Structural equation modeling of the impact of teacher variables on student academic performance in elective mathematics of selected senior high schools in Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of teacher variables such as teachers’ qualification, teaching experience, teachers’ knowledge of subject matter, and teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, on student performance in elective mathematics in Senior High Schools (SHS) in Ghana. The positivist philosophy and descriptive survey design were adopted for the study. A sample of 225 SHS elective mathematics teachers and 6,750 SHS elective mathematics students was selected from Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central, Western and Northern regions for the study through multi-stage sampling technique. Two questionnaires; one for teachers and the other for students were used for the data collection. The data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The study found a statistically significant predictive relationship among teacher prior education and training, teaching experience, teacher subject matter knowledge, teacher pedagogical content knowledge, and students’ performance in elective mathematics. Teaching experience was found to moderate the relationship between teachers’ subject matter knowledge and students’ performance in elective mathematics while it played an insignificant moderating role in the relationship between pedagogical content knowledge and performance in elective mathematics. It was concluded that teacher variables: prior education and training, teaching experience, subject matter knowledge, and pedagogical content knowledge all play significant roles in the performance of students in elective mathematics. It was recommended that stakeholders in education should formulate policies that will ensure the hiring of professional and qualified elective mathematics teachers to facilitate effective teaching and learning in senior high schools. It was also recommended that all non-professional and unqualified elective mathematics teachers who are already engage, should be encouraged to persue post-graduate studies in mathematics education.