A Study on the Development of Functional Curriculum for the Teaching of ICT in Technical and Vocational Education in Nigeria

This article is published by the Zamfara International Journal of Humanities.

1Anthonia Omeneke Ohieku, ²Safina Sanusi Sabo
^1,2Department of Mass Communication
School of Information Technology
Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa Nasarawa - Nigeria.
¹toniaaudu100@gmail.com, ²sabosafina2021@gmail.com

 &
Victoria Ale
Department of Library & Information Science
School of Informational Technology
Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa Nasarawa - Nigeria.
alev20@yahoo.com

Abstract

Education is the most potent force that can foster the desired national development of every country. It is the development of character or mental power and it is the pivot of human resource development. It is through education that technical know-how could be attained and sustained. Technical education is seen as that aspect of education which leads to the acquisition of practical and applied skills as well as basic scientific knowledge. It is against this backdrop that this research paper conducts a study on the development of functional curriculum for the teaching of ICT in Technical and Vocational Education in Nigeria. The paper sees curriculum in ICT to comprise all the learning experience given to the child under the auspices of the teachers. The paper discuss such terms as technical and vocational education, ICT and curriculum development, factor hindering curriculum implementation among others. Part of the objectives of the study was to develop ICT curriculum for the benefit of teaching in technical and vocational education. Questionnaire and interview methods were employed to gather data for this work. Determinism Theory which holds that man’s feelings, actions, and thoughts are shaped by evolving technologies was used as the theoretical framework of analysis. The paper discovered among other things that ICTs are revolutionizing education by removing distance from education and making knowledge more accessible to all. The paper then concludes that, distance education through the use of ICTs is believed by many to hold potential in addressing critical problems facing skills development at the present in Nigeria, and by extension across the globe

Keywords: Education, Technical, Vocational, Curriculum, and ICT

Introduction

Growth and development are achieved when members of the society effectively pool their technical and vocational skills together to build a sustainable nation. One cannot divorce technical education from vocational education because the two involve work, and they are practically oriented. Technical and vocational education is that aspects of education that facilitates a nation’s technological, economic and industrial development. In most nations of the world today, development is due largely to technical and vocational sector of a nation. No doubt, this step by a nation has always enhanced high quality technical and skilled manpower. In Nigeria for example, our polytechnics, monotechnics, and technical colleges have been producing well trained architect, building engineers, technologists, surveyors, craftmen, technicians and various other artisans that have successfully been manning our industries, co- operations and institutions and their contributions have always been improving the economic status of Nigeria.

Indeed, Nigeria as a country is endowed with different kinds of human and material resources; and unless these natural resources are fully taped, they would remain useless. Indeed,unless resources is adequately and properly oriented to ensure effective participation of all members of a given society towards proper exploitation and utilization of the domestic material resources as well as maximization of general welfare and development of a nation, the nation would remained stagnated. The productivity of capital, labour and other forms ofnatural resources is greatly enhanced by the level of technical know- how of a nation. It is on the realization of this that vocational and technical education was given prominence of resent by government through our educational system.

Thus, there is no gain saying, that ICTs are revolutionizing education by removing distance from education and making knowledge more accessible to all. Technology enhanced learning which plays a crucial role in the development of a life-long learning culture, and has the capacity to empower learners by providing them with multiple pathways that offer alternatives and channels to meet their education and training needs. Therefore, there is need to develop effective curriculum for the teaching of ICT courses in technical and vocational education in Nigeria.

 

Conceptual Clarifications

Technical and Vocational Education

Education simply means the transmission of intellectual and moral excellence. It could be equally seen as the nature of the process of personal development or growth which if analyzed, forms the socio-political point of view and deals with influencing members of the community. Steiner (1981), states that education involves content, curriculum which is a selection from culture and a setting. Through guidance, education enables the learners to discover things himself. Education according to Bush-Brown (1970), is to develop man’s verbal, visual, and mental capacities for resolution to problems. Therefore, education prepares the young ones to function effectively as adults of their society by equipping them with necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to enable them effectively operate the institutions of their society and to improve on them. On the whole, education especially technical and vocational educations are vehicles for growth and development of a nation in its entire ramification.

