Assessment of Teachers’ Effectiveness in Teaching Basic Science and Technology in Primary Schools in Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria

Abstract

This study was aimed at assessing Basic Science and Technology teachers’ effectiveness in teaching Basic Science and Technology in FCT Abuja, Nigeria. five (5) specific purposes, five (5) research questions and five (5) null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted the ex-post-facto research design. The population of the study comprised of all the 9193 (4439 male and 4754 female teachers) Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) schools teachers in the 570 UBEC schools in FCT Abuja. A sample of 1120 public primary school teachers teaching Basic Science and Technology was drawn for the study using multi-stage sampling procedure. The instrument for data collection for the study was an observation schedule titled: “Observational schedule for Assessing Teachers’ Effectiveness in Teaching Basic Science and Technology (OSATETBST). Three experts all from Faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka validated the instrument. The reliability coefficients of 0.83, 0.87, 0.85, 0.80 and 0.87 were obtained for clusters A, B, C, D and E respectively. The overall reliability index was .85. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviations to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested using t-test statistic at 0.05 level of significance. The findings, based on the research questions, among others indicated that: Both male and female primary school teachers possess the required skills for teaching Basic Science and Technology to a great extent; learning objectives are effectively used by both male and female primary school teachers to plan lessons in Basic Science and Technology to a great extent; among others. Based on the findings and implication of the study, it was recommended, among others, that: every primary school teacher should be periodically exposed to symposiums to sustain their teaching efficiency and to strengthen them on the area of their deficiency such as ability to carry out experiments, interpret result of the experiment, improvisation by constructing things, grouping pupils to accomplish a given task, consideration for individual difference, ability to set induce the pupils to new ideas, ability to generate desirable learning feedback, ability to cover the three behavioural objective of learning, simulation method, peer tutoring method and cooperative learning method among others; practical Basic Science and technology needed equipments should be supplied by the government for the teaching of Basic Science and Technology practical; parents and pupils should be sensitized on effective and functional study habits and factors that encourage learning to compliment the efforts of teachers in achieving the expected objective of science and technology.