Teaching Islamic Studies in Nigerian schools formally and informally is dominantly done in an unstructured traditional ways for centuries and the system has produced resourceful scholars and individuals who have excelled in all works of life. However, without mincing words, the unabated technological products which are witnessed in this digital age has mandated the adoption of various sophisticated devices in disseminating information, especially in teaching and learning for an effective communication; hence, it effects and values to the teaching of Islamic studies cannot be denied while the challenges faced in developing countries such as Nigeria can never be underestimated. With the adoption of analytical approach, this study aims at enunciating the effects and challenges of using instructional and multimedia materials in teaching Islamic studies, roles of Islamic studies teachers and proffer preferable solutions to the conundrum faced in the utilization of instructional and multimedia materials in the teaching of Islamic studies in Nigerian schools.
In Nigeria, education curriculum as planned by Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) included two religious subjects which are elective in nature from primary to higher institutions of learning. These religious subjects are Islamic Studies (ISS) and Christian Religious Studies (CRS). The teaching and learning of Islamic Studies is aimed at imparting an unadulterated Islamic education with high standard moral value, God-consciousness, and wide range of virtue, such as honesty, integrity, and selfdiscipline into the ways of life of every muslim child that is enrolled either in public or private institutions ( Olatubosun and Tanimowo, 2013, p. 1).
By definition, Sudan (2017, p. 22) sees Islamic education as embedded in Islamic studies as are religiously inclined education and input that makes individual a better person, be it in the form of tarbiyyah (nurturing), ta'lim (teaching and learning), and ta'dib (discipline). A form of training aimed at moulding individual and the society into a dynamic and conscious level which covers the physical and spiritual perspective ( Sudan 2017, Ulwan 2004, Al-Attas). However, the teaching, learning, and information dissemination in Islamic studies for many years has neglected the application of technology with the assumption that since Islamic knowledge is revealed, it should not be analyzed or taught through technology, but to impact it by mere remembrance to generation to come (Zedan et al., 2015). This especially in developing country such as Nigeria has placed a snag instead of clout in the accelerated development of Islamic studies and its teaching among the students of various institutions. The utilization of instructional materials in teaching and the subsequent adoption of multimedia materials in this digital age have given the subject a leverage to be understood and assimilated by the varieties of students who have been in modern time exposed to various forms of technological advancement.
Instructional and multimedia access to knowledge is one of the possibilities of information and communication technology that has tremendous impact on learning. Oshinaike and Adekunmisi (2012, p. 1) assert that conventional media technologies can no longer meet the needs of our teaching and learning processes; as a result they are being replaced by multimedia technology which provides a learning environment that is self-placed, learner-controlled, and individualized. As the world’s most fastest growing religion, Islam and its adherents through Islamic education are placed in an advantaged horizon to utilize all the available resources to enhance the religious understanding and application in moral, spiritual, scientific, and economic spheres through the known educational domains of to know (cognitive), to love the creator and all creatures (affective), and to act accordingly in developing the world (psychomotor).
This study aims at analyzing:
The following questions would guide the researcher:
Introduction of Islam is often accompanied by the introduction of Islamic education and this has always been the tradition in all societies which came in contact with the religion ( Sanni n.d, p. 4); and this in its entirety as affirmed by Nugroho (2017, p. 4) made Islam a religion that encourages its adherent to study all forms of useful knowledge, including science and technology, build and nurture civilization, and organize their direct survival in this world and beyond. With the advent and flourish of Islam in Nigeria both in pre and post-colonial era, teaching of Islam and its values has been an integral part of Muslims and scholars of the country. The emergence of biblical-inclined missionary and colonial imperialism that bestowed upon the nation the western form of education made Muslims to strive in entrenching the Islamic teachings in the curriculum of their children educational pursuit hand in hand with westernized education with the sole aim of preserving their faith and religious identity. This, according to Hackett (1999, p. 539) is in no measure underline the challenges faced by African nations such as, “Nigeria that have emerged from under the cloak of colonialism and has sought to negotiate equitably its extensive ethnic and religious pluralism”.
With the formalization of the Muslims agitation for the inclusion of Islamic Studies in school curriculum decades ago, ISS was incorporated into Nigerian Educational System to be taught from primary schools to tertiary institutions. ISS thus emerged as an interdisciplinary subject in which embedded the study of the language of the religion (Arabic), literature, religious, and natural science, philosophy, jurisprudence, interpersonal relationship, history, and others. This subject was previously known as Islamic Religious Knowledge (IRK) or Islamic Religious Studies (IRS) before the current nomenclature of ISS.
However, ISS has been plagued with myriads of challenges which include teachers competence, inadequate textbooks written to the syllabus of ISS as prepared by NERDC, Arabic language barrier as faced by the students, unavailability of adequate teaching aids and materials, meager allocation of the period earmarked for teaching of the subject in school and others. This was believed by some analysts to be the outcome of primitive problems that has bewildered Islamic education (as in ISS) from time immemorial in confining the learners to the very technical memorization of the Qur'anic verses, prophetic traditions, students are expected to remain silent and not engaged in discussion, and thus it was based on the handing on knowledge based on principles, rules, obligations, and prohibitions ( Zedan et al., 2015, p. 545).
