CONCLUSIONES Y RECOMENDACIONES

Seers(1989) opines that developing the curriculum without taking into consideration the teacher who is the implementer of the curriculum will be perilous and therefore stimulate systems inefficiency. The teacher is the key to the success of the students.

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The teacher plays an invaluable role in imparting the lessons and educating the child to be useful person to himself and the society. Teachers have contributed immensely to the development of the nation.

With respect to the responsibility of the teachers for the useful guidance of the child, the teacher has to possess basic knowledge about the learners, the learning environment, the available resources and the subject matter. This implies that the teacher should be a professionally trained individual to enable him handle the work effectively. According to Soar andSoar (1978) there is no best way to be a good teacher. No single teaching behavior is highly correlated with student achievement.

McDonald (1975) observed from his research with teachers that one could only find

“patterns” of teacher behaviors that are associated with effective and ineffective teachers.

Although it is true that good teachers are not alike in all ways, it is equally true that they nonetheless share particular characteristics whether in the way they manage their instructional activities, the way they view themselves or the way they interact with students. Good teaching is both an art and a science. Put another way, good teaching is done by an artist who is able to utilize human resources and technological advances (McDonald, 1975).

Research efforts aimed at studying teacher effectiveness have attempted to probe one or more of the following three dimensions of teacher behaviors:

(i) Personality traits

53 (ii) Intellectual Characteristics and

(iii) Instructional Approaches

The Personality Trait

The impact that a teacher‟s personality can have on a student‟s emerging self and emotional stability is considerable. In an analysis of over 12000 letters written in conjunction with the “Quiz kids” program on the theme, “The Teacher Who Helped Me Most”, Withy (1997) found that the top ranking personality traits associated with these teachers were the following:

(i) Cooperative and democratic attitude

(ii) Kindness and considerations for the individual (iii) Patience

(iv) Broad Interest

(v) Pleasant appearance and manner (vi) Fairness and impartiality

(vii) A sense of humor

(viii) Pleasant disposition and consistent behavior (ix) Interest in pupils‟ problems and,

(x) Flexibility

According to Makinde (2010), humans are endowed with unbelievably amazing brain which is quite superior to that of any animal and this is why an average child is so curios to discover knowledge. In infancy up to childhood, they ask series of questions

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like: “why, how, when, what…” to the extent that they test the parents‟ patience. If parents are exhausted by the endless barrage of children‟s questions, it is more tasking on the part of the teachers who may face not less than forty of such curious children in the classroom. The situation is worse when the teacher is extrinsically motivated to teach, that is, to teach first to make end meet. Students of such teachers are less inspired, less eager to learn and later view schools as stressful or drudgery. Even the pressure to obtain good grades causes unbearable anxiety.

Soar and Soar (1979) observed that warmth, friendliness, and understanding are teacher traits that are strongly related to positive students‟ attitude. Seers (1989) found positive correlations between the extents to which a teacher reflects a personal interest in and willingness to listen to students‟ ideas and the creativity shown by elementary level students. Tikunoff (1975) found that second and fifth-grade students of teachers who were accepting, cooperative and involved, showed greater learning gains in Mathematics and reading than students whose teachers were rated lower on these characteristics.

Intellectual Characteristics

According to Good and Brophy (1987), expert teachers differ from novice and less effective teachers in much the same ways that expert physicists, physicians, or even chess players differ from novices in these fields. Skilled, effective teachers, for example, work from integrated, underlying principles for action, which allow them to have access to richer and more elaborated strategies for coping with problems in

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teaching. Good and Brophy (1987) cautioned that subject-matter knowledge and action system knowledge do not guarantee that one will be an effective teacher.

Leihardt (1986) found that effective Mathematics teachers could review a previous day‟s work with students in two or three minutes, compared to the fifteen minutes or so taken by less effective teachers.

Milgram (1979) found in her research with 459 gifted and non- gifted children in grades four through six that all children, regardless of level of intelligence or of creative thinking, sex, or age value the intellectual preparedness of teachers more highly than teachers‟ creativity and personality.

Regarding gifted high school students, Bishop (1976) reported that teachers who are judged successful by these students were characterized as being more intellectually prepared than less successful teachers.

Instructional Approaches

Rosenshine (1987) opined that there are basically two instructional modes from which we can choose our own way of classroom teaching. These are: The direct route and the indirect route.

Direct Versus Indirect Teacher-Student Interaction Pattern Teacher Talk - Indirect Influence

Accepts feelings: accepts and clarifies the feelings of the pupils in a non-threatening manner. Feelings may be positive or negative. Predicting or recalling feelings are included.

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Praises or encourages: praises or encourages pupil action or behavior. Jokes that release tension but not at the expense of another individual, as well as nodding head or saying “um-hum” or “go on” are included.

Accepts or uses idea of pupil: clarifies or develops ideas suggested by a pupil as the teacher brings more of his own idea into play.

Asks questions: asks a question about content or procedures, with the intent that a pupil answers.

Teacher Talk – Direct Influence

Lecturing: gives facts or opinions about content or procedures; expresses his own ideas; asks rhetorical questions.

Giving directions: directs, commands, or orders with the intent that the pupils comply.

Criticizing or justifying authority: makes statements intended to change pupil behavior from non acceptable to acceptable pattern; criticizes or rebukes; states why he is doing what he is doing; refers extensively to himself.

Student Talk

Response: pupil makes a predictable response to teacher. Teacher initiates the contact or solicits pupils‟ statement and sets limit to what the pupils say.

Initiation: a pupil initiates communication with the teacher including unpredictable statements in response to teacher.

57 Undirected Activity

Silence or confusion: pauses, short periods of silence and periods of confusion in which communication cannot be understood by the observer.

Ukeje (1971) pointed out that it is true that if a pupil has not learned, then the teacher has not taught. Bajpai (1972) commented that a teacher of Mathematics has a great responsibility that demand good training, patience, dedication and sound knowledge.

He added that the most important duty of the teacher is to help his student in Mathematics through his own experiences and understanding.