Teachers’ Characteristics as Determinants of Academic Performance of Junior Secondary School Students in Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. One thousand (1000) junior secondary school teachers and 500 teachers were randomly drawn from fifty (50) randomly selected public junior secondary schools in Osun state formed the participants for this study. Questionnaire titled “Teachers’ Characteristics as Determinant of Academic Performance Questionnaire” (TCDAPQ) was developed, validated and used for data collection for the study. Four null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significant. Data were analysed using simple percentage and Chi Square. The findings of the study showed that there was a significant relationship between teacher’s qualification and students’ academic performance (x2 = 59.64, df = 9, p<0.05). It was also revealed that a significant relationship existed between teacher’s experience and students’ academic performance (x2 = 37.02, df = 3, p<0.05). Moreover, there was a significant relationship between teachers’ teaching style and students’ academic performance (x2 = 51.39, df = 15, p<0.05). Further, the result also revealed that there was a significant relationship between school teachers’ attitude and students’ academic performance (x2 = 46.12, df = 12, p<0.05).The findings of the study have implications for best practices in education: There is need to have a functioning counseling units in Junior Secondary Schools; the professional counselors should be employed in schools; school counsellors should be organizing orientation and re-orientation for the junior secondary school teachers on the need to develop positive attitude towards teaching profession and the need to get more committed to work. School authorities should encourage teachers with National Certificate in Education (NCE) to go for in-service training to acquire additional qualification; teachers that have first degree without background in education training should endeavor to proceed on Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) programme to acquire knowledge in methodology of teaching in order make their teaching more effective.