ABSTRACT
The study attempted to examine the
relationship between teacher preparation, professional development and
students’ academic performance in selected secondary schools in Ikeja 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 and the sampling technique. In this study, two hundred
respondents were selected randomly through the application of the stratified
random selection method to represent the entire population of the study.
Five null hypotheses were formulated and tested with the
use of the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient tool at 0.05 level of
significance. Results indicate that: a significant relationship exists between
teachers’ mastery of content and students’ academic performance in the school,
a significant relationship exists between teachers’ teaching method and
students’ academic performance, teachers’ educational qualification had a
statistically significance relationship with students’ academic performance,
there is a significant relationship between teachers’ years of teaching and
students’ academic performance and it was revealed that a significant
relationship exists between teachers’ attitude and students’ academic
performance. The following recommendations were made by the researchers at the
end of the study, teachers should always endeavour to teach well in the school,
knowing that, they are the people that are responsible for the moulding and
changing the characters of the children in the school. and students should be
responsive to their teachers.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background
to the Study
1.2
Theoretical
Framework
1.3
Statement
of the Problem
1.4
Purpose
of the Study
1.5
Research
Questions
1.6
Research
hypothesis
1.7
Significance
of the study
1.8
Scope
of the study
1.9
Definition
of Terms
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 History of English
Language
2.2 Concept and Nature of
Teaching
2.3 Teacher-Competence and
Students’ Academic Performance
2.4 Teaching Methods and
Students’ Academic Performance
2.5 Teachers’ Qualifications and
Students’ Academic Performance
2.6 Classroom management and the
students’ academic performance
2.7 Teachers’ Attitude and
Students Academic Performance
2.8 Summary of Review
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1
Research Design
3.2
Population of the Study
3.3
Sample
Size and Sampling Method
3.4
Research
Instrument
3.5
Procedure for Data
Collection
3.6
Validity and Reliability of the
Instrument
3.7
Procedure for Data Analysis
3.8
Sample
Size and Sampling Method
3.9
Validity and Reliability of the
Instrument
3.10
Procedure for Data Analysis
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSES AND
INTERPRETATION
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Description
of Bio-Data of Respondents According to Age, Gender, Qualification, Marital
Status, Number of Years in Service
4.3 Descriptive
Analyses of Research Questions Together with Questionnaire Responses
4.4 Hypothesis testing
4.5 Summary of the findings
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Introduction
5.2
Summary of the Study
5.3 Discussion of the Findings
5.4 Conclusions
5.5
Recommendations
References
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.10
Background
to the Study
The teacher occupies a very important
position in any school system. According to Akande (2005), teachers’ work is
very crucial because without the teacher, there will be no president, no
governors, no senators and illiteracy would have covered the whole earth. With
the teacher, there is enlightenment, knowledge and civilization in the world.
No nation can rise above its teachers. Therefore, the teaching profession is important
because it is the job that produces educated and learned people for the
development of the society (Wuji, 2005).
Before one becomes a professional
English Language teacher, a studious stage is passed through. For instance Uzor
(2006) agrees that a teacher passes through the teacher-training college or the
University education to become a trained teacher. According to Uzor, the
essence of an English language teacher going through rigorous teacher-education
or training, is to arm oneself with the appropriate skill, ability and
expertise that are inherent in the teaching and learning processes in the
subject-matter. As Onyeji (2007) puts it, English language teachers are trained
in order to acquire the needed skills of teaching i.e. knowing what to teach (mastery
of content) and knowing how to teach (mastery of methodology). The English
language teacher, who is trained and experienced, equally knows how to manage
the classroom and how to deliver the objectives of what is taught in the
classroom. At any stage or school level, a teacher requires to acquire cognate
experience and training to effectively deliver the good in the classroom,
appropriately as a professional. Abagunde (2004), opined that, students’
performance in English language is largely dependent on the extent of how
teaching is carried out in the classroom.
