AN EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS CHARACTERISTICS AND ITS EFFECT ON CHILDRENS EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT IN GHANA

AN EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS CHARACTERISTICS AND ITS EFFECT ON CHILDRENS EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT IN GHANA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  Background of the study

understanding school students’ educational attainment and the role that teachers can play Learning assessments in low- and middle-income countries show that a significant number of students leave primary school without having mastered the most basic literacy and numeracy skills (Hungi, 2011; Bashir et al., 2018; World Bank, 2018).

2018 (Bank of America). According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (2018), there are 268 million functionally illiterate and innumerate children worldwide, despite the fact that half of them have attended school for at least four years. According to existing research, student traits, family and home environment, teacher qualities, and school factors all influence students’ learning and academic success (Hattie, 2009; Meyer and Benavot, 2013; Nilson and Gustafsson, 2016). It is thought that Among school-related factors, teacher characteristics have the greatest influence on students’ learning (Barber and Mourshed, 2007; Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2012; World Bank, 2018). Academic and professional qualifications, teaching experience, and instructors’ classroom techniques have all been linked to children’s learning in a variety of situations (Glewwe and Kremer, 2006; Kingdon and Aslam, 2011; Azigwe et al., 2016). However, there is ongoing debate about which characteristics of teachers, alone or in combination, contribute the most to students’ educational attainment. Overall, research on teacher characteristics and students’ educational attainment is a growing area of policy interest in low and middle-income countries, owing to the desire to provide a high-quality education to all (UN, 2015; World Bank, 2018). (OECD, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development)

Teachers may be the most readily available significant individuals in these children’s educational development because they have less access to educational resources and are less likely to have someone with educational expertise to adequately support and mentor them at home. However, it is unclear which teacher characteristics can help low-income children improve their educational outcomes.

1.2 Research problem statement

Teachers’ characteristics are characteristics that a person must possess before being labeled as a teacher. Communication, listening, teamwork, adaptability, empathy, and patience are examples of these qualities. Effective teaching also includes an engaging classroom presence, a value in real-world learning, the exchange of best practices, and a lifelong love of learning. However, most schools, particularly private schools, do not.

Check for these characteristics before hiring a person as a teacher because they do not want to pay a high salary to the teacher, which has a negative impact on the students who have been taught by an unqualified teacher, resulting in a significant decrease in their educational attainment.

1.3 The study’s objectives

The study’s primary goal is as follows:

1. Determine whether teachers have the necessary characteristics to teach in order to improve students’ educational attainment in Ghana.

2. To investigate whether the characteristics of teachers influence students’ educational attainment in Ghana.

3. Determine whether school officials look for these characteristics before hiring a teacher.

4. To investigate how to improve

Teachers’ characteristics are important in order to improve students’ educational attainment in Ghana.

1.4 Hypothesis of research

H01: Before hiring a teacher, school officials do not look for certain characteristics.

H02: Teachers’ characteristics have no effect on students’ educational attainment in Ghana.

1.5 Importance of the research

The importance of this study cannot be overstated because:

l This study will look at teacher characteristics and their impact on children’s educational attainment in Ghana.

l The findings of this study will undoubtedly provide much-needed information to government organizations, radio stations, the Ministry of Education, and academia.

1.6 The Study’s Scope

This study will look at teacher characteristics and their impact on children’s educational attainment in Ghana. Hence

will be restricted to a few secondary schools in Ghana.

1.7 Research limitations

A number of factors hampered this study, which are as follows:

just like any other research, from a lack of needed accurate materials on the topic under study to an inability to obtain data

The researcher faced financial constraints in obtaining relevant materials as well as printing and collating questionnaires.

Time constraint: Another constraint is time, which makes it difficult for the researcher to shuttle between writing the research and engaging in other academic work.

1.8 Term operational definition

A teacher is someone who teaches, usually in a school.

Characteristics: a feature or quality that is unique to a person, place, or thing.

to identify them.

Educational attainment: the highest level of education attained by an individual.