Impact of Teachers’ Subject Mastery and Questioning Behaviour on Students’ Performance in English Language in Selected Senior Secondary Schools in Ikere Metropolis

Abstract

The performance of senior secondary school students in English language has been dwindling for many years in Nigeria. The problems have been blamed on the way the teaching and learning of English are handled in the classroom by the teachers. Among the predominant teacher related factors that are adduced as of influencing students’ performance are teachers’ subject mastery and teachers’ questioning behaviour. In mainstream education, teachers had been acknowledged to have a great impact on student learning outcomes and so these factors call for a closer scrutiny. However this study was born from this premise that the teacher remains the first resource in teaching and learning processes and that no educational program can rise above the level of its teachers. To carry out the study, relevant literature considering the teacher related factors in English language teaching and learning process were reviewed and the descriptive research design of the survey type was adopted for the study. A total of 500 students and 10 teachers constituted the sample selected through simple random sampling procedure. The major instruments for the study were: Teachers’ Questioning Behaviours Observations Checklist (TQBOC), Teachers’ Subject Mastery Observation Checklist (TSMOC) and Achievement Test in English Language. (ATEL) Three research questions were raised and the results collected from the findings were collated and coded with descriptive statistics as well as multiple classification analysis. It was therefore revealed that there is (I) a positive relationship between teachers’ subject mastery and students’ performance in English language. It was also revealed in the study that teachers’ questioning behaviour is not a significant determinant of students’ learning outcomes in English language among senior secondary schools students in Ikere metropolis.

Key words: Impact, Teacher related, Subject mastery,Questioning behaviour, Performance.