INTRODUCTION
The technical drawing is the language of technology. It is the most popular technical subject in any technical education program be it at the universities, polytechnics, colleges of education (Technical), technical colleges, or secondary schools.[1] The technical drawing is a skill-oriented subject or course that covers work done by architects, engineers, interior designers and electricians, technical drafters, craftsmen, and technical teacher educators and students. The technical drawing is essentially the universal and graphic language used by architects, technicians, engineers, technologists, designers, craftsmen, operators, manufacturers, and industrialists to communicate ideas by means of pictures, drawings, graphics, and symbols.[1] The usability of technical drawing goes beyond cultures and languages, and for any country to advance technologically, such a country must enlarge the preparation of her citizens in a technical drawing which is the language of technology.
The technical drawing is offered in Nigerian senior secondary schools, technical colleges, and tertiary institutions that offer courses in the areas of technical education, architecture, urban and regional planning, and engineering. The technical drawing course outline according to the National Board for Technical Education[2] includes: (i) Drawing studio practice; (ii) geometrical construction; (iii) development of geometrical solids; (iv) pictorial drawing; (v) points and lines in space; (vi) building and engineering design and drawing; and (vii) business opportunities in drawing studio practice. Its objectives are: To provide an understanding of the theoretical and applied concepts relating to the use of information and communication technology to facilitate visual communication of ideas in the construction and production industries; provide introduction to modern drawing studio practice; lay the foundation for technological development and further studies in building and engineering; and stimulate, develop, and enhance entrepreneurship skills in the diverse areas of drawing studio practice. Technical drawing is offered at the technical colleges in Nigeria for 3 years. During this period, technical teachers are expected to expose students to practical activities toward arousing and stimulating the students’ interest in technology and cultivating their attitude positively to entrepreneurship and national development in technology.
Oviawe[3] described technical drawing as the prime mover of all other technical related subjects that forms a picture of the concept of what should be drawn before actually drawing it. He added that greater form is done where the teacher finds it difficult to assist students to create the image of the picture required. These difficulties, according to Oviawe and Adeola,[1] are of a mechanic tradition.[1] Further stated that Nigeria as a developing country is just starting to experience the technology age, with the result that most of her young people, unlike youths elsewhere have had no acquaintance with machines, mechanical knowledge, attitude, habits, and thinking that are normal part of growing up in a technology culture. This clearly implies that something is lacking in Nigeria’s quest for technological growth and development. To this end, Oviawe[3] posited that the required background that ought to be the foundation for the study of engineering and technology, which is technical drawing is missing. This forms the basis for the technological culture most researchers refer to. The technical drawing needs a high level of imagination and vision; and students are required to acquire or possess the creative skills to enable them to perform well in technical drawing.
Despite the laudable objects of technical drawing to technology education, studies have revealed that students’ academic performance in technical subjects has been poor over the years. The analysis of students’ results in NABTEB, according to Chief Examiners’ report of the National Business and Technical Examination Board from 2009 to 2013, revealed that the percentage of failure is higher than the percentage of credit pass annually. This depicts an ugly trend in the students’ performance in NABTEB technical drawing. Furthermore, the National Board for Technical Education in the years 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 asserted that the overall achievement of students in the technical drawing has been quite low with the highest mean score in technical drawing recorded as 34.67%, 38%, 40.43%, and 27.78%, respectively.[4] This situation cannot necessarily produce the ingredients for the actualization of the achievement of one of the objectives of teaching technical drawing in technical colleges and senior secondary schools, which is to prepare students’ for further studies in technology-related fields. This poor academic performance of students in technical drawing is blamed on many reasons: Poor teaching approach and instructional strategy;[5] lack of confidence in the subject;[6] poor learning environment;[7] and the unique and standardized teaching material provided to all learners tends to be of unique benefit to only those students whose learning style and background knowledge fit well with the teaching materials. This does not take care of the individual differences that exist between the learners, such as learning styles, abilities, and background knowledge;[8] and teachers and government’s inability to effectively sponsor education and motivate teachers to enhance their productivity.[9] The foregoing reports suggest that the mastery of technical drawing in Nigeria is at a shallow level and needs to be improved on Oviawe and Adeola.[1] The students’ poor performance in technical drawing has been a major concern to all stakeholders (parents, technical teachers, and technical teacher educators and curriculum experts) across the nation, and they are keen to grip any effort geared toward ameliorating this horrible peril.
