The Influence of Teaching Practice Assessment on the Effectiveness of Geography Teaching in English Speaking Secondary Schools in Anglophone Cameroon

Abstract

It is noted that the quality of the educational system of any given country depends largely on the quality of teacher education. For this quality to be realized, it is important to constantly monitor the stages (theoretical, teaching practice, research project) of teacher education. This study intended to investigate the influence of Teaching Practice Assessment on the Effectiveness of Geography Teaching in English Speaking Secondary Schools in Anglophone Cameroon. It was carried out within the Menchum and Fako Divisions of the North West and South West regions of Cameroon respectively. This research had as population size, some 1444 geography teachers and all their students drawn from all government secondary schools within these two regions. Teachers’ sample (60 Teachers) population was obtained through the use of purposive sampling method and that of students (300 students) was obtained through the use of simple random sampling. Respondents were expected to fill in closed ended questionnaire items. Data collected were reported using frequency tables and proportions while Logistic Regression Model was used to predict the effect level of influence of teaching practice on geography teachers’ teaching effectiveness. This effectiveness was assessed based on the assessment of teaching practice. It was realized that this predictive factor considered alone had a predictive effect of 26.8% on teaching effectiveness though not significant enough. Based on the outcome of this findings, it can be said that this variable considered alone cannot bring about geography teaching effectiveness. Based on this finding, it was recommended that more emphasis during teacher training should be laid on subject matter mastery by student-teachers. Also, some form of financial incentives should be given to student-teachers. Finally, a thorough screening exercise should be done in the selection of supervisors and cooperating teachers to ensure that only the most qualified are assigned to guide and supervise student-teachers.