CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The teaching profession is one which is very sensitive as it involves centrally the shaping of minds. Which is why it is often described as a noble profession among few others. Ideally, a teacher should be passionate about the teaching job and sometimes go beyond his or her job description and take pride in the fact that he or she is taking part in the shaping of something productive and beautiful and would translate in the formation of the best minds that would lead the future generation.

However, recent times has shown that not everyone who goes into it for the right and noble reasons. With bad government, teachers aren’t given any priority or any of the preferential treatments that some other sectors like oil company worker and politicians get. They are owed months old salaries and in some dire cases years. There is hardly a session that goes smoothly without cases of industrial actions in form of strikes which always lasts for weeks and months.

The effect is that teachers lose interest in the core values of their jobs and since government is always unable to see the importance of the child’s education, attention isn’t paid on the effect of this cycle which always ends in the teacher’s lackadaisical attitude towards his or her job, on the students academic performances.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The process of a successful teaching and learning relationship always begins with the students being inspired to want to learn. This takes a teacher who is dedicated in understanding each child and his or he needs and adapting the teaching and lesson materials to suit the child’s learning methods. However, when the teacher’s attitude towards his work is that of indifference and nonchalance, it always shows on the child’s performance especially in primary and secondary schools. At secondary level, the child always needs constant motivation and supervision as this is the age range where adolescent related problems emerge and most turn to delinquents. This research work has taken it upon itself to study the effects of teachers' attitude to work on the student’s academic performance at secondary school level. This research will be carried out with secondary schools in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State Nigeria as a case study.

1.3  RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.3.1      what is the relationship between a teacher's attitude towards his teaching job and his or her students’ academic performance.

1.3.2      How directly proportional is this relationship.

1.3.3      What are the factors that inform a teacher’s attitude to his job.

1.3.4      How can government step in to combat the negative effects in the case of a noncommittal attitude.

1.4  OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This research work aims at studying the various ways a teacher’s attitude to his or her work can bear upon the child’s academic performance. The factors that inform the learning speed and skills of students will be studied and briefly enumerated. The percentage of these factors that are informed by the teachers attitudes to his work and his commitment to teaching will be studied alongside

The work also aims at highlighting the learning process of the students and which of the traditional instructional materials invented by an enthusiastic teacher the students responds most to. This will be pursued through a study of a cross section of teachers’ behaviours within and outside the classroom,.

1.5   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research work is significant in that it will highlight greatly the importance of a teachers attitudes to work in determining the student’s academic achievements in the secondary school level  

With this, attention will be drawn towards this and more emphasis will be laid on the recruiting of teachers who have a passion for the job and courses could be set up which will aim at coaching teachers on the effects of their attitudes to the profession on the students.

1.6   RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

The hypothesis on which the present research work is founded on is the assumption that there is a direct relationship between a teacher’s attitude to his or her job and the students' level of achievements in the subject he is teaching. Furthermore, it is taken that this relationship affects the students directly seeing that a devoted teacher stands a better chance of making learning interesting for the students than the indifferent one.

1.7   SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study only covers the relationship between a teacher’s attitude to his or her work and the student’s achievement at secondary school levels. It will be studied with the public and private secondary schools of Obio-Akpor as case studies. In measuring the academic achievements in questions, focus would be given to both subjects grades and other extracurricular activities which the teachers engage the students in.

1.8   LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Measuring through the child’s academic achievements in the ways we mentioned in the scope of the study and matching them with our observation of their teacher during their teaching sessions required lots of time commitment on the part of the researcher. This is one of the major challenges met in the course of this research work and while it serves as a motivation for it, it has been a limitation in that it reduces the time allocation required to fully understand the said relationship between each set of teachers and their students in this study.