by using local materials. Improvisation of new tools, instrument, material and modification of existing media resources for instructional delivery is noted in science, technical and language schools (Rabi’u, 2014). This is noted as innovative, resourcefulness and creative potentials in thinking and manipulative dexterity of lecturers (Rabi’u, 2014).

Adu and Adu (2014) presented that improvised media resources are applicable to subjects like Arts, Science, education, medical science, engineering and non-academic activities. They emphasized that the ability of lecturers to create suitable substitute for unavailable media resources is regarded as improvised media. The finding of Abdelraheem and Al-Rabene (2005) had shown that creation of improvised media with local materials could enlarge limited knowledge and enrich instruction to a guaranteed quality.

3. Methodology

3.2. Population

The population of the study comprises 1,354 lecturers in state owned colleges of education in Nigeria. They are represented in Table 1.

Table 1.

The Population of Lecturers in the State Owned Colleges of Education in the South-West, Nigeria

3.3. Samples and Sampling Techniques

The sample size is represented by Table 2. It shows each college of education, schools, population against the number of lecturers sampled in bracket.

Table 2.

The Sample of Lecturers in State-Owned Colleges of Education in the South-West, Nigeria

Stratified sampling technique was adopted to select lecturers in five common schools in the state owned-colleges of education in the South-West, Nigeria. They are schools of Arts/Social Sciences, Vocational/Technical Education, Languages, Sciences and Education. The colleges of education in Nigeria is stratified along the Schools. Sixty percent (60%) of total population of 1354 lecturers was selected based on proportionate to size of the schools. Eight hundred and twelve (812) lecturers formed the sample of the study as presented in Table 2. Out of 812 questionnaires administered to lecturers only 710 questionnaires were retrieved back. as thus: School of Art/Social Science (138), School of Sciences (142), School of Languages (124), School of education (166) and school of vocational and Technical Education (140) questionnaires. The average age is 40.5.

4. Analysis

The three hypotheses were analyzed using t-test statistical method.

Ho1: There is no significant difference in the media improvisation of Schools of Language and Education Lecturers

Table 3.

Significant Difference in the Media Improvisation of Social of Language and Education Lecturers

The above table showed that there was significant difference in the Media improvisation of language and education lecturers (Crit-t = 1.96, Cal.t = 1.946, df = 288, p<05 level of significance). The null hypothesis is therefore rejected.

Ho2: There is no significant difference in the media improvisation of social science and vocational/technical education lecturers

Table 4.

Significant Difference in the Media Improvisation of Social Science and Vocational/Technical Education Lecturers

The above table showed that there was no significant difference in the Media Improvisation of social science and vocational/technical lecturers (Crit-t=1.96, Cal.t = .136, df=276, p>.05 level of significance). The null hypothesis is therefore accepted.

Ho3: There is no significant difference in the media improvisation of schools of art/social sciences and sciences lecturers

Table 5.

Significant Difference in the Media Improvisation of Social Science and Science Lecturers

The above table showed that there was no significant difference in the Media Improvisation of social science and science lecturers (Crit-t = 1.96, Cal.t = .226, df = 278, P > .05 level of significance). The null hypothesis is therefore accepted.

5. Discussion

The results of the study revealed that there is no significant difference between media improvisation of lecturers in schools of Arts/Social sciences and Sciences. It means that the lecturers in the two schools are improvising media resources in the similar direction. It shows that the lecturers are innovative, creative and resourceful in improvising media resources that are not available, enough and accessible for teaching in the colleges of education. This supports Nwabunwanne (2009) that media improvisation involves the construction, invention and production of materials in absence of commercially made-ones for effective teaching and learning activities. Furthermore, the finding is in agreement with Adu & Adu (2014) who found that Improvised media resources are applicable to subjects in art, science, education, medical, engineering disciplines. It is noted that studies of Onwumere (2006), Wasaga (2000), Aina (2013), Gilbert, Justi, and Aksela (2003) agree with the present finding on science lecturers’ improvisation media resources for effective teaching but contradicts Ezeasor, Opara, Nnajiofor and Chukwukere (2012) submitted that science lecturers did not improvise for unavailable media resources in colleges of education.

Significance difference existed between media improvisation of lecturers in schools of languages and education. It shows that the lecturers in the school of languages have greater media improvisation than those from the school of education. It means that the level at which lecturers in the school of languages provide for media resources that are not available, accessible and not enough is better than that of lecturers in school of education. The creative and innovative ability of lecturers in the school of languages to generate media resources and integrate them into teaching for proper training of pre-service teachers is greater. This study contradicts the previous study of Taiwo (2008) that improvisation of new tools, instructional material, devices, or modification of existing ones for instructional delivery are common in science, technical and language schools and that of Adu and Adu (2014) that improvised media resources are common to teachers in art, sciences, education, medical science, engineering and non-academic spheres.

Significant difference did not exist between media improvisation of arts/social sciences and vocational/technical education lecturers. The media improvisation of arts/social sciences and vocational/technical education lecturers are similar. The lecturers in the two schools made substitute from local materials when the real or original materials are not available, enough and accessible. The lecturers were able to use their technical know-how to construct media resources that are useful for delivery of lectures. This finding supports Adu and Adu (2014) that technical and Arts/ social science schools improvised media resources for instructional delivery but contradicts Ezeasor, Opara, Nnajiofor and Chukwukere (2012) who submitted that lecturers did not improvise for media resources and hardly utilize media resources for instructional delivery.

6. Conclusion

Media improvisation of lecturers in the schools common to colleges of education in South-West, Nigeria was established. It was concluded that media improvisation of lecturers in the schools of languages and education were different while lecturers in the schools of Arts/Social Science and Sciences and that of Art/Social Sciences and Vocational and Technical Education were not different.

Based on the outcomes of the study. It is recommended that:

• • Media improvisation should be promoted in school of Sciences, Art/Social Sciences and Technical Education
• • Media improvisation should be acknowledged in schools Languages and Education
• • School authorities in colleges of education should promote training in media improvisation knowledge, attitude and skills.
• • National Commission on Colleges of Education (NCCE) should organise seminar, workshops and conferences on media improvisation for lecturers in colleges of education in Nigeria.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the members of the management of the colleges of education used in the study. Also, the lecturers and research assistants trained for the purpose of the study were acknowledged.

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