PRINCIPALS RATING OF BUSINESS TEACHERS' EFFECTIVENESS IN PROFESSIONAL TEACHING COMPETENCIES IN AKWA IBOMSTATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The need to ensure effective teaching of business subjects at the public secondary school
level inAkwa IbomState inspired thisstudy. Three researchquestionsguided the studyanda
null hypothesis was 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. An 18-item
questionnaire with five response options was used for data collection. The instrument
was validated by three experts. 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, and whilst student ttest was for testing the null
hypothesis. Findings of the study showed that business teachers are effective in the
three professional teaching competencies. It was also found that gender significantly
influenced the opinions of the respondents and the null hypothesis was rejected. 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.