CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Schools across Nigeria and the wider world have steadily embraced digital technology, and learners today meet some form of it in almost every school setting. Since this trend is unlikely to reverse, the demand for teachers who can use technology with confidence continues to grow. Computer literacy is commonly understood as having two linked dimensions: awareness and competence. Awareness is the understanding of how computers shape individual lives and society as a whole, while competence is the practical ability to operate software applications and digital tools. Both dimensions need to be examined when computer literacy is assessed in a school context. International frameworks reflect this thinking. The UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers describes progressive stages of teacher capability, from acquiring basic knowledge, through deepening it, to creating new knowledge with technology (UNESCO, 2018), and the European DigCompEdu framework describes educators' digital competence across six proficiency levels (Redecker, 2017).

Modern classrooms offer teachers and learners a broad range of technologies, including desktop and laptop computers, projectors, tablets and smartphones, digital cameras, television, and internet-enabled learning platforms. These tools, often grouped as instructional technology, are widely credited with moving classrooms away from purely teacher-centred delivery and towards learner-centred approaches in which teachers draw on digital resources to support learning (UNESCO, 2018). Technology also allows information to travel across the world within seconds, so that researchers, scholars and practitioners in education can meet online, interact and exchange ideas without the limits of distance. Instructional technology covers a wide variety of devices and systems used to deliver information, and in science education it is regarded as an integral part of teaching, since it helps learners grasp concepts that are abstract, dynamic or difficult to demonstrate physically (Sam-Kayode et al., 2024).

Despite these opportunities, many teachers who attempt to bring new technology into their classrooms meet obstacles. Beyond the basic questions of awareness and competence, they contend with anxiety about computers, insufficient training and inadequate equipment. A study of Science, Technology and Mathematics instructors in Nigerian colleges of education found a low level of computer proficiency, which the authors linked to a shortage of skilled instructors, inadequate ICT tools, fear of computers, and limited access to computer laboratories (Moses & Yakubu, 2020). A qualitative study of science teachers in Lagos reported that the participants held positive views about the usefulness of ICT and the effort needed to use it, yet seldom used it in practice because of poor facilitating conditions such as limited devices, unreliable electricity supply and weak technical support (Ogegbo, 2024). Together, these findings suggest that teachers' attitudes, their skills and their working conditions interact to determine whether technology is actually used. If these difficulties are addressed, teachers will be better placed to integrate technology fully into lessons, which in turn widens learning opportunities for students and prepares them to solve problems in a technology-driven future.

The use of technology in education is associated with many benefits. These include simulations and game-based teaching strategies, computer-based instruction, improved administrative efficiency, better record keeping and school management, access to research publications, and a more effective teaching and learning process overall. Teachers increasingly go online to find information for lesson preparation, research and assignments. Using technology in schools in these ways, however, demands adequate computer literacy skills and a deliberate effort to acquire them.

In this study, computer literacy refers to the ability to understand and use computer technology for instructional purposes. The study therefore examines the capability of science teachers who use technology to deliver lessons so that teaching and learning are effective. With computer education now part of the secondary school curriculum in Nigeria, there is an urgent need to examine how aware science teachers are of the various uses of computers in instruction, such as computer-assisted instruction (CAI), and how far they actually use them. Computers help science teachers to deliver curriculum content, and in the wider school system they are used to store, display, transmit and analyse data. Statistical software offers a simple illustration, since it spares administrators, teachers and researchers the strain of analysing primary data manually.

Computer literacy can be developed in several ways: through self-directed learning, through formal technology training courses, and through structured professional development guided by competence frameworks such as those of UNESCO (2018) and Redecker (2017). In a general sense, computer literacy describes the comfort a person has in using computer programs and related applications. A computer-literate individual has basic knowledge across the main aspects of computing, and computer literacy is the ability to understand that basic knowledge and apply it in every area of human endeavour.

As teachers build their computer literacy, they become more likely to use different technologies to present information in class. Their progress, however, can be slowed by several barriers, which recent Nigerian studies identify as follows:

• Obsolete, poor-quality or poorly maintained equipment, together with limited funding and material support (Aja & Eze, 2016; Dele-Ajayi et al., 2019).
• Lack of time during the school day for teachers to learn, practise or plan ways of using computers and the internet, along with scarce workshops and seminars on ICT integration (Dogo et al., 2021).
• Weak institutional and administrative support, including limited training opportunities and little policy backing at school and government levels (Dele-Ajayi et al., 2019).
• An inadequate number of computers for staff and learners, which complicates any lesson plan that involves technology. In one Ibadan study, most science and mathematics teachers reported having fewer than five computers equipped with digital tools (Sam-Kayode et al., 2024), and in Bauchi State a high student-to-computer ratio was reported as a major obstacle (Dogo et al., 2021).

