CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

Education is important in Cameroon and in every country for it contributes to the political,
social, and economic development of every community. More so, education is a basic human
right and it is a basic instruction for achieving the goal of national unity, political stability,
equality and mobilizing all the potentials of a nation. In addition, education is the process of
facilitating learning, knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits assumed to a group of people
which are transfer to other people through storytelling, discussion, teaching and training or
through research. Successful teaching and learning emanates to a large extent from careful
planning, preparation and the methods used in giving out the materials. Before this can be done
the teacher must be fully aware of the subject matter and various teaching methods of teaching
(Okpala, 1980).

Excellent performance of every institution is dependent on its key human resource. Although
there are many other factors that play a major role in its success, every educational institution
must have quality teachers in order to improve upon the knowledge, skills and general
performance of its students. Teacher education, training and development are a means for
professional upgrading which deals with all developmental functions directed at the maintenance
and enhancement of their professional competence.

Teachers as professionals have the primary duty to educate, teach, guide, direct, train, assess, and
evaluate learners in early childhood education, formal education, primary education, and
secondary education (Azhary, Handoyo, & Khafid, 2018). In carrying out their duties, teachers
apply skills that fulfil quality standards or certain norms obtained through professional education
(Vulliamy & Webb, 2018). If we carefully considered about the task and the responsibility of
teachers that stated in the law, then it can be said that the task and the responsibility of teachers
are not that easy. Therefore, it is a necessity for all teachers to be train so as to always improve
themselves and their competence, especially the competencies associated with teaching itself. In
general, training can be defined as a “systematic process of acquiring knowledge, skills, abilities,

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and the right attitudes and behaviours to meet job requirements” (Gomez-Mejia, et. al., 2007).
Training has been reckoned to help employees do their current jobs or help meet current
performance requirements, by focusing on specific skills required for the current need. Also
competence can be defined as a set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values as a performance
that affects the roles, actions, achievements and work of a person (Frank et al., 2010; Wentzel,
2004). While Kusnandar and Agus states teacher competence is defined as a set of intelligent
actions and full of responsibilities owned by someone as a condition to be considered capable by
the community in doing tasks in accordance with certain work (Agus, Taha, Said, & Saleh, 2016;
Kusnandar, 2007). As Jennings & Greenberg argues pedagogic competence is the mastery of
teachers on how to teach effectively and manage the learning process (Jennings & Greenberg,
2009).

Those competencies include pedagogic, personality, professional, and social competence.

However, this work focus on talking about one of the four competencies that is pedagogic. Due
to in the context of learning in the classroom, pedagogic competence of a teacher will greatly
determine the learning outcomes (Irwantoro & Suryana, 2016). According to Busse, Aboneh &
Tefera, pedagogic competence can be defined as the competence of teachers toward learners,
design, and implementation of learning, evaluation of learning outcomes, and development of
learners to actualize their potentials (Busse, Aboneh, & Tefera, 2014). Talking about teacher
profession in Cameroon today, there are two issues that used to be discussed. It related to teacher
educational qualification and low pedagogic competence.

1.2 Problem Statement and justification of the study

Over the years, there have been complaints of a steady decline in the academic training of
teachers. This has generated much public outcry on the standard of the Cameroonian educational
system with the low intake of student teachers and the higher training colleges. Although the
blame for the decline can partly be attributed to the lack of educational infrastructure and
teachers’ motivation, much of the problem is due to the lack of regular In-service training for
teachers. In recent years, the Cameroon Educational Service, through Ministry of Secondary
Education has shifted focus in providing inservice training to teachers, especially the Secondary
Schools Teacher, to rather providing infrastructure, failing to recognize that this infrastructure is

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useless without the availability of competent trained teachers to use this educational
infrastructure.

Teaching is a professional job; teachers are supposed to develop and improve their skills
continually. By tenacious learning, teachers’ professional degree and performance can be
enhanced; professional qualifications are socially and politically viewed as powerful indicators
of teacher professionalism (Leung, 2009). Teachers’ professional training refers to the re-
establishment, development, and expansion of teachers’ knowledge and skills. Innovation in
teachers’ professional development involves teachers’ practical experience and the formation of
instructional strategies that allow students to gain autonomous, reflective, and critical thinking
skills. Professional training is said to be a cognitive and personal attempt that requires
engagement with new ideas, trying new approaches, improving pedagogy as well as emotional
involvement (Girvan, Conneely & Tangney, 2016).

Training is a systematic process to enhance teachers’ skill, knowledge and competency,

necessary to perform effectively on teaching. Overall, training impacts knowledge in teachers in
the educational field. It is clear by this definition that teachers and educators have a long
standing order of how and what to impart in the classroom as well as a responsibility in ensuring
the right frame of mind and environment for quality education to be carried out. The production
of the required “firstrate teachers” then is a vital part of ensuring quality education is delivered.
In Cameroon, the “production” of the majority of teachers is in the hands of certain government
institutions. With the underlying hypothesis that the quality of a teacher’s training is directly
proportional to the quality of education students eventually receive.

