Influence of School Characteristics on Students Academic Achievement in Chemistry in Secondary Schools in Dala in Kano State

ABSTRACT
Researchfocusingontheeffectofteachercharacteristicsonstudents’performance
hasbeenpopularinrecentyears.Thishasrevitalizedinterestinthesubjectofteacher
characteristicsandtheireffectsonstudents’performance.Moststudiestendtoshow
thatteachercharacteristicshaveapositiveeffectonstudents’performance.There,
however,lackssufficientdatatosupportthisassertioninKenya.Thisstudy,therefore,
focusedonInfluenceofschoolcharacteristicsonstudentacademicachievementin
chemistryinsecondaryschoolsinDalaLGEA,Kanostate.Thepurposeofthestudywas
toinvestigatetheeffectofteacherqualification,experienceandattitudeonstudents’
performanceinchemistry.Thetheoreticalframeworkinthestudywasbasedonthe
heuristiclearningtheoryasadvancedbyHenryEdwardArmstrong.Inthisperspective,
thestudentisviewedasonewhoactivelycontactsconceptsbyaprocessofguided
discovery.Theresearchdesignusedtocarryoutthestudywasdescriptivesurvey.This
wasbecauseitwasbestsuitedinthestudyofindividualcharacteristicsandwouldhelp
presentresponses by respondents in a clearermanner.The targetpopulation
comprisedofstudentsandteachersinatotalsampleof42secondaryschoolswhere
stratifiedrandom samplingwasemployedtoselect13schools,whichrepresented30%
ofthetotalnumberofschools. Thedistrictwaschosenbecauseithadvaried
performanceinnationalexaminations,especiallyinchemistry. Questionnairefor
teacherstoinvestigateteacherqualification,experienceandattitudewasadministered.
Anotherquestionnairetoinvestigatestudents’attitudetowardschemistryandtheir
teacherswasalsogiven.Thequestionnairehadbothstructuredandunstructureditems.
Thedatawascollectedandanalyzedusingdescriptivestatistics,includingfrequency
graphs;mean,modemedian,standarddeviationandpercentageswhileforinferential
statistics,correlationandregressionwereemployed.Astatisticalprogram,SPSSwas
usedindataanalysis.Thefindingsofthestudyshowedthatteachercharacteristics
weremoreinfluentialinpredictingstudentperformancethanschoolfactors.The
findingsofthisstudyaddedvaluetotheexpandingresearchstudiesontheeffectsof
teachercharacteristics on students’performance.The study recommended the
strengtheningofinternalinspectioninschoolstomitigateagainstsomeof