Teachers’ Characteristics as the Cause of SSS 1 Students’ Attitudinal Changes in Mathematics
Chapter One
Objective of the Study
The essence of this study is to investigate how certain characteristics relate to the attitudinal changes of senior secondary school students in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria.
The specific objectives are:
- To determine if the qualification of teachers have an effect on the attitudinal changes of students in mathematics.
- To find out if teaching experience is related to attitudinal changes of students in mathematics.
- To examine the relationship between teachers classroom effectiveness and students attitudinal changes.
- To ascertain the influence of teachers skills/expertise on the attitudinal changes of students in mathematics.
CHAPTER TWO
A REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
This chapter will honor the past to inform the present in order to predict the future i.e. an integrative summary of broad themes that are considered relevant to the study, a summary of relevant theories associated with the study and to expand the frontiers of knowledge via critical reflections. All the objectives of the study initially mentioned will be fully exhausted in this review.
Empirical Literature
Teachers’ Qualification and Attitudinal changes
Darling – Hammond (2019) examined a fifty-state survey on teacher policies, case analyses, and the National Assessment of Educational Progress and specifically looked at teacher qualifications and how other school inputs are related to students’ attitudinal changess across all fifty states, and, discovered that teacher academic qualification i.e. teacher quality relates to increased students’ attitudinal changes and is far more important than other factors.
Again, Charles et al (2017) explains that regular certification has positive effects on student attitudinal changes. Also, they found out that teachers with low certification score have students with low performance; having a strong teacher is better than being in a classroom with fewer students than an average classroom. Wilson et al (2014) suggest that even with the short comings of current teacher education and certification, fully prepared and certified teachers are more successful with students than teachers without this preparation.
Ashton (2016) summarizes that teacher with regular state certification receive higher supervision ratings and student attitudinal changes than teachers who do not meet standards.
Formal qualification of teachers is an important indicator for their knowledge and competence in teaching; it has utility in analyzing how well-prepared teachers are for what they have to teach in schools.
Influence of Lack of Qualified Teachers in Our Secondary Schools
The question of inadequate teachers in our secondary schools in a state like Akwa Ibom appears to be a paradox, when one remembers that Akwa Ibom State is saturated with trained teachers. The question is whether our secondary schools are well staffed with specialist in all subjects especially those schools in the rural areas in the face of “apparent enough trained teachers”. The answer is emphatically ‘no’ reflecting the importance of teachers in any society, Emezi (2017) said that “since teachers are the backbone of the whole educational system their education therefore is perhaps the most vital factor affecting our future. We must ensure that the teacher is an educated person who possesses an in-depth knowledge of the subject he is obliged to teach. A teacher must be a leader, an innovator, and an enlightened person”. If teachers are not well educated the country will end up producing semi-literate students.
Teaching is not a profession for everybody, there are those we regard as “born teachers”. These are people who have the urge and ability to teach and lead others right. Such people are the caliber of men required in the profession and they will readily accept postings anywhere, be it in the rural areas or in the urban. Writing further on the qualities of good teachers; Nwosu (2013) in his article title “Who should Teach” pointed out that teachers are those who have academic knowledge of the subject plus some instruction in the theories and strategies of teaching. And it is pertinent to add, plus interest in the profession because one can have academic knowledge of a subject but if the interest is not there, he cannot perform effectively to substantiate this point further. Ndu (2015) writing also in “who should teach” said for one to be a teacher, he has to possess the subject matter knowledge as well as the natural qualities that help the persevere in the difficult but enjoyable and rewarding task of teaching and finally one has to submit oneself to professional training where one is equipped fully with tools for job.
It is therefore an established fact that teachers are the central figure with success of any educational system, as well as important functionaries in the instruction and upbringing of the child. The 2019 National Curriculum conference in its report aptly described the teachers as “The key man in the entire educational programme”. The quality of a teacher’s training makes or mars the end product of his job as a teacher. This statement proves that the importance of well qualified teachers cannot be overemphasized. Lack of adequately trained staff is one of the major reasons identified as a hindrance to attitudinal changes. And it is good that both states and federal governments are aware of the important role that well qualified teachers can play in the realization of qualitative education in the country.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
This chapter is focused on the procedures and processes that was used for the implementation of the research work
Research Design
This research study adopted the descriptive survey research design. This enabled the researcher utilize majorly primary data in identifying views of the various participants on the effect of teachers’ characteristics on attitudinal changes.
Population of the Study
The population of the study comprised all members of teaching staff in Senior Secondary Schools in Akwa Ibom State.
Sample and Sampling Technique
The sample size was one hundred and twenty (120) teachers from ten selected secondary schools.
The technique used in selecting the sample size of the population element was the simple random sampling method. This technique is that which a sample is selected from a population and each member of the group has a possible chance of being included in the sample (Barbie, 2014).
