Determine the Possibility of Using Teaching Aids and Materials by Geography Teachers in the Basic Schools

Sarwah Mohammed Shareef

MA, Programme in Education

May, 2016

Teaching aids and materials are very important element for scaffolding the educational process. Nowadays understanding how to improve and use it efficiently are more significant than ever. Therefore, this study sheds light on the possibility of using learning aids and materials in basic schools in the geography subject area. It addresses to examine the ability of teachers in using new technology and utilizing educational materials in their teaching process. Furthermore, the research aims to find out the availability and adequacy of teaching aids in basic schools.

This quantitative research was conducted with the participation of geography instructors in the Erbil basic schools of Kurdistan Region-Iraq. Additionally, in order to collect and evaluate the required data a survey questionnaire which consisted of 16 items was used and 121 teachers were selected to participate in this study. Moreover, in order to calculate the percentages, frequencies, means, standard deviations, T-test and ANOVA, SPSS program version 20 was used and the quantitative data was analysed descriptively.

The results of the present study showed that majority of the respondents are facing problems and obstacles in relation to accessibility to teaching aids and materials resources, lack of training courses or in-service training opportunities and various administrative and technical problems still need to be solved. On the other hand, the study revealed differences between teachers’ perceptions on using teaching aids according to their gender, year of experiences. Moreover, the study discovered that geography teachers had negative attitude toward using teaching aids in their classrooms due unavailability of these supporting materials and devices.

Key Words: teaching-learning aids, technology, geography lesson, teachers’ skills and basic schools.