THE EFFECT OF SCHOOL CLIMATE AND TEACHER PRODUCTIVITY ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The school as an organization has certain aims and objectives which it has to achieve (FFN, 2004). In order to achieve the aims and objectives, the organization climate of the organization including the school system is very important. This organization climate refers to the working condition among super ordinates (school heads) and subordinates (teachers) in a bid to achieve the aims and objectives of the school system. School climate refers to factors that contribute to the lone in schools, and attitudes of staff and students toward their schools. Positive school climate is associated with well managed classrooms and common areas, high and clearly stated expectations concerning individual responsibility, feeling safe at school, and teachers and another supporting staff that consistently acknowledge students and fairly address their behavior. (American Institutes for Research, 2007). The size of the school is equally important. In this regard, Eberts, Kehoe & Stone (2002) examined the relationship between school size and student’s achievement and found out that teacher’s satisfaction was greater in smaller schools than m large schools. In their study, Smith and Gregory (2007) utilized a climate assessment instrument and a series of in depth interviews and found that teachers were much more satisfied in the small schools than large schools, while Fowler and Welberg (2001) found in one of their studies that large school size was negatively related to school climate. Ramirez (2002) maintains that size per see is unrelated to achievement; rather the organization of classroom and other instructional space are the major element in a schools success or failure. Teaching and learning situation in schools seem to be a function of the atmosphere of the school and the productivity of the teacher. School climate is a set of unique characteristics of a school. These characteristics distinguish one school from another. In one school the school head, teachers and staff may find pleasure in working together. In another school, it may be discontent among the staff. In one school, staff may appear well organized seem competent and exhibit confidence in whatever they do, yet in another school, there may be tension as the school heads loses control (Clifton 2009). School climate is related to school connectedness because without a positive and welcoming school climate, both student’s and teacher’s are unlikely to experience connectedness; the poor conceitedness would have negative effect on teachers job productivity and student’s achievement. Productivity of an organization is defined as the ratio of outputs produced by the organization and the resources consumed in the process. Teacher productivity is the ratio of output produced by the teachers, here the output refers to the quality and quality of students produces by the teachers.

Climate has been defined in various ways by authors as the perceived subjective effect of the formal system , the informal styles of managers and other important environmental factor that impact on the attitudes , beliefs, values and motivation of people who work in a particular organization , personality of an organization , the atmosphere of the work place , including a complex mixture of norms , values , expectations, policies and procedures that influence individual and group patterns of behavior (Spencer , Pelote and Seymour, 2008).

As for schools, climate is a necessary link between organizational structure, teacher attitudes to work and behavior and student achievement. It was found that formal characteristics of schools had an important influence on the way in which teacher perform their duties and obligation in the school system. Climate could represent a composite of the meditating variable that intervene between the structure of an organization and the styles and other characteristics of leaders, teacher productivity and student achievement. Numerous studies have been done on organizational school climate. For instance, Halpin and Croft (2003) found out that, it is behavior of elementary school principals, which in a large measure sets a climate tone for school. Kelner , Rivers and Connell (2006) in their study, indicated that successful leadership competencies and managerial styles producing motivating organizational climates ,which arouse employee motivation to do work well , and which predict the desired organization outcomes which in the school system is referred to as the students achievement . Hundred of studies have demonstrates-the line between organizational climate and bottom link performance measure such as volume, efficiency productivity. According to Spencer, Pelote and Seymour (2008), the organizational climate has accounted for 10 to 25 percent of the variance in performance measures. Mann and Hirst (2002) examined how negative event impact on team climate and how team climate relates to performance. Based on the results, team climate had a positive relation with team performance. Zohar (2000) demonstrated that variation in behavior at the level of the individual supervisor, the group climate level of analysis affects safely behavior and it was plausible that this would hold true for other aspect of climate.

