Teachers’ Professional Ethics and Classroom Management as a Correlate of Students’ Academic Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Abia State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined teachers’ professional ethics and classroom management as a correlate of students’ academic performance in public secondary schools in Abia State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a Correlational Research Design. The population of the study consisted of 9,200 Secondary School Students in Public Secondary Schools. The study sampled 920 students representing 10% of the populations using Stratified Random Sampling Technique. The instrument for data collection was structured questionnaire titled: “Teachers’ Professional Ethics and Classroom Management of Students Academic performance (TPECMSAP)”. The instrument was validated by three experts. The instrument was tested using t-test method and calculated with Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation which yielded an index of 0.71 for teachers’ professional ethics and 0.89 for classroom management. Data collected was analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions. Pearson’s r, R2 (coefficient of determination) and multiple regression analysis was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance. The findings of the study revealed that there is a significant relationship between teachers’ professional ethics, classroom management and students academic performance. The findings of the study revealed that employment of qualified teachers and other professionals’ demands for practices to ensure high academic performance. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that government and the school administrators should organize seminars, workshops and conferences to create more awareness on teachers’ ethics and classroom managements on academic performance of students in Nigeria.