Despite these challenges, teachers are still trying to use technology and are looking for ways to do so. The relationship between secondary school science teachers' access to technology and their use of it in the classroom is shaped by two things: the availability of the technologies required for instruction, and the teachers' level of computer literacy, which determines how efficiently they can use those technologies. Computer literacy is therefore indispensable for both teachers and school principals if schools are to be effective and academic goals are to be achieved. Nigeria's National Policy on Education recognises the place of ICT in education and in teacher preparation (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2013), and evidence indicates that ICT competence matters for classroom outcomes. For example, a study of science teachers in Northern Cross River State found that teachers who were competent in ICT were significantly more effective in their instruction than those who were not (Opie & Oko-Ngaji, 2021).

Access to technology means the tools that can be found in the classroom or reached easily within the school building. For teachers to integrate technology effectively, they need easy access to desktop and laptop computers, projectors, internet connectivity, e-mail, printers, digital cameras and similar resources. Access within the school is therefore a key condition for using technology in the science classroom. Without adequate access to computers, the internet and technical support, teachers cannot offer technology-enriched lessons to students (Ogegbo, 2024; Sam-Kayode et al., 2024). Access alone, however, is not enough, because how teachers use the technologies available to them during instruction depends on their awareness and competence.

Science, as understood in this study, is the intellectual and practical activity that involves the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. It can also be seen as the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world, following a systematic methodology based on evidence. A science teacher is a person who guides students' understanding and knowledge of natural phenomena through systematic observation and experimentation.

Against this background, the researcher carried out this study to investigate the extent of computer literacy among secondary school science teachers, and how it bears on their teaching, in Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

Statement of the Problem

Although computer science and technology are relatively recent in Nigeria's teaching and learning environment, computers are now used in many areas of human activity, including medicine, domestic life, engineering, architecture and education. Their use is clearly reflected in secondary school programmes as well.

However, the growing role of computer science and technology in the education sector requires all stakeholders to be computer literate if schools are to cope with the challenges of society. Science teachers in particular need to be computer literate so that they can bring a wealth of up-to-date information into the classroom during instruction.

Recent Nigerian studies show that the picture is uneven. Science teachers in some settings report moderate to high ICT competence but only moderate use of ICT in teaching (Sam-Kayode et al., 2024), while others are found to fall below the minimum competence expected (Opie & Oko-Ngaji, 2021), and many who value technology rarely use it because of weak facilitating conditions (Dele-Ajayi et al., 2019; Ogegbo, 2024). In Ebonyi State, earlier work has examined teachers' perceptions of the availability and use of ICT devices for instructional delivery in public secondary schools (Aja & Eze, 2016), but the researcher is not aware of a study that has specifically measured the awareness, competence and classroom use of computers among science teachers in Abakaliki Local Government Area. It is often assumed that only a small proportion of teachers in the state have the training to use technology such as computers and projectors effectively in the classroom, yet this assumption has not been verified for the area. Lack of computer literacy, combined with other barriers, can hinder the teaching and understanding of science in Ebonyi State. There is therefore a need to establish how far science teachers have acquired computer literacy. This is the question that prompted the present study: What is the extent of computer literacy among secondary school science teachers in Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State?

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to determine the extent of computer literacy among secondary school science teachers in Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State. Specifically, the study seeks to determine the extent of:

1. Computer literacy possessed by secondary school science teachers in Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
2. Awareness of computers among secondary school science teachers in Abakaliki Local Government Area.
3. Competence in computer knowledge among secondary school science teachers in Abakaliki Local Government Area.
4. Computer use in science classrooms by secondary school science teachers in Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

Significance of the Study

Attempts have been made to determine the level of computer literacy among teachers and the use of technology in general classroom settings, but few studies have looked specifically at secondary school science teachers, and fewer still have done so in Abakaliki Local Government Area. The findings of this study will therefore be useful to the following groups:

1. The government and education policymakers
2. School administrators and principals
3. Science teachers
4. Parents
5. Students
6. Researchers

The benefits to each group are explained briefly below.

