CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Education is largely a matter of a learning process that involves interactions between teacher and learner. When this process works well, real learning takes place. In the past, academic performance was often measured more by ear than today. Teachers’ observations made up the bulk of the assessment and today’s summation, or numerical, method of determining how well a student is performing is a fairly recent invention. Grading systems came into existence in the United States in the late Victorian period and were initially criticized due to high subjectivity. Different teachers valued different aspects of learning more highly than others, and although some standardization was attempted in order to make the system fairer, the problem continued.
Today, changes have been made to incorporate differentiation for individual students’ abilities, and exploration of alternate methods of measuring performance is ongoing. The tracking of academic performance fulfills a number of purposes. Areas of achievement and failure in a student’s academic career need to be evaluated in order to foster improvement and make full use of the learning process. Results provide a framework for talking about how students fare in school and a constant standard to which all students are held. Performance results also allow students to be ranked and sorted on a scale that is numerically obvious, minimizing complaints by holding teachers and schools accountable for the components of every grade. Performance in school is evaluated in a number of ways. For regular grading, students demonstrate their knowledge by taking written and oral tests, performing presentations, turning in homework and participating in class activities and discussions. Teachers evaluate in the form of letter or number grades and side notes, to describe how well a student has done. At the state level, students are evaluated by their performance on standardized tests geared toward specific ages. Many people emphasize the importance of good teachers, and some policies are designed to promote teacher quality. Research using student scores on standardized tests confirms the common perception that some teachers are more effective than others and also reveals that being taught by an effective teacher has important consequences for student achievement and based on a set of achievements students in each age group are expected to meet.
Many factors contribute to a student’s academic performance, including individual characteristics and family and neighborhood experiences. But research suggests that, among school-related factors, teachers matter most. When it comes to student performance on tests, a teacher is estimated to have two to three times the impact of any other school factor, including services, facilities, and even leadership. Teachers at all levels of the education system should be adequately trained, respected, remunerated, and able to participate in decisions affecting their professional lives and teaching environments. When teachers are enabled to do their job effectively, their students are enabled to learn effectively. A well-motivated teacher always completes the tasks set for him, even when such tasks or assignments are difficult or seem uninteresting.
Motivation involves a number of psychological factors that start and maintain activities towards the achievements of personal goals and refers to reasons that underlie behaviour that is characterized by willingness and volition. Motivation in education can have several effects on how students learn and their behavior towards subjects matter, Ormord (2003). Motivation of teachers and students in the teaching and learning process can direct behavior towards particular goals, leads to increase effort and energy, enhances cognitive processing, increases imitation of and persistence in activities, determines what consequences are reinforcing and it can also lead to improved performance. Orphlims (2002) is of the view that motivated teachers always look for better ways to do their teaching job and, as a result, they are more productive. Therefore, it means that motivated teachers are determined to give their best to achieve the maximum output (qualitative education).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Teachers in Nigeria have expressed a lot of dissatisfaction about the lack of human resource development, poor working conditions, poor remuneration and poor human relations that exist in schools. This has resulted in high teacher turnover coupled with poor results in Senior High Schools due to lack of commitment towards work. Some newly recruited teachers stay at post for barely one year. The operating conditions of service appear to fall short teachers expectation manifesting in resignations, vacation of post, non –resumption at post after teachers leave of absence and study leave.
The general mood of those remaining is not encouraging as they exhibit other forms of withdrawal behaviour such as absenteeism, lateness and passive job behaviour. Unfortunately, in spite of the importance and complexity of these issues, there is very limited good quality literature has been published on them ( Bennel 2004). This research focus on the above mentioned factors. The researcher set out to throw more light on factors influencing teacher commitment to teaching so that management of education institutions can do something to motivate teachers to improve their level of performance.