It is pertinent to state at this juncture that despite these aforementioned challenges facing the development of ISS in Nigeria, the subject is gradually gaining ground as it has been studied in virtually all public and private schools, examined in certification examination such as West African Examination Council (WAEC) and offered in higher institutions as a diverse discipline.
In education, teaching is a rigorous exercise that is solely rested on the shoulder of a trained and qualified teacher. The teacher is expected to be an instructor who shall make use of both abstract and concrete materials to impart knowledge into the memory of the learners. From time immemorial, learning always goes with reading, but in some cases, if learnt information is not put into practices it might not be recalled.
If the above assertion is right, then, the teacher (the instructor) is expected to make use of all needed materials that would make learning unforgettable and interesting; hence, the concept of instructional and multimedia materials becomes imperative for academic improvement of the students. These needed materials are traditionally and conventionally known as instructional materials and in modern days, multimedia materials.
This could be defined as the items designed to serve as major tools for assisting the instructor (teacher) in explaining a topic to the learner. These items may be available in bound, unbound, kit, or package form which include textbooks, consumables, learning laboratories, slides films, film strips, recordings, charts, manipulative electronic media (that is, instructional computer programs, online services, laser discs, CD-ROM, and so on), and other commonly accepted instructional tools.
Broadly, in modern education, there are three types of instructional materials used in teaching and learning, these are;
The employment of these instructional materials in modern teaching is important, because, of teaching related to instructional materials was potent and effective. The audiovisual materials aid classroom teaching and enhance instructions, understanding, and student effectiveness. Lesson plan on the media must be consistent with the objective of the learning while the learning of lectures and film are useful for students’ audition and moral skills. The audio-visual materials, such as computer's television, Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), and projectors will help students of ISS to gain knowledge easily and quickly.
Specifically, there are two forms of television broadcast that can be used for teaching purpose in both inside and outside the classroom setting. These are:
However, the instructional audio-visual is a greater consumer of funds, so, in the short-run, it is important that its introduction into any educational system should be backed up by well research findings.
To effectively recognize the three aforementioned instructional materials by teachers and students of ISS, their various examples are given below;
According to Jusoh and Jusoff (2009, p. 87) citing Hofstetter (2001) multimedia is the use of computer to present and combine text, graphics, audio, and video with links and tools that let the user navigate, interact, create, and communicate. Also, Oshinaike and Adekunmisi (2012, p. 1) citing Butcher-Powell (2005) defined it as the combination of various digital media types, such as text, images, sound, and video, into an integrated multi-sensory interactive application or presentation to convey a message or information to an audience. It is further seen as those resources used for instruction that include one or more media, such as graphics, video, animation, image, and sound in addition to textual information.
It is apposite to state that numerous scholars have defined multimedia and education in most apt and instructive ways. For an example, multimedia was defined as the combination of multiple technical resources for the purpose of presenting information represented in multiple formats via multiple sensory modalities ( Schnotz and Lowe, 2003) while the education in other hand was defined by Olusegun (2016, p. 40) as the transfer of knowledge, attitude, believes, values, norms, and other forms of behaviours from one person (teacher, instructor) to another (student, recipient). Education is widely believed to be a sine qua non to human development worldwide and its essence as affirmed by Omotoso (2010, p. 226Li and Kang (2014, p. 243) affirmed that multimedia contributes to the teaching reform of school education and accelerates the pace of modernization process of education and enhances classroom instruction effectiveness. The inclusion of media elements in education reinforces the messages and delivery which leads to better learning rate ( Neo and Neo, 2001, p. 2).
In his own submission, Gilakjani (2012, p. 1209) asserts that multimedia has been applied to many educational courses to provide wide varieties of styles and modalities by moving from the book to the computer which gave greater interactive and novel ways to think about a learning activity. The employment of multimedia in education has provided more ways to produce and represent concept in more advanced pedagogical phenomenon that enhances comprehension, learning, memory, communication, and inferences ( Rogers and Wild, 1996, p. 130-145).
Zin et al. (2013) believed that practically, multimedia assist the students in revising the subject learnt; for the majority of today's students do live in a world that is influenced by the media and its effect could be seen after a combination of pictures, words, and sounds, which is more memorable and retained longer in memory, different from just listening or reading.
In broader sense, the usefulness of multimedia materials in education is appropriate in three main situations according to Gilakjani (2012, p. 1210):
Multimedia is believed to be a multi-sensory mechanism that stimulate the senses of the audience and also a springboard that usually make it easier for learners to be directly involved in the project of learning and retention of the new information received. It must be said that multimedia is centrally designed from Information and Communication Technology (ICT) which serves different purposes, such as knowledge sharing-portal and search engines ( Oshinaike and Adekunmisi, 2012, p. 3).
The use of ICT in education is aimed at maximizing the multimedia application and also serves as alternative to the educators and learners to obtain additional materials for teaching and learning, especially through global information exchange.
It must be noted that educational technology is also part of instructional tools and materials needed in the classroom. It is regarded as the systematic approach to problem solving in educational environment. It involves the application of scientific knowledge to learning condition in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching and learning.
