A Review of Teacher-Effectiveness and Students Academic Achievement, by G G Ezugwu & C V Ijeoma.

; 2011

A Review of Teacher-Effectiveness and Students Academic Achievement.

EZUGWU G. G. 1 and IJEOMA C V2;
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION, FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, (FCE) ZARIA- NIGERIA.

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SCHOOL OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL (ABUTH) ZARIA, NIGERIA. August, 2011

1. ABSTRACT The research determined a correlation between teachers effectiveness and students academic achievement; with special reference to the School Of Health Information Management, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria; Nigeria. It was a descriptive study involving 17 Lecturers and 151 students of the school. Mean percentage Effectiveness of the lecturers were determined by Student-Teacher Evaluation using Questionnaires and the mean Academic Achievement of students were obtained from the school records. Specifically, the study was meant to answer one research question and to test one null hypothesis viz: (1).What is the relationship between teacher-effectiveness and students academic achievement? (2). There is NO positive Correlation between Teacher-Effectiveness and Students Academic Achievement. A value of r=+0.74 indicated a significant and strong positive correlation between teacher-effectiveness and students academic achievement. To improve learning and academic performance, the researchers made some useful recommendations in that regard.. The shortcoming of this research is in its drawing of conclusions based only on statistical calculations and findings; hence it is still subject to further studies.
(Keywords: Mean Percentage Teacher-Effectiveness, Mean Percentage Students Academic Achievement.)

2. INTRODUCTION

The issue of poor academic performance of students in Nigeria has, for long, been of much concern to all and sundry. It is however common to note that students poor performance in academic and scholastic activities are, more often than not, blamed entirely on the students lack of commitment to studies. It is rare to see teachers or academic administrators take a blame for being part of the problem. Various literatures attest that the quality of
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education in any given nation will, to a great extent, depend on the quality and capacity of teachers it parades in that sector. Ajao (2001) notes that over time, pupils academic performance in both internal and external examinations had been used to determine excellence in teachers and teaching. In our tertiary institutions, lecturers have also been shown to have an important influence on students academic achievement and they also play a crucial role in their educational attainments. This is so

A Review of Teacher-Effectiveness and Students Academic Achievement, by G G Ezugwu & C V Ijeoma. ; 2011

because the teacher is ultimately responsible for translating policies into actions during interaction with students, based on principles and practices of the institution. Both teaching and learning depend a lot, on the teacher. As a result, students achievement should be viewed partly as the quality of teachers and teaching in such institution.
3. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

reflects their effectiveness; which are then related to their students achievement. Ensuring that students in academic institutions achieve with high grades in tested courses, is not just the only concern for effective teachers. Promoting students academic achievement is arguably the most important component of their tasks. However, teachers contribute to their students development in many diverse ways. For instance, teachers can help students learn to work cooperatively with their peers; conduct themselves appropriately in classrooms and schools; resolve differences peacefully; and understand their roles as citizens in classrooms and schools; communities and the society at large. Teachers also have responsibilities beyond direct instructions; such as working with colleagues to identify students with special needs and developing plans to support them, (Goe et al 2008). In trying to determine what possible effect Teacher-Effectiveness may have on students scholastic achievement, Maduegbuna (1980) also carried out a research with information gathered from 100 students for Teacher- Evaluation purpose on ten chosen courses, using Questionnaires. He correlated students achievement in the courses with the graded effectiveness of the teachers and concluded that Teacher-Effectiveness had significant effects on students achievement in each of the courses. In a similar research, Ijeoma (2011) obtained a correlation value of +0.70, which he concluded as a strong positive correlation between TeacherEffectiveness and Students Academic Achievement.