The success of any endeavors is reliant on certain factors. This may be true of academic performance in training and schooling. A key principle factor for the success of students’ academic performance is the teacher.[10] Thus, to ensure that the stated objectives of technical drawing are effectively realized, the teachers of technical drawing who are primary implementers of its curriculum have crucial roles to play. The ugly trend in students’ academic performance in NABTEB and NBTE technical drawing could also be linked to teachers’ classroom variables such as teachers’ quality, professional development, and characteristics external to classroom practices.
Within the context of this study, teacher quality includes teachers’ qualifications, years of experience, and areas of specialization. Teachers’ qualifications and exposure can go a long way to bring about students’ high academic achievement. To this end, the Federal Republic of Nigeria[11] posited that no education can rise above the quality of its teachers. The function of the teachers’ in the preparation of students to succeed in examinations cannot be undermined. Gbore[10] asserted that the shortage of qualified teachers is responsible for the poor academic performance observable among students while Adegbemile[12] stated that teachers hold the key to nation-building. The aspiration of any nation to transform into a greater country can only be possible if there are competent and dedicated teachers to impact the appropriate attitudes, skills, and knowledge. Adegbemile[12] Added that students taught by more qualified and experienced teachers in terms of knowledge of the subject matter perform better than those taught by less qualified but experienced teachers.
Teachers are expected to be competent and professional in their related fields and subject-matter.[13] The teaching qualification is an end product of professional development which encompasses all types of learning embarked on by teachers outside the point of their earlier preparation in school before becoming a teacher. According to Aina and Olanipekun,[14] teachers’ qualification is a particular type of experience or knowledge someone possesses to make him/her suitable to teach. Maphoso and Mahlo[15] Asserted that a teacher must possess instructional/intervention skills to maximize the learner’s outcomes. A teacher’s qualification refers to all the requisite skills a teacher needs to effectively teach. These skills include formal education, experience, subject matter knowledge, pedagogy studies, duration of training, certificate/licensing, and professional development.[16] Sowder[17] stated that teacher’s qualification depends on the professional growth, which is noticeable by the change in teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and instructional strategies.
Akinsolu[18] conducted a study in which he examined the number of qualified teachers and its relationship to students’ learning in public secondary schools in Osun State. Twenty-one public senior secondary schools were randomly sampled. The instrument for data collection was titled: Quantity and quality of teachers and students’ learning readiness. The senior school certificate examinations results from 2000/2001 to 2004/2005 were used to analyze students’ learning readiness. The data collected were analyzed using ANOVA and Spearman rank correlation coefficient to test the three operational hypotheses. Findings of the study revealed that teachers’ qualifications, experience, and teacher-student ration were significantly related to students’ learning readiness.
Teachers are appointed based on their qualifications to teach and execute other administrative tasks. Teachers are the catalyst between the students and the subject matter. They are to ensure that learning occurs. Stigler and Hiebert[19] opined that increased qualification might increase teaching effectiveness. According to the Federal Republic of Nigeria,[11] to be a teacher, an individual should possess the Nigerian Certificate in Education, Bachelor of Education, Postgraduate Diploma in Education, and Professional Diploma in Education. Abe[20] outlined three ways in which teacher qualification can be quantified: (i) Level of education; (ii) years of experience in preparation of subject matter and pedagogy; and (iii) certification in their expertise area and their ongoing professional development.
