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 the 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 effective agricultural science teachers to include
Educational qualifications, subject knowledge, and 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 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
Secondary School Agricultural Science in Mkpat Enin Local Government Area.
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 an 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 is 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
Endeavor.
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 exerted 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 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 experience some difficulties in carrying out extensive research
on the topic due to the limited time frame allocated by the college authority to
complete and submit this report. It is obvious that the 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.
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