Teachers’ Competence, Classroom Organization and Climate as Predictors of Students’ Academic Achievement in Secondary School Biology

Abstract

This study investigated teachers’ competence, classroom organization and climate as predictors of students’ academic achievement in Secondary School Biology in Ogun state withfour hypotheses formulated for the study.The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population used for this study comprised of all Public Secondary School (SS) teachers and their students. Purposivesampling technique was used to select one qualified Biology teacher from each selected school and random sampling technique was used to select ten students from the SSIIclass in each of the selected schools. The four instruments were Teachers’ Competence Rating Scale, Classroom Organization Rating Scale, Classroom Climate Rating Scale andBiology Achievement Test used and their Coefficient reliability values were obtained 0.82, 0.79, 0.85 and 0.87 respectively. t-test and Analysis of Variance formula were used to analysedata collected at significant level of 0.05. Results revealed that teacher competence, classroom organization and climate did not significant contribute when taken together to students’ academic achievement in Biology (R2 = 0.013; p ˃ 0.05) and teacher competence, classroom organization and climate did not have significant relative contribution to students’ academic achievement in Biology (R2 = 0.006,0.005, and 0.001, P > 0,05), there was no significant difference between less qualified and qualified teachers on students’ academic achievement in Biology (t = 1.355; p ˃ 0.05), therewas significant difference between less qualified and qualified teachers on teachers’ competence in Biology (t = 4.024; p < 0.05), Among the recommendations is that qualified Biologyteachers should be employed to teach students in the classroom in order to enhance students’ achievement in Biology.Keywords: Academic Achievement, Classroom Organization, Classroom Climate Teachers’competence