ABSTRACT
The purpose of
this study is to investigate the extent to which workload factors (such as
working hours, class size, teacher-student ratio, committee assignment and
nature of work) influence teacher’s job performance in public secondary schools
in Education District III of Lagos State. The study was carried out using
descriptive survey design, the population comprised of the 960 teachers in the
66-public junior secondary school in the District and the Sloven formula of
sample size was used to select 280 teachers out of the 960 total population.
The stratified and random sampling techniques were used to select and administer
the research instrument A self-designed questionnaire was the research
instrument used for the study. Descriptive statistics such as frequency count
and simple percentage was employed to analyse the demographic characteristics
of participants and all the research questions, while the chi-square
statistical tool was used to test the research hypotheses. From the study it
was discovered that working hours, class size, teacher-student ratio, committee
assignment and nature of work has an influence on teacher’s job performance.
Therefore, it was recommended that School authorities should be conscious of
the health status of their teachers by enhancing work efficiency through
health-prone working hours and time management, maintain a sizeable classroom
that will enhance academic excellence of students and effective teaching of the
teachers , play a significant role in promoting student-teacher interaction and
a significant student-teacher ratio in order to enhance an improved academic
performance and effective teaching among teachers. Teachers should be involved
in decision making of the school and to take active role in the effective
administration of the school to promote an improved job performance among
teachers, assigned to the work they find so convenient and appealing doing. It
is to promote teachers’ satisfaction, and to enhance higher job satisfaction
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Title
Page
i
Certification
ii
Dedication
iii
Acknowledgments
iv
Abstract v
Table
of Contents
vi
List
of Tables
vii
CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION
Background
of Study
1
Statement
of the Problem
5
Purpose
of the Study
6
Research
Questions 6
Research
Hypothesis
7
Significance
of the Study 7
Scope
of the Study
8
Definitions
of Terms 8
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE
REVIEW
Introduction
10
Concept
of Workload 11
Concept
of Teacher Job Performance 15
Working
Hours and Teacher Job Performance 16
Class
Size and Teacher Job Performance 19
Teacher-Student
Ratio and Teacher Job Performance 20
Committee
Assignment and Teacher Job Performance 22
Work
Schedule and Teacher Job Performance 24
Review
of Empirical Studies 25
Theoretical
Framework 28
Summary
of Literature Reviewed 30
CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND PROCEEDURES
Introduction 32
Research
Design 32
Population
of Study
32
Sample
and Sampling Technique 33
Research
Instrument 33
Validity
of the Research Instrument 33
Reliability
of the Research Instrument 34
Method
of Data Collection 34
Method
of Data Analysis 34
CHAPTER FOUR DATA PRESENTATION,
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Demographic
Characteristics of Participants 35
Answers
to Research Questions 37
Testing
of Research Hypotheses 43
Summary
of Findings 46
Discussion
of Findings 46
CHAPTER FIVE SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
of Study
53
Conclusion
54
Recommendation
55
Suggestion
for Further Studies
55
REFERENCES 56
APPENDICES 61
LIST
OF TABLES
Table
1: Demographic Characteristics of
the Participants 35
Table
2: Working hours and teacher’s
job performance 37
Table
3: Class size and teacher’s job
performance 38
Table
4: Teacher-student ratio and
teacher’s job performance 40
Table
5: Committee assignment and
teacher’s job performance 41
Table
6: Nature of work and teacher’s
job performance 42
Table 7: Working
hours and teacher’s job performance 43
Table 8: Class
size and teacher’s job performance 44
Table 9: Teacher-student
ratio and teacher’s job performance 44
Table
10: Committee assignment and
teacher’s job performance 45
Table
11: Nature of work and teacher’s
job performance 45
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Improvement
in the performance of Nigerian employees in the different sectors of the
economy including school organization has remained the recurrent themes of many
symposia, conferences and workshops. It is a recognized fact that performance
is a critical factor in socio-economic development of any nation, for it is one
of the key determinants of the standard of living of the citizenry. There is
therefore no doubt that improved performance is at the core of the activity of
all organizations including school, suggest that the survival and growth of
most human understandings depend to a large extend on the organization level of
performance which itself depends on the performance of employee. Therefore, the
performance of any employee including a teacher depends largely on the
workload.