High productivity is the hall mark of growth and development of nations all over the world, the level of efficiency, productivity and the ability of the educational system to achieve its set goals depend on the teacher as reflected in performing their defined roles because teacher are the fulcra upon which the whole educational system revolves (Eduese, 2006). Teachers have been shown to have an important impact on student achievement and also play a crucial role on educational attainment (Lloyd, Mensch and Clark 2000). Teaching and learning achievement depend on teachers, for there can be no meaningful socio-economic and political development in any society without teachers. Productivity is concerned with the overall effectiveness and efficiency of getting things done. It is essentially a ratio to measure how well an organization converts resources into goods and services, In the school system, teacher productivity may be measured in terms of teachers performance. In assessing teachers’ performance, qualitative tools such as standardized test scores of student have been used (Schacter and Thum, 2004). Blankstein (2006) opined that grades and test scores do not reflect the quality of instruction because teacher input is not the only factor that influence students achievement in the school system, other factor that have been identifies to have significant Influence on students achievement include peer effect, ethnicity, gender, motivation, income as well as family background variables such as house hold environment and parental educational background (Wenglisky, 2001). This suggests that teachers productivity level may be evaluated in terms of what the teachers control and actually do in the classroom such as teaching effectiveness and classroom performance. Teaching effectiveness has been accepted as a multidimensional construct since it measures a variety of different aspect of teaching (Dunkin, 2007).

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Teacher productivity and student achievement in secondary school may be determined by several factors. It has also been observed that the teacher productivity and student achievement are poor. The expected outcome of teacher performance which is better, student achievement is not easily achieved in the school system. People are complaining about the poor productivity of teacher which in turn leads to poor students’ achievement. It is against this background that this study seeks to assess the effect of school climate and teacher’s productivity on student’s academic performance with reference to secondary school in Ijebu-Ode Local Government.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION

The study will be guided by the following research questions.

1. To what extents would teacher’s productivity influence academic achievement secondary school students?

2. Is there any relationship between schools climate and students academic performance?

3. Is there any relationship between teacher’s productivity and secondary school student’s academic performance?

4. To what extent has schools climate affects teacher productivity on student’s academic performance?

1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

HO1 there is no significance relationship between teacher productivity and students academic performance.

HO2 there would be significance relationship between teachers productivity students academic performance.

HI1 There is no significant relationship between schools climate and students academic performance.

HI2 there would be significant relationship between schools climate students academic performance.

1.5 PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH

The main purpose of the study is to evaluate the effect of school climate and teachers’ productivity on student’s academic performance in selected secondary schools in Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area of Ogun State. However, specific objectives include:

1. The identification of various factors affecting teacher’s productivity and consequently student’s performance.

2. The verification of school climate as correlate to student’s academic performances.

3. Identification of teacher productivity as a function of school climate.

4. Suggestion and useful recommendations to policy makers and stakeholders.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Nigerian education is in a dismal state classes are congested, schools are poorly funded, teachers are not well remunerated and workers welfare is at its lowest ebb. This research work will therefore be of paramount importance to the government and its agencies, parents, teacher, schools administrators and old students. It will also be useful in assisting the government policy makers especially the Inspectorate Divisions of the Ministry of Education to perform their oversight function by paying routine inspection to schools in order to ascertain incompetent teachers who should be sent on refresher courses to update their knowledge.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study is delimited to selected secondary schools in Ijebu-Ode Local Government; Senior Secondary in Ijebu-Ode will form the forum of this study.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

ATTITUDES: it refers to a complex mental state involving beliefs, feeling and values and disposition of a teacher.

ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: – this means the general achievement of students.

SCHOOL CLIMATE: refers to the social atmosphere of a setting or learning environment in which students have different experience, depending upon the protocols set up by the teachers and administrator.

TEACHERS PRODUCTIVITY: this connoted distinct and separate from the art of teaching.

TEACHERS EXPERIENCE: – this connotes the nature of the events a teacher has undergone in the teaching of the subjects.