Methods, Techniques and Questioning Behaviour Teachers Adopt in Poetry Lessons in Selected Secondary Schools in Ibadan

This study examined the methods, techniques, and questioning behaviour teachers adopt in poetry lessons in selected secondary schools in Ibadan metropolis, Oyo State. The survey research design was adopted. Simple random sampling technique was used to select three local government areas from Ibadan metropolis, five schools from each local government and one intact class from each school making a total of 15 schools and their 15 teachers of Literature in English. The instrument used was Poetry Observation Schedule on Methods, Techniques and Questioning Behavior of Teachers in Poetry lessons (r=0.75). Five research questions were answered. Data were analysed using frequency counts and percentage. Results revealed that of the 15 teachers observed, 12 (80%) employed traditional method, while 3 (20%) employed interactive methods in teaching poetry. Teachers who employed the traditional method used the following techniques: questioning (21.87%), expressive/dramatised reading (11.51%), giving notes ( 9.32%), giving information about the poem (4.96%), paraphrasing (4.44%), while
their counterparts that adopted interactive method used learner-centered techniques such as students responding to teacher’s question (3.08%), doing expressive reading (2.28%), guessing the meaning based on the title (2.04%), allowing students to read silently (0.20%), teacher using technology or instructional materials (0.12%) and making
students to write based on the poem. Besides, results show that teachers emphasize factual content (56.04%), followed by themes (31.33%) and language/style (12.68%) and they use more of lower order questions: questions testing understanding (38.57%), and remembering (36.00%) and less of higher order questions: application (10.41%), evaluation (7.68%) and analytical questions (7.34%).It was recommended that in-service training, seminars and workshops should be organized for teachers of Literature-in-English to acquaint them with current methods and techniques of teaching poetry.

Keywords: Methods, Techniques, Questioning Behavior, Teaching Poetry.