The management of workload in school is
an important aspect that can make or mar the goals of education. This is
because where these tasks or duties are not co-ordinated efficiently; expected
result will be far from realization. According to Nweke and Dollah (2011) view
a teacher’s workload as the totality of academic teaching work and committee
workload assigned to a teacher for the attainment of the overall educational
objectives in the school. This is in terms of lesson note preparation, test and
assignment, examination, house mastership and any other routine work that may
be assigned to a teaching staff by the principal. This view agrees with
Sinclair as cited in Usoro, Nnaessien & Saleh (2007) that workload is
viewed as the physiological and mental demands that occur while performing a
task or a combination of tasks; and it can also be the physical and/or mental
requirements associated with a task or combination of tasks.
This means that workload is the cost
incurred by an individual, given their abilities while performing at a specific
level of performance on a job that has particular demands; that is the
perception of having too many things to do or not having enough time to do the
things one has to do. It is that portion of the employees’ limited capacity
actually required to perform a particular task. Tasks are specified in terms of
their structural properties. A set of stimuli and responses are specified with
a set of rules that map responses to stimuli. The workload factors are teaching
units/working units, class size, teacher-student ratio, committee assignment,
students’ assessment and nature of work.
Due to limited resources, like
restricted budget and staffs, organizations might not be able to hire a
sufficient number of employees. For this reason, the organization gives the
employees responsibilities that are not included in their job descriptions,
thus increasing the workload. According to Kawada, Ueda, Hayashi, Sakamoto,
Uchida, Shirato & Etoh (2010), workload is divided into physical and mental
workload. Physical workload is created by the technical requirements for
processing the work, both in and outside the workplace. This means, the
measurable portion of physical resources expended when performing a given task
and is affected by a range of factors. However, mental workload is the amount
of the subject’s processing capacity which is required for the performance of a
task at a given time. This means, it is an attribute of Information processing
and control systems that mediate between stimuli and, rules and responses.
It is important to determine the
elements that organizations have to consider in order to reduce the workload of
the employee. Firstly, they need to identify the crucial element that has the
strongest effect on the workload of an employee. After this, the organization must
take the necessary actions to reduce workload. It is clear that organizations and
in particular human research departments should consider this issue. The work
schedule, working day, job description and job specification among others
should be clearly set out (Guimarães, Pessa & Biguelini, 2012).
A teacher therefore can be overloaded,
that is, much task in terms of teaching units and committee assignment or
under-loaded with work, that is, less teaching unit assigned (Zwalchir & Buenyen,
2009). The principal in the school is the sole administrator who assigns
workload to the teaching staff and so must be proactive to avoid over
utilization or under-utilization of teaching staff for the purpose of goal
getting and fruitful performance.
In this same vein, the principal has the
duty to also check the class size taught by the teacher, as large class size
constitutes excess workload for the teacher. With the increasing enrolment rate
in our schools, the teaching staff can be paid for excess workload (Adu,
Titilola & Ifeoma, 2013). They further stressed that, the distribution of
workload by the principal is dependent on the teaching staff strength of the
school. Where this is small, the workload will be high per teacher and some
work will be left undone. This is responsible for some subjects not being
taught unless the principal engages the services of a helping teacher who may
not be competent in the subject; hence quality or effectiveness is compromised.
Arora (2009) said that quality is conformance to requirement or specification.
In this direction, therefore, teaching staff productivity is directly related
to the workload assigned to that staff.
Performance of a teaching staff is a
measure of the extent of effectiveness and efficient execution of the workload
within a stipulated time, culminating to achievement of school objectives.
Usoro et al (2007) agreed that performance is measured in terms of how the
students have appreciated and assimilated the lesson taught by the teacher. The
class size can make or mar the rate of understanding. A large class will be
difficult to be effectively controlled which contradicts the tenets of training
on class room management. The classroom management will be more effective if
the 1:40 teacher-student’s ratio is maintained in the public senior secondary
schools.
Observably, in recent years the
quality of education in Nigeria, especially in our secondary schools, has been
a subject of public concern. The major thrust of such public concern has to do
with the falling standard of education and urgent need to redress the situation
to avoid further deterioration. Ajayi (2000) attests to this in an address
presented at the national workshop on planning and administration for a
successful implementation of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in
Nigeria where he states that a cursory look at the education scenario in
Nigeria presents no less a picture of poor quality education and then went on
to posit that poor planning models, weak school administration and management,
low teacher productivity arising from low teachers’ dedication and commitment
(morale) to their job accounted for the poor education quality in the country.
Given
the above scenario, the importance of good administration and management of the
secondary school system becomes imperative. In the secondary school system, the
principal is responsible for the administration and management while teaching
and learning are carried out primarily by teachers and students respectively.