Government and education policymakers will be able to form an accurate picture of how many science teachers in the secondary school system are computer literate, and of where training, equipment and funding are most needed. This is consistent with calls from Nigerian studies for government to provide funding, material support and digital literacy training for teachers (Dele-Ajayi et al., 2019).

School administrators and principals will learn about the ability and capacity of their science teachers to teach with computers, and will be able to plan staff development, schedule time for ICT practice and allocate available equipment more effectively.

Science teachers themselves will gain an objective view of their own awareness, competence and classroom use of computers, which can guide their personal learning and professional development choices.

Parents will understand the benefits of computer literacy in modern society, which should encourage them to support their children in acquiring computer knowledge, for example by buying computer textbooks and funding their training. Computers now perform in a short time and with great accuracy many tasks that once required considerable human effort, so this understanding is important.

Students will be motivated to study computing with greater interest once the importance of the subject is made clear. Better-equipped teachers will also give them richer learning experiences, and students at higher levels of education can use the work as a reference when writing their own projects.

Researchers will gain a reference on research methods and on how a study of this kind is designed and reported, along with new ideas for further inquiry. The study will also give them data on the number and location of secondary schools in Abakaliki Local Government Area and on the number of science teachers in the area who are computer literate.

The Scope of the Study

The study focuses on the extent of computer literacy among secondary school science teachers in Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State. Data will be collected from principals and science teachers in the selected government-owned and private secondary schools in the area. The study covers computer literacy in terms of awareness, competence and classroom use.

Research Questions

The following research questions were developed to guide the study in line with its purpose:

1. What is the extent of computer literacy possessed by secondary school science teachers in Abakaliki Local Government Area?
2. What is the extent of awareness of computers possessed by secondary school science teachers in Abakaliki Local Government Area?
3. What is the extent of competence in computer knowledge among secondary school science teachers in Abakaliki Local Government Area?
4. What is the extent of computer use in science classrooms in Abakaliki Local Government Area?

Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were formulated and will be tested at the 0.05 level of significance. Gender is used as the grouping variable throughout, in line with earlier studies that report gender-related differences in the ICT competence of science teachers (Ode & Torkula, 2024; Opie & Oko-Ngaji, 2021).

H₀₁: There is no significant difference between male and female secondary school science teachers in the extent of computer literacy possessed in Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

H₀₂: There is no significant difference between male and female secondary school science teachers in the extent of awareness of computers in Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

H₀₃: There is no significant difference between male and female secondary school science teachers in the extent of competence in computer knowledge in Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

H₀₄: There is no significant difference between male and female secondary school science teachers in the extent of computer use in science classrooms in Abakaliki Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

References

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Dele-Ajayi, O., Ayodele, V., Alufa, O., Anderson, E., Strachan, R., & Emembolu, I. (2019). Barriers and identified solutions to the integration of digital technologies in the classroom: A case study of teachers in Nigeria. Northumbria Research Link. https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41281

Dogo, P., Tyoor, I. T., Samaila, Y. D., et al. (2021). Assessment of availability, teachers' proficiency and challenges of ICT integration in teaching secondary school mathematics and science in Bauchi State, Nigeria. Kashere Journal of Education, 2(2), 34–41.

Federal Republic of Nigeria. (2013). National policy on education (6th ed.). Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council.

Moses, T., & Yakubu, S. (2020). A study of computer literacy among STM teachers in colleges of education in Nigeria. International Journal of Research in STEM Education, 2(1), 26–41. https://doi.org/10.31098/ijrse.v2i1.192

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Ogegbo, A. A. (2024). ICT integration into the teaching and learning of science: Experiences and perceptions of secondary school teachers. African Perspectives of Research in Teaching and Learning Journal, 8(1).

Opie, O. N., & Oko-Ngaji, V. A. (2021). ICT competence and science teachers' instructional effectiveness in Northern Cross River State, Nigeria. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 5(9), 863–867.

Redecker, C. (2017). European framework for the digital competence of educators: DigCompEdu (Y. Punie, Ed.). Publications Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2760/159770

Sam-Kayode, C. O., Ojo, S. T., & Aliyu, R. T. (2024). Assessment of level of digital literacy among science teachers at the junior secondary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Papers in Education and Development, 41(2). https://doi.org/10.56279/ped.v41i2.7

UNESCO. (2018). UNESCO ICT competency framework for teachers (Version 3). United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.