In enumerating the factors that could be responsible for varying academic performance of students, Combs (1990) listed prominent among them, well motivated and qualified teachers who are familiar with and capable of discharging their teaching responsibility effectively well. On a similar note, Ukeje (1990) and Fafunwa (1979) write extensively on the prime importance of effective teachers in the development of academic institutions, especially in the area of enhancing students academic performance. Rice (2003) stated that: researchers and policy-makers agree that teacher quality is a pivotal policy issue in educational development, particularly given the investment in teacher-compensation, coupled with the evidence that teachers are the most important factor affecting student-academic achievement. Marzano (2003) also stated that on the average the most effective teachers produce gains of about 53% points in StudentAchievement over a year, whereas, the least effective teachers produce achievement gains of about 14% points over a year. He stated that identifying teachers areas of role performance that positively influence student-achievement is a critical conversation in education today. Studies by Oskamp & Schultz (2005) also reveal that teachers attitude
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A Review of Teacher-Effectiveness and Students Academic Achievement, by G G Ezugwu & C V Ijeoma. ; 2011

In summary, it can be deduced that students taught by more experienced teachers achieve at a higher level because such teachers must have mastered their course content and have, over time, acquired skills to deal with varying students academic problems such as difference in abilities, prior academic knowledge, and background. Teachers should therefore, realize that how they teach, how they behave, and how they interact with students in attending to their academic challenges, are as important as what they teach, in shaping students attitudes towards acquisition of academic and general knowledge.
4. RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS QUESTION AND

allocation, (Table1). Questionnaires were administered to this group for the purpose of teacher-evaluation of the seventeen (17) teachers of the school. Instrumentation and Data Collection Data were collected using Questionnaires and Records of the schools Board Examination Results from 2006 to 2010, a five (5) year period. This exam is conducted yearly by the Heath Records Officers Registration Board of Nigeria; a regulating body for the Health Information Management (HIM) profession in Nigeria. The Questionnaire was preferred for this research due to its flexibility, affordability, ease of administration and quick data collection. It was suitable because it allowed the researchers to reach out to the sample within a limited time period. It also ensured confidentiality; and thus it enabled the researcher to gather more candid and objective data. The type made use of here is the selfadministered, structured Questionnaire. All the 100 Questionnaires were returned and usable.

Research Question: (1).What is the relationship between teachereffectiveness and students academic achievement? Research Hypothesis: The following Research Hypothesis was formulated and tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Simple Regression Analysis: (2).There is NO positive Correlation between Teacher-Effectiveness And Students Academic Achievement.
5. METHODOLOGY

6. DATA ANALYSES

Research Design This research was Descriptive in nature and employed an Ex-post-facto design to determine and describe the relationship between teachereffectiveness and students academic achievement in the selected study area. Sample Size And Sampling Techniques. A sample size of 100 students was drawn out of the one hundred and fiftyone (151) students by proportional
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Methods of Descriptive Statistics were used to analyze the Data obtained through the Questionnaires and the school Records. The percentage teachereffectiveness range between 0% and 100% with 0-25% and 76-100% considered as ineffective and highly effective respectively. Mean percentage Academic Achievement of students was obtained as their average percentage passes in the six (6) courses for the 5year period. The two values were used to test the null hypothesis stated in

A Review of Teacher-Effectiveness and Students Academic Achievement, by G G Ezugwu & C V Ijeoma. ; 2011

Section3 above, using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Regression

7. RESULTS
Strata or levels (h) 400 Level 300 Level 200 Level 100 Level TOTAL No of students (Nh) 20 44 39 48 151

Analysis.

Sample drawn (nh) 13 29 26 32 100

Percentage (%) sample drawn 13 29 26 32 100

of

Table 1: number of students drawn from each level following proportional allocation
Research Question: What is the relationship between Teacher-Effectiveness (TE) and Students Academic Achievement (SAA)? TE/SAA RELATIONSHIP RANGE %INFLUENCE (0-25)% OF NO. OF RESPONDENTS RESPONDENTS % 0

TE DOES NOT HAVE ANY SIGNIFICANT INFLUENCE ON SAA TE BARELY HAVE SIGNIFICANT INFLUENCE ON SAA

(26-50)%

15

15

TE HAVE MODERATE INFLUENCE ON SAA TE HAVE STRONG INFLUENCE ON SAA TOTAL

(51-75)% (76-100)%

22 63 100

22 63 100

Table2: Summary of responses to the Research Question.

