Teachers’ Gender, Motivation and Reinforcement As Predictors Of Girls’ Completion Of Secondary School Chemistry In Abia State
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Date
2016
Authors
Okafor, N
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
World Council for Curriculum and Instruction
Abstract
This paper examined the influence of teachers’ gender, motivation and reinforcement as predictors of girls’ completion of secondary school in chemistry. Three research questions guided the study and a correlational survey research design was adopted. The sample was comprised of 200 participants drawn from co-educational public secondary schools in Abia State, Nigeria. Three research instruments were used in data collection. Data were collected for a period of four weeks and analyzed using mean, standard deviation, multiple regression and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results indicate that teachers’ motivation highly predicted girls’ completion of secondary school in chemistry. Similarly, there was a significant prediction and relationship of reinforcement on girls’ completion of secondary school in chemistry. Teacher gender also positively predicted girls’ completion of secondary school in chemistry. Teacher motivation was found to be the most predictive, followed by reinforcement and lastly teacher gender (Motivation> Reinforcement>Teacher gender). There were joint contributions of teachers’ gender, motivation and reinforcement on girls’ completion of secondary school in chemistry. The paper suggests that chemistry teachers should create conducive classroom environment where male and female chemistry students would feel safe and comfortable for meaningful learning to take place and concludes that governments should promote girls’ education by giving incentives to the best chemistry students like scholarships to afford them the leverage in completing secondary school in chemistry and other science subjects.
Description
Keywords
Gender. , Girls , Completion , Reinforcement , Motivation
Citation
Okafor, N. P. (2016). Teachers’ gender, motivation and reinforcement as predictors of girls’ completion of secondary school chemistry in Abia State. International Education Journal (INTEJ). 10(1), 131-144. A publication of World Council for Curriculum and Instruction (WCCI), Nigeria Chapter, Anambra State Branch. Department of Educational Foundations, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria.