TEACHER-RELATED FACTORS AS PREDICTORS OF CIVIC COMPETENCE AMONG JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN OYO SOUTH SENATORIAL DISTRICT, NIGERIA

Abstract

Civic competence, which is inculcated through the teaching of civic education helps to develop appropriate civic knowledge, values and skills in secondary school students. Lack of this competence is largely responsible for social vices among Junior Secondary School (JSS) students in Oyo State. Previous studies focused more on instructional methods of teaching civic education with little consideration for the influence of teacher-related factors (Teachers’ Classroom Practices-TCP, Instructional Pacing-IP, Questioning Techniques-QT, and Feedback Techniques-FT; Teachers’ Content Knowledge TCK and Teachers’ Perception of Values of Civic Education – TPVCE). Therefore, this study was designed to examine teacher-related factors as predictors of students’ civic competence (knowledge, values and skills) in Oyo South Senatorial District, Oyo State, Nigeria.

Social Learning and Brunner’s Instruction theories provided the framework, while the survey design was adopted. Five out of the nine Local Government Areas (LGAs) were randomly selected from Oyo South Senatorial District, while 25 (five per LGA) Junior Secondary School were randomly selected. Fifty civic education teachers (two per school) was randomly selected. Instruments used were Civic Education Knowledge Test (r=0.85); Civic Values (CV) (r=0.74), IP (r=0.93), QT (r=0.98), FT (r=0.93) and TCK (r=0.86) scales, and Civic Skills (CS) (r=0.81) and TPVCE (r=0.88) questionnaires. In-depth interview sessions were held with five civic education teachers. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation and Multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance, while qualitative data were content analysed.

The proportion of the Civic education teachers was Master’s degree holders (31.3%) followed by Nigeria Certificate in Education (29.2%) and first degree holders (39.5%). Students civic knowledge (x ̅=2.67; SD=.88) was high, while their CS (x ̅=2.43; SD=.77) and CV (x ̅=2.41; SD=.81) were low against the threshold of 2.50. The IP (r=0.51), FT (r=0.42), QS (r=0.32), TCK (r=0.29) and TPVCE (r=0.30) had significant positive relationships with students’ CS. Only QS (r=0.32) had a significant positive relationship with CK, while none had a significant relationship with CV. The independent variables had significant joint prediction on CS (F(5;42) =3.54; Adj.R2=0.21), accounting for 21.3% of its variance but not on CK and CV. None of the independent variables made relative contribution to the dependent measures. Most teachers attributed delayed feedback to large population of students, while the adoption of ineffective teaching strategies was attributed to students’ inability to translate civic knowledge into values and skills.

Instructional pacing, questioning and feedback techniques, content knowledge and perception of values of civic education improved students’ civic skills in Oyo South Senatorial District, Oyo State, Nigeria. Civic teachers should improve on their instructional pacing, feedback techniques and questioning styles with a view to enhancing the overall civic competence of secondary school students.