Gender variability, conditions of service and teaching effectiveness of Secondary School teachers in Calabar Education Zone, Cross River State, Nigeria

The study was aimed primarily at investigating the possible influence of gender and teachers’ conditions of service on their general teaching effectiveness in secondary schools in Cross River State. The survey inferential design was used and research area Cross River State with the population of 2424 teachers selected from secondary schools teachers in the Calabar Education Zone of the 2016/2017 academic year. Stratified sampling technique was used to select schools, teachers and students based on local government and school location. A 44-item teaching effectiveness questionnaire was developed to measure the effect of their teachers’ gender (independent variable) on their teaching effectiveness (dependent variable). The dependent variable was operationalized under sub variables as: knowledge of the subject matter, ability to motivate the students, inter-personal relationship with students, his communication skills, ability to utilize various teaching methods, his evaluation skills and his general teaching effectiveness. In a similar manner, another questionnaire instrument with 10 items was constructed separately to measure the extent to which conditions of service can influence teachers’ level of teaching. The result of the first hypotheses shoed a negative influence of gender variability on teaching effectiveness of secondary school teachers, while the second hypotheses indicated a positive influence of conditions of service on conditions of service. It was recommended that even though variability does pose a serious threat to teaching effectiveness, subjects should be allocated to teachers on the basis of competence and specialty. Basic classroom related conditions should be made available to make teaching and learning more purposeful and effective.