ABSTRACT
The study attempted to examine the relationship between
teacher factor and students’ academic performance in selected secondary schools
in Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos State. In the study, relevant and
related literature was reviewed under sub headings.
The descriptive research survey design was applied in the
assessment of the respondents’ opinions, with the use of the questionnaire. The
sample consisted of 197 respondents selected randomly through the application
of the stratified random selection method to represent the entire population of
the study.
Results indicate that a significant relationship exists
between students’ academic performance in the school and each of the teacher
factors investigated. These results were discussed and recommendations were
made based on the findings
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Teacher education is a sine qua non to the
academic performance or educational attainment at any level of life especially,
in the educational system where candidates at all ages require guidance as a
preparation for life.
At the secondary school level, trained
teachers are to guide candidates in all class works and for examination
conducts. Teachers need to be properly treated at the secondary school levels
to avoid their aloofness from students in correcting youthful exuberance
(Madumere, 2004). According to Onyema, (2003), the importance of teachers
cannot be over emphasized. Teachers are the custodians of knowledge in the
school system. They are regarded as wise people because of the peculiar nature
of their job. Teachers’ work is very crucial because without the teacher, there
will be no president, the governors, senators and illiteracy would have covered
the earth. With the teachers, there is enlightenment knowledge and
civilization. (Akande, 2005)
As Greenfield, (2005) puts the work of the
teacher cannot be disregarded because if there is no teacher in any nation,
there will be brazen ignorance which will stall development and growth.
According to NPE (1998), no nation can rise above its teachers. The teaching
profession is very important because it is the job that produces educated and
learned people for the development of the society. This is because, the teacher
through his teaching, produces the student who goes out there in the society to
work for the society, and this affects the society positively.
According to Wuji (1989), without the
teacher, there will be no student. The teacher occupies an important space in
the school system and in the life of the student and his performance.
Therefore, for the students to perform better, there is need for the training
and retraining of teachers, so that their imputs would be maximally used by the
students and for effective prductivity.
Cage (1994) has explained that teaching is
both an art and a science. According to him, it is an “instrumental practical
art” rather than a “fine art”. That is, teaching requires improvisation,
spontaneity, the handling of a vast array of consideration of form, style,
pace, rhythm and appropriateness in ways so complex that even computers must
lose the way.
According to Nath (2002), the teaching
process is too complex, with a nearly infinite variety of circumstances,
subjects, students groups and age groups, to be reduced.
Clark and McCarthy (1998), Austen (1994)
state that teaching can and should have scientific basis. According to them,
science deals with relationships between both input (independent variables) and
outputs (dependent variables). A sizeable amount of good research has been
carried out that relates teaching and administrative practices to student performance
as well as motivation, attitude and self-esteem.
A traditional assumption in teaching has been
that students require challenging learning tasks, tasks of intermediate
difficulty. This idea has been disproved. Research shows that students need and
enjoy very high success rates, which come only from tasks at an appropriate
difficulty level that are clearly taught and readily comprehended. For example,
Good and Good (2001) and Everton, (2003), found that high socio-economic status
elementary children learned best when the teachers’ questions elicited about
70% correct responses, while low socio-economic status pupils learned best with
about 80% correct answers to questions. They concluded that learning proceeds
best when the material is some what new or challenging, yet relatively easy for
children to understand and integrate with existing knowledge and skills.
Another study concluded that for younger students and less able students,
almost errorless performance during learning produces better performance and
greater satisfaction (Filby, 2005).
In effective schools, monitoring of students
progress takes place at all levels. Effective teacher’s monitor minute-to-minute
comprehension, success and engagement rates along with the longer term performance
records of every student. Effective principals monitor performance scores for
individual students, classes, grade levels. Improvement minded superintendents
also monitor average performance scores for their classes and schools,
comparing them with schools in other districts and with national average (Boot
2003). Whatever level or form, monitoring of students’ progress takes effective
school administrators and teachers of note to use the performance information
as the basis for modifications of teaching and or school wide improvement
plans.
According to Goodhead (2000), there are many
ways to increase clarity and thus improve students’ understanding and performance.
In addition to using reviews, objectives, outlines and overviews, good teachers
of note give clear verbal and written directions. They also repeat key points
and instructions and call attention to main ideas. They give additional
explanations and examples whenever necessary. They structure and sequence the
material to minimize clarity, and they emphasize transition points between
lesson parts. They check for understanding by asking clear questions and making
sure that all students have a chance to respond including the quieter ones.
Effective teachers reduce confusion by
avoiding digressions and irrelevant content (or the addition of relevant
content at the wrong time), that is Kouin’s (2001) slip-flops and dangles.
Effective teachers also review the main ideas and subparts at the end of the
lesson.
All of these techniques help structure,
clarity and reinforce the learning task. They also help students synthesize
information into integrated wholes, with an understanding of the relationships
among parts. These techniques are used by effective and good teachers and all
are positively related to student-performance.
