Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies: Home

Article Title: Examination of the Availability and Adequacy of Biology Education Resources in the Curricula of Open and Conventional Universities in Southwestern Nigeria
by Kareem Adeyinka Oluwaseun, Salami Marie Onovroghene and Ojediran Ayodele Isaac

Abstract:
The study determined the availability and adequacy of laboratory resources used in implementing Biology Education Curricula (BEC) in Open and Conventional Universities. This was with a view to providing information about the gap in the implementation of BEC as well as determine the level of implementation of BEC in both University types. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population for the study comprised of all Biology Education lecturers and the departments that teach Biology Education courses in both University types in Southwestern Nigeria. All the three Federal Universities that offer Biology Education (except the newly established Federal University in Ekiti State) and the Open University Study Centres in the states where they are located were used for the study. The study sample included all Biology Education lecturers found in the selected schools. One research instrument was used for the study, namely: Biology Education Laboratory Equipment/Resources Observation Checklist (BELEROC). The instrument was validated by curriculum experts in the Faculty of Education in Obafemi Awolowo University and was judged reliable. A reliability of 0.82 for BELEROC was obtained for the instruments using Cronbach Alpha Co-efficient. The data collected were analyzed using the descriptive statistics of frequency and percentages. The results showed that 100% of the Open University Study centres do not have resources of their own but rely on the resources of the neighboring Conventional Universities which indicated that resources are unavailable or inadequate in the Open University Study centres. Results revealed that not all resources were available in the University with the least level of availability having 69.4% and that with the highest has 76% availability. The study concluded that resources are not completely available. It also concluded that the Open Universities completely lack resources and quality facilitators to implement BEC which will produce a wide gap in its implementation as compared with Conventional Universities. It concluded that there is a need to integrate teaching strategies employed in both University types as well as make resources available for the Conventional and Open Universities in order to attain a balance in the quality of graduates produced. The need to provide information as regards the resources is important because the researcher found out that since resources are not readily available in Open university effective science teaching will not be achieved which will cause a disparity in the quality of graduate produced.

Keywords: examination, biology, education resources, curricula, universities

Download full paper