Data Collection Method
The questionnaire was the instrument for data collection which was validated by the supervisor and other experts in the field. The questionnaire was distributed and collected on completion. The Likert attitude scale was adopted to clarify responses from participants.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this chapter is to describe and interpret the results of the field survey and use them to answer the research question which the researcher has set out to solve in the course of this study. The analysis of data collected from our participants was treated in two sections: the demographic data of the participants in Section A and the data relating to research questions in Sections B. 111 questionnaires administered. The statistical methods of measurement in this research work were frequency distribution, percentages, and Chi-Square test analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
SUMMARY OF THE STUDY
The study investigates teachers’ characteristics as the cause of SSS1 students’ attitudinal changes in mathematics. The specific objectives of the study were to determine, if the qualification of teachers have an effect on the attitudinal changes of students, find out if teaching experience is related to attitudinal changes of students, examine the relationship between teacher’s classroom effectiveness and students’ attitudinal changes and ascertain the influence of teacher’s skills/expertise on the attitudinal changes of students. Four research questions and four hypotheses were raised to guide the study.
Relevant Literature were reviewed which include Teachers’ Qualification and Attitudinal changes, Influence of Lack of Qualified Teachers in Our Secondary Schools, Teacher Experience and Attitudinal changes, The Place of Qualified Teachers as a Factor in Effective Teaching among others.
Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised Senior Secondary School teachers in Education District IV of Akwa Ibom State. Simple random sampling technique was employed to get 120 participants. The analysis of data was done using simple percentages while the stated hypotheses were tested with Chi square.
The following are the summary of the major findings:
- The findings of the study revealed that qualification must be obtained in order to improve attitudinal changes.
- The result of analysis indicates that students taught by experienced teachers have better attitudinal changes.
- The result of analysis shows that there is significance between teacher’s effectiveness and students’ attitudinal changes.
- The findings of the study show that there is significance between teachers’ skill/ expertise on students’ attitudinal changes.
CONCLUSION
From the results presented in chapter four above, the following were found:
The study shows a strong positive relationship between teachers’ characteristics and attitudinal changes.
Formal qualification of teachers is an important indicator for their knowledge and competence in teaching. Trained and qualified teachers are more successful with students as the quality of this training makes or mar the end product of a teacher’s job. Fully prepared and certified teachers know how best to handle students and draw out their intellectual resources.
Qualified teachers bring prestige to a school as their efforts bring about increased student performance.
People trace students’ performance to their teachers. Experienced teachers pass across knowledge and information which students do not possess by formulating teaching tasks using insight and experience. Hence, students taught by teachers with longer years of experience achieve at a higher level.
Effectively managed classrooms, elementary ICT skills/expertise, proper behaviour and discipline in a multicultural setting are significant for students to perform well academically.
A teacher must be a master of his subject, show interest in the students and keep students actively participating in the learning process, hence, unfolding and recollecting knowledge in the process.
There can never be good students’ performance without quality staff.
Major emphasis is laid on evaluating students’ ongoing work, classroom tests and participation in National or state achievement tests E.g. Mathematics, Arts and Essay Writing competitions.
A poor performance means a performance below previous achievement level while a good performance is one above previous achievement level of the student.
Teachers must demonstrate the correct way to solve a problem, give students time to develop answers that may be incorrect as students learn best by finding solutions to problems on their own.
The research has brought to light that the mind of a student is a clean slate on which the teacher can imprint upon through communication and how much students learn depend on how much background knowledge they have.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In view of the findings, the following recommendations are made:
- Schools should employ qualified teachers in relation to subject learnt/their subject area.
- Preference should be given to teachers with longer years of experience as they stay more on the job.
- Teachers should consider having a full understanding of the school curricula and imbibe these characteristics needed to influence attitudinal changes. Teachers’ should not see cases of very low performing students as hopeless but should still have high expectations for students’ attitudinal changes by investing more time on those students.
- Parents should support student attitudinal changes by being more involved in what their children do, such as, assisting in take home assignments, showing interest in what they learnt that day or at weekends and engaging in discussions about their experiences in school thereby increasing their desire to do well in school.
- The government should look into the review of teachers’ pay; when teachers are well paid, they have increased job satisfaction.
- Schools should use this research as a guide line for recruiting teachers and also help already recruited teachers in improving their teaching methods and eliminate the use of special assistance for their selfish interests. When this is achieved, students would be forced to read and pass on merits.
- Also, awards should be presented by schools and even the Ministry of Education to recognize and appreciate the contributions of hardworking teachers.
With this, the issue of declining attitudinal changes will be brought to the barest minimum.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING/RESEARCH
It is suggested that further studies should cover other characteristics not covered by this study and extended to other variables that affect student attitudinal changes.
The effect of other variables on attitudinal changes and the views of participants from other parts of the country could not be ascertained given the limitation of the research work, hence the need for further research.
REFERENCES
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