Competence evaluation by public secondary school teachers: a panacea for students improved performance in calabar zone, nigeria

Abstract

The study examined teachers’ competence in evaluating students’ learning outputs.  It was a descriptive survey design whose area of coverage was 2021/2022 school year in public secondary schools across Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria.   Four out of seven Local Government Areas, 20 out of 100 secondary schools and 496 out of 1,502 teachers (evaluators) formed the sample of the study.  Each teacher had one student to examine on; punctuality, obedience, self-control and honesty (Affective Domains); the evaluation methods considered were formative and summative evaluation.  The sampling methods adopted were purposive, simple random and systematic sampling methods.   Two sets of questionnaire were used for data collection in addition to students’ result sheets (first term junior secondary school two (JSS 2) and teaching staff disposition (teachers’ register).   The two sets of questionnaire were Teachers’ Competence Evaluation Questionnaire (TCEQ) and Teachers’ Score on Students’ Affective Domain Questionnaire (TSSADQ).  The questionnaire instruments were validated by experts in different areas of research affected.    The results obtained from the test-retest pilot study were correlated using Pearson Product Moment Correlation to obtain the internal consistency of the measures whose coefficient was 0.76.  Data collected were analyzed using contingency chi-square technique to test the formulated null hypotheses.  It was found that evaluation methods influence students’ learning outputs and that the quality of teacher competence evaluation also influence students’ affective domain.  It was recommended that teachers should intermittently evaluate students learning in the course of instruction and not forgetting the final evaluation. Also, teachers should improve their evaluation strategies by making learning a life-long affair.