Vocational and technical education is defined as that aspect of education which leads to the acquisition of practical and applied skills as well as basic scientific knowledge. This is a term used comprehensively to refer to the educational process to which involves in addition to general education, the study of technologies and related sciences, skills, and knowledge relating to occupation in various sectors of economic and social life.

Therefore, the concept of vocational education aimed at equipping individuals to use their intuitive to survive in the world that is essentially on work-oriented.

 

Thus, the objectives of vocational and technical education are as follow:

1.       Integration of the individual into a sound and effective citizen.

2.       Faith in man’s ability to make rational decision.

3.       Respect for the work of the individual.

4.       Moral    and     spiritual    values     in interpersonal and human relations.

5.       Shared responsibility for the common good of the society; and

6.       Social, cultural, economic, scientific and technological process, NPE 2004).

Also, taking solace from the words of Fafunwa, who states that both technical and vocational education in traditional societies are forcharacter training and job-orientation. It is a highly useful education because its occupationalcontents offers the trainees the opportunity to acquire skills, attitudes and knowledge to perform socially and economically, work that is beneficial not only to them but to the society Fafunwa (1974). Indeed, replicating on the history of vocational and technical education in Nigeria, one will recognize how education curricula were subjected to social and political influences aimed at achieving any political or social end of government of the time (Umoru, 1999). In fact, the arrival of British in Nigeria during the colonial masters, trade and administrators and so on., curricula were used and fine-tuned towards achieving the vested interest of colonal masters. After independence in 1960, it became clear that colonial system of education was no longer sustainable for the people of Nigeria as it has failed to produce the type of manpower necessary for the development of the society. The expected sustainable youths’ empowerment was not achieved through the colonial curricula of education.

 

The foregoing reasons gave birth to the idea of the National Policy on Education (6-3-3-4 system) which was designed to prepare individuals for useful living in the society (NPE, 2004). The choice of any vocational and technical education curriculum model is based on the role that technical colleges or institutions are expected to play in the society. This means that curriculum must be relevant to societal needs as stated by the NPC, 2004 in its national objectives.

 

Concept of Curriculum Development

Human learning is a very complex process. Indeed, spite of years of research in education, our understanding of how human learn still remained restricted. For this reason, educators strike to use little that is known about human learning whenever they engage in the act of teaching and learning. Of course, the learning process can be divided into two categories: the first relates to learning conditions that are internal to the learners. While this is the area where the potential to improve learning outcome is the highest, it is undoubtedly the area that is most difficult to affect. The second condition of learning is external to the learners. Under this category, people learn through the five senses and the constitution of each of these senses to the amount that we learn varies from one another. (Kupsh and Mason, 1986)

A curriculum as a concept is composed of those classes presumed or outlines by an institution for completion of a programme of study leading to the award of a specific certificate. It could also be said to be all the courses offered by a college or institution which is required for a specific certificate. This then means that curriculum as a concept becomes a process that involves translating the nation’s broad educational goals into down to earth realities and of making informed choices on how the realities can be implemented towards the ultimate goals of development. This is achieved through the concrete activities of the schools and the entire education system. Indeed, by curriculum development, it further emphasizes the notionof curriculum as a process. It implies that, curriculum is like living organism, subjects to evaluation and change. It is a process by which the determinants of curriculum are regularly studied so that curriculum can always be responsive to the changing needs of the society.

 

These determinants are:

1.       Society itself has never being static.

2.       Education policies which should be commensurate to development in the larger society.

3.       The profile of learners is also an ever changing phenomenon.

4.       The condition of the school is also a determinant by array of societal factors, etc.

 

Curriculum development thus becomes the continuous means of ensuring relevance and responsiveness.By relevance, we mean being up to date or current with the recent development.

