SOURCE:

Faculty: Education
Department: Vocational Education

CONTRIBUTORS:

Isaac, I. J.
Ndinechi, G. I.

ABSTRACT:

The need to ensure effective teaching of business subjects at the public secondary school level in Akwa Ibom State necessitated this study on principals’ assessment of business teachers in professional teaching competencies. Six research questions guided the study and three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. A population of 235 principals from all public secondary schools in the area was studied without sampling because the size was manageable. A 36-item questionnaire with five response options was used in data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts, two in business education Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and one in measurement and evaluation in University of Uyo, Uyo. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha correlation coefficient value of 0.87. Data collected were analyzed with mean for the research questions, while t–test was used for testing the null hypotheses. Findings of the study showed that business teachers are effective in the six professional teaching competencies. It was also found that gender, experience and school location significantly influenced the opinions of the respondents and the three null hypotheses were rejected. The researcher, therefore, concluded that although business teachers were rated effective in the use of the identified professional teaching competencies, there is need for improvement. Consequently, it was recommended, among others, that: secondary school business subjects’ teachers should attend short courses and conferences to update and upgrade their professional teaching competencies; and that government should adequately fund education for effective teaching of business subjects.