Promoting Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship Skills in Science Education Students: A Panacea for Employability
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47941/jep.477Keywords:
Science Education. Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship skillsAbstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how science teachers can teach science education students in order to promote innovative, creative and entrepreneurship skills in them to enable them become employable in the labour market. Unemployment in Nigeria is a time bomb waiting to explode at any time except proper and effective interventions is put in place to mitigate the impact of high youth unemployment. This paper uses descriptive survey research design. The population of the study is all the 933 science education students in the Department of Science Education of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike.
Methodology: A simple random sampling technique was used to sample 100 (80 males and 70 females) science education students. Three research questions and three hypotheses that were tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. The instrument for data collection was the researcher's developed questionnaire of the four-point Likert Scale type of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree(A), Disagree(D) and Strongly Disagree (SD) which are rated 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. The instrument was validated and its coefficient of reliability obtained as 0.89. Data collected were analyzed using mean to answer the research questions and t- test to analyze the hypotheses.
Findings: The results obtained indicated that teaching science students in such a way that they will be able to make use of facilitation technique that allows for sharing ideas and freedom to innovate; develop skills for accessing funds and accounting; develop critical skills that will enhance innovative ideas; develop collaborative skills needed for joining cooperative societies like producer and consumer cooperative and develop the ability to organize and build network are some of the things the science teacher should do to promote innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship skills in science students.
Unique Contribution to theory, practice and policy: Based on the findings, it was therefore recommended that science education students should be taught science properly so that they can develop critical skills to enhance their innovative ideas. Also, science students should be taught science in a way that will help them develop collaborative skills needed for joining and organizing cooperative societies.
Downloads
References
Adeyemo, S. A. (2009). Understanding and Acquisition of Entrepreneurial Skills: A Pedagogical Re- Orientation for Classroom Teacher in Science Education (57-65).
Akintoye, I. (2008)., Reducing Unemployment through the Informal Sector A case study of Nigeria. European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science. 1(1), pp97- 106.
Awogbenle, A.C. &Iwuamadi, K.C. (2010). Youth Unemployment: Entrepreneurship
Developmen Programme as an Intervention Mechanism. African Journal of Business Management, 4(6), 831-835.
Dabalen, A., Oni, B. &Adekola, O. (2000)., Labour Market Prospects for University Graduate in Nigeria., Higher Education Management. 14 (1) pp1-36.
Enukoha, O. I. (2002). Security as vocation. Scientific method and the development of security consciousness in the Nigerian Hotel Industry. Calabar; African Journal of Vocational
Education 2(1).
European Commission (2015). Commission Staff Working Document. Turkey 2015 Report.
Mbanefo, M.C. &Chiaha, G.T. (2014). Curriculum innovations in science and technology for quality, relevance sustainability in teacher education in Nigeria. In: Onyegaegbu N & Eze U. (Eds.), Teacher Education in Nigeria: Quality, Relevance and Sustainability. Nsukka:Institute of Education, UNN. pp. 74-85.
Mbanefo, M. C. &Eboka, O. C. (2017). Acquisition of Innovative and Entrepreneur Skills in
Basic Science Education for Job Creation in Nigeria. Journal of International Council of Association for Science Education. Pp 207- 213
National Bureau Statistics (2016). Unemployment and Underemployed Watch in Nigeria (Quarter 4) National Bureau of Statistic, Publication, Abuja, Nigeria.
Ndirika, M. C. &Agommuoh, P. C. (2014). Identification of Factors influencing Science Teachers Creativity in Abia State Secondary Schools. Proceedings of the 55th Annual Conference of the Science Teachers Association of Nigeria (STAN). Pp 127-134.
Oppong, S. & Sachs, S. (2015)., Managing Graduate Unemployment in Emerging Economies Critical Analysis of the Skill Mismatch and Over Supply Theses. JEL poslovnaizvrsnost Zagreb, God, ix, vol 1.JEL classification, May, pp125-135.
Plucker, J. A., & Runco, M. A. (1999). Enhancement of Creativity. In Runco, M. A. (Edu), Encyclopedia of Creativity, 1, 669-675.
Ripple, R.E. (1999). Teaching creativity. In Runco, M. A. (Ed), Encyclopedia of Creativity, 2, 629- 638.
Torrance, E. P. (1990). Torrance tests of creative thinking. Bensenville, IL: Scholastic Testing Service.
Ugwoke, S.C &Abidde, E. (2014). Entrepreneurial skill development in basic education for wealth creation. International Journal of Educational Research, 13(1), 65-80.
Uka, N. K. (2015). Developing Entrepreneurial Skills in Secondary School Students through Effective Mathematics Education in Aba Nigeria. International Journal of Education Learning and Developing. 3 (7) 1-11.
Williams, F. E. (1980). Creativity assessment packet. East Aurora, N.Y: DOK.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