 

ICT as a curriculum in technical and vocational education

Curriculum encompasses all the learning experience given to the child under the auspices of the teachers. The problems that confront most developing countries of the world after independence, is always identified to be that of inappropriate curricula and education in such state. Vocational and technical education curriculum constitutes a broad range of students’ experiences in technical college settings. Instructions are given by teachers on curriculum include these instructions that constitute a broad range of staffers’ experience. Mbaiorga (1992) states that instructions focus on delivery of vocational and technical science and technology experience in the school. He further stressed that instruction may be perceived as the planned instructions between the technical teachers and the students that result in desirable learning. He posit that some educators     feel      that      all curricula include structions, while others contend that sound instructions includes sound curriculum.

Therefore, when using technology as curriculum, the focus is mainly on the development of ICT literacy skills. There are two types of ICT literacy sets. The first is generic ICT literacy skills such as keyboarding, word-processing, using database, using spreadsheets, desktop publishing, and using the Internet for research and communication (Kasworm and Londoner, 2000). The second ICT skill sets are the occupationally specific ICT literacy skills. Examples of these skills include the ability to use CNC equipment, work with CAD/CAM, and operate equipment with digital system controls.

 

Implementation of vocational and technical curriculum in nigeria

In the opinion of Nwachukwu (2001), who states that certain factors are essential for functional vocational and technical education curriculum implementation. The factors are as follow:

 

 

i.            The vocational and technical education curriculum must be humanized. In other words, the curriculum for vocational and technical education in Nigeria should not be something foreign to technical college students; and should not be chosen just because it is traditional. The vocational and technical education curricula must speak of today, of real life problem facing our communities and societies and the process of living in its entire ramifications. Nwachukwu explained further that humanizing today’s vocational and technical education means making the curriculum responsive to the present situation of Nigeria. Humanizing vocational and technical education means training the youth for sustainable and self-reliant empowerment in Nigeria.

ii.            Trainees must be ready to receive what is taught. The ability of the trainees to learn depends on that student’s readiness to learn.

iii.            The learning experiences must provide the development of the ability to think. In vocational and technical education, thinking is the process or realizing and finding solutions to problems. It has been defined as all those cognitive actions taken by an individual in advance of an action as a preliminary to deciding among alternative thinking. According to Nwachukwu (2001), it is considered the whole process of solving a problem, which is very essential for handling problems- solving situation or carrying out task in vocational and technical situation.

iv.            The vocational and technical education curriculum must be based on and contain experiences intrinsic to the life of the learner. There are stages in vocational and technical education and when students pass through the pre- vocational to the vocational concepts and characteristic, they develop new ideas, shape their values and can by so doing solve their individual problems.

 

Statement of the Study

It is an obvious fact, that when using technology as curriculum, the focus is mainly on the development ofICT literacy skills. Thus, the need to enhance and sustain the current ICT literacy skill becomes paramountfor the development, growth as well as smooth operation of teaching in vocational and technicaleducation in Nigeria.

Therefore, the crux of this research article is to explain, after investigation the benefits of developing technologies curricula for the teaching of technical and vocational skills in our technical education.

Objectives of the Study

1.       To Develop ICT curriculum for the benefit of teaching in technical and vocational education.

2.       To increase the use of ICT for the acquisition of Skills in Technical and vocational education

3.       To connect technical and vocational education with skills and knowledge that is needed in order to do a particular job.

