Influence of Teacher Factors on Attitudes of Geography Teachers to Map Work in Nigerian Secondary Schools

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of teacher factors on attitude of geography teachers to map work at the senior secondary school level in Nigeria. Multistage and simple random sampling methods were adopted selecting two states per geo-political zones of Nigeria including the FCT, five schools per state and two senior secondary teachers from each school. A total of 84 teachers formed the sample for the study. A valid and reliable instrument- Teacher Attitude to Map Work Scale (TAMWOS) with 0.91 correlation coefficient using Cronbach Alpha method was used to collect data from the teachers. Descriptive (frequency counts and percentages), t-test and ANOVA statistics were used to analyse the data. Findings indicated that the teachers had divergent attitudes that were both positive and negative to the teaching of map work. Teacher professional development made significant influence on teacher attitude to teaching map work. It was recommended that because teachers are role models, they should of a necessity possess positive attitude to teaching map work and to geography teaching generally. Those teachers that hold negative attitudes should work at such attitudes so that through the lessons they teach they could impact positively on the behaviour of their students. Also, teacher professional development on the job should be taken into account in the improvement of teacher attitude to teaching.

Ife PsychologIA, 20(2), September 2012