Influence Of Christian Religious Studies Implementation On Students Character Formation In Public Senior Secondary Schools

1.3 Research Questions

The following questions guided the study:

i. What are the key factors that influence the character formation of senior students in public secondary schools in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria?

ii. What are the contributions of senior secondary school CRS curriculum to the character formation of students in public secondary schools in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria?

iii. What are the roles of the instructional and administrative aspects of the school environment in the implementation of the CRS curriculum for the character formation of students in public senior secondary schools in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria?

iv. What are the challenges in public secondary schools’ capacity to committedly implement the senior secondary school CRS curriculum for the character formation  of students in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria?

v. What are the possible solutions to public secondary schools’ commitment in the implementation of the senior secondary school CRS curriculum for the character formation of students in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria?

1.4 Significance of the Study

This study is significant to the Ministry of Education, the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), secondary schools, school administration, CRS teachers, teachers in charge of discipline, teachers in charge of guidance and counselling, students, parents, the church, non-state actors and other researchers. This study is beneficial to these stakeholders in the following ways:

The Ministry of Education will directly benefit from this study. The findings will help the Ministry of Education to have well formulated policies on training and employment of qualified CRS teachers with positive values to schools. Thy study will also be beneficial to the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC). The findings of the study will advise NERDC on the need to review the existing CRS curriculum and bring in some topics and instructional methodologies and resources that will help build the affective domain of the students.

To the secondary schools in Owerri Municipal, Imo State Nigeria; that is staff and students, the study will be beneficial to them in the following ways: Through this study, the school administration will see the need to give full administrative support to the CRS teachers. This support is in the areas of instructional materials and in-service training. The support will help the CRS teacher to be fully equipped for the character formation of students. For the CRS teachers, the study also hopes to expose more practical pedagogical approaches to CRS. These practical teaching methodologies will help the CRS teacher to influence the behaviour of the students positively.

The study will reduce the workload of teachers in charge of discipline. Through the study, the teachers in charge of discipline will be more at home with the students and be more focused on the productive nature of the school than looking for undisciplined students. For the teachers in charge of guidance and counselling, the study will help them achieve their objectives. One of their objectives is the positive pursuit of students. Therefore, when students become more focused on their school activities due to the positive influence of CRS on their behaviour, it helps to boost the morale of the counsellors.

Students will benefit in a special way in this study. The findings will enable students to see the need to embrace virtues such as honesty, hardwork, obedience, cooperation, and responsibility. The study will also help them to shun vices such as theft, examination malpractice, disobedience, disrespect, substance abuse, bullying, laziness, cultism, and sexual misconduct. The study is also significant to parents, guardians and or sponsors of the students. They will benefit from the positive behavioural pursuits of their children and or wards. Their children and wards will learn how to be consistent in doing home chores, respect their elders, keep good friends and companies, take care of the home, and engage in more productive activities in the society.

The church will benefit in a special way in this study. This is because when the characters of the students are enhanced, they become more responsible citizens. This leads other young people to emulate their disciplined characters. By so doing, increase in virtuous life and decrease in vices. The other non-state actors such as the civil society and non- governmental organisations will also benefit immensely from this study. This is due to the fact that when students’ characters are well formed through the CRS curriculum, they thrive for discipline and excellence in school, and the wider society.

Lastly, the findings of this study will add new knowledge in the academic field. The study will be relevant to other researchers who are interested in character formation of students. It will bring to their awareness the importance of the CRS curriculum in the character formation of students. In so doing, contributes to existing knowledge, theory, practice, and scholarship.

1.5 Scope and Delimitations of the Study

The study covered the key influences on students’ character formation, and the instructional, and administrative aspects of the school environment. It looked at how they impact the implementation of the CRS curriculum for the character formation of senior students in public secondary schools in Imo State, Nigeria. The key influences were family, society, media, church, and school. The instructional aspect of the school environment focused on the teaching methodologies of the CRS teacher, and the resources that enable him or her to implement the curriculum. The administrative aspect of the school environment looked at how the administration of the school supports the efforts of the CRS teacher in the implementation of the CRS curriculum. The aspects of support in the study were motivation, in-service training, recognition, and provision of adequate classroom facilities.