4.       Research Questions

5.       How does the development of ICT curriculum is facilitating the teaching in technical and vocational education?

6.       How does the use of ICT increase access to acquisition of skills in our societies?

7.       How does technical and vocational education connected with skills and knowledge needed to do a particular job?

 

Theoretical Framework: Technological Determinism Theory

In the course of this research article, the researchers depended on Technological Determinism theory as a guide to find out the influence of ICT on the teaching in technical and vocational education through the development of technological curriculum. Technological Determinism Theory which was propounded by Mashal Mcluhan in the year 1962 as quoted in Edward (1990), states that man’s feelings, actions, and thoughts are shaped by evolving technologies. The theory sees ‘the medium as the message’ because we learn, feel and think the way we do because of the current communication technologies (ICTs) that are available and we are exposed to. Therefore, the process of teaching in vocational and technological education is being reshaped by the use of ICTs. In other words, it has given rise to new ways of learning. Thus, using ICT resources such as the Internet is now evolving because of the availability of various tools that aids learning process. Indeed, the basic premise of the

Procedure: Putting into consideration the fact that the intended purpose of a scientific investigation of teaching and learning processes, the interview and questionnaire are usually employ as instrument of data collections. Within this ambit,unstructured interview schedule was used as instrument to elicit responses from the respondents. Interview and questionnaire were also used over other method, because the researchers are of the thoughts that respondents are in need of some level of flexibility in responding to questions so that it will be possible to obtain instruction that respondent may not consider important to the study. Therefore, in obtaining research data for the study, face to face interview, personal observations as well as the use of questionnaire were employed by the researchers to elicit responses from some members of academic staff who teach in federal polytechnic Nasarawa being a technical institution.

 

Analysis and Discussion of Results

Technical and vocational education is the bedrock of the growth and development of any society. This is against the backdrop that most societies of the world depend largely on product s of their industries for sustenance. The technical aspects of this form of education have to do with the practical acquisition of knowledge in the use of machines and other science equipment and method for industrial growth and development of a society. Thus, technical and vocational education is connected with skills and knowledge that are needed in order to do a particular job for the sustenance of mankind. Thus, the increase in the use of ICT in teaching vocational and technical education in Nigeria has resulted in a major paradigm shift, from a total Technological Determinism is that media are extension of the human body and that they alter not only their environment but the way message is received.

 

dependence on the behaviourist paradigm to a growing adherence to the cognitivist paradigm. On the question of how does the use of ICT increase access to acquisition of skills in our societies? Indeed, ICT increase access to education in no small measure. It would have been very difficult, if not totally impossible for countries to meet the objective of effective learning as it is being practice all over the world today. It was discovered from our data that, in Nigeria, our inability to meet this challenge is self

–inflected because we tend to think of linear scaling, that is using the same model of education (the conventional method). The education model developed for the Industrial Age cannot achieve educational empowerment effectively in the Information Age. With ICT tools, we should be able to advance the components of the conventional model into the corresponding components of the model.

On the question of how does the development of ICT curriculum is facilitating the teaching in technical and vocational education? It was discovered from the analysis of our data that the rate at which the Internet is being assed keeps increasing at lightning speed. Teaching-Based Learning (TBL) can enhance teaching and learning; it has the potential to become cost- effective as it offers greater flexibility regarding time and location of training delivery. Thus, the introduction and development of the ICT curricula of teaching in technical and vocational education facilitate acquisition of skills by students. It is not surprising therefore to see a growing interest in Teaching-Based Learning (TBL) across the globe. TBL is the array of hardware and software used in the teaching and learning systems that include computer-based training systems, multimedia systems, electronics performance support systems, as well as the Internet with World Wide Web systems.

Conclusion

Education is the most potent force that can foster the desired national development. Education is the development of character or mental power and it is the pivot of human resource development. It is through education that technical know-how could be attained, sustained and harnessed to bring about desired development of a country. Therefore, vocational and technical education is a programme designed for sustainable youth empowerment in Nigeria. Thus, the role of Vocational and technical education cannot be overemphasized for the development and growth of the economy of a nation. On this note, the work concludes that whilst there is a wealth of studies and debate on the use of information and communication technology in university and higher education, there has been only limited work on the potential impact for vocational education and training. So, distance education through the use of ICTs is believed by many to hold promise in addressing critical problems facing skills development at the present in Nigeria and by extension across the globe

 

 

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