Abstract

The general purpose of this study was to determine teachers’ pedagogical skills as predictors of pupils’ academic achievement in Christian Religious Studies in South East, Nigeria. The study adopted a correlation research design. Two questions were posed and two hypotheses were formulated and tested for the study. The study was carried out in all the primary schools in South-East, Nigeria. The population of the study included all the 42,796 primary school teachers in South-East, Nigeria. A sample of 855 public primary school teachers was drawn for the study using a multi-stage random sampling procedure. Two instruments were used for data collection, they are: Teachers’ Pedagogical Skills Questionnaire (TPSQ) and Pupils’ Academic Achievement Proforma (PAAP). The instruments were validated by three experts. The reliability of the instrument was established by trial-testing on 20 primary school teachers that were randomly drawn from Ezinihite-Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State which is a part of the study area but not a sampled area. Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Coefficient was used to determine the internal consistency reliability index 0.89 for TPSQ. Data collected were analyzed using Correlation Coefficient and Regression Analysis of Variance was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that teachers’ pedagogical skills significantly predicted pupils’ academic achievement in Christian Religious Studies in South-East. It was recommended that teachers should possess sufficient knowledge and skills regarding curriculum content and classroom management in order to overcome classroom challenges.

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