CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Definition of variables

Teacher effectiveness Teacher behaviors, identified through empirical research, that bear the strongest and most con- sistent relation with student achievement.

Time on task The amount of time that students are working on instructional materials or attending actively to instruc- tional presentations and discussions.

Effective classroom instruction refers to the application of the ‘‘teacher effectiveness’’ variables, that is, those variables that have been demonstrated to bear the strongest relation to student achievement. These variables include time on task, content coverage, pacing, scope and sequence, questioning, feedback, and praise. Systematic application of these elements has been demonstrated to increase academic achievement.

Measurement of student achievement across various academic subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using classroom performance, graduation ratjes, and results from standardize

Academic performance/ achievement is the extent to which a student, teacher, or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals and is measured either by continuous assessment or cumulative grade point average (CGPA) [3]. 

The rest of this chapter will examine the following:background to the study,Statement of the problem

Background of the study

Historical background of the study

Effective teaching means, teachers help their students to understand the content knowledge and engage in learning through the classroom instructions and interaction with students. Teaching is reciprocal connection between teachers and students, and students are central to the work of the teachers (Follman, 1992). Students or teacher’s perceptions of teaching can provide more information and a more robust definition of teacher’s effectiveness and are worth considering for inclusion in teacher’s education systems based on consistent findings of the previous research (Bill and Melinder Gate Foundation, 2012). Aroral (1978), from her study ‘Differences between effective and ineffective teacher’ revealed the determinants of a teacher’s effectiveness as: The age of the teacher when he or she enters the profession, Distance between school and living place, Degree of satisfaction derived from job, and Interest in the service of education. Still, studies conducted abroad shows that effective teachers always go to work or classroom with proper preparation. They plan assignments that should be before they teach the lesson, evaluate patterns to be conducted and strategies to be adopted. Hudgins (1971), from his study ‘The Instructional Process’ repotted that if planning is not done, teaching becomes confusing and chaotic which may lead to negative experience for students. Gupta (1976) conducted research study entitled ‘Prediction of teacher’s effectiveness through personality test’. He used Cattll’s questionnaires, and found that, more effective teachers were significantly intelligent, possessed emotional stability, and high self-concept. Research has proven that, effective teachers are a key to students learning. Over the past decades, effective teaching has been identified as the most important school-based factor in improving students’ performances in schools (Aaronson, Barrow, and Sander, 2007). An effective teacher takes in to consideration that teaching involves multiple tasks to ensure that students received quality education (Markley, 2006). Although, recruiting knowledgeable and skilled teachers is important, it is insufficient to ensure effective teaching performance (Berry, Daughtrey, & Wieder, 2009). Effective teaching prevails excellently where working conditions transposes human capital into productivity and effective instructional practices of teachers. Teachers working conditions play a role in the schools’ ability to deliver high quality education. Schools willing to improve working conditions and motivate their teachers attract highly skilled teachers encouraging them to put in their best. According to (Geo, Bell and Little, 2008), Teachers effectiveness is conceptualized as the join function of what it contributes to students’ achievement, outcome and what the teachers do in the classroom. The best way to access teachers’ effectiveness includes what they do in the classroom and how much their students’ progress, and use of technology and online resources (Markley, 2006).

Conceptual background of the study

     Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to show how increasing teacher effectiveness is central to school efforts to improve student outcomes. This study aims to examine successive teachers’ effects on student achievement. The premise advanced is that teacher effectiveness is an individual resource that varies across classrooms within schools, as well as a collective resource that varies across schools. Design/methodology/approach – The methods used represent an attempt to expand the scope of previous studies about ways in which schools affect student learning by examining a multilevel constellation of teacher‐related effects (e.g. classroom effectiveness, collective teaching quality, school academic organization) that can be changed to increase educational effectiveness.

       The academic performance involves factors such as the intellectual level, personality, motivation, skills, interests, study habits, self-esteem or the teacher-student relationship. When a gap between the academic performance and the student’s expected performance occurs, it refers to a diverging performance

      Teachers use of instructional materials in classroom such as chat, diagrams,and some videos viewer such as television materials make learning more interesting, practical, realistic and appealing. They also enable both the teachers and students to participate actively and effectively in lesson sessions.

