1.1 Introduction
Teacher work environment is one of the most important components which influence their performance within an academic setting. The teacher as an individual personality is an important factor in the learning environment. They are key factors that create a favorable teaching-learning milieu that will make the instructional process easy, enthusiastically adaptable and useful (Usman, 2016). Teachers have their personal methods of teaching which they carry out from one learning situation to another and they also moderate their methods to suit the content, for example teaching method in the laboratory will be different from that in the classroom.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
The importance of qualified teachers and school environment in secondary schools today in particular cannot be overemphasized. Reason being that school environment has a major effect in the quality of education students received. This implies that schools that fail to provide the necessary learning facilities and create a conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning coupled with qualified teachers may hardly put in the best in their students especially in the area of academic performances.
The quality of education not only depends on the teachers teaching performances, but also on how he/she can control the school environment effectively (Ajao, 2001). Many factors might contribute to students’ poor achievement in school which may include: poor study habits and lack of available resource materials, poor school climate, indiscipline, inadequate facilities, teachers’ ineffectiveness, the teaching method and the type of learning environment available for both the students and the teachers, Teacher’s ineffectiveness as a cause of student’s poor performances can narrowed down to their qualification in the subject(s) being taught. Learning can also be said to occur through one’s effective interaction with one’s environment. Environment here refers to availability of facilities that are of good help to facilitate students learning and yield a positive outcome on their academic performances. This environment ranges from books, audio-visual, software and hardware of educational technology; so also, size of classroom, sitting position and arrangement, availability of tables, chairs, chalkboards, shelves on which instruments for practical are arranged (Farrant, 1991 and Farombi, 1998).
On the other hand, the extent at which some teachers, exhibit high level of indiscipline within the school environment does not seem to portray them as role models. Thus, they rather encourage indiscipline among students by their attitudes as this may have negative influence of students’ academic achievement.
Teachers on the other-hand can make or mar the school curriculum; therefore, their adequacy and quality such as qualification, experience, attitude and personality for better service delivery needs to be assessed by the school authority on a regular basis, so that students’ academic performance won’t be jeopardize with.
The availability of qualified teachers is a major determinant in the performance of students in schools Akinsolu (2010). Coonen (1987) emphasizes that teachers who has undergone in-service training were more effective in classrooms as compared to teachers who had not undergone any form of training.
Many scholars and researchers generally are not in agreement that the school environments, which include teacher administration, play a critical role in positive academic performances than other variables (Patrick, 2005). The important role of the teachers in the learning is unquestionable. Teachers have been said to have a lot of influence on their classroom practices. Teachers should have and apply specific teaching skills and abilities that can be reflected in their students’ performance in the subject they teach, in which the students will be able to make connection between what is taught in school and its application in problem solving in real life.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Teacher Quality and Work Environment as Determinants of Secondary School students’ academic performance.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that the influence of teacher quality and school environment on positive academic achievement of students has been an issue of concern to all stakeholders and researchers in education. This is crystal clear in the rate of mass failure of students in both internal and external examinations which might be narrowed down to lack of basic infrastructural facilities like good buildings and classrooms and teacher qualification, experience and competence. However, several research studies have fail to identified other factors such as school climate, discipline and physical facilities, teacher quality, type of location of school and over population of students in classroom as being responsible for poor academic for poor academic achievement of students. However, the researcher is examining the effect of teacher’s quality and work environment on secondary school students’ academic performance.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to scrutinize the Teacher Quality and Work Environment as Determinants of Secondary School students’ academic performance. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To examine the teacher’s quality as determinants of secondary school students’ academic performance
- To determine the effect of work environment on secondary school students’ academic performance
- To identify factors that affect secondary school students’ academic performance
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What are the effects of work environment on secondary school students’ academic performance?
- What is the correlation between the teacher’s quality and secondary school students’ academic performance?
- What are the factors encouraging secondary school students’ academic performance?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: Teacher’s quality does not determine secondary school students’ academic performance
- H1: Teacher’s quality determine secondary school students’ academic performance
Hypothesis Two
- H0: Work environment does not have any effect on secondary school students’ academic performance
- H1: Work environment does have effect on secondary school students’ academic performance
1.7 Significance of Study
The following are the relevance of the study which are as follows:
- The outcome of this study will form a useful guide for school management/boards on type of school environment that can facilitate better learning among secondary school students.
- The result of this study will also go a long way to help in maintaining discipline among teachers because of the major role they play in student’s academic performance.
- The outcome of this research work will also go a long way in educating school management and board on the quality of teachers that are been employed.
- This research will also serve as a resource base to other scholars and researchers interested in carrying out further research in this field subsequently, if applied will go to an extent to provide new explanation to the topic.
1.8 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Teacher Quality and Work Environment as Determinants of Secondary School students’ academic performance using Kings College in Lagos State as a case study. The study will cover the assessment of a selected secondary school, its environment and the teachers.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definition of Terms
Teacher: a person whose job is to pass information and orient students about certain subjects
Student: a person formally engaged in learning, especially one enrolled in a school or college
Environment: the setting or conditions in which a particular activity is carried on.
Performance: the accomplishment of a given task measured against preset known standards of accuracy, completeness, cost and speed
