CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Education is very important human activity. It helps any society fashion and model individuals to function well in their environment. According to Boit, Njoki and Chang’ach (2012), the purpose of education is to equip the citizenry to reshape their society and eliminate inequality. In particular, secondary education is an important sector in national and individual development. It plays a vital role in creating a country’s human resource base at a level higher than primary education (Achoka & Odebero, 2007).

The teacher is a key facilitator of knowledge and plays a vital role in nation building. Teaching is a highly noble profession and teachers are positive influence to the society. The teaching acts of a teacher are meant to instill confidence in the youth so that not only while as students but also throughout their lifetime they could acquire relevant knowledge whenever they need it. The teacher’s job is therefore to show what to study, to challenge the students by setting high standards and to criticize in order to spur to further achievement, to help surmount blind spots and to evaluate each student’s progress in terms of valid objectives. Therefore, teachers have to adopt several strategies in their teaching in order to be effective in their jobs.

The teacher is the pivot of any education system. In fact, teachers are the strength of a nation. Teachers continue to retain their influence and it is difficult to bypass them in the process of teaching learning. The importance of teacher is recognized throughout the world (Panda & Mohanty, 2013). Good teachers are essential for the effective functioning of education system and for improving the quality of learning process.

Teachers develop performance style characteristics to their ways of relating to the world, perceptually as well as cognitively. A person is therefore, likely to act in a way that maximizes the use of his aptitudes. Similarly, teacher’s positive attitude towards teaching and higher aspiration level determines his positive perception of the environments.

An effective teacher development design should have an exhaustive measure of aptitude, subject mastery, teaching methodology, etc so as to foster necessary skills and attitudes amongst prospective teachers.

There are many factors that influence the teachers’ job performance such as aptitude, attitude, subject mastery, teaching methodology, personal characteristics, the classroom  environment, general mental ability, personality, relations with students, preparation and planning, effectiveness in presenting subject matters, relations with other staff, self improvement, relations with parents and community, poise, intellect, teaching techniques, interactions with students, teaching competence demonstrated, motivational skills, fairness in grading and teachers’ attitude toward the students etc (Swartz, 1990)

Esan (2011) evaluated teachers' performance on four categories of teaching behavior, namely, intellect, teachers’ personality, teaching techniques and interaction with students. Riaz (2011) measured teachers’ performance on such factors teaching competence demonstrated, motivational skills, teachers’ attitude toward students and fairness in grading.

Aptitude is used to refer to a potential rather than an attainment. Special abilities, such as mathematical or sporting powers, are often referred to as aptitudes.

Akiri and Ugborugbo (2011) found out that there was a significant relationship between teachers’ educational qualification and job performance.  Esan (2011) observed that teacher related factors on job performance are years of experience, educational qualification, skills, economic factors, subject mastery, teachers quality, teachers classroom management, development and training.

  Etsy’s (2011) study in Ghana reported that the teacher factors that significantly contributed to low job performance were incidences of lateness to school and absenteeism.

Swartz, White and Patterson (2011) judged the teachers’ performance on five teaching functions which are instructional presentations, instructional monitoring, instructional feedback, management of instructional time and management of students’ behavior.

Ferris, Bergin and Wayne (2012) identified teachers' job performance on seven performance dimensions. These were preparation and planning, effectiveness in presenting subject matter, poise, relations with students, self-improvement, relations with other staff and relations with parents & community.

Job performance is one of the most important dependent variables and has been studies for a long decade. Job performance involves pattern of behaviours that are directly involved in producing services for the organization. Job performance is something done by employee.  It must be directed towards organizational goals that are relevant to the job or role (Campbell, 2000).

Performance of teachers mainly depends on the teacher characteristics such as knowledge base, sense of responsibility, and inquisitiveness; the student characteristics such as opportunity to learn, and academic work; the teaching factors such as lesson structure, and communication; the learning aspects such as involvement and success; and the classroom phenomena such as environment and climate, and organization and management. If the teachers take care of these factors, their performance can be enhanced to the optimum level (Rao & Kumar, 2004). Yet proxies implemented by Lagos state to determine teacher quality have been woefully inadequate. Teacher entrance and exit examination scores, years of experience, advanced degrees, and teaching credentials are not related to ratings of teacher’s performance.

Leigh and Mead (2005) clearly bring about the fact that the quality of teaching has come down gradually world over and also demonstrate that the skills of teachers have come down due to outdated preparation on the part of the teacher and stagnant compensation schemes by the management of the educational institution.

Teaching profession is facing problems related to teachers’ job performance.

Since independence the government has constantly directed large proportions of its budget to education and training in order to enhance the relevance and quality of the skills of the labour force. The quality of teachers has been a matter of concern by the government; the progress towards achievement in education has not been measured entirely in quantitative terms but also expressed in terms of the quality of the education founded (Esan, 2010).

David (2011) perceived teaching as the teachers’ performance, the pupils’ performances and the effective classroom discipline.  He went further by saying that, teaching is influenced by the teachers’ judicious application of psychological strategies in making the students wish to learn.  In the same vein, Smith Sarason and Sarason (2011) perceived learning as a change in behavior or in potential behavior that occurs as a result of experience.  In learning/teaching situation, the materials to be transformed is the child, and the people involved in the transformation are academically qualified personnel, qualified teachers are also made heads of department of schools to oversee the work of his subordinate teachers at work.  By so doing, this makes teachers to be more effective in the discharge of their duties. 

