Information resources utilisation and teaching effectiveness of lecturers in Federal Polythechnics in Nigeria
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Date
2012-05
Authors
Odunlade, R.O
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School of Postgraduate Studies, Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria
Abstract
Information resources utilisation plays a role in the teaching profession. The quality of teaching, research, and self development of teachers in any institution depends largely on the level of their interaction with the various information resources at their disposal. However, they seem to face challenges in their bid to utilise information resources for teaching. This study therefore takes a critical looked at the types of information resources employed by Nigerian polytechnic lecturers in the course of their teaching, and the impact of these on their teaching effectiveness.
Using a survey research design, the total enumeration technique was used to select 46 lecturers teaching 4 selected courses (electric circuit theory, engineering management, inorganic chemistry, computer graphics and animation) at the HND level and 1,365 HND II students (offering those courses) in 12 Federal Polytechnics across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria through multi stage sampling technique. This totaled up to 1,411. Two types of structured questionnaires – one for lecturers and one for students were administered on the sample. Both lecturers’ questionnaire which was a self rating of information resources utilisation and teaching effectiveness and students’ questionnaire which was for rating the lecturers presented a scale of teaching effectiveness to respondents. Response rate for lecturers was 95.8% while that of students was 88.8%. This translated into 89% response rate. The questionnaire was validated and the reliability coefficient obtained was 0.9 using the Cronbach alpha. Data were analysed using the descriptive statistics, Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression analysis.
Information resources available for lecturers were found mainly to be textbooks (82.6%), journals (78.3%), newspapers and magazines (73.9%), encyclopedias (52.2%) while electronic resources were barely available. Majority of lecturers had awareness of most of the information resources under study. Also, level of accessibility especially to print information resources was high among lecturers. Among the mostly utilised resources were textbooks (93.5%), journals (80.4%), conference proceedings (56.5%), and encyclopedias (52.2%). The study showed that teaching effectiveness had a significant positive correlation with resources utilisation (r = 0.19, p = 0.104<0.05). Furthermore, availability of information resources had a significant impact on utilisation (r=0.55, p =0.000<0.05) while a weak positive correlation (r=0.37, p=0.012<0.05) existed between awareness and utilisation of resources. Availability, accessibility and utilisation of information resources were found to have a multiple positive influence on teaching effectiveness [(R) of 0.47a, R-Square = .22, Adjusted R-Square = .16]. Out of these three, accessibility of information resources was found to be the major predictor of teaching effectiveness (18%). Also, Polytechnic lecturers in Nigeria were found to be effective in their teaching as correlated by students’ ratings where most of the scale of teaching effectiveness ranked between 3.10 to 3.94 (Means) and 1.61 to 1.21 (STD). It was established that information resources utilisation had a positive contribution to lecturers’ teaching effectiveness.
The study therefore recommends that while provision of information resources (print and electronic) has increased in polytechnics, access, especially, to electronic resources should be ensured so as to enhance utilisation vis a vis teaching effectiveness. Policy makers should ensure that Federal Polytechnics are provided with computers and other necessary facilities with which access to the Internet and online databases would be guaranteed. Deliberate efforts should be made by polytechnic librarians to create awareness on various information resources available for teaching and learning.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the School of Postgraduate Studies, Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria in Fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
(Information Resources Management)
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Citation
Odunlade, R.O. (2012). Information resources utilisation and teaching effectiveness of lecturers in Federal Polythechnics in Nigeria. A dissertation submitted to the School of Postgraduate Studies, Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria in Fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Information Resources Management), 193p.