For an English teacher to effectively
handle any subject, preparation is needed. This could be in terms of reading
through what is to be taught, writing note of lessons, doting appropriately all
‘Ts’ and all ‘I’s’, in order to deliver the lesson effectively and for the
students to maximize the objectives of what has been taught. According to
Arinze (2004), effective teacher preparation in English language comes as a
result of previous professional development the teacher had undergone. This
culminates from the strict education the teacher has received which had helped
him to master the nitty-gritty of the arts of teaching and classroom management
(Greenfield, 2006). Greenfield observes that both the preparation and
professional development of a teacher, give the teacher the impetus and
academic authority to effectively teach in the classroom, and by extension, the
effective learning ability of the students. Greenfield is of the opinion that,
effective teaching in English language as a result of effective preparation and
professional development, result in effective students’ academic achievement in
any subject-matter, at any school level (primary, secondary and tertiary
institutions).
A teacher in English language gets
prepared to teach by getting professionally developed. For instance Arisekola
(2007) opines that, there are some stages of preparing or developing a teacher
to get him/her ready for the classroom job of teaching and learning. At the
primary school, the teacher receives the Nigerian Certificate of Education
(NCE) to teach at the basic level, for the secondary schools, the teacher
receives the degree or certificate of Bachelor of Arts in Education (B.A.Ed);
or Masters in Education (M.Ed), while for the tertiary institutions, the Doctor
of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree is required for the teacher to effectively teach
and for the students to perform adequately. The above degrees or certificates, enable
the English language teacher to carry out the teaching work without let or
hindrance, and for the students to learn with high academic achievement
(Nkemjika, 2000).
A teacher in English language needs
to be developed professionally through the teacher-educational programmes that
are available in the Nigerian higher institutions. According to Lawal (2002), an
English language teacher is said to be effectively developed and professionally
competent, when he/she is specifically trained or educated in order to train
others in the school system, the (learner(s). Aside from knowing how to educate
the learner(s), the teacher who is professionally developed, has some
personality variables that distinguish him/her from a non-professional,
non-trained teacher. Leon (2004), says that a non-professional teacher is a ‘cheat’,
because he does not know how to teach and as such, the learner learns poorly
under a non-professional, non-trained teacher’s tutelage. Good teaching begets
good learning. Trained teachers in English language who are professionally
sound, produce students who are academically sound. The primary goal of a
teacher is for the students to have high academic laurels and to excel in their
educational careers.
Adeleke (2006) is of the view that,
teachers’ performance in English language is determined by the performance of
the students at the end of any examination(s) or tests in the class. Highly
trained, prepared, professional developed and experienced teachers in English
language, produce students that are excellent in academic and in characters as
well, be it at the primary, secondary or tertiary levels of any educational
system. A student is said to have performed well if he/she scores 60% and above
in any examination(s) and test(s) organized by the school at the end of any
school year or session. 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 carried
out by Filby (2005), concluded that, younger students and less able students,
almost errorless, performance high during the teaching of an effective teacher,
which equally produces better and greater satisfaction to both the teacher and
the students.
In effective schools, effective
English language teachers monitor students’ progress which takes place at all
levels of the school system. Effective English language teachers monitor
minute-by-minute comprehension, reading and writing skills of students, their
overall success and engagement rates along with the longer term achievement
records of every student in the subject-matter. Effective English language
teachers monitor achievement scores for individual students, class interactions
among students, students’ grade levels and so on. Improvement minded English
language teachers also monitor average achievement scores for their students,
comparing their performances with the performances of other students in the
classrooms in a particular school in order to know whether their students are
high achievers in the subject or not (Boot 2003). Whatever level or form,
monitoring of students’ progress takes effective school teachers of note to use
the achievement information as the basis for modifications of teaching and
learning processes or school wide improvement plans in English language
(Nwagbara, 2007).