Table2 above shows that the student-respondents have varying opinions on the influence of Teacher-Effectiveness on Students Academic Achievement. However, 63% of them agree to a strong influence.
Research Hypothesis: There is NO positive Correlation between Teacher-Effectiveness And Students Academic Achievement. This Hypothesis was tested using Pearson Product Moment

Correlation and Regression Analysis.

Count No. SD Var. r. b. Score %Mean TE 6 49.0 0.09 0.009 %Mean SAA 326 0.01 0.001 +0.74 +0.70 81.0 Table3. Summary of PPMC and SRA between TE and SAA.(PPMC- Pearson Product Moment Correlation; SRA-Simple Regression Analysis; TE-Teacher-Effectiveness; SAA- Students Academic Achievement; SD- Standard Deviation; Var.- Variance; r.- Correlation Coefficient; b.Regression Coefficient).

A Review of Teacher-Effectiveness and Students Academic Achievement, by G G Ezugwu & C V Ijeoma. ; 2011

Table3 above shows a strong positive correlation(r=+0.74) between TeacherEffectiveness and Students Academic Achievement. Therefore, the Null Hypothesis is rejected and we accept that there is strong positive correlation between Teacher-Effectiveness and Students Academic Achievement in School of Health Information Management, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Nigeria. 8. DISCUSSION The study found that the lecturers were rated Moderately-Effective (with a %Mean Effectiveness of 49%), by the students. The problem of accuracy and reliability of Student-Teacher rating probably informed Ronald (2005) to propose a unified conceptualization of teacher effectiveness which uses multiple sources of teaching evidence that includes eleven other methods of Teacher-Effectiveness evaluation. These include: (1) Peer ratings, (2) Selfevaluation, (3) Videos, (4) Student interviews, (5) Alumni ratings, (6) Employer ratings, (7) Administrator ratings, (8) Teaching scholarship, (9) Teaching awards, (10) Learning outcome measures, and (11) Teaching portfolios. It is however,

is placed on it than on their semester exams.

9. CONCLUSION

The study showed that the performance in the Board Exam, of students of School Of Health Information Management, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, was very high compared to the rated effectiveness of their lecturers. This is because studentand environment-related factors might have contributed to the results of the exam within the reviewed period. There is however, a strong positive correlation between Teacher-Effectiveness and Academic Achievement of students in this exam.
10. RECOMMENDATIONS

noteworthy that the Mean Academic Achievement of the students was as high as 81%. This seems to be in agreement with the report of Blanktein (1996) that students grades and test scores do not (accurately) reflect the quality of instruction because teachers inputs are not the only factors that influence students academic performance in schools. This reported high performance may be due to student-related factors such as intelligence, parental education, socio-economic status, interest etc. The performance is also evident from students level of preparedness and commitment for this exam as more value

(1) Arguably, TeacherEffectiveness starts from Effective TeacherPreparation. As a result, Institutions vested with the responsibility of TeacherEducation must not waver in standards. Even in the face of dwindling resources, sociopolitical instabilities, and other challenges which threaten academic programmes, they should thrive and persevere. (2) Some teachers, especially those in the tertiary institutions, are usually more concerned with covering their course content within a stipulated time. However, this should be balanced by the desire to see that Learning Objectives have been attained. Lecturers concern should be more on ensuring that the domains of
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A Review of Teacher-Effectiveness and Students Academic Achievement, by G G Ezugwu & C V Ijeoma. ; 2011

knowledge are achieved in the students. This will no doubt, prepare the students for higher academic achievement. (3) Teachers in any institution must continue to take advantage of policies that encourage Continuing Professional Development. This programmes among others, are aimed to develop the teachers to further improve their effectiveness in teaching. Institutions where such or similar policies are lacking, efforts should be made to establish one; to

ensure adequate Human Resource Development (HRD) in schools. (4) Because Student-Related factors are other major predictors to academic achievement, students should therefore show serious commitment to their studies. (5) A right attitude towards learning; academic resiliency; self-discipline; adequate class attendance; and the taking up of responsibilities; amongst others, will definitely enhance students academic achievement

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