EFFECT OF THE MEDIA ON TEACHING AND LEARNING OF ISLAMIC STUDIES

EFFECT OF THE MEDIA ON TEACHING AND LEARNING OF ISLAMIC STUDIES

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1.    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In the late 20th century, mass media could be classified into eight mass media industries such as: books, newspapers, magazines, recording, radio, movies, television and the internet with the explosion of digital communication technology. Today, broadcasting is a medium for the spread of education. It brings the world nearer to our hearts and homes. Indeed, with the invention of the radio, the world has become a smaller place more than it used to be a global village (Bunt, 2003).

In Nigeria, the fullest use of the radio as an instrument of mass education has not yet been fully exploited. Schools ought to have a special “radio hour”, during which students given the ample opportunity to listen to special educational programs which are meant for the students only and regularly replayed on special wavelength, for their particular benefit. At the senior  secondary school level, the radio can be educationally utilized with considerable advantage to the students. Looking at this critically, a radio class by its very nature, is something mechanical and deals with the wave, so its use in teaching and learning of any subject, especially the Islamic religion, can be very important and advantageous. Although, the use of the radio in teaching of Islamic religion has its disadvantage in that, the student is a mere listener, a passive participant because he/she is not an active participant in the educational program (s), in radio programs, telephone enquiries simultaneously are not allowed (Hornby,2010).

According to ‘O dera (2012), for many years, radio programs have been used in Kenyan schools for distance learning with full support of the Kenyan Government. In 1995, schools broadcast was discontinued due to the high cost of radio production and transmission problems that were faced by the government. InNigeria today, for you to cough in the air through radio is expensive. A program of thirty minutes or an hour for a quarter is very expensive. In order to meet the challenges of free primary education, the Kenyan Government recently introduced world space radio broadcasts for schools to supplement and improve classroom teacher's work and the quality of education at the distant world space radio. The overall findings showed that students learn from radio lessons and teachers also benefited from well researched programs that help to improve their teaching as well as the learning process in the classroom. After school hour, in the afternoon, world space radio receiver are used to deliver audio, drama entertainment and education to adults and professionals. The radio lessons are accompanied by printed materials sent out to schools in advance in order for the students and teachers to know the time and date of the lessons and teachers also gets note from the use of the radio lesson (Haliza, et al 2009).

According to Mohahamadu and Alisan (2002) the use of television as a medium of instruction in Islamic studies at the senior   secondary school in Nigeria, has its own positive impact. Children's fascination with the television has caught the concerns of researchers, parents, educators and other groups dealing with children's well-being since the advent of the media as instruments of teaching and learning processes. Much of the public debate has been focused on the effects of media violence, which has resulted in much scrutiny by psychologist and sociologists and has given rise to a massive body of research. But the debate and research has also dealt with whether television viewing in itself is a passive activity, and sometimes, television has been compared to a drug which has a tranquilizing and seducing effect on the viewer. Long term research conducted both in the United States and in Europe, came to the conclusion that television violence is but one of  of the factors responsible for violent or aggressive behaviors among young people.

At the end of the 1960s and the beginning of 1970s there was a belief that education programs through the television could be used for promoting learning and social behaviors. The medium was deliberately used for preschool learning, often called pro-social learning, and compensatory education in the United States.

The issue of children and the media (particularly television) has also been a target for the United Nations since the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, became valid in 1989 (Uzor, 2008). The objective of this study is like that of Wan and Kamaruzuman (2009) study to determine the effectiveness of the techniques and strategies in teaching Islamic studies in the senior   secondary school in Lagos state. 

Moreover, the media was a form of teaching aids which assisted teachers in the teaching by providing them with tools to illustrate some points or processes as well as supporting long distance educational system. Meighan (2004), states that the rural and urban schools are not different in content and construct of teaching pedagogies but the difference lies in the execution and practical displays of the content and construct of the schooling activities. These activities in rural societies need a renewal in terms of execution of the purpose of teaching, provisions of facilities to encourage learning and to make teaching more technical which forms the general well-being of the individual and the society at large. The act of teaching is described as a process and means of transmitting knowledge, information, skills, values and other sociable’s. Teaching is the ability for a teacher to make a child to be literate. Teaching is an interactive forum or channel of communication and a means of strengthening relationship between the teacher and learner. Hailina, Juson and Jusoff (2009) were right by submitting that, today's youths are much more media-centric than previous generations. Many people believe that the brains of today's youths have actually been rewired to accommodate the thousands of hours they spend in front of computer screens watching and creating video, listening to music and playing computer games. It also has been said that today's youths actually speak digitally. That is why many of them have called this new generation the digital generation. Therefore, using the media to teach them Islamic studies at the senior   secondary schools, will assist them to learn effectively. According to Adeleke (2001), the teacher of Islamic studies ought to be well equipped with digital resources. .

Digital technology has incontrovertibly become an important element in the presentation of Islam and supply of information about Muslims all over the globe. As Ismail, (2010), puts it apart from its availability in various software packages, the text of the Quran, for instance, is now accessible to the global audience on the internet in different formats, with diverse search options, alternative graphic designs, renditions in Arabic and numerous world languages with various audio and audio-visual facilities thereby reconfirming the certainty of its preservation (Quran 15:9). Similar transformations have occurred to the body of Hadith Literature, as well as other ancillary branches of Islamic stories. People are now getting conversant with online approaches of acquiring knowledge through platforms such as e-Quran, e-Hadith, e-Figh, e-Fatiwah, e-Khutbah, e-Jihad and so on (bunt, 2003). Digital technology has placed at our disposal multifunction software for computation of Zakat, determining times of Salat, Giblah direction and different phases of the moon (Zan,2004).