Unfortunately, just a few numbers of government training colleges and private training centres
are available to admit and train a limited number teacher in the technical and general education.
This is seen as one of the major problems in the field of teacher training.

Research questions

To what extent does training affect teachers’ performance in secondary schools in Fako division?

Specific questions

1) What is the effect of teachers’ performance and students’ outcomes??

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 2) What are the factors that affect teachers’ performance?
3) Does teachers teaching qualification affects students’ academic performance or
achievement?
1.3 Objective of the study

The main objective of the study is to examine the effect of training on teachers’ performance in
Secondary Schools in Fako Division.

Specific objectives

The study seeks;

To examine the effect of teachers’ training on students’ test scores.

To analyse the factors that affect teachers’ understanding of the subject matter.

To find out if teacher’s teaching qualification affects students’ academic performance or

achievement.
To make recommendations

1.4 Hypothesis

This study will adopt the following hypothesis

H01: Service training of teachers has no significant effect on students’ test scores

H02: There are no factors affecting teachers’ understanding of the subject matter

Ho3: Teachers’ teaching qualifications has no significant effect on students’ academic

performance

1.5 Significant of the Study

The roles of teachers towards the development of any nation can never be overemphasized.
Teachers build up good ethical principles and obedience in pupils and students, they help to
shape and re-shape the characters of children under them, motivates and inculcate skills/
knowledge and build up personalities in a country both psychologically, bodily, expressively,

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publicly and very importantly spiritually following the primary objectives, principles, norms,
way of life, plans, strategies rules/regulations guiding the country
Teachers are at the heart of providing quality education to students. They facilitate students'
learning and ensure that they thrive academically so that they fulfill their potential and find
meaningful careers.
Teachers and the quality of their teaching are now widely recognized as the most critical of many
important factors that combine to create overall quality of education (Darling Hammond, 2000;
Leu & Price Rom, 2006; UNESCO, 2004). (Angrist and Lavy, 2001), a study about in-service
teachers’ training in Jerusalem revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between
teachers’ training and students’ test scores. The cost-benefit analysis of the study also shows that
teachers’ training could provide a less costly way of improving students' grades than cutting
down the class size or increasing the class hours. (Pascal Bressoux et al December, 2008), the
way a teacher delivers knowledge/lecture is not changed by the training he/she receives. The
improvement in students' performance with a trained teacher is just because of a better grip on
subject matter.
Training of teachers’ is also necessary especially in today's environment to cope with the
changing demands of the profession. Trained teachers’ are in a better position to educate the
students. Training could improve a teacher's knowledge on subject matter, teaching method etc.
However, teachers’ in many developing countries have little or no preservice preparation before
starting to teach and may not have opportunities to participate in in-service professional
development activities.
The goal of in-service professional development is to improve the knowledge, skills, and
commitments of teachers’ so that they are more effective in planning lessons, using variety of
effective approaches in their teaching, and monitoring students’ learning as well as in
undertaking other school and community responsibilities.
Good teaching may be defined as instruction that leads to effective learning, which in turn means
thorough and lasting acquisition of the knowledge, skills, and values the instructor or the
institution, has set out to impart. The education literature presents a variety of good teaching
strategies and research studies that validate them (Campbell and Smith 1997; Johnson et al.
1998; McKeachie 1999). The research has shown that teacher quality is an important factor in
determining improvement in students, even after accounting for prior student learning and family

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background characteristics. Considering the purpose of this article the following strategies would
help evaluate how they impact on the academic performance of students.

This study will go a long way to benefit a number of stakeholders in order to improve the quality
of teachers training and students output in secondary schools.

This study will help the researcher to better understand the inside of teacher training and also to
contribute to knowledge building in the society.

To the ministry of higher education and secondary education, the study will help them identify
the loopholes in the teacher training process so as to carry out reforms in the teaching and follow
up of student teachers and trained teachers on the job training and off the job training.

The study will help the state in the sense that, the education will gives a new shape to the
individual and the nation as well. As an integral component of the educational system, teacher
education is intimately connected with society and is conditioned by the ethos, culture and
character of a nation. The constitutional goals, the directive principles of the state policy, the
socio-economic problems and the growth of the knowledge, the emerging expectations and
changes operating in education and call for an appropriate response from a futuristic education
system will provide the perspective within which teacher education programmes need to be
viewed.

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Conceptual Literature

2.1.1 TRAINING

According to (Buckle and Caple, 2004) training is a planned effort to facilitate the learning of
job related knowledge, skills and behaviour by employees. Robbins states that ‘training can
include anything from teaching employees basic reading skills to advanced courses in executive
leadership’ (Robbins, 2005, p.521). Blanchard and Thacker (2013) contends that training is
necessary to enable employees to perform better on their current job as well as provide them with
the knowledge, skills and abilities to perform in future jobs. Training can be conducted on or off
the job.