With the help of successful implementation of ICT through the interlocking frameworks for change, namely the infrastructure, attitude, staff development, support, sustainability, and transferability ( Hoffman, 2001, p. 46), the advantages of multimedia in driven modern forms of teaching and learning include:
Etubi (2009, p. 3) citing Wishart (1999) asserts that one of the key motivating factors of ICT is its ability to provide appropriate challenges for learners of all abilities. The teaching of ISS as a religious subject is indeed in dire need of expansion; hence the utilization of modern instructional and multimedia materials in Nigerian schools is inevitable in order to gain from the vast world of digital explosion. Islam encourages Muslims to acquire knowledge and as such the use of multimedia in teaching and learning ISS is founded on the philosophy of the recognition of Allah as the source of all forms of knowledge as encapsulated in the Quran ( Musa, 2012, p. 4). The technological advancement has challenged the Muslim educators and the teachers of ISS to equip themselves with ICT skills, especially multimedia to carter for the spiritual, intellectual, physical, scientific, and imaginative growth of students because according to Prensky (2001), the currents kids (students) world over are digital students who are living in their native digital world. They are the digital natives and teachers are the digital immigrants and if the educators fail to take up the challenges, they wouldn't be lagging behind alone, but the digital students will also be exposed to negative knowledge.
The multimedia materials that could be utilized by ISS teachers and administrator in disseminating his/her information include:
There are numerous effects of multimedia in teaching ISS in Nigerian Schools as obtained in other parts of the world if properly utilized and integrated. These include:
Change is believed to be constant and inevitable in human endeavours. The shift from traditional methods of teaching to ICT/Multimedia digitalization of teaching and learning are bound to face huge challenges. Resnick (2005) was right when he said that in most places where new technologies are being used in education today, the technologies are used simply to reinforce outmoded approaches to learning.
In spite of the technological advancement, very meager digital transformation has occurred to the process of instruction in ISS with the available ICT gadget not easily accessible. Some of the challenges faced in the usages of Instructional and Multimedia Materials as enumerated by Etubi (2009, p. 7) includes:
Furthermore, Hamzah et al. (2014, p. 158) further reiterated that among the problems that are plaguing the effectiveness of Instructional and Multimedia Materials in teaching as applicable to countries including Nigeria as regards ISS are the lack of infrastructure multimedia equipment, inadequate numbers of multimedia software, and difficulty in accessing multimedia laboratory.
Ismail Musa (2012, p. 13) reiterates that ISS teacher need to be well equipped with digital resources, especially with ICT- based multimedia materials, such as mobile library with variety of e-text, audio, video, images, and other useful sources which he can use to:
Zin et al. (2013, p. 353) further opined that ISS teachers are expected to make use of multimedia application for the development of his discipline and indeed Islamic education in order to:
Furthermore, the role of ISS teachers in the age of digital instruction with the application of instructional and multimedia materials is enormous, because the quality of instruction received by the students makes a huge difference in their achievement ( Hassel and Hassel, 2012, p. 14). In encapsulating this, Musa (2012, p. 13) explains thus:
Digital technology would enable the ISS teachers to equip themselves for the development of the field. ISS should not be taught theoretically alone, but as experiences to be acquired in their right contexts. The aspect that involves motor skills (like Qur'anic recitation, ablution, ritual birth, Hajj) should be presented through multimedia. In teaching history, virtual atlases imbued with facilities to measure distances, extract, and zooming of map should be used. In the area of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), software that can provide useful exposition into contemporary application and principles of Islamic jurisprudence to daily life like software for Zakat (Alms giving) and Mirath (Inheritance) calculation should be made used of in the class while teaching.
The following are suggested as solution for the conundrum of using IMM in teaching ISS in Nigerian schools:
This paper has concisely discussed the use of instructional and multimedia materials in teaching Islamic studies in Nigeria. Its usefulness can never be over emphasized. Its adoption in the arena of ICT-oriented learning and teaching situation possesses a greater value for the development of learners, especially in this digital age. The challenges of inadequate multimedia equipment and lack of skills by teachers can be overcome with training and re-training of the instructor and provision of up-to-date software and other needed materials in schools. This, if properly harnessed will make the teaching of ISS studentcentered and teachers friendly for optimum understanding and application of Islamic knowledge through technological advancement.
Ultimately, as rightly said by Shah (2014) that as teachers and textbooks are systematically replaced by digital learning resources, there is need for policymakers and academic planners to expand the scope and repertoire of the teachers and students in every discipline. Continuous efforts, experience, and expertise are required to meet the challenge of ICT driven global village. For efficient, vibrant and useful implementation of ISS lessons as embedded in Islamic education, there is urgent need for total and adequate utilization of modern and sophisticated multimedia equipments in teaching and learning of the subject.
Nonetheless, ICT is transforming the classrooms with the introduction of many innovations in teaching and learning and as such Nigerian Muslims children who are offering ISS in elementary and tertiary institutions must be carried along in this multimedia revolution in order to be useful religiously, socially, academically, and ethically to themselves, Nigeria as a country and humanity as a whole.