The use of ICT in the teaching of Islamic studies at the senior   secondary schools is founded on the philosophy of the recognition of Allah as the source of all forms of knowledge as encapsulated in the Quran verse “he taught man what he knew not” (Q: 96:5). Islam favours the acquisition of all types of positive knowledge provided they are in tandem with the provisions of the shariah. The increasing population of Muslims world-wide, the propitiation of Islamic institutions and the mounting of Islamic studies programmes have significantly accentuated the demand for Islamicists who will teach the subject to different categories of learners. In spite of the advances in various fields, very little digital transformation has occurred to the process of instruction in Islamic studies especially in resource poor settings where ICT gadjets are not easily accessible.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The problems of the use of radio and other media in teaching and learning of Islamic studies cannot be overemphasized. This is because the problems of Islamic studies teachers lie on inadaptability and uncustomizability of contemporary information technology devices which have been manifested in the range of digital products deployed to provide information about Islam. Digital Islamic tools in software and hardware are already inbiquitous, still emerging and rapidly changing in terms of sophistication, capacities and functions and it is difficult to to be used to teach and learn Islamic studies at the senior   secondary schools. Previously, the floppy disc used to be the preferred device for storing information, it is now superserved by devices such as flash drives, external harddisks, memory cards, optical discs and computer networks (Langley). However, ICT tools are not limited to digital devices. Obayele and Ogunlade (2006) broadly classified them into the following three stands.Various studies have reported low level of utilization of internet facility in Muslim countries. Mohamadi and Ahsna (2002:126), for instance, describe the use of internet in Muslim settings as minimal citing factors responsible to include “the level of literacy, income, cultural values and the level of consumption.” 

The use of radio program to teach Islamic studies has some short comings which hinders its full potentials as an effective medium of instruction in the school. For instance: Radio cannot offer personal contact like the classroom teacher. Some teachers who are not keen often leave the students to listen to the program on their own. Radio lessons cannot account for the presence of the listener (as with books) or whether listening or not. Radio cannot cater for individual differences in the class. Furthermore, there is always lack of immediate feedback which is normally enjoyed in a classroom where there is face-to-face discussion.

1.3     Purpose Of The Study

The main aim of this study is to examine the effect media in the aching and learning of Islamic studies at the senior   secondary in Lagos State, Nigeria.

The following are the specific objectives of the study:

•         To identify different types of media available to Islamic teachers in teaching and learning of Islamic studies at the senior   secondary school.

•         To find out whether Islamic teachers are capable of using the available media to teach Islamic studies in schools.

•         To examine whether students learn effectively using the media as instruments of teaching at the senior   secondary schools.

•         To assess whether there is a relationship between the use of media and the teaching effectiveness of teachers at the senior   secondary school.

•         To find out the factors responsible for non-use of media in teaching and learning of Islamic studies at the senior   secondary schools.

 1.4 Research Questions

The following research questions will be raised in this study:

•         How can different typed of media available to Islamic teachers in teaching learning of Islamic studies be identified?

•         Are Islamic teachers capable of using the available media to teach Islamic studies at the senior   secondary schools?

•         Do students learn effectively using the media as instruments of teaching and learning at the senior   secondary schools?

•         Is there any relationship between the use of media and effectiveness in teaching and learning of Islamic studies at the senior   secondary schools?

•         What are the factors responsible for the non-use of the available media by teachers of Islamic studies at the senior secondary schools?

1.5     Research Hypotheses

 The following null hypotheses will be tested in this study:

•         There will be no significant relationship between the capabilities of Islamic teachers and the teaching of Islamic studies at the senior secondary schools.

•          There will be no significant relationship between the use of media and students’ learning effectiveness at the senior   secondary schools.

•         There will be no significant relationship between the use of media and effectiveness in teaching and learning at senior   secondary schools.

•         The factors responsible for the non-use of the available media by I   Islamic teachers will not significantly affect the teaching and learning at the senior   secondary schools.

1.6     Significance of the Study

 This study will be beneficial in the following ways:

 The results and recommendations of this study can be used to determine the effectiveness of media on the learning and teaching of Islamic Studies at the senior   secondary schools in Lagos State.

To improve the learning and teaching of Islamic studies through the use of the media or other electronic systems at the senior   secondary schools in Lagos State.

Students of Islamic studies will be exposed to the utilization of I.C.T in the study of Islamic religion at the senior   secondary schools in Lagos State.

1.8Scope and Limitation of the Study

 The study will cover the effect of the use of media on the effective teaching and learning of Islamic studies at the senior   secondary schools Ikorodu Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria.

1.8     Definition of Terms

In this study operational definitions will be addressed:

•         The media : This term means the recent method of communication through the radio, television, newspaper, magazines, the internet and so on. It is the medium of faster communication from one individual to another.

•         Teaching Effectiveness: This term denotes a teaching strategy of a teacher which enables him/her to carry out his or her teaching in an effective manner or way. It is the application of teaching aid in order to teach properly in a given classroom.

•         Academic Performance: This term describes the level of performance a student puts up in a class test or examinations which may be administered to him or her over a period of time in order to test his or her ability to recall all he/she has been taught in the classroom.

•         Learning Achievement.: This is the learning outcomes of a learner over a period of time. It is the totality of what the learner can achieve after being taught a particular lesson.

•         Information Communication Technology: This term is used to describe the use of radio, television, newspapers, magazines, the internet and other means of communication between persons in a community or society.