Article Preview
TopIntroduction
The Ahmadu Bello University is dedicated to excellence in teaching. Excellence means the state or quality of excelling; it is effectively providing learning experiences that prepare students for the challenges of the multifaceted, ever varying, and diverse workplace in society. Ahmadu Bello University is the largest university in Africa, south of the Sahara. It is composed of 12 faculties - Arts, Science, Education, Engineering, Vet Medicine, Medicine, Pharmacy, Agriculture, Law, Administration, and Environmental and Social Sciences. Its geography department was established in 1962. It is a foundation department of the university. Presently, it has a student population of 453 students. The university handles both local and international students. The staff strength of the geography department is as follows:
Table 1: Staff strength of the geography department
| Ranks | Numbers |
| Professors | 2 |
| Readers | 2 |
| Senior lecturers | 1 |
| Lecturer 1 | 6 |
| Lecturer 11 | 5 |
| Assistant Lecturers | 4 |
| Total | 20 |
Geography is offered as part of a four-year program and as a major in faculties of science and education. The teaching of undergraduate geography is characterized as applied and vocational in nature and aims to produce graduates who are scientifically and technically skilled and who possess report writing skills. Skill areas such as literature searches and reviews, data collection and analyses, and communication are all set in a problem-solving context where students learn about the research planning and management process (University of New South Wales, 2003),
The completion of an introductory course in research methods is a critical step for undergraduate students who will one day need to conduct their own original research. These courses are equally important for students who are not planning to conduct research in the future, because graduates still need to make informed decisions regarding research findings as part of their professional development. Consequently, research methods courses are an essential requirement of many undergraduate programs in the social and natural sciences. Research methods courses are challenging classes to teach because the technical complexity of the course material is quite high while student interest in this material can unfortunately be quite low (Ball & Pelco, 2006).