Quality of personnel and effective lesson delivery in Secondary School Agricultural Science

Quality of personnel and effective lesson delivery in Secondary School Agricultural Science

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

Today’s Secondary School environment is much different from what it used to be some decades ago. Requirements for promotion and graduation is much more strict including more required classes and higher standard for promotion presently, students often do not have the luxury of enrolling in many subjects for personal enlightenment as their schedules are filled with courses for University, Polytechnic, and College admission.

Beyond a highly regimented course of study, today’s students must also deal with the pressures of trying to cope with high-stakes standardized tests.

The pressures placed on students to do well on these tests have been compounded by a recent trend in many states to use these test scores to grade schools.

Another recent phenomenon in education is accountability for student’s performance. Standardized tests and students grades are often used as indicators of performances for both school and individual teacher consequently, schools are consistently looking for methods to maximize student’s performance. One of the strategies schools adopt to achieve this to hire and retain effective personnel (teachers) under the assumption that an effective teacher will positively Impact on students learning and greater academic performance

In this regard, the national policy on education (2004) stated that “No Education system may rise above the quality of its teachers”. The Implication of this statement is that the quality of students in a particular subject or schools generally relates positively to the quality of Instructions in the lesson class. Roberts and Dyer (2014), identified thee characteristics of an effective agricultural science teacher to include Educational qualifications, subject knowledge, and his experience. They posited that teachers Inadequacies in these variables responsible for the abysmal inter-constructional outcome in Agricultural science.

It is, therefore, based on this background that the researcher intends to investigate into teachers variables such as his educational qualification, his knowledge of the subject and cognate experience with a view to assessing their influence on instructional effectiveness in SecondarySchool Agricultural Science in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area.

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1.2       Statement of the Problem

Over the years, the researcher observed that many Agricultural Science students secured poor grades in the subject particularly at the Senior School Certificate Examinations, such as the (WASSCE) and the National Examination Council (NECO). This poor level of performance in the subject has a lingering effect on these categories of students especially those who intend to continue vocational career development in Agriculture.

Secondly, the researcher also noticed with Nostalgia, that many students, who choose Agricultural Science as an elective subject; actually do not show enough interest in the subject particularly the practical aspect of Agricultural Science and this leads to poor performance in the subject.

This research, therefore, intends to find out whether this trend could be reversed if teachers with good educational qualification, greater knowledge in the subject and more years of experience are retained in Secondary Schools in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area.

1.3       Purpose of the Study

In general, the study will investigate the quality of personnel and effective lesson delivery in Secondary School Agricultural Science in Mkpat Enin Local Government of Akwa Ibom State.

Specifically, the study will:

i.          Examine the influence of teachers’ educational qualification on the effective lesson delivery in Secondary School Agricultural Science.

ii.         Assess the influence of teachers’ subject knowledge on effective lesson delivery in Secondary School Agricultural Science.

iii.        Assess the influence of teachers’ experience on effective lesson delivery in Secondary School Agricultural Science.

1.4       Significance of the Study

The findings from the research will:

1.         Serve as a reference manual for future researchers on related topics.

2.         It will also serve as an indicator of the intent to which student’s knowledge and skill in the subject could be achieved.

3.         Further, enlighten teachers on the need for further studies on their fields of Endeavour.

4.         Help government and school proprietors to specify factors to go for during the recruitment exercise for teachers in Secondary Schools.

5.         Also, help government especially education Administrators to consider certain factors during the promotion exercise for Secondary School Teachers.

1.5       Research Questions

In the course of conducting the research, it was pertinent to raise the following Questions to guide the study:

1.         Does educational qualification of teacher influence lesson delivery in Agricultural science?

2.         Does teacher subject knowledge exert significant influence on lesson delivery in Agricultural Science?

3.         Does teacher experience influence the quality of lesson delivery in Agricultural Science?

1.6       Research Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were postulated to guide the study:

1.         There is no significant difference in lesson delivery in Agricultural Science teachers with high academic qualification and those with a low academic qualification.

2.        There is no significant difference in lesson delivery between in Agricultural teachers by gender.

3.         There is no significant difference in lesson delivery in Agricultural science between teachers by years of teaching experience.

1.7       Delimitation of the Study

The study was restricted in scope to an investigation into teachers’ characteristics and effective lesson delivery in secondary school Agricultural science.

It was also restricted to Secondary Schools in Mkpat Enin Local Government of Akwa of Ibom State. Furthermore, in carrying out the investigation on the topic; the researcher comes across certain problems which should have been investigated on was ignored because it was not directly related to the issue under investigation. Hence, findings obtained from this research were not generalized but remained valid only to Mkpat Enin Local Government Area where the research was conducted.

1.8       Limitations of the Study

Two major problems confronted the researcher in the course of the investigation and these threatened the success of this exercise significantly in various ways. These include:

Financial Constraint

Inadequate funding of this project represented a major threat to the success of this exercise. This was so because the researcher only source of raising fund was the financial contributions of his parents which was not sufficient for extensive coverage of investigation on the topic.

Time Constraint

The researcher also experiences some difficulties in carrying out extensive research on the topic due to limited time frame allocate by the college authority to complete and submit this report. It is obvious that a research work of this magnitude requires sufficient time and finances for extensive coverage on the issue.

1 .9      Operation Definition of Terms

Difficult words and technical terms were used to explain certain key concepts and basic ideas so that any reader of this report could understand the materials presented. These terms were therefore contextually defined so that the reader might easily go through the report without having to consult a dictionary they are:

Instructional Quality

This means the quality of teaching and learning in a lesson

Teaching

This refers to a systematic process of imparting knowledge person called the teacher to another person or group learner.

Academic Performance

This is a term often used in the education field to describe students Scores in a particular subject or Summative activities in the entire school.