PERCEPTION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHER QUALITY AND STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Abstract
This study titled “The Perception of the relationship between teachers‟ quality and students‟ academic performance in Hausa language of senior secondary schools in Kano metropolis”. The study sought to: determine the relationship between teachers qualification/ certification and students academic performance. Establish the relationship between teachers years of teaching experience and students academic performance. Establish the relationship between teachers knowledge of subject matter and student academic performance. Examine how teachers‟ teaching methods influence student academic performance. In the study, four research questions were raised and answered using the descriptive statistics and four (4) null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. A total sample size of 250 SSII students were randomly selected out of population of 9,938 students in all the ss schools in the metropolis. All the seventy five (75) teachers teaching Hausa language in the schools were selected to represent the sample for the teachers. Survey design was used in the study and the instruments for data collection were 40 items questionnaire for teachers and the result of standardized examination for students‟ academic performance. Pilot study was conducted in a school outside the study area and the reliability of the instrument was obtained to be 0.88 using test-re test reliability coefficients. The research questions were answered using the descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation and frequency count while the Research hypotheses were tested using inferential statistics such as r-test and F-test (ANOVA). Hypotheses 1, 2 and 4 were all accepted while hypothesis 3 was rejected. The major findings are that, teachers‟ quality has no significant relationship with students‟ academic performance and that teachers „knowledge of subject matter played a significant role in the performance of students and therefore it led to the general conclusion that teachers with deeper knowledge of subject matter produced better students, than those with shallow knowledge of subject matter.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
Education and its benefits can never be over emphasized as the root of economic, industrial, political, scientific and technological, and even religious development. All aspects of development are centered on education. Education is one of the vital instruments for development in any nation. Every educational system at every level depends heavily on teachers for the execution of its programmes. Teachers are highly essential for successful operation of the educational system and important tools for the educational development.
Teachers at all levels of education play the decisive role in pivoting the growth and the direction of education. It is an acceptable fact that teacher is the most important cog in the educational machine and that teachers are highly instrumental to the success of any educational programme embarked upon by any government. This is because apart from being at the implementation level of any educational policy, the realization of these programmes also depends greatly on teacher‟s dedication and commitment to their work (Adeniji 1999). (Kaplan and Owings 2001) indicate that two broad areas define teacher quality.
Darling-Hammond (2000) states that the characteristics of teacher quality are: verbal ability, subject – matter knowledge, knowledge of teaching and learning the ability to use a