The teaching work is very stressful due to
the nature of the job. A situation where the teacher has to grapple with the
writing of the lesson note, reading always to master the content, preparing the
lesson in such a way that he teaches without consulting any materials and
coupled with the everyday life struggles, the teacher ought to be highly
remunerated and rewarded materially judging the enormity of the work he does
and the importance of it to the entire society. But suffice it to say that
teachers in Nigeria are not regarded as doing a great work. Rather people
(society) and the government pay them back with total neglect, disregard as
doing a great work and contempt as if they are not important to the society
(Uzoma, 1998). Teaching job is a noble profession which ought to be handled
very well and teachers therefore must be treated well, recognized and given its
reserved position.
1.2 Statement
of the Problem
The problem inherent in the teaching and
learning process, is as a result of the teacher – factor. For instance, the
academic performance of students are affected negatively, when teachers do not
possess the necessary mastery of the content or possess poor teaching method.
Also, teachers’ negative attitudes, poor personality, inexperience, poor
classroom management, poor personal hygiene, poor teacher – student
relationship, lack of communicative skills and poor judgments in the classroom,
contribute greatly to the poor academic performance of students in the school.
1.3 Purpose
of the Study
The
purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between selected teacher
factors namely; instructional leadership, teachers’ qualification, experience,
and attitude towards teaching in relation to students’ academic performance in
selected secondary schools in Kosofe Local Government Area of Lagos State.
1.4 Objectives of the Study
i.
The
specific objectives of the study were:
ii.
To
assess the relationship between teachers instructional leadership and students’
academic performance.
iii.
To
establish the relationship between teachers’ qualification and students’
academic performance.
iv.
To
determine the relationship between teachers experience and students academic performance.
v.
To
determine the relationship between teachers attitude towards teaching and
students academic performance.
1.5 Research
Questions
Based on the background information and
statement of the problem of the present study, the following research questions
will be raised to guide the study:
- Will teachers mastery of
content affect students’ academic performance? - Is there any significant
difference between teaching methods and students’ academic performance? - Is there any significant
difference between teacher’s educational qualification and student
academic performance due to teacher-factor? - Is there any difference between
teacher’s experience and students’ academic performance? - Will teacher’s attitude
influence students’ academic performances?
1.5 Research
Hypotheses
On the basis of the problem stated earlier,
four null hypotheses will be postulated:
H01: There is no
significant relationship between teacher’s mastery of content and students’
academic performance.
H02: There is no
significant relationship between teaching method and students’ academic
performance.
H03: There is no
significant difference in student’s academic performance due to teachers’
educational qualification.
H04: There is no
significant difference due to differences in their teachers years of teaching
on students’ academic performance.
H05: There is no
significant difference between teachers’ attitude and students’ academic
performance in the school.
1.6 Significance
of the Study
This study will be of great benefit to the
following:
(1) Teachers: They
would benefit from the findings and recommendations of this study because it
will give them an insight on how to carry out their jobs in the school. It will
enable teachers to be more productive in doing their daily job of teaching and
learning. With this study, many teachers would be-oriented in the art of
teaching knowing fully well that the way they teach will affect students’
academic performance in schools.
(2) Students: They
would benefit from the study because it will help them to have the
understanding that their teachers required to be an exemplary one, if his/her
teaching experiences would be of great benefit to the child or the student.
With the findings and the recommendations of this study, students would be able
to identify teachers who “cheat” and real teachers of note in the school
system. with this study also, students would be able to know that they need to
be taught by trained and experienced teachers if they would put up high
performances in their academic careers.
(3) Parents: They
would learn that the careers of their children hang in the balance, if they are
being coached by unprofessional, inexperienced teachers. With this study,
parents would be able to know that there is a great difference between the
academic performance of students who are taught by well trained teachers and
those taught by non-trained, inexperienced teachers.
(4) Society: The
society will be able to understand the difference in the academic performance
of children taught by two types of teachers (the trained and the untrained) in
the school system. This is because the society benefits if the children are
well brought up by a well trained teacher. Students will be well behaved apart
from the exhibition of high academic performance, and this will better the lots
of the society.
1.7 Scope
of the Study
This study covers teacher-factor and
students’ academic performance in secondary schools in Kosofe Local Government
Area of Lagos State.
1.8 Limitation
of the Study
This study is limited to the examination of
teacher-factor and students’ academic performance in secondary schools. Time,
finance, shortage of necessary materials and other logistics will pose a
hindrance to the successful conclusion of this study.
1.9 Definition
of Terms
- Education: Education is derived from
the Latin word “educare” which means to draw out. Education is therefore
defined as a process of drawing out and developing the potentialities of
an individual. - The School: The school is one of the
chief agents of education. It is a formal and a planned institution with
rules and regulations established for educating the young and charged with
the responsibility of transmitting the cultural heritage of the people by
showing knowledge and its appreciation as well as adherence to its norms. - Teaching: Hyman (1990) sees
teaching as the art and practice of imparting to a learner knowledge,
skills, values and norms that will be useful to the total development of
the individual. - Training: This refers to giving a
course of specific instruction or practice to a learner with the purpose
to shape, develop or acquire appreciable habits. - Instruction: Ofoegbu (2001) sees
instruction as causing someone to know or be able to do something. It is
also giving a group of people some specific knowledge or skill within or
outside a school environment through observation, discovery and
experience. - Indoctrination: This is a process in
which the learner is compelled to accept a set of ideas without
questioning. - Coaching: This involves teaching,
training, instructing or advising an individual or persons in a particular
area of subject in which a student is deficient.