PERCEPTION OF OUT-OF-FIELD SECONDARY SCHOOL BIOLOGY TEACHERS' ANXIETY ON CONTENT MASTERY IN NIGER STATE

Abstract

This study examined the perception of out-of- field secondary school biology teachers’ anxiety on content mastery in Niger State. The research design that was adopted for this study is descriptive survey. Three research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The population of this study was 666 out-of-field Biology teachers’ in 543 public and private Senior Secondary School drawn from the seven educational zones in Niger State. The sample size for this study was 501 out-of field Biology teachers’ (private school = 246 & public-school =255). Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted for this study, firstly, stratified sampling technique was used for selecting 226 senior secondary schools from 7 educational zones while simple random sampling technique was adopted in picking respondents from the schools. A researcher developed-questionnaire named out -of –field Secondary School Biology Teachers’ Anxiety on content Mastery Questionnaire (OFBIOTACMQ) validated by two expert’s science education and one psychologist was used to elicit responses from participants. The questionnaire had two sections (A and B). Section A was designed to collect demographic data respondents, while sections B had 15 content mastery statements using anxiety constructs. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was 0.85 through Cronbach Alpha formula. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such a percentage (%), bar charts, Mean and Standard Deviation were used in answering the research questions raised while inferential statistics such as ANOVA and Scheffes post Hoc was used to analyze data for hypotheses testing at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the level of anxiety of out-of-field Biology teachers was within the mean range of highly anxious. There was significant difference between the Mean scores of out-of-field male and female Biology teachers at 0.05 level of significance. There was a significant difference in the out-of field Biology teachers’ anxiety on Content Mastery based on years of teaching experience. The study recommends among others that teaching in senior secondary school be strictly professionalized in all respects and treated as such to remove quackery in its field of practice to ensure efficiency and efficacy.