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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The need for competent and well trained teachers, astute in both content knowledge and general pedagogical practices in their subject areas, is a very pertinent one if any nation is to succeed in developing the required human capital base to foster national development. This is because teachers are the main implementers of educational policies, organized into school programmes in the form of curriculum and syllabi. According to Eisner (as cited in Acquah, 2012, p. 29), the role of the teacher in curriculum implementation cannot be over emphasized.

It is "the teacher" who "will have a general guide of topics in a subject field, a sequence among topics, a general set of aims, textbooks, and other instructional resources", to effectively organize and plan the curriculum to suit that level and background of the learner in the classroom. It is thus very important to ensure that the quality of teachers training institutions churn out year after year possess the professional competencies necessary for them to play their roles as teachers effectively. Teacher training is thus considered a major priority in Nigeria, with public universities, fully charged with the responsibility of meeting the nation's need for qualified teachers from the primary school level, through the junior and senior high school levels, and even to the tertiary level.

In addition to these public universities, there are over 38 colleges of education mandated to train teachers mostly for the primary and junior high schools. Because this study focuses on the training of senior high school Some subject teachers, emphasis is laid on teacher training at the University of Cape Coast as a case. The focus of the study was on the training of Some subject teachers for the senior high schools in Nigeria, because Some subject are considered a very important discipline that provides citizenship education for improved participation of the individual in matters bothering mostly on both the social and economic development of nations. The rationale for the study of Some subject at the senior high school level in Nigeria, as stated in the Teaching Syllabus for Some subject (2008), suggests that people as well as countries have the need for more and better quality goods and services such as better food, clothing, housing, schooling, hospital care and entertainment (Ministry of Education Science and Sport, 2008).

These goods and services can only be obtained by the use of resources such as Land, Labour, Capital and Entrepreneurship which are scarce relative to the demand for them, and which, therefore, need to be managed. Some subject, indeed, is the study of the management of relatively scarce resources for satisfying the needs of individuals, organizations and countries. As a practical subject, Some subject helps to provide an effective framework for individuals, firms and governments to identify their basic economic problems, and make necessary decisions and policies for raising the living standards of people and societies. For such a positive vision to be realized there is the need for the training of adequate and quality Some subject teachers. Hence the Bachelor of Education programme in the University of Cape Coast provides the opportunity for students who wish to teach Some subject in the senior high school to major in the subject, and they are subsequently trained to become Some subject teachers.

A mandatory requirement for the preparation of Some subject teachers in the University of Cape Coast is active participation in a teaching field experience. This is an off-campus teaching exercise where students are required to practice the theories they have acquired in the classroom under the supervision of their lecturers and teachers on the field to further develop their teaching proficiencies. A casual observation and informal discussion with a crosssection of students seem to suggest that some appear not to fully appreciate the essence of the off-campus teaching practice. They appear to regard the exercise as just a requirement for graduation. Is this assertion true? If it is, then such trainee teachers are likely not to take the exercise seriously because it has been established that an individual's perceived benefit of a phenomenon is believed to influence the person's general attitude towards that particular phenomenon. For instance, studies have revealed that people's perceived benefit of gene technology influences their acceptance of such technology (Sparks, Shepherd & Frewer, 1994; Frewer, Howard, & Shepherd, 1995). In a similar vein, one cannot discount the possibility that trainee some subject teachers' perception of the importance of field experience might influence their general attitude towards the exercise. A positive perception of the importance of field experience to trainee teachers is likely to influence the level of importance they would attach to the exercise and this might affect the general effectiveness of the exercise.

1.2   Study Problem

Teaching practice is an important component of becoming a teacher. It grants student teachers experience in the actual teaching and learning environment (Ngidi & Sibaya, 2003:18; Marais & Meier, 2004:220; Perry, 2004:2). During teaching practice, a student teacher is given the opportunity to try the art of teaching before actually getting into the real world of the teaching profession (Kasanda, 1995). Student teachers also know the value of teaching practice and as remarked by Menter (1989:461), they perceive it as ‘the crux of their preparation for the teaching profession’ since it provides for the ‘real interface’ between studenthood and membership of the profession. As a result, teaching practice creates a mixture of anticipation, anxiety, excitement and apprehension in the student teachers as they commence their teaching practice (Manion, Keith, Morrison & Cohen, 2003; Perry, 2004:4). Marais & Meier (2004:221) assert that the term teaching practice represents the range of experiences to which student teachers are exposed when they work in classrooms and schools. Marais and Meier (2004:221) further argue that teaching practice is a challenging but important part of teacher training, especially in developing countries such as Nigeria, where the effectiveness of the teaching practice can be diminished or eroded by a range of challenges, such as geographical distance, low and uneven levels of teacher expertise, a wide-ranging lack of resources as well as a lack of discipline among a wide cross-section of learners and educators. The essence of this study is to appraise the impact of teaching practices on the productivity of quality teachers.

1.3   Purpose of the Study

This study has the sole objective to appraise the impacts of teaching practices on the productivity of quality teachers. Specifically, the objectives are streamlined as follows:

a.    To determine the perception of students towards teaching practice.

b.   To determine the objectives of teaching practice.

c.    To appraise the impact of teaching practice on the students

1.4   Significance of the Study

The study proves to be relevant to the students as it highlights the importance of this exercise so as to stimulate their interest and prepare them for the challenges in the teaching profession. To the teachers, it will x-ray the challenges students encounter in teaching practice exercise in order for them to develop effective strategies to meeting the challenge. To the policy makers, it will provide data to enhance their decision making for a productivity teaching profession.

1.5   Study Hypotheses

The study developed and formulated for testing, the following hypotheses:

H0: The Student-teachers have a negative perception of teaching practice in tertiary institutions.

H1: The Student-teachers have a positive perception of teaching practice in tertiary institutions.

H0: There is no significant relationship between teaching practice and the productivity of quality teachers.

H1: There is a significant relationship between teaching practice and the productivity of quality teachers.

1.6   Scope and Limitation of the Study

This study will take into consideration several views and opinions of both students and authors of related and relevant literatures regarding the issue of teaching practice. The study is limited by the number of sample size and the population. This is because the study concentrated on collecting primary data from the student’s environment. Hence, the study is opened for further researches and increase in sample size.

1.7   Definition of Terms

The following terms are the major keywords used in this study:

a.    Impact: The action of one object coming forcibly into contact with another.

b.   Practices: the actual application or use of an idea, belief, or method, as opposed to theories relating to it.

c.    Productivity: the effectiveness of productive effort, especially in industry, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input.

d.   Quality: the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.

1.8   Organization of the Study

This study is organized in five chapters. The first chapter lays the background to the study as well as stating the problem of study and the hypotheses for testing. The second chapter is structured to give the study a literature review. This review is divide into the theoretical framework, Empirical framework and the conceptual framework. Chapter three deals with research methodology including the research design, sampling method, Data collection and the research instruments employed. Chapter four seek to analyze the result, it is also made up of detailed analysis of data collected and presentation of information with the aid of quantitative and statistical models. The fifth chapter covers the summary, conclusion and recommendation.

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