Professional development is the activities that develop a person’s skills, knowledge, expertise, and other characteristics as a teacher. This definition recognizes that development can be provided in several ways, ranging from the formal to the informal. It is a continuum of learning and support activities designed to prepare individuals for work. It can be made available through external expertise in the form of courses, workshops, or formal qualification programs through collaboration between schools and teachers across schools (e.g., observational visit to other schools or network teachers) or within the schools in which teachers work. It can also include training specific to the field that is on-going over the course of a career, 1 time in service training, coaching, mentorship or even peer support, or online tools for learning. It is intended to benefit all teachers; each teacher brings a different set of characteristics to the classroom, which has the potential to influence the impact of the professional development.[21]
Professional development contributes to learning process of effective teaching and classroom interactions which lead to classroom quality. Single session professional development trainings contribute to stronger instruction practices within the classroom. Professional development with 14 or more hours of training time increases likelihood that teachers retain new information and are able to implement new skills effectively. It is also important to provide a variety of professional development layouts (single session, online modules, and workshops) because teachers respond differently based on individual characteristics and interest.[22] The Wilson[23] asserted that there is universal agreement that high-quality, ongoing professional development for teachers is equally necessary. Research linking professional development to changes in teacher knowledge or practice is suggestive. Desimone et al.[24] found that professional development focused on specific instructional practices increases teachers’ use of those practices and that the use of specific features such as active learning opportunities, increases the effect of the professional development on teachers’ instruction. Research in the school sector in Australia and internationally is unequivocal about the importance and impact of teacher quality on students learning.[25] Yoon et al.[26] examined nine studies that looked at the influence of teacher professional development on students’ achievement and found that the students of teachers who had on average of 49 h of professional development had greater achievement. This indicates the place of teacher professional development in teaching and learning. Similarly, Jillian[27] studied how teacher characteristics influence the impact of professional development on classroom quality in Rhode Island using a population of 490 teachers and a sample size of 210 teachers selected through simple random sampling technique. These teachers were assigned to four different treatment groups: Course and consultancy, course only, consultancy only, and control group. Classroom assessment scoring system scores were used to measure the study. Regression analysis and t-test were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study show that the teachers with higher education levels benefit from each of the three treatment combinations, which may be a result of their pre-existing ability to foster a stronger learning environment than those who have lower credentials. Related to this factor is the experience of the technical drawing teachers in the field of teaching.
Technical drawing teachers’ experience in the field of teaching contributes to the educational environment of the learners, which in turn will have an impact on the learners’ academic performance. There is a common assumption that with regard to the relationship between teacher experience and students’ academic performance. It is generally perceived that students’ taught by the most experienced teachers achieved higher levels. This is because such teachers had mastered the content and obtained classroom management skills to deal with different types of classroom problems. However, researches on the relationship between the teachers’ experience and students’ academic performance revealed contradictory results. For example, Chhinh and Tabata[28] found a positive relationship between teachers’ experiences and students’ achievement while Klecker[29] found that there is no significant relationship between students’ achievement and their teachers’ years of teaching. Abe[20] found that teacher quality characteristics, such as certification status and degree in subject to be taught are very significant and positively correlated with subject outcomes.
Ewetan and Ewetan[30] examined the influence of teachers’ teaching experience on the learning readiness of public secondary school students in Mathematics and English Language in Ado-Odo/Ota and Ifo Local Government Areas of Ogun State, Nigeria. The study population consisted of all the 31 senior secondary schools in the two local government areas. Simple random sampling technique was used the selection of 20 schools; 14 schools from Ado/Ota, and six from Ifo Local Government Areas. An inventory schedule was the instrument used for data collection. Four hundred questionnaires, 20 per school, were administered. Three hundred and eighty-eight questionnaires (97%) were duly completed and returned. Their responses were analyzed through content analysis. Regression analysis and t-test were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings indicated that teachers’ teaching experience has significantly influenced students’ readiness in Mathematics and English Language as measured by their performance in the senior secondary school certificate examinations and as perceived by the respondents. Interestingly, Owoeye and Yara[31] found in their studies that students with Mathematics teachers’ assigned in-field scored higher and had greater gains than students with teachers’ assigned out-of-field, which shows a connection of content-knowledge, but not necessarily applying pedagogical knowledge to other content areas.
Kimani et al.[32] discarded the notion that more experienced teachers and principals demonstrate greater executive and professional responsibility than the less experienced ones or that the length of teaching experience positively correlated with productivity or age of the teacher is a determinant of efficiency and effectiveness. These authors in their study titled: Production of academic achievement as a function of teachers’ experience and salaries reported that teachers’ experience is an important factor in students’ learning. However, most of these researchers do not use or test other teacher variable to convince us that there is absolute unrelated between teaching experience and effectiveness in the classroom.
Agbatogun[33] opined that teaching experience is positively correlated with students’ learning outcomes. Agbatogun[33] found that years of teaching experience are consistent predictors of higher test scores, other documents revealed a negative effect when a high proportion of non-experienced teachers is present in a school in terms of high drop-out rates and lower students’ achievement scores. Alufohai[34] reported that the effect of teacher experience is a small relative to other desirable teachers’ characteristics such as teachers’ content knowledge and overall academic ability. It is in the light of these conflicting findings that this study was conducted to find out the direction of the relationship between teachers’ experience and students’ achievement in technical drawing. The findings of this study will help to understand the place of professional development in teaching and learning.