The study was delimited to senior secondary school students in three public secondary schools: two single sex schools; a boys’ school and a girls’ school, and a co- educational school, in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria. The justification for the choice of the schools was to get in-depth similarities and differences with regard to the phenomenon under study. As well, for the proposed site for the study; Owerri Municipal, and the senior students, it is assumed that the process of modernisation in the urban areas has brought in its wake myriad of problems. This makes students deviate from the standard norms of the society.

1.6 Theoretical Framework of the Study

This study was hinged on the Social Learning Theory developed by Bandura, Ross & Ross (1961). The justification for the use of this theory was that it enabled the researcher to explore how the character of the student is formed as a result of the commitment of the CRS teacher in teaching, the exemplary life that the CRS teacher leads, and the support the school administration gives to the CRS teacher. According to the theory, there are four conditions necessary for social learning to take place. These are attention, retention, production, and motivation. These conditions helped the study to be more focused. This study found the theory relevant because recent researchers such as: Atilano (2014), Korir and Kipkemboi (2014), and Akintayo and Adebola (2015) who worked on similar phenomenon of the study anchored their studies on the theory.

1.6.1 Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

The Social Learning Theory demonstrates that children’s future behaviours are strongly influenced by observing the behaviour of adults and how these behaviours are rewarded and punished for their behaviours. In their lives, children observe a variety of people that can influence how they grow, develop, and behave. The behaviour of these people can define the child, and these influences include parents, siblings, friends, and teachers (Nesbitt, 2013; Johnson, 2014). The people that children observe are referred to as models and their behaviours influence children. This is because, when children observe models, they encode some of their behaviours, remembering what they have seen and replicating such behaviours (Brown, 2013).

1.6.1.1 Key Principles of Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

Drawing from the Social Learning Theory, there are four conditions necessary for social learning to take place. They include: attention, retention, production and motivation. In the principle of attention, observers cannot learn unless they pay attention to what is happening around them. In retention, observers must not only recognise the observed behaviour, but also remember it at some later time.

Furthermore, in the condition of production, observers must be physically and or intellectually capable of producing the act. In many cases the observer possesses the necessary responses. In the principle of motivation, an observer will only act if there are some motivations behind the action. Therefore, the presence of reinforcement or punishment, either to the model or directly to the observer becomes most important here.

1.6.1.2 Strengths of Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

One of the key strengths of the Social Learning Theory is the fact that the researchers verified that children copy aggression. This was confirmed in their case study of 1961 (Brown, 2013; Vergara, 2013). These scholars reiterated that the other strength of the Social Learning Theory is that many acts of aggression or tragedies were linked to violent and gruesome television shows. Additionally, that the experiment was rigorous enough to establish cause and effect relationship; that is, watching violent TV shows and acting them out.

The researcher in the current study believes that the theory easily handles inconsistencies in the child’s behaviour. For instance, a child may be reinforced at school for good behaviour and punished at home due to bad behaviour. Similarly, this behaviour is optimistic for it suggests that given the right environment, any behaviour can be changed. According to Weebly (2014), the theory gives an accurate picture of the way behaviours are

learned. The researcher in the current study is of the view that this theory offers a way to integrate social and cognitive theories. This actually allows and accounts for cognitive processes and explains a large number of behaviours. The theory is actually easy to understand when applied in a study.

1.6.1.3 Weaknesses of Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

The researcher in the current study is of the opinion that there was biasness in the Social Learning Theory. The reason for this is that the participants of the study came from one case; the Stanford University Nursery, and the sample size was small for the general conclusion of children’s behaviour in the Bobo doll experiment.

Some of the weaknesses of the theory that some researchers identified were: the theory could not explain why some children watch these violent television shows and play these games yet they never copy them (Brown, 2013; Vergara, 2013). In addition, that there are some children who are naturally aggressive even if they play violent games or watch gruesome television shows. Another important weakness the researcher of the current study identified was that the theory did not take into account what one person views as  punishment; another person may view it as reward. This is very true because in the present society, especially in schools, some students may be happy cutting grass in the field as their punishment because they may not like to be in class for lessons. Therefore, any teacher who wants to punish them because they did not carry out their class assignment for example, and sends them out to cut grass in the field, instead of being a punishment for them, it turns to be reward for them. This is where the researchers should have reviewed their conclusions about punishment and reward.

