Social Studies Lecturer’s Proficiency in the Use of Computer for Effective Teaching in Colleges of Education in the South West Nigeria.

Abstract

Computer provides and exposes social challenges in the world today. Social Studies lecturers are therefore afforded easy means to facts, ideas and opinion around the world through which they could obtain fresh information to update its content. The computer as an instruction system gives timely, accurate, reliable, affordable and valid information positioned in the global education market. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of proficiency of Social Studies lecturers in the use of computer in Colleges of Education in the south west Nigeria for effective teaching of Social Studies. Data were collected from 74 social studies lecturers using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research question. Result indicated that Social Studies lecturers possess inadequate level of proficiency in all the items except in item 1 which is booting (starting) computer where the Social Studies lecturers have indicated adequate level of proficiency. This entailed that Social Studies lecturers possess inadequate or low level of proficiency in the use of computer for instruction for effective teaching of social studies. The paper recommends that the results of this study should be presented to the authorities of the Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria to be aware of the levels and areas of computer technology competencies of the lecturers as well as their areas of deficiency so as to adequately equip them in order to face the challenges of global teaching competitiveness among others.

Keywords: Proficiency, Computer, Effective Teaching, Competitiveness.