Focus on Teaching Methods and Materials in Teachers’ Implementation of the History Syllabus Content: An Assessment of Learner Competency in Form Five Classes of Government Bilingual Grammar School, Buea

Abstract:

The successful development of suitably identified skills, knowledge and attitudes for use in solving real life problems in competence driven syllabuses is mediated by carefully selected contents and activities based on teaching and learning materials appropriate to generate the required experiences from manipulation by leaners. In this light, curriculum developers of the secondary school curriculum for Cameroon proposed certain contents for history, and identified and prescribed teaching materials susceptible to assist learners develop certain pre-determined competences encapsulated as learning outcomes of the syllabus. Given the first five years of the implementation of the syllabus, little in terms of research has been carried out to determine the degree to which the contents and teaching materials are helping learners to acquire the expected competences. This study thus examined teachers’ teaching of the subject content and use of the prescribed teaching materials in relation to how they foster students’ development of the competences. The study adopted a case study design. The study population was teachers and students of Bilingual Grammar school Molyko, Buea. The sample population was made up of 3 Form Five history teachers and 210 Form Five history students. The sample school was selected using the convenience sampling technique, while the participants were selected using the purposive sampling procedure. A focused group discussion schedule, and a classroom observation checklist were used to collect data for the study. The data collected from the focused group discussions were analyzed using thematic analysis, while the data collected from classroom observations were analyzed by simply counting the number of classes where a particular toll was used. Findings indicated that topics were not usually taught and those taught were ineffectively taught. Similarly, the prescribed teaching materials were scarcely used in teaching, and those used were poorly used. Therefore, teachers’ lack of mastery of subject contents and teaching materials negatively affected learners’ ability to develop competences. It was recommended that the education authorities implement a robust in-service development programme to enable teachers develop mastery of the contents, and use them appropriately in facilitating the learning in history.