Teaching effectiveness is an area of research which involves the relationship between the characteristics of teachers, teaching acts and their effects on the learning outcome in classroom teaching.

The attitude of the teacher toward teaching is an important variable. The primary attribute of a good teacher is the ability to create a warm, friendly atmosphere in the classroom environment. He/she must teach with conviction. He must negate any barrier to effective teaching.

The present study will be significant because it would provide a base to improve the teaching and learning process. If we control the factors that influence teachers’ performance at secondary school level such as the teachers’ qualification, experience, economic status and mode of instruction; the quality of education and teaching learning process as a whole would become more effective and also improve the teachers’ job performance at all levels.

Statement of the Problem

No educational institution can be better than the quality of the teaching staff. One of the goals of teacher education is the production of highly motivated, conscientious and effective teachers for all levels of the educational system.

However, the present day teacher probably lacks proper professional training which might impact negatively on his/her job. When the Universal Basic Education (UBE) was introduced, teacher trainees and auxiliary teachers were selected indiscriminately from among market women, housewives, petty traders and frustrated job seekers. As a result, many unsuitable individuals with no basic aptitude, interest or calling for teaching, were found in teaching and teacher training institutions. Therefore, one should not expect such non-motivated individuals to become better teachers even if given the best training. The teacher training colleges therefore produced ill-trained and ill-equipped teachers who were pushed into the schools to teach.

Poor academic performance of students in Nigeria has been linked to poor teachers’ performance in terms of accomplishing the teaching task, negative attitude to work and poor teaching habits (Ofoegbu, 2004). Other factors that may contribute to teachers’ job performance include; relationship between the students and the teacher; teachers’ teaching experience and qualifications. The prevailing conditions would definitely show a negative or positive influence on the instructional quality in public schools, which may translate to either good or poor academic performance, attitude and values of secondary school students.

The observation has prompted the researcher to examine the relationship between teacher factors which include the teacher's qualifications, teachers’ experience, teachers’ economic status, and teacher's mode of instruction as correlates to job performance in Secondary Schools in Education District V, Lagos state.

Objectives of the Study

The objective of this study is to investigate teacher related factor as a correlates of teachers’ job performance in Public Secondary Schools in Education District V, in Lagos State.

This study sets to achieve the following objectives:

1. To investigate the correlation between teachers’ qualifications and job performance.

2. To investigate the effect of teachers’ experience and job performance

3. To investigate the relationship between teachers’ economic status and job performance.

4. To investigate the effect of teachers’ mode of instruction and job performance.

Research Questions

The following questions are answered in this study:

1.      Do teachers’ qualifications have effect on job performance in Education District V, Lagos State?

2.      What is the relationship between teachers' experience and job performance?

3.      If there is any relationship between teachers’ economic status and job performance?

4.      How does teacher's mode of instruction affect job performance?

Research Hypotheses

The following hypotheses are postulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance.

1.      Teacher's qualifications does not significantly relate to job performance.

2.      There is no significant relationship between teachers’ experience and job performance.

3.      There is no significant relationship between teachers’ economic status and job performance. 

4.      There is significant relationship between teachers’ mode of instruction and job performance.

Significance of the Study

This study will be of significant importance to a number of people.

Firstly, it will be of significant benefit to teachers by enumerating carefully, the factors that contribute to their job performance, while discharging their duties. The study will enable teachers to seek means of being more goals oriented in the discharge of their duties.

It will be of great importance to the student whose purpose of study will help address the confronting problems of low academic performance. The study will also make students to focus more attention on their academics.

It will be of tremendous benefits to parents who have by no means contributed their own quota to neither the advancement of our educational system nor have added to the fallen standard of our educational system

Finally, it will be of great importance to all stakeholders and policy makers who have been relentlessly working to ensure that our educational system would not crumble in the end.

The Scope of the Study

This is an attempt to find teacher related factor as a correlates of teachers’ job performance. The variable scope for this study will include the Teacher's qualifications, teachers’ experience, teachers’ economic status, and teacher's mode of instruction. The study covers 100 teachers from five Public Secondary Schools in Education District V, Lagos State.

Operational Definition of Terms

The researcher has tried to define common terms that are to be found in the essay because an in depth knowledge of the meaning of some important terms will be necessary.

1.Teacher Factors: The sum of all the several things that influence the teacher in the performance of his teaching to the learners.

2.Performance :It is the expected outcome of learning activity that can be assessed or evaluated through tests, exams etc where in this study, it is the outcome or result of the learning process during the classroom encounter

3. Teacher: A teacher is a person who imparts knowledge aimed at bringing desired results in learners’ attitude in terms of cognitive, affective and psychomotor domain. However in this study, the teacher is the harbinger of knowledge who transmits information to the students to increase their knowledge of subject matter.

4.Job Performance:  is the quantity and quality of work expected from each employee. It is the overall expected value from employee’s behaviour carried out over the course of set period of time.

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