CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter reviews some related literature on teachers’ quality and students’ academic performance in Ogbomoso South Local Government Area Secondary Schools, Oyo State. The review is done under the following sub headings:
1. Concept of Teachers’ Quality
2. Concept of Students’ Academic Performance
3. Teachers’ Qualification and Students’ Academic Performance
4. Teachers’ Teaching Experience and Students’ Academic Performance
5. Teachers’ Professional Qualification and Students’ Academic Performance
6. Conceptual Framework on Teachers’ Quality and Students’ Academic Performance
7. Appraisal of Literature Reviewed
Concept of Teachers’ Quality
The term teachers’ quality can be referred to as qualities that can be measured with tests or derived from their academic or professional records. They indicate that teachers’ quality does not generally refer to the direct observation of their influence on students’ learning in terms of either students’ test performance or teaching behaviours. Rather, the approaches dealt within the scope of this research are those that fall traditionally into the province of personnel psychology or personnel selection. This review deals with those variables of teachers that might be identified and used in the initial hiring of teachers to increase their students’ achievement.
Ashton (1998) indicated that this quality could include qualities of teachers that are viewed as personal – such as mental ability, age, and gender – or as “experiential†– such as certification status, educational background, previous teaching experience and the like. Some variables are combinations – in unknown amounts – of personal and experiential qualities, for example; candidates’ performance on teacher-certification tests such as the national teacher examinations and state-mandated tests.
Wayne & Youngs (2003) stated that knowledge holds the key to the attainment of the millennium development goals, which include food security, eradication of child mortality, and reduction of the spread of HIV and AIDS among others. Ali (2009) observed that there was statistically significant relationship between teacher variables and student academic achievement. Adeyemo (2005) noted that teacher quality influenced teaching and learning in classrooms. Olaleye(2011) established that there was relationship between teachers’ variables and pupils performance. Gravestock & Gregor-Greenleaf (2008) stated that the explanations for good or poor student’s academic performance have been quite exhaustive yet controversy still exists among scholars as to what contribute singly or jointly to students’ poor performance. The teachers’ quality found to be dominant in cross-country studies are related to; qualification, experience, attitude and personality.
Akinsolu (2010) asserted that availability of qualified teachers determined the performance of students in schools. Creemers (2001) emphasized that teachers involved in in-service training were more effective in classrooms as compared to teachers who had not undergone training. Worthington & Floden (2001) indicated that teacher’s attitude contributed significantly to student attention in classrooms whereas Adesoji & Olatunbosun (2008) illustrated that student attitude was related to teacher characteristics. This therefore meant that teacher’s attitude directly affected students’ attitude. On teacher personality, Adu &Olatundun (2007) contended that teachers’ quality is strong determinants of students’ performance in secondary schools.
Bangbade (2004) found out that teachers attribute have significant influence on students ‘academic performance. Such a attribute according to Bangbade (2004) include teachers knowledge of the subject matter, communication ability, emotional stability, good human relationship and interest in the job. Rena (2000) explained that for students to perform well in any examination one of the prerequisite is that teachers must know the students and profound knowledge of their state of physical, intellectual and psychological readiness. The essence of this is to improve student performance.
According to Sifuna and Sawamura (2011), the process quality is therefore the quality of the teacher-pupil interaction in the teaching learning process. Teacher factors that have an effect on academic achievement include the number of teachers on post, teacher pupil ratio, teacher qualifications and the personal characteristics of the individual teacher. The personal characteristics include academic qualifications, pedagogical training, content training, aptitude, and years of service/experience. A teacher brings these characteristics to class to facilitate the learning process. The extent to which other inputs can improve the quality of education is directly related to the extent to which teachers effectively use the inputs to improve the teaching and learning process.
A difficult aspect of quality oversight arises when problems are found in terms of educational effectiveness. That is, definitions and broad criteria generally fail to offer sufficient guidance about where to draw the line between what is adequate and what is not. Effectiveness is not one-dimensional, but depends on the way that various resources work in combination. Fundamentally, it requires a look at outcomes and what an institution accomplishes. It means questions about whether school graduates are well prepared, whether they have both the knowledge and skills that they and society expect as a result of their studies (Chapman & Austin, 2002).
