MOTIVATION: AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

Motivation is an effective tool to encourage teachers in teaching and learning. Motivation is defined as the arousal of behaviours which is directed towards a particular goal. The teachers who are the instructors and knowledge imparters, should be made happy in order to put in their best in teaching and impartation of knowledge to students. Therefore, this study investigated those things which can make teachers happy and motivated in doing their duties. The research work was carried out in Anambra State public secondary schools. Two research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. All the 256 principals and 1,500 teachers constituted the population. 1,500 teachers were selected using stratified random research design out of 6,233 teachers in the state public secondary schools in the six educational zones in the state. The two research questions were gathered using mean and standard deviation while t-test was used in testing the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that teachers are not well motivated e.g. they were not paid as and when due, no additional incentives, not involved in decision making etc. Therefore it was recommended that both the government and principals should look into those things that would motivate teachers in order to achieve the core objectives of establishing a school which is teaching and learning. E.g. paying as and when due, giving the freedom to acquire more training, provision of accommodation etc.