The Influence of Teacher’s Professional Training on Students’ Academic Achievement
Chapter One
Purpose of the study
The primary objective(s) of this study are;
- To determine whether the scores of achievement tests in English Language and Mathematics subjects from students taught by professionally trained teachers will vary from the scores of their counterparts in the same test (English Language trained teachers (quacks).
- To test the significant differences between the academic achievement of students taught by professional teachers and the educational achievement of those taught by unprofessional teachers (quacks)
- To establish a generalizable conclusion based eon systematically refined evidence.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the literature on the impact of employee training, attitude of students and performance of students in secondary schools. It seeks to establish the relationship between the key study variables and relate them to learning theories, attitudes and the kind of trainings employees in secondary schools undergo.
Teacher Training
According to a research commissioned by UNESCO on the impact of teacher knowledge on teaching and learning process in 14 Sub-Saharan African Countries, Nardir, A. (2007) Assesses that the primary aim of training a teacher is to nurture his/her skills in education and prowess which have compatibility with education policies thus making teachers effective in delivery of content. He poses that teacher training and professional development is an important aspect that would significantly result to better academic performance of students. Teacher training is currently limited to its scope of professional development. Knoblaunch, D and Chase, M. (2015) conducted studies on the impact of school setting, efficacy and benefits attributed to teacher training in Rural, Sub-Urban and Urban schools and found out that while some students have shown teacher training have no effect to general academic performance, others have shown it can improve grades when it is content focused and intensive. Teacher training is aimed at providing teachers with the knowledge needed teacher engagement to students and enable them perform better in terminal examinations(Wesh, 2006) and in this case (NECO and NECO)
Impact of Teacher Training on students’ performance
Major studies carried out have compared teacher training concepts and students’ academic performance in schools. According to a research conducted in Nigeria by the department of curriculum studies in the University of Port Harcourt about teachers’ competence and students’ academic performance, teacher competence both professional and personal should be very high to accompany the learner efforts in order to realize academic performance (Barikena, 2012). According to Barikena(2012), teacher
professionalism is both professional and pedagogical in the sense that a teacher should be able to handle their professional work well and fulfil the legal requirements for personal traits. Onyeachu (1996) in a research conducted in Nigeria on the relationship between teacher working conditions and the effectiveness of the teacher asserts that a teachers’ success in the classroom depends very much on their preparedness for the instruction process which requires training. Studies done in Kenya, Rift Valley province on Teacher Training and development by Ngala F. and Orisky N. (2010) Reveals that teacher training increases knowledge on selection and application of the most improved teaching methods and thus leading to high performance by students.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this chapter, we would describe how the study was carried out.
Research design
Research design is a detailed outline of how an investigation took place. It entails how data is collected, the data collection tools used and the mode of analyzing data collected (Cooper & Schindler (2006). This study used a descriptive research design. Gill and Johnson (2002) state that a descriptive design looks at particular characteristics of a specific population of subjects, at a particular point in time or at different times for comparative purposes. The choice of a survey design for this study was deemed appropriate as Mugenda and Mugenda (2003) attest that it enables the researcher to determine the nature of prevailing conditions without manipulating the subjects.
Further, the survey method was useful in describing the characteristics of a large population and no other method of observation can provide this general capability. On the other hand, since the time duration to complete the research project was limited, the survey method was a cost effective way to gather information from a large group of people within a short time. The survey design made feasible very large samples and thus making the results statistically significant even when analyzing multiple variables. It allowed for many questions to be asked about a given topic giving considerable flexibility to the analysis. Usually, high reliability is easy to obtain by presenting all subjects with a standardized stimulus; observer subjectivity is greatly eliminated. Cooper and Schindler (2006) assert that the results of a survey can be easily generalized to the entire population..
Research settings
This study was carried out in Modern Ideal College, Abakpa Main campus Nigeria.
Sources of Data
The data for this study were generated from two main sources; Primary sources and secondary sources. The primary sources include questionnaire, interviews and observation. The secondary sources include journals, bulletins, textbooks and the internet.