          Variation of teaching methods will increase students performance in buea municipality know whether or not learning motivation, learning ways, and variation of teaching styles influence students learning activeness simultaneosly and partially.The population of this study was 80 Grade X Students of Automatic Expertise Program and Office Governance of Vocational High School NU 01 Kendal. Sampling technique used saturated sampling that is all members of the population become the sample of the study. The data were obtained through questionnaire, observation, interview, and documentation. The data were analyzed by using classis assumption test analysis, multiple regression analysis, hypothesis test analysis, percentage descriptive analysis using SPSS for Windows Release 23.The findings of this study shows that multiple regression analysis

    How Teachers Experience increased students Academic performance In buea munipality research methods and data systems that have allowed researchers to more accurately answer this question. Specifically, by including teacher-fixed effects in their analyses, researchers have been able to compare a teacher with multiple years of experience with that same teacher when he or she had fewer years of experience. In contrast, older studies often used less precise methods, such as comparing distinct cohorts of teachers with different experience levels during a single school year.

     Based on our review of 30 studies published within the last 15 years that analyze the effect of teaching experience on student outcomes in the United States, we find that:

      Teaching experience is positively associated with student achievement gains throughout a teacher’s career. Gains in teacher effectiveness associated with experience are steepest in teachers’ initial years, but continue to be significant as teachers reach the second, and often third, decades of their careers.

       As teachers gain experience, their students not only learn more, as measured by standardized tests, they are also more likely to do better on other measures of success, such as school attendance.

       Teachers’ effectiveness increases at a greater rate when they teach in a supportive and collegial working environment, and when they accumulate experience in the same grade level, subject, or district.

      More-experienced teachers support greater student learning for their colleagues and their school, as well as for their own students. Of course, there is variation in teacher effectiveness at every stage of the teaching career, so not every inexperienced teacher is less effective, and not every experienced teacher in class

Theoretical background of the study

 The following theory will be explained below.

Social Constructivism

Social constructivism, a social learning theory developed by Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, posits that individuals are active participants in the creation of their own knowledge (Schreiber & Valle, 2013). Vygotsky believed that learning takes place primarily in social and cultural settings, rather than solely within the individual (Schreiber & Valle, 2013). The social constructivism theory focuses heavily upon dyads (Johnson & Bradbury, 2015) and small groups. For instance, students learn primarily through interactions with their peers, teachers, and parents, whereas teachers stimulate and facilitate conversation through harnessing the natural flow of conversation in the classroom (Powell & Kalina, 2009). Social constructivism suggests that successful teaching and learning is heavily dependent on interpersonal interaction and discussion, with the primary focus on the students’ understanding of the discussion (Prawat, 1992).

     One of the core constructs of Vygotsky’s theory of social constructivism is the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which emphasizes the role of the instructor in an individual’s learning. The ZPD delineates the activities that a student can do without help, and the activities the student cannot do without the help of an instructor. The ZPD suggests that, with the help of an instructor, students are able to understand and master knowledge and skills that they would not be able to on their own (Schreiber & Valle, 2013). Once the students master a particular skill they are able to complete it independently. In this theory, the instructor plays an integral role in the students’ acquisition of knowledge, rather than serving as a passive figure (Chen, 2012; Schreiber & Valle, 2013).

CBT can be viewed as a form of social constructivism: From the first session, an emphasis is placed not only on the active role of the client within therapy but also on the didactic nature of CBT (compared to other types of therapy in which the therapist takes on the role of an active listener; e.g., talk therapy). Though the client is ultimately in charge of his or her own outcomes, the therapist’s initial role is that of an educator who provides the client with information about her disorder and its causes and instruction on how to engage in cognitive restructuring or behavioral exercises. A relevant example is the feedback session after the initial assessment visit, wherein the CBT therapist typically describes any relevant diagnoses to the client, explains what the treatment process will look like, and then begins describing the client’s problems within the framework of a cognitive-behavioral model. Throughout treatment, the therapist helps the client become the expert on their own problems and how to “treat” these problems using CBT techniques.

   Mastery learning

Mastery learning (or, as it was initially called, “learning for mastery”; also known as “mastery-based learning”) is an instructional strategy and educational philosophy, first formally proposed by Benjamin Bloom in 1968.

   -Mastery learning maintains that students must achieve a level of mastery (e.g., 90% on a knowledge test) in prerequisite knowledge before moving forward to learn subsequent information. If a student does not achieve mastery on the test, they are given additional support in learning and reviewing the information and then tested again. This cycle continues until the learner accomplishes mastery, and they may then move on to the next stage.

Mastery learning methods suggest that the focus of instruction should be the time required for different students to learn the same material and achieve the same level of mastery. This is very much in contrast with classic models of teaching that focus more on differences in students’ ability and where all students are given approximately the same amount of time to learn and the same set of instructions.

      In mastery learning, there is a shift in responsibilities, so that the students’ failure is considered to be more due to the instruction and not necessarily their lack of ability. This also means teachers’ attention to individual students is emphasised as opposed to assessing group performance. Therefore, in a mastery learning environment, the challenge becomes providing enough time and employing instructional strategies so that all students can achieve the same level of learning.