Theoretical Framework
1.2 The Theories of Learning (S-R Theories) (Skinner, 1991)
The (S-R) theory of learning
propounded by B.S. Skinner (1991), underpins this study because, it is the
theory that concerns learning which is the dependent variable in the study. The
most crucial features of the connectionist or S-R theories of learning and more
specifically, behavior, are contained in the two important letters ‘S’ and ‘R’
and the hyphen in between them. ‘S’ means stimulus or thinking bond. According
to this school of thought, which includes great behaviourists like Watson
(1946), Thorndike (1949), Hull (1943), Pavlov (1958) and Skinner (1991),
behavior is a transaction between the stimulus or stimuli that impinge on an
organism and the resultant responses, the ‘R’. This connotes that learning
involves some lasting or permanent changes in the relationships between the ‘S’
and ‘R’ connection. The behaviourists emphasized that all knowledge emanate
from the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. For the behaviourists,
man is born with the ability and capacity to acquire knowledge and everything
he knows comes from his sensory experience. Sensory qualities are connected in
the mind, because they occur closely together in time or space as one interacts
with his environment. Learning therefore, occurs through close association of
events or ideas. For the behaviourists, learning occurs only through
experience. Skinner (1991), did not reckon with the existence of the innate
ideas in man as being responsible for his knowledge. To him, learning is
mechanistic; that is to assume that the mind is machine-like and of simple
elements with no mysterious elements and therefore, the product of life
experience. Thus, behavior is not learnt but inborn in man. For instance, the baby-sucking
behavior as well as the sexual behaviour in man, are not learnt, but inborn
behaviours. Although, some behaviours could be explained in terms of
maturation. They include walking, speech, flying of birds in the sky as well as
swimsging of tadpoles in the sea.
1.2
Statement of the Problem
The
problem inherent in the teaching and learning processes in English language, is
as a result of teacher–factor. For instance, the academic performance of
students is affected negatively, when teachers do not possess the necessary teaching
competences in terms of mastery of the contents or possession of good teaching
methods in English language as a subject of study in schools. 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 classrooms, contribute greatly to the poor
academic achievement of students in English language in the schools. Apart from
the above mentioned problems, many English teachers are lazy and therefore,
find it difficult to prepare themselves before appearing in the classrooms.
This has caused them to be poorly exposed to the course materials and absolute deficiency
appearing in their mastery of what to teach poor methodoly on how to teach the
subject in the classrooms. By extension, this has caused the great down-ward
trends of the quality in the educational standards in Nigerian school system, with
the attendant low performance of students in both spoken and written English
language in and out of the school.
Many teachers who teach English
language in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions these days are “cheats”,
because they do not possess the required professional skills, the required
cognate experience and the training that is innate in effective classroom
teachers. Lack of competence and professional skills, are some of the main factors
militating against high academic performance by students in the Nigerian school
system.
1.3
Purpose of the Study
The
purpose of this study is to examine the impact of teacher-competence on students’
academic achievement in selected Senior Secondary Schools in Education District
IV of Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos, Nigeria.
The specific objectives of this study
will be amongst others to:
(1)
Find
out whether teachers’ mastery of content affects students’ academic achievements
in schools.
(2)
Examine
the difference between teachers’ teaching methods and students’ academic achievement
in schools.
(3)
Investigate
whether there is difference between teachers’ qualifications and students’
academic achievement in schools.
(4)
Find
out whether there is difference between teachers’ experience and students’
academic performance.
1.4
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:
1.
Will
teachers’ mastery of content affect students’ academic performance in schools?
2.
Is
there any significant difference between teaching methods and students’
academic performance in schools?
3.
Is
there any significant difference between teacher’s educational qualification
and students’ academic performance in schools?
4.
Is
there any difference between teacher’s experience and students’ academic achievement
in schools?
1.5
Research Hypotheses
In
this study, the following hypothesis will be tested:
1. There
will be no significant relationship between teacher’s mastery of content and
students’ academic performance in schools.
2. There
will be no significant relationship between teaching methods and students’
academic performance in schools.
3. There
will be no significant difference in student’s academic performance due to
teachers’ educational qualifications in schools.
4. There
will be no significant difference between teachers’ years of experience and
students’ academic performance in schools.
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 achievement 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” as a
result of incompetences 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 achievement 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 achievement, and this will better the lots of the society.
1.7
Scope of the Study
This
study will cover the impact of teacher-competence on academic achievement
of students in selected Senior Secondary
Schools in Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos State, Nigeria.
1.8
Definition of Terms
Teaching competence: This is the expertise of the teacher in English language or any other
course taught in schools. It means in order words, the mastery of teaching contents
and the methodology in classroom presentation of English language.
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.
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.
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