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Teachers’ Characteristics and Students’ Attitude towards Economics in Secondary Schools: Students’ Perspectives
Abstract
The study sought to find out the relationship between how students perceive their teachers’ in respect of knowledge of Economics content, communication ability, use of appropriate instructional method and teachers’ classroom management skills and students’ attitude towards Economics. The population of the study comprised all the second year students (SS 11) in senior secondary schools in Oyo State. Nigeria. The study sample consisted of 640 students selected through cluster and simple random sampling techniques. Two instruments – Students’ Perception of Teacher Characteristics Questionnaire (SPTCQ) and Students’ Attitude towards Economics Questionnaire (SATMQ) were developed and administered on the respondents. A trial test of 50 students using split-half reliability test was carried out which yielded reliability coefficients of 0.86 and 0.94 for SPTCQ and SATMQ respectively. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and t-statistics were used to test the hypotheses. Findings show that the way students’ perceive their teachers’ in terms of knowledge of Economics contents, communication ability, teaching methods and classroom management skills has a significant relationship with students’ attitude towards Economics. When the students’ perception of their teachers’ characteristics is low, hence students’ attitude towards Economics tends to be negative.
Keywords: perception, teachers, teaching strategies, classroom management skills, students’ attitude, Economics
1. Introduction
The importance of teacher characteristics in realizing educational goals and objectives in any educational system cannot be over emphasized. Teacher characteristics are the instructional behaviours exhibited by the teacher towards goal attainment. These characteristics are the combination of peculiar qualities, traits, mental or moral nature/strength and status that make one person or group different from another. Successful teachers’ characteristics are those that have been found by empirical researches to be related to improved achievement by students in the cognitive, affective or psychomotor outcomes of education (Offorma, 1994). The bedrock of educational system lies on a core of devoted, knowledgeable, competent and well-trained teachers. Groton (1983) rightly pointed out that if a person is to be successful in his chosen career, that individual also needs a set of ethical beliefs or standards for guidance or direction in the appropriate use of competences. A competent teacher seeks to know his learners’ behaviour during the teaching and he or she must perceive the individual learner in an holistic way since gender neutral has affective, cognitive and psychomotor talents. Also, students’ participation in the instructional process is critical and their perception thereof presents methodological challenges when they are underprepared. The knowledge of the way the students think and perceive can aid the teacher to reflect upon and adjust the teaching strategies to enhance students’ understanding and achievement. Allport (1968) described perception as the way people judge others with who they are in contact. A persons’ attitude to an idea or object determines what the person thinks, feels and how the person would like to behave
towards that idea or objects.
Adu (2012) defined attitude as internal beliefs that influence personal actions which is learned through one’s experience. This has to do with a disposition to act or react in a particular way as the individual responds to a situation (Amoo & Rahman, 2004). Thus, the students’ perception of the teachers’ characteristics could influence their attitude toward Economics or any other school subject. Students more often than not judge their teachers in such areas as the teachers’ knowledge of the subject matter, communication ability, the choice of appropriate teaching method and the general classroom management skills. A teacher who is rated high on these indices in the perception of the students is likely to enjoy the confidence, respect and admiration of students.
In the teaching-learning process, both the teacher and the learners must be active. The learner learns through some activities while the teacher does all he or she considers necessary to make learning possible. For any society to be equipped with the basic knowledge and skills that will enable it to better appreciate the nature of economic problems, and how to make rational economic decisions, such a society must depend on the accumulated knowledge of economics, which the citizens possess. For many years, educators and researchers have debated over which variables influence student achievement. A growing body of evidence suggests that schools can make a great difference in terms of student achievement and a substantial portion of that difference attributable to teachers (Adu 2012).
The teaching of Economics provides a learner with the opportunities to live meaningfully within the changing economic world. The following are the objectives or attainable outcomes of teaching Economics:
• to equip students with the basic principles of Economics necessary for useful living and higher education;
• to prepare and encourage students to be prudent and effective in the management of scarce resources;
• to raise student respect for the dignity of labour and appreciation of economic, cultural and social values of our own society; and
• to enable students to acquire knowledge for the practical solution of the economic problems of the society, such as Nigeria, developing countries and the world at large.
From the highlighted objectives, the question is often asked: Why study Economics? To provide an answer, Adu et al. (2009) put forward the identified reasons:
• the study of Economics enables a student to understand the nature of the complexity of the economic activities in which he is only a very small part.
• It enables students to understand and appreciate various government polices where choices have to be made such as probably to spend more money on free education and therefore provide less employment opportunities.
• the study of Economics provides the students with basic skills for analysing Economic problems thereby preparing them better for positions where economic decisions have to be made
The study of Economics helps a government to promote growth and development therefore improving the quality of life of the citizens.
• Knowledge of Economics is useful to analyse fascinating patterns of socio-economic behaviour.
• the study of Economics is useful to understand and alter the inequalities in the distribution of income and opportunities. (Adu, 2012)
In view of the above, every society is faced with three fundamental Economic problems: What to produce? How to produce? And for whom to produce? These problems can find solutions through Economics and possibly are solved through the study of Economics. Economics has been widely accepted by many countries to the extent that many students are now writing examination in this particular subject at the end of their Senior Secondary school level. In other words, the necessity for Economics as a foci teaching and learning subject from school level is an indication that Economics has a significant impact on the student as a knowledgeable citizen of society.
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