Since its conception, mastery learning has empirically been demonstrated to be effective in improving education outcomes in a variety of settings. Its effectiveness is influenced by the subject being taught, whether testing is designed locally or nationally, course pace and the amount of feedback provided to students.

Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of learning. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire knowledge, but also on understanding the nature of intelligence.1 Piaget’s stages are:

Sensorimotor stage: Birth to 2 years

Preoperational stage: Ages 2 to 7

       Concrete operational stage: Ages 7 to 11

Formal operational stage: Ages 12 and up          Piaget believed that children take an active role in the learning process, acting much like little scientists as they perform experiments, make observations, and learn about the world. As kids interact with the world around them, they continually add new knowledge, build upon existing knowledge, and adapt previously held ideas to accommodate new information.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive DevelopmentHistory of Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Developmen. Piaget was born in Switzerland in the late 1800s and was a precocious student, publishing his first scientific paper when he was just 11 years old. His early exposure to the intellectual development of children came when he worked as an assistant to Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon as they worked to standardize their famous IQ test.

Contextually, This explain the state at which teachers effectiveness in buea municipalities .that is how teachers demonstrate in the used of instructional materials in the teaching process in buea municipalities and How experience teachers will increase students academic performance in buea and Cameroon in general,do they concentrate on class participation,punctuality and how this will increase students performance in buea municipalities and Cameroon as a whole. Also when taevhers gain experience, it gives phenomenon in the certain way that gives multiple assignment, an addision hours after school hours and makes good use of school libre. How ever, teachers should use instructional materials such as audiovisual materials to enhance teaching learning process in secondary school in buea municipality and in Cameroon as a whole. Hence, all these factors will improve students academic performance.

Statement of the problem

In order for student’s academic performance to improve, it is to make sure that classroom has been build, improvements in laboratory, computer laps and additional classes or teachers should be higher in order to improve students’ academic performance. Hence, all these facility provided will increase students performance such as classroom participation, results, punctuality and school dropout. it is realized that majority of teachers in this secondary schools in the Buea Municipality, got involved in the teaching profession either because they needed a job or because they needed a remuneration to keep life going and others who did it to feel occupied during their leisure time. Thus, they cannot yield to the demands of the profession. Causing students’ performance in these secondary schools of the Buea Municipality to drop drastically. These teachers turn to do what pleases them and not fulfilling the demands of their profession. 65% of these teachers perform other activities when they are supposed to be in class. Either they are performing their extra curriculum activities at home, some drinking in bars around and others faking stories of been sick sending to the principals, while others come to class without a work plan of what they are going to teach for the day. ‘The instructional process’ reported that if planning is not done, teaching becomes confused and chaotic which may lead to negative experience of the students (Hudgins, 1971). If this problem is not solved then the goals of education would not be achieved effectively, since one of the educational goals is to train citizens who will be able to integrate fully in the society and not mislead our leaders of tomorrow. If teachers are not effective in their profession, then the educational sector becomes a failure with regards to its responsibility towards society, thereby producing students who passed through school but not school through them. Causing societal problems such as school dropout, prostitution, cybercrime, unemployment, just to name a few. It is for these reasons that the researcher deemed it necessary to investigate teaches

Effectiveness and its effects on students’ academic performance in secondary schools in the Buea Municipality.

Objectives of the study

The following objectives were formulated from this study.

General objectives

This study is designed to find out effects of teacher’s effectiveness on students’ academic performance in secondary schools in the Buea Municipality.

Specific objectives

Specifically, the study is out to:

1. To find out the use of teacher’s instructional materials on students’ academic performance in Buea municipality.
2. To find out the influence of variation of teaching methods on students’ academic performance in Buea municipality.
3. To investigate how teacher’s experience affects students’ academic performance in Buea municipality

Research question

The following research questions were formulated from the study;

General research question

What is the influence of teachers’ effectiveness on students’ academic performance?

Specific research questions

How do teachers work condition affect students’ academic performa

• How can teachers’ instructional material affect students’ academic performance?
• What is the influence of teaching methods on students’ academic performance?

General research hypothesis

There is no significant relationship between teacher effectiveness and students’ performance

Specific research hypothesis

Hoi; There is no significant relationship between teacher effectiveness and students’ performance.

Hal: There is a significant influence between teacher effectiveness and students’ perform There is no significant relationship between teacher instructional material on students’ performance.

Ha2: There is a significant relationship between teacher’s instructional material and students’ performance.

Ho3: There is no significant influence of teachers teaching method on students’ academic performance.

Ha3: There is a significant of teachers teaching method on students’ academic performance.