1.6.1.4 Application of Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory to the Study

The theory emphasised on the affective domain of learning. Attention and retention account for acquisition or learning of a model’s behaviour while production and motivation control the performance. With this, in the classroom, all teachers are supposed to be role models and it is their responsibility to ensure that they behave in a way that meets the expectations of a role model (Nesbitt, 2013). In doing so, they can help develop and shape students in a way that is beneficial to their character formation.

In the classroom, there is a need for students to get a chance to observe and model the behaviour that leads to positive reinforcement. Therefore, the CRS teacher needs to encourage collaborative learning. The teacher also needs to provide incentive and the supportive environment for the behaviour to happen (Brown, 2013; Johnson, 2014). The CRS teacher needs to teach CRS using discussion, forums, debates, and stories as part of his or her instructional techniques. In the same vein, he or she needs to employ resource materials in class that can have positive impact on his or her students. This is because these techniques and resources will retain the attention span of the students, motivate them and enable them to put into practice what they learnt (Spencer, 2015).

1.7Conceptual Framework of the Study

The conceptual framework of this study was informed by the Social Learning Theory the study anchored on. It was also informed by the review of theories, and related literature. Figure 1 presents the conceptual framework of the study.

Independent Variable

Intervening Variables

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework of the Implementation of Christian Religious Studies Curriculum for the Character Formation of Students

Figure 1 shows the conceptual framework of the implementation of the CRS curriculum for the character formation of students. It is a relationship between the independent, intervening, and dependent variables. In this conceptual framework, implementation of the CRS curriculum is the independent variable. In the framework, the independent variable comprises the family, society, media, church, and school. The instructional and administrative aspects of the school environment are also part of the independent variable. The researcher manipulated these in order to determine their influence on the dependent variable.

Character formation is the dependent variable. In this conceptual framework, the dependent variable comprises disciplined and transformation-oriented students. This means that if the students’ agents of socialization collaborate positively, and the CRS teacher uses the right methodology and instructional materials to teach and exemplifies himself or herself as a committed teacher, it yields to the character formation of his or her students. The dependent variable changed due to the presence of the independent variable.

In the conceptual framework of the study, there are also intervening variables. These stand between the independent and dependent variables and they mediate the effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable. These variables are teachers’ values, and students’ characteristics.

1.8 Operational Definition of Terms

Some of the terms that were very useful and unique to this study are as follows: Administrative Aspect of the School Environment: This refers to the support the school administration gives to the Christian Religious Studies (CRS) teacher in public senior secondary school in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria in order to enhance his or her work.

Character Formation: This is the education that public senior secondary school (SSS) students in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria acquire in the course of being exposed to the CRS curriculum that enables them to be morally, socially, and transformation-oriented persons.

Christian Religious Studies (CRS) Curriculum: This is a document of planned activities designed for the public senior secondary school students in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria that help them to have Christian attitudes, and develop virtues and moral values.

Deviant Acts: This refers to a young person’s actions that are against the ethos of the school and the wider society.

Deviant Student: This is a public senior secondary school learner in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria who often violates the rules and regulations of the school.

Implementation: This refers to the teaching of the CRS using varied instructional techniques and resources in order to help the senior student in public secondary school in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria, imbibe right attitude to God and life, and right conduct to self and to others.

Indiscipline Acts: These are actions that public senior secondary school student in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria exhibits that are against the values, rules and regulations of the school.

Influence: This means the capacity of the teaching of the CRS in instilling positive change of behaviour in the public senior secondary school student in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria.

Instructional Aspect of the School Environment: This refers to the teaching methodology; Content development and teaching skills, of the CRS teacher, statement of the objectives of the lesson, resource materials, and his or her classroom management in public senior secondary school in Owerri Municipal, Imo State, Nigeria.

Junior Secondary School: This is the first stage of secondary education in Nigeria. It comprises of junior classes 1-3, and the students in this stage are supposed to be between the ages of 11years to 13 or 14 years old.

Public Senior Secondary School: This refers to an educational institution owned and run by the Imo State Government, Nigeria that admits only senior secondary school students 1-3.

Senior Secondary School: This is the last stage of secondary education in Nigeria. It consists of senior classes 1-3, and the learners in this stage are assumed to be between the ages of 14 years to 18 years old.

Youth Crime: This refers to offences that a secondary school age boy or girl commits at home, school or the wider society that are against the norms and values of the society. Examples are disrespect for elders, truancy, sexual misconduct, theft, bullying, examination malpractice, cultism, and substance abuse.