ABSTRACT
Attitude is important in all walks of life; of which the
profession of teaching is no less important. This project assessed how the
attitude of teachers influences the academic performance of pupils in Early
Childhood Education. It is delimited to pre-primary schools in Mushin Local
Government Area of Lagos state. The sample population were 200 teachers
selected from 10 pre-primary schools in the above-mentioned local government
area. The Chi-square statistical tool was employed in data analysis. The following
recommendations, among others, were made: The National
Policy on Education should be reviewed to include among others the education of
the Nigerian child from 0 – 2 years; The government should of necessity
establish free pre-primary schools to cater for all Nigerian children of the
required age; More Teacher Education Schools for the pre-primary should be
established to produce the required number of teachers and steps should be
taken to ensure adequate teacher preparation; A uniform curriculum geared towards
the needs of Nigerian children from different backgrounds should be produced
and its use should be enforced both in the government established schools and
in the private schools; The school environment should be made conducive for
teaching and learning by providing a well-motivated workforce with necessary
equipment and facilities put in place; There should be adequate supervision to
ensure the achievement of objectives.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGES
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract v
Table of contents
vi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
to the Study 1
1.2 Statement
of the Problem 4
1.3 Purpose of the Study 4
1.4 Research
Questions 5
1.5 Research
Hypotheses 5
1.6 Significance
of the Study 6
1.7 Scope of the Study 7
1.8
Definition of Terms 7
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Concepts of teaching 8
2.2
Characteristics of effective teachers and teaching 13
2.3
Active teaching and maintaining of Brisk Space 14
2.4
Teachers’ expectations 16
2.5
Orienting students, reviewing and presenting objectives 19
2.6
Developing efficient routiness: Automation and pattern 21
recognition
2.7
Increasing clarity and academic performance of pupils. 23
2.8
Ensuring high success rates 25
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction 31
3.2 Research Design 31
3.3 Population 31
3.4 Sample and Sampling
Technique 31
3.5 Research Instrument 32
3.6 Administration of
Instrument 33
3.7 Procedure for Data
Analysis 33
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF
RESULTS
4.0
Introduction 34
4.1 Descriptive Analyses of Bio-Data of
Respondents According 34
to Sex, Age, Qualification,
Religion, Marital Status and Years
of Service
4.2
Descriptive Analysis of Data Collected at the end of 38
Administration of Questionnaire with the
Research Questions
4.3
Testing of Hypotheses 43
4.4
Summary of Findings 46
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY,
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0
Introduction 48
5.1
Summary of Study 48
5.2
Conclusions 49
5.3
Recommendations 49
REFERENCES 51
APPENDIX 58
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
to the Study
Teaching is both an art and a
science. According to him, it is an instrumental, practical art rather than a
fine-art. That is teaching "requires an improvisation, spontaneity, the
handling of a vast array of considerations of form, style, pace, rhythm and appropriateness
in ways, so complex that even computers must lose the way" (Anyanwu,
2000).
Tumble (2003) states that teaching
process is too complex, with a nearly infinite variety of circumstances,
subjects, student groups, and age groups to be reduced to simple, how-to-do-it
recipes.
Gage (2004) opines that teaching
can and should have a scientific basis. Science deals with relationships
between both input (independent) variables and output (dependent) variables.
According to Ernest (1990), a sizeable amount of good research has been carried
out that relates teaching and administrative practices to students' achievement
as well as motivation, attitudes and self-esteem.
Ideally, with emphasis on ideal, an
effective, successful teacher would create a good academic atmosphere and good
school attitudes, maintain high academic engagement and successfully manage the
classroom to prevent inattentive, off-task and distruptive behaviour.
Realistically, however,
misbehaviour will occur and the teacher must plan in advance for handling it
(Berliner 2001). Children must be oriented to learn new material such as
orientation by the teacher, often includes a review of home work, a review of
previous materials and skills, an explanation of the purposes and objectives of
the new material, and a statement of the relationship of the current lesson to
previous material. Asubel (2005) says that such orientation or comments serve
as advance organizers that help the children, easier to relate to what children
already know and therefore more learnable.
There are many teacher
characteristics and teaching patterns that correlate with higher children
achievement and or improved school attitudes, that is, with effective teaching.
Most relate to improvement of classroom climate, management and feedback and
reinforcement practices, involvement in self improvement and improvement of
other teaching practices that increase pupils engagement and content courage
and improve organisation, structuring and clarity, expectations or children
interest and motivation (Ayo, 2000).
