Investigating Relationship between Teacher’s Gender and Experience of Teaching Types of Writing in Nigerian Secondary Schools

Abstract

Acquiring writing skills is a prerequisite for success in school and in jobs. This study emanated from the fact that middle and high school students in Nigeria have shown poor performance in national and international examinations. It has set out to answer questions like whether there a relationship between teachers’ gender and teaching persuasive/argumentative essays in middle and high schools or whether there is a relationship between teaching experience and the teaching of persuasive /argumentation essays in middle and high schools. A questionnaire was designed to collect data. 100 English Language teachers from 15 junior secondary and senior secondary schools in South-South Nigeria participated and responded to the questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS package. Findings revealed a positive relationship between teacher gender and the teaching of persuasive/argumentative essays, with more male teachers teaching argumentative essays than female teachers. It was also discovered that there was a positive relationship between teacher gender and the teaching of comparing and contrasting type writing with female teachers found teaching more this type of writing The study also revealed a positive relationship between teacher gender and communicating with students on drafts before final submission with female teachers communicating more than male teachers. Based on these findings several recommendations have been made that would help improve the performance of students in writing.