Abstract
Purpose: The issue of low instructional quality could be responsible for the incompetence of graduates from public colleges of education in Nigeria. This study investigated teacher trainers' demographic factors as determinants of instructional quality in public colleges of education in the Southwest region of Nigeria.
 Methodology: The population of the study consisted of 3402 teacher trainers in the eleven public colleges of education in Southwest Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 1358 respondents for the study. Two research questions were raised to guide the study. The instruments titled “teacher trainers' demographic variables questionnaire (TTDVQ) and instructional quality questionnaire (IQQ)” were used to gather relevant data for the study.
 Findings: The findings revealed that there was a significant contribution of teacher trainers' variables (teachers’ experience, gender, and academic qualification) to the instructional quality in colleges of education (F(3,1354) = 270064.277, p<0.05). It also revealed that females (β = 0.326; t = 5.456, p<0.05) contributed the most to instructional quality in colleges of education.
 Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: Teacher trainers should endeavour and be encouraged to advance their academic qualifications and put in their best to gather the requisite experience on the job for the improvement of instructional quality. There should be a policy from the regulatory agency (National Commission for Colleges of Education) instructing the management of teacher training institutions to take cognizance of teachers’ experience and academic qualifications when assigning responsibilities as regards courses to be taught. This study was premised on the systems theory and it establishes that the interrelationship between teachers’ experience, their gender, and academic qualification results in the requisite instructional quality in public colleges of education. This implies that the systems theory could be applied to similar studies in the future.
Highlights
The findings revealed that there was a significant contribution of teacher trainers' variables to the instructional quality in colleges of education (F(3,1354) = 270064.277, p
Practice and policy: teacher trainers should endeavour and be encouraged to advance their academic qualifications and put in their best to gather the requisite experience on the job for the improvement of instructional quality
These studies established that there is a significant relationship between the years of teaching experience of teachers, the educational qualification of the teachers, and instructional quality (Awolola, 2017; Fakeye, 2012; Adeyemi, 2009; Harris and Sass, 2008; Labo-Popoola, 2002). These studies were conducted at the secondary school levels, creating a research gap with respect to teacher training institutions that are saddled with the responsibility of training teachers. These studies did not factor in gender as a teacher factor, and as such, this study considered the composite contribution of teacher characteristics in relation to instructional quality in colleges of education in Southwest Nigeria
Summary
Researchers and stakeholders have long known that the quality of teachers’ instruction is a key determinant of student learning outcomes (Nilsen and Gustafson, 2016; Klieme et al 2009; Seidel and Shavelson, 2007). This challenge transcends the school system in developed countries to the developing ones, which Nigeria is not an exception of. The process of instruction must be given adequate consideration, if the desired quality is to be met. Studies such as Iyamu and Ede (2005) and Izuagba and Afurobi (2009) are of the view that Nigeria still needs to do more to improve the instructional quality because the quality of the country’s education is largely dependent on the quality of input and the process
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