The influence of teachers’ characterstics on students’ academic achievement in Tanzanian secondary school

This study is about the influence of teachers’ characteristics on students’ academic achievement in Tanzanian public secondary schools. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of teachers’ characteristics on students’ academic achievement. Three objectives guided this study firstly, was to find out the students’ perceptions about their teachers characteristic that might influence them to like or dislike some subjects. Secondly, was to examine the relationship between teachers’ professional characteristics and students’ academic achievement. Thirdly, to determine the implication of negative perceived characteristics of teachers by students on academic achievement of students. The teachers’ professional characteristics investigated were pedagogical, ethical, and interpersonal characteristics. The study was conducted in Iringa region in two districts, Iringa urban and Iringa rural where three public secondary schools namely Iringa Girls, Tosamaganga (Boys) from urban area and Mlamke co-education from rural were selected. The sample comprises 82 respondents in the categories of education inspectors, heads of schools, academic master/mistress, teachers and students who were obtained through purposive sampling, stratified random sampling and systematic techniques. Qualitative data collected from semi-structured interviews, FGD and open-ended questionnaire were subjected to thematic analysis and then coded, quantified and categorized according to the research tasks and questions. Later on the data were tabulated, and the frequencies and response calculated as percentages, some of the respondent views and perceptions being presented as quotations. Quantitative data were also coded and entered into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) programme then presented as percentages. The study findings revealed that a considerable number of students disliked some subjects taught at their schools due to some undesirable characteristics shown by their teachers. Students’ negative perceptions of some teachers were found to be related with students’ academic achievements. It was also revealed that teacher’s knowledge on ethical, pedagogical, and inter-personal domains effectively not only added in student achievement but also are indeed a sign of teacher professionalism. It was concluded that students’ learning motivation and their attitudes towards the subject and its teacher are partly influenced by the gradual building up and sum total of interrelated teacher characteristics in the pedagogical, inter-personal and ethical spheres that touch pupils’ feelings related to understanding, sharing and valuing on the whole range of experiences in academic, social and personal aspects. Student negative perceptions of teacher characteristics may contribute not only to low academic achievement of student but also has implications for behavioural management in schools. It is suggested that in order to improve student academic achievement, teachers need to reflect upon their own behaviour and professional practices.