The personality of the teacher
matters a lot in the classroom. According to Musson (2004), personality of the
teacher includes his emotion, motivation, values, goals and general ways of
perceiving his environment, have become moulded up and processed through
training that he can be relied upon as a teacher. This also includes method of
conducting oneself that is, what one should do and what one should not do as a
member of teaching professions.
According to Akande (1999) other
qualities of the teacher that can affect his performance at work and pupils'
academic achievement includes: Scholarship, cheerfulness, firmness, tolerance,
democratic attitude, impartiability, loyalty, having the knowledge of the
child's psychology, honest, self discipline, sociability, creativity,
resourcefulness, neatness, good sense of homour, simplicity, adaptability etc.
Beside all these, the teachers should have a command of theoretical knowledge
about learning and human behaviour. He should possess the technical skills of
teaching that facilitate students' learning achievement (Adeleke, 2002).
Furthermore, a teacher ought to
display such attitudes that promote learning and good human relationship, and
should have perfect mastery of facts of his subject matter as this will enhance
his/her teaching and pupils’ academic achievement.
In the work of Gourneau(2005), he
identified five attitudes of effective teachers which may affect pupils’
academic performance, they are:
1. Demonstrating
Caring and Kindness
2. Sharing
Responsibility
3. Sensitively
Accepting Diversity
4. Fostering
Individualized Instruction
5. Encouraging
Creativity
Gourneau reiterated that the
component of pupils’ academic performance that are influenced by teachers’
attitude should be tested, based on teachers’ possession on non-possession of
the above-mentioned factors; and that is
the theoretical framework that this study will adopt.
1.2 Statement
of the Problem
Attitude is an integral part of
human character. According to Bartlett(2000),
Good attitude is made up of attributes such as zeal, love for the job,
and the desire to improve. In the teaching profession, these attributes cannot
be overemphasized. The reverse of the above-mentioned attributes, which would
be indifference, dislike for the job and lack of desire to improve, might,
needless to say, have negative implications for the job. The problem of this study,
therefore, is to investigate the implications of teachers’ attitude on the
academic performance of pupils in early childhood education.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to
find out teacher’s attitude on academic performance of pupils in early
childhood education in Ikeja Local Government Area of Lagos State.
Other specific objectives of the
study are:
1.
To identify the effects of teachers’ personality on
academic performance
2.
To identify basic teachers’ attitudes that enhance
academic performance.
3.
To identify the areas of teachers’ personality that
needs to be improved upon.
4.
To identify the aspects of teachers’ attitude that are
detrimental to pupils’ academic performance.
1.4 Research
Questions
The following research questions will
be posed in this study.
1.
What are the effects of teachers’ personality on
academic performance?
2.
What are the basic teachers’ attitudes that enhance
academic achievement of pupils?
3.
What are the areas of teachers’ personality that need
to be improved upon?
4.
What are the areas of teachers’ attitude that are
detrimental to pupils’ academic performance?
1.5 Research
Hypotheses
These hypotheses
were formulated and tested in this study:
1. The lifestyle of teachers will not
significantly influence the academic performance of pupils.
2. The negative character traits of
teachers will not significantly influence the academic performance of pupils.
3. Teachers’ attitude to work will not
significantly influence the academic performance of pupils.
1.6 Significance
of the Study
1.
Teachers would benefit from this study, because its
findings and recommendations will direct them on how well to become an
effective teachers with good characters. The findings of this study will
equally help teachers to have better insight on the essence of good behaviour
in the teaching profession.
2.
This study will assist the upcoming researchers to
carry out more work on the issues being treated in this study. Also researchers
and readers would find this work very important because, it will serve as a
reference material to their work.
3.
Pupils would benefit from the findings and
recommendations of this work because it would assist them to work hard,
identify teachers perceived to be either good or bad in the school the
recommendations of this study would help pupils/children to change their
attitudes towards their studies.
4.
The society will also benefit from this study
immensely, including parents, the school administrators etc.
1.7 Scope of the Study
This study covers teacher’s
attitude on academic performance of pupils in early childhood education in
Mushin Local Government Area of Lagos State.
1.8 Definition of Terms
Teaching styles: It is an embracing concept referring to the teacher’s
ways of getting pupils to learn through structured methodology.
Early childhood education: This means formal education that
is received from 0 – 8 years.
Teaching effectiveness: The ability of the teacher to
achieve the stated objectives at the end of the teaching.
Teaching techniques: Teacher’s ways or method of teaching.
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