Teachers’ Attitude as a Correlate of Students’ Academic Performance

The classroom climate which is often times set by the teacher is determined by the teacher’s attitude. Attitude as a major determinant of a person’s behavior influences the way a teacher relates with the students and thus affects students’ academic performance. The study examined teacher’s attitude as a correlate of students’ academic performance in geography. Descriptive survey design was adopted and a sample size of four hundred selected from a population of nine hundred and sixty-eight using the Taro Yamane sample size formula. Two research questions and a research hypothesis were proposed in line with the study objectives. Average Mean Score was used to analyze responses for the research questions while Multiple Regression Analysis was used to test the research hypotheses. The findings show that attitude of teachers correlated positively and significantly with students’ academic performance. Poor government attitude to teachers, lack of job satisfaction, poor remuneration and delayed salary, students’ learning interest and absence of teaching materials/instructional aid were found to influence the attitude of teachers. The paper strongly recommends among others thatsalaries and remuneration of teachers should be paid as at when due; teachers should go beyond Instruction and focus on the interpersonal aspects of teaching; constant in-service training should be provided for teachers and also provision should be made for teachers to attend educational conferences both locally and internationally as this would help them grow on the job.