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 students’ performance. Standardized tests and students’ grades are often used as indicators of performances for both school and individual teachers consequently, schools are consistently looking for methods to maximize students’ performance. One of the strategies schools adopt to achieve this is to hire and retain effective personnel (teachers) under the assumption that effective teachers will positively Impact 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 school 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 his experience. They posited that teachers Inadequacies in these variables are responsible for the abysmal inter-constructional outcomes in Agricultural science.
Quality of personnel and effective lesson delivery in Secondary School 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 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 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:
- Examine the influence of teachers’ educational qualification on the effective lesson delivery in Secondary School Agricultural Science.
- 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:
- Serve as a reference manual for future researchers on related topics.
- It will also serve as an indicator of the intent to which students’ knowledge and skill in the subject could be achieved.
- Further, enlighten teachers on the need for further studies on their fields of Endeavour.
- Help government and school proprietors to specify factors to go for during the recruitment exercise for teachers in Secondary Schools.
- Also, help the 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:
- Does the educational qualification of the teacher influence lesson delivery in Agricultural science?
- Does teacher subject knowledge exert a significant influence on lesson delivery in Agricultural Science?
- 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:
- There is no significant difference in lesson delivery in Agricultural Science teachers with high academic qualifications and those with low academic qualifications.
- There is no significant difference in lesson delivery between in Agricultural teachers by gender.
- There is no significant difference in lesson delivery in Agricultural science between teachers by years of teaching experience.
Quality of personnel and effective lesson delivery in Secondary School Agricultural Science