Teachers’ Characteristics and Students’ Attitude towards Economics in Secondary Schools: Students’ Perspectives

Abstract

The study sought to find out the relationship between how students perceive their teachers’ in respect of knowledge of Economics content, communication ability, use of appropriate instructional method and teachers’ classroom management skills and students’ attitude towards Economics. The population of the study comprised all the second year students (SS 11) in senior secondary schools in Oyo State. Nigeria. The study sample consisted of 640 students selected through cluster and simple random sampling techniques. Two instruments – Students’ Perception of Teacher Characteristics Questionnaire (SPTCQ) and Students’ Attitude towards Economics Questionnaire (SATMQ) were developed and administered on the respondents. A trial test of 50 students using split-half reliability test was carried out which yielded reliability coefficients of 0.86 and 0.94 for SPTCQ and SATMQ respectively. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and t-statistics were used to test the hypotheses. Findings show that the way students’ perceive their teachers’ in terms of knowledge of Economics contents, communication ability, teaching methods and classroom management skills has a significant relationship with students’ attitude towards Economics. When the students’ perception of their teachers’ characteristics is low, hence students’ attitude towards Economics tends to be negative. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n16p455