2.1.1.1 On the Job Training

On the job training is referred to as in-service training. In service training is defined as job
related instruction and educational experiences activities designed to improve the knowledge and
skills of employees and the quality of services, especially the instructional practice (Jami, Malik,
Ali, Baloch, &Ayaz, 2011).

2.1.1.2 Off the Job Training (OJT)

This refers to learning which is undertaken outside of the normal day-to-day working
environment and leads toward the achievement of an apprenticeship.

2.1.2 Development

Development on the other hand is the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and behaviours that
improve an employees’ ability to meet changes in job requirements (Noe, et al., 2006). Unlike
training which is specific to the job development prepares the employee for progression from a
simpler or lower to a more advanced stage in the organisational hierarchy. 

Blanchard and Thacker (2013), states that training is important in providing employees with the
skill requirements for the job. However many employees do not possess the skills needed to

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perform competently on the job even though they are highly qualified. Organizations employ
qualified employees, some paying at the top of the quartile to ensure that they get the best
employees (Mathis and Jackson, 2005). However after selection most companies have to engage
in training to prepare the new employees for the job. A justification for this practice is explained
by ( Robbins, 2005; Dessler 2011), they assert that most employees do not start working
equipped with job specific skills and that formal education for the most part do not teach job
skills but rather provides the condition for cognitive development (2011). Dessler adds further
that organizations employ persons who can think and then train them as the requirements of the
job as well as culture and climate vary from organization to organization. The methodologies and
assessment of formal education do not stress skills but rather acquisition reproduction of
knowledge. Students therefore graduate at the top of their class but with no usable skill to apply
on the job. Hutton, points out that approximately 75% of the Jamaican workforce have had no
formal training for the jobs they now occupy (2009, p.21). H He attributes this to the failing of
institutions such as HEART as well as Secondary and High Schools to properly implement the
Technical, Vocational, Education and Training (TVET) curriculum. Chisholm, on the other had
assign culpability to the hidden curriculum manifested through culture and attitude to TVET
(2009). Hutton recommend as a curative measure that the Private Sector play a more active role
in the design and implementation of the curriculum (Hutton, 2009).

This will have the effect of ensuring congruence of the curriculum with organizational
requirements as well as ensuring that changes in practice, procedures and technology are made
available to students as they occur.

The justification for training according to Robbins as an investment that will yield enormous
results in the future (Robbins,2011).Additionally Bartell (2008) posits that a company’s
performance and profitability is dependent on the productivity of the employees, and training is
the best way to increase the productivity of employees. Since the early 1990’s productivity in
India and China grew significantly. This growth is attributable to policy steps taken by the
respective countries to increase competency based training. This implicit relationship between
training and productivity is confirmed by ILO through research conducted by them in 2008 (ILO,
2008). This research shows a positive relationship between productivity and training.

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As a student teacher, training generally focuses on educational theory, principles for practice and
of course the academic disciplines they would teach (Tchombe, 1998). A more defined syllabus
was drawn up by the Ministry of Secondary Education decree n° 2012/267 of 11 June 2012,
(MINESEC, 2012)

2.1.3 Teacher

A teacher also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator is a person who helps students to
acquire knowledge, competence or virtue.

2.1.4 Performance

Academic performance is the measurement of students’ achievement across various academic

subjects. Teachers and education officials typically measure achievement using performance,
graduation rates and results from standardised tests.

2.1.5 Teacher Training

Teacher training refers to the policies, procedures, and provision designed to equip teachers with
the knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and skills they required to perform their task effectively in
the classroom, school, and wider community.

2.1.6 Evaluation of Training

Buckle and Caple, 2004, describe evaluation as the assessment of the training to determine
whether the objectives, (return on investment increase in sales, reduction in waste ) has been
achieved. The evaluation of training should be done at each stage of the training intervention
(before, during and after) to ensure effectiveness. Evaluation should thus determine if the cost
associated with training was justified. Blanchard and Thacker, 2013), suggest that if
organizations do not evaluate their training, they will not be able to justify the cost of training or
measure whether there is a return on the money invested. Falconer opined that traditionally
organizations did not understand the importance of training to organizations and so did not
evaluate, however this is no longer the trend as organizations are now expecting a return on their
investment, (Falconer, 2001).

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 The literature on training suggests that training is important to motivate employees as
well as increase their skill and consequently competency on the job. However, while the benefits
are numerous both employees and management sometimes fail to engage in training. The reasons
for failure are diverse, the more prominent being poor attitude to training, lack of
communication, inadequate needs analysis no evaluation.

2.2 Theoretical Review

In Cameroon, the “production” of the majority of teachers is in the hands of certain government
institutions. With the underlying hypothesis that the quality of a teacher’s training is directly
proportional to the quality of education students eventually receive, this essay shall outline the
situation of training of secondary education teachers in Cameroon, using two notable educational
theories to assess the possibility of quality education resulting from such Cameroonian
government trained teachers. These theories, the “Social Reproduction theory” and “the
American Marxist theorists” will be used to forward arguments answering