IMPACT OF LESSON PLAN ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF BIOLOGY STUDENTS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL OF BUNKURE LGA

A lesson plan can be regarded as a well thought-out, orderly and sequential arrangement of the lesson on paper (National Teachers’ Institute, 2006). It is the guideline by which the teacher teaches his lesson. To teach successfully, the teacher must begin to plan days, weeks, or even months ahead of the time for teaching the lesson. These plans vary widely in the style and degree of specificity. Some teachers prefer to construct elaborate detailed lesson plans while others construct a sketchy form of lesson plan. In whatever way it may be written, it should be designed in such a way that it contains adequate information for the teacher to remind him of all the aspects that must be treated in any lesson. When lesson plan is transcribed into a note-book it becomes a lesson note (NTI 2006). As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms. The teaching of science in general and Biology, in particular, required the active participation of students in the teaching-learning process, to enable students to connect scientific concepts and theories to real purposes and practices in the world in which they live (Dumela,.& Bree, 2016). Unfortunately, the majority of the teachers teach Biology without engaging the learner actively during the teaching-learning process. (Okoli & Azubuike, 2012: Ibe, 2015). Students’ poor performance in external examinations could be as a result of poor teaching strategies and neglecting of students’ learning styles. However, different teaching strategies have been introduced but could not improve the achievement of students in Biology.Teaching and planning are different ways employed by a teacher to impart knowledge to the learners. It is also disheartening to note that, in spite of the much focus on teaching strategies in science, students’ performance in science subjects particularly Biology have continued to record a persistent and depressing downward trend ((Ikitde, & Edet, 2013: Okoli &Azubuike, 2012). Several factors have been identified as affecting students’ achievement, these factors include inadequate laboratory equipment, inadequate science teachers, lack of science textbooks, poor teaching strategies amongst others but the neglected variables is learning the style. It is believed that effective learning takes place when the interactive process is one that is best suited to the individual students in terms of learning styles (Ikitde, & Edet, (2013). Biology as one of the science subject is defined as th