Population of the study
A study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description (Udoyen, 2019). The population of the study were all teachers in Modern Ideal College, Abakpa Main campus.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
This chapter presents the analysis of data derived through the questionnaire and key informant interview administered on the respondents in the study area. The analysis and interpretation were derived from the findings of the study. The data analysis depicts the simple frequency and percentage of the respondents as well as interpretation of the information gathered.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
INTRODUCTION
This chapter considered the relationship between teacher Professional training and students’ achievement in Modern Ideal College, Abakpa Main campus and goes further to summarize, provide conclusions and further give recommendations.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The summary of findings were presented according to the dependent and independent variables of the study which are:
(i) Teacher training
(ii) Students’ attitude
(iii) Students’ performance
The study sought to establish the relationship between teacher training and students’ academic performance in sModern Ideal College, Abakpa Main campus. The findings indicate that trained teachers have positive attitude towards themselves, professional contact and their students. They have skills for effective classroom control, effective students’ evaluation and understand the code of contact. On the other hand, untrained teachers have low self-esteem towards teaching, do not have sufficient content delivery techniques which are student centered and have no clarity of presentation hence prone to posing poor results.
Students have positive attitude towards trained and experienced teachers since they have better interactions, good dress codes, effectiveness and clarity of classroom presentation which revolves about day-to-day activities of the students and develop learner interest towards the subject of discussion.
From the chi square statistic, the research study found out that majority of untrained teachers posted poor results as compared to the teachers who have undergone training. The study showed that most students were unsatisfied by the way untrained teachers delivered teaching content. From the teachers’ responses, majority of the teachers were willing to undergo in-service training if made available and closer to them. The study also indicated that more experienced teachers had a better performance to their counterparts who had spent lesser years in teaching.
The relationship between teacher training and students’ academic performance was found to be statistically significant and are jointly influence by students’ attitude as a mediating variable of the study.
CONCLUSION
From the discussion therefore, the research study concluded that there is a significant difference for trained and untrained teachers in terms of content delivery, time management, classroom control and students’ interaction. The relationship between teacher training and students’ academic performance therefore exists to a chi square value of 0.0006, P<0.05 and df=1.
Limitations
The research study focused on two major variables only: academic performance which is the dependent variable and teacher training, the independent variable is. However, other variables like resources available at school, teacher to student ration, distance to the nearest school, teacher incentives and teacher motivation may also influence students’ academic performance.
Recommendations
The research study recommends further study to find out the influence on academic performance that are as a result of student related factors like the distance to the nearby school, students intelligence quotient, student motivation by parents, their backgrounds, cultural and religious beliefs among others. Teachers should also be given incentives when they pose good performance so that they get motivated to work harder and improve the academic performance of students. On the other hand, the students should also rewarded when they record a positive deviation of their examination scores so that they can change their attitude towards their subjects and put more efforts to improve.
Schools should also introduce formal in-service training to their teachers to ensure they cope with the current syllabus and curriculum reforms in the educational sectors. Teachers should also be able to engage other educational stakeholders like parents, boards of management and the nearby communities in the affairs of the school and their students. This will enable them understand the socio-cultural background, and intelligence quotient
of the students and be able to handle them effectively. This will also lead to good relations and good will of the school by the external environment and positively affect academic performance.
The school should also invest in resource persons like motivational speakers, former students who performed well and community members who are doing well in the society so as to advice the students and change their mentality to education. According to the responses of teachers, student’s attitude to education affected them the most.
References
- A.,O.(1996). Relationship Between Empoyee Working Conditions and Employee Effectiveness. Nigeria: University of Port Harcout.
- Atsenga, M. (2002). Factors affecting the Teaching of Oral Communications in English Language in Secondary Schools in Kakamega and Vihigaa Districts. Nairobi: Oxford University Press.
- Bakkum, K. S. (2013). Effective teaching: A review of Research and Evidence. . Routledge: Oxford University Press.
- Barikena, J. (2012). Teachers’ Competence and Students’ Academic erformance in Senior Secondary Schools Chemistry: Is there any Relationship? Global Journal of Educational Studies Vol. 11, 2012.
- Bizimana, B. a. (2014). Teaching and Learning Resouece Availability and Teachers’ Effective Classroom Management and Content Delivery in Secondary Schools in Huye District, Rwanda. Journal of Education Practise, Vol. 5, No. 9.
- Business Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved 7 31, 2018, from https:/www.businessdictionary.com/motivation.html
- Chamundeswari, U. N. (2013). Attitude Towards Learning of Science and Academic Achievement in Science Among Students at Secondary Schools. Journal of Sociological Research, Vol. 4, No. 2.
