PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION AND CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT SKILLS AS DETERMINANTS OF CAREER INTEREST OF BUSINESS STUDIES TEACHERS OF JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL IN IJEBU NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT, OGUN STATE.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study.

Webster’s Dictionary of English Language defines career as progress through life with respect to ones work, a means of earning a living, a profession. This is synonymous with occupation, which is seen as an activity by which one earns ones living or fills ones time. According to Juntunen, Barraclough and Broneck (2001), the term career, as revealed in their studies findings, is conceptualize as: a lifelong endeavour a representation of lifelong goals, planning or activity, it included a commitment, generally beyond what was necessary for a given job or type of work sometimes, this commitment seemed to be part of the individual’s self-identity. It emphasizes planning, goal setting and looking to the future it is perceived as something you choose to pursue, something you enjoy or can specialize in. Therefore career is something with a future in it. Career can be considered as the way the individual expresses himself and relates to society through life. Popoola (2004) sees it as a job, or profession for which one undergoes regulated education and training over a period of time and which one intends to follow for the whole of ones life. It is thus a chosen pursuit, life work and success in one’s profession. It is the sequence of major positions occupied by a person throughout his/her lifetime. It is the totality of work one does in one’s lifetime and it is person centred. It is a meaningful progression on a person’s working life or a course pursued over a period of time (Oyetade, 2001). Choosing a career path or course of action essentially boils down to a career decision-making process. The eectiveness of an individual’s career decision-making relies heavily on the available information at the decision making point. Information is power and the more it is at one’s disposal, the easier it is to make well-informed decisions. Oen times, inability to choose a career path over another tend to indicate that of is lacking in suicient information.

Although work has dierent meanings for human beings, essentially, it is the backbone of an individual’s life (Paulter, 1995). The presence or absence of work is perhaps the most important pivotal point in a human’s life. Generally, individuals spend their early years preparing for work, the major section of life doing chosen work and the last part of life retired from work (Powlette,2006). Career interest occurs in broad sequential stages, starting from the interest developed from childhood till death. The earliest stage is oen a non-realistic conceptualization of one’s potentials and the world. But with time, the child begins to be more realistic in appraising himself with potential jobs. This second share normally extends from about the end of primary school to secondary school. The third stage is referred to as realistic choice making. It has been observed that many people fail in jobs for psychological reasons, as just having the requisite skill is not a suicient condition for success in a job. The impact of career development process, an individual fashions a work identity. Indeed, “fashioning a work identity” oen translates into “fashioning an identity”, which probably explains why in some culture we are what we do. For the young, this decision is critical in determining the outcome of their lives. Career interest has been described by Hoyt (1977) as a developmental process, extending over almost the entire life span, through which persons develop the capacity for and engage in work as part of their total life style.

Thus, career education aims at helping student to investigate vocational, domestic and civic outfit for developed interests and abilities (super 1976). Apparently, there is the need for career readiness on the part of the students, the place of which is indispensable in any meaningful educational system. Although academics concern has been found to be a significant requirement in attaining career readiness, issues of personal unhappiness and vocational identity tend to superimpose it. The essence of career readiness was underscore by Bojuwoye (1985) when he found out in a survey of second year college student that Nigerian student experience diiculties with issues relating to career interest more than they do with any other problem. In a study, Wollman (1975) found that 63% of his respondents were either not at all satisfied with the way they had planned their career interest or were only fairly satisfied. They confirmed the need for some form of more planning than to participate in a career guidance programme, if made available to them. The main goal of this would be to help them become aware of a decision making process, which applies directly to their career related concerns. However, disruptive behavior of students in schools has been another source of concern for school systems for several years. Indeed, the single most common request for assistance from teachers is related to behavior and classroom management (Rose & Gallup 2005). Classroom with frequent disruptive behavior have less academic engaged time and the student in disruptive classroom tend to have lower grades and do poorer on standardized tests (Shinn,1987).

Futhermore, attempts to control disruptive behavior cost considerable teacher time at the expense of academic instruction. School discipline issues such as disruptive behavior and violence also have an increased eect on teacher stress and burnout (Smith & Smith 2006). There is a significant body of research attesting to the fact that classroom organization and behavior management competencies significantly influence the persistence of new teachers in their teaching career (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003). New teacher typically express concern about eective means to handle disruptive behavior (Browers & Tomic, 2000). Teachers who have significant problems with behavior management and classroom discipline oen report high level of stress and symptoms of burnout and are frequently Ineective (Berliner 1986; Browers & Tomic 2000; Espin & Yell 1994). The ability of teachers to organize classrooms and manage the behavior of their students is critical to achieving both positive educational outcomes for student and teacher retention. Eective classroom management is also related to prevention eorts. Children’s behavior is shaped by the social context of the environment during the developmental process (Kauman 2005). Many behavioral disorder begin with or are made worse through behavioral processes such as modeling, reinforcement, extinction, and punishment (Kauman 2005; Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992). The classroom context plays a significant role in the emergence and persistence of aggressive behavior. Early intervention and treatment for students at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) is essential to prevent more serious behaviors from developing (Kauman 2005; Greer-Chase, Rhodes & Kellam, 2002). The progressive and malleability of maladapted behavior is aected by classroom management practices of teachers in the early grades (Greer-Chase, 2002). For example, classroom with high levels of disruptive or aggressive behavior place children at-risk for more serious behavior problems and EBD. Research has indicated that aggressive student in aggressive or disruptive classroom environment are more likely to be aggressive in later grades (Greer-Chase 2002). 1

The overall value of eective classroom management and its positive eect in guaranteeing the achievement of outstanding educational outcomes is well captured by Emmer and Stough (2001). They argued that the ability of teacher to organize classrooms and manage the behavior of their students is critical to achieving positive educational outcomes. Although sound behavior management does not guarantee eective instructions, it establishes the environmental context notebook home work quiz”. This serves as a form of positive reinforcement (skinner 1953). Consequently, there will be high educational outcomes. It is importance of maintaining order in eective classroom management. This has become necessary because establishing and maintaining order is central to what educators do. According to Doyle (2011)”the underlying assumption is that classroom order encourages student engagement which supports learning”. The implication of this, according to him is that “classroom management results in the coupling of order and learning “He therefore saw classroom management as the progression of strategic that teachers utilize to promote order and learning. Thus, Research-based approaches to management are necessary to improve both academic and behavioral outcomes for student. 1.2. Statement of the problem Most teachers in Nigeria, are either subject-matter-oriented or pedagogy oriented in their training. There was no type of training in business subjects. When the need was felt later in the 1970s to teach a few of the traditional basic business subjects in the secondary schools, the teachers were recruited from the crop of those ill-equipped commercial institution. Most business teachers in the secondary school, college and university in Nigeria do not have any training in the pedagogy. Their only qualification for teaching business courses is that they studied related course at the colleges and universities. In short, they are subject-matter teachers not business studies teachers. Various views have been expressed about business education teacher preparation. One school of thought maintains that programmes for business education teacher preparation must include academic and practical training. However, the professional qualification and classroom management skills have been attributed to be factors that are important in determining the career interest of business studies teacher.