According to Jaiyeoba (2008), the teacher occupies a central position in the
instructional setting.
Adesokan
(2000) aptly states this when he asserts that the teacher is the spark and key
man in the drive to progress in our educational enterprise. Expectedly, the
teacher cannot carry out the demanding and indispensable assignment alone. He
has to work in cooperation with other stakeholders – the principal, other
teachers, students and parents in order to be able to achieve the objectives of
delivering good instructions in the classroom setting.
Statement of Problem
Education
is the bedrock of development, and the teacher plays a crucial role in the
product and outcome of the education sector. There have been reports of
persistent poor job performance by teachers and poor academic performance of
students in core and major subjects at the Senior Secondary School level of
education. This can be attributed to workload of the teachers in schools which has led to the decline
of teacher’s job performance.
Workload is on the front burner when it has to
do with quality or effectiveness of education in as much as workload determines
to a great extent the level of teacher’s job performance. On a general
perception, there is hue and cry on the deteriorating level of quality of
education as products of our education system, senior secondary school
inclusive cannot adequately prove their worth. The scenario is worsening with
the insufficiency of teacher staff strength in schools with the resulting high
workload on the available teaching staff.
The major statement of problem therefore
is to what extent do workload factors (such as working hours, class size,
teacher-student ratio, committee assignment and nature of work) influence
teacher’s job performance in public secondary schools of Education District III
of Lagos State?
Purpose of the Study
The
major purpose of this study was to assess how workload factors influence
teacher’s job performance in public junior secondary schools of Education
District III of Lagos state. Specifically, the study sets out:
1. to
examine the influence of working hours on teacher’s job performance;
2. to
determine the extent to which class size influence teacher’s job performance;
3. to
examine how teacher-student ratio influences teacher’s job performance;
4. to
ascertain the extent at which committee assignment influences teacher’s job
performance and
5. to
probe how nature of work influences teacher’s job performance.
Research
Questions
The
following research questions were used to guide and direct the investigation:
1. To
what extent do working hours influences teacher’s job performance?
2. How
does class size promotes teacher’s job performance?
3. How
does teacher-student ratio influences teacher’s job performance?
4. To
what extent does committee assignment influence teacher’s job performance?
5. To
what extent do nature of work improve teacher’s job performance?
Research Hypotheses
The
following null hypotheses were formulated to give direction to the study:
H01: Working hours do not
significantly influence teacher’s job performance.
H02: Class size do not
significantly influence teacher’s job performance.
H03: Teacher-student ratio
do not significantly influence teacher’s job performance.
H04: Committee assignment do
not significantly influence teacher’s job performance.
H05: Nature of work do not
significantly influence teacher’s job performance.
Significance
of the Study
The findings of this study will equip
general knowledge on workload factors and teacher’s job performance. The
findings will contribute to information that can be used in organizing seminars
and workshops on how to reduce teachers’ workload in public secondary schools
in order to improve students’ academic performance and teachers’ job
performance in educational goal realization.
The findings could also be used by human
resources department of the Ministry of Education and other policy making
organs of government especially in the formulation of policies that will help
to ensure reduction of teachers’ workload that will help to enhance effective
teaching-learning process. The findings of this study will also reveal the best
organizational structure that will improve students’ academic performance in
schools and improve teachers’ job performance.
Scope of the Study
The
study focused mainly on workload factors and teacher’s job performance. The
study focused mainly on public secondary school teachers. The study covers only
Education District III of Lagos state. The study focused on the following
variables: working hours, class size, teacher-student ratio, committee
assignment and nature of work
Definitions of Terms
Class size refers to the
number of students in a given course or classroom, specifically either (1) the
number of students being taught by individual teachers in a course or classroom
or (2) the average number of students being taught by teachers in a school,
district, or education system.
Nature of work is referred to as the basic daily tasks that he carries out
as part of his job, and it can refer to other non-routine tasks that may be
required by the job also.
Student-teacher
ratio expresses the relationship
between the number of students enrolled in a school, district, or
education system and the number
of full-time equivalent teachers employed by the school, district, or system.
Teacher’s
job performance: This is teaching work related activities
expected of a teacher and how well those teaching activities were performed.
This implies the level of productivity of teachers in a school organisation.
Workload
factors: This
is the physiological and mental demands that occur while performing a task or a
combination of tasks. These factors are: teaching units/working units, class
size, teacher-student ratio, committee assignment, students’ assessment and
nature of work
Working hours: is the period of time that an
individual spends at paid occupational labour.
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