Teacher characteristic as predictors of performance of mathematics and science in junior secondary grades in Batticaloa zone, Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study was carried out the teacher characteristics as predictors of performance of mathematics and science subject in junior secondary grades. The sample was selected 400 students who were studied in grades 6, 7, 8, and 9 and 80 mathematics and science teachers who were taught in their classes selected from 40 secondary type II School in the Batticaloa district. The schools in Batticaloa district were stratified into semi-urban and rural schools. The following research instruments were selected and used in the study. The questionnaire consists of two sections. The section A has measured the teacher’s qualification and their experience. The section Bhas measured the other three characteristics of the teacher. The part I contains items that measured the teacher’s attitudetowards the teaching of mathematics and science. While part II has measured the self-efficacy and part III has measured interest of the teacher towards the teaching of the subject. Mathematics and Science Achievement Scores (MSAS) was used to gather student’s academic achievement of mathematics and science. Two null hypotheses were postulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance to theimpact of teacher characteristics on students’ achievement in mathematics and science. The data collected were analysed using Pearson’s Product Movement Correlation statistical procedure and simple regressions analysis was used to this study for analysed. The criterion measure or dependent variable was academic achievement in mathematics and science while the predictor or independent variables were teacher self-efficacy, interest, attitude, qualification and experience. The result showed that, there are significant relationship between self-efficacy, interest and attitude and their student’s performance. The R2 of the above independent variables are 0.236, 0.156 and 0.075 respectively. Therefore, the results confirm that teacher self-efficacy is the best predictor of student’s achievement of mathematics and science. The predictor variables taken against the criterion-variables yielded a coefficient of correlation ( r ) of 0.396 and coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.156. The value of 84.4%. of the variance in mathematics and science achievement is accounted for by other variables unexplained by the data.