TEACHERS’ COMPETENCIES AS PREDICTORS OF STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT IN CIVIC EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study examined teachers’ competencies as predictors of students’ academic engagement in civic education in public secondary schools in Anambra State. Two research questions guided the study and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study was a correlational research design. The population of the study consisted of 24,933 SS2 students in 267 public secondary schools in the six education zones in Anambra State. The sample of 1,247 SS2 students was used for the study. Multistage sampling procedure comprising proportionate stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used for the study. The instruments Teachers’ Competencies Questionnaire (TCQ) and Students’ Academic Engagement Questionnaire (SAEQ) were used for data collection. The instruments were subjected to face and construct validation. Face validation was done by three experts while construct validation was carried out with Principal Component Analysis approach using SSPS volume 26 and the results showed that the construct validity was met. The reliability of the instrument was done using Cronbach Alpha technique and the average coefficient value of 0.82 for TCQ and 0.85 for SAEQ were obtained and considered highly reliable and suitable for the study. Simple linear regression statistical tool was used to answer the research questions and test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that teachers’ instructional delivery competency is a moderate positive and significant predictor of students’ academic engagement in civic education while teachers’ classroom management competency is a high positive and significant predictor of students’ academic engagement in civic education in public secondary schools in Anambra State. The study concluded that teachers’ competencies are positive and significant predictors of students’ academic engagement in civic education in public secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings, the study recommended that principals should monitor the implementation of teachers ‘instructional roles to ensure that they prepare their lesson notes in line with the curriculum objectives and deliver them in conformity with the allotted time range, since it is a known fact that when teachers perform well in the classroom, students will likely be engaged and perform better academically