Views of Physics Teachers on the Need to Train and Retrain Physics Teachers in Nigeria

Abstract

Teacher education is an important enterprise because no education can rise
above the quality of its teachers. The number of physics teachers is not as
desired in Nigerian secondary schools. Many schools do not have physics
teachers (Omosewo and Salami, 2002). For this reason, teachers that were
teaching integrated science did not teach the physics aspect of the subject.
Therefore, very few students offer physics at the senior school level because
physics was strange (since they were not taught at the junior secondary
school level) to students. Also, teachers that taught physics at the senior
secondary school level could not teach some topics well because they were
not taught while at their colleges/universities (Omosewo 2001). One hundred
and thirty five physics teachers were sampled in Kwara State of Nigeria on
the need for training teachers by giving them questionnaire to fill. The
teachers recommended that prospective physics teachers should register for
physics courses that they are going to teach at the secondary school level.
They also recommended that scholarship should be granted to candidates
willing to read physics education in the university and also that there should
be in-service training for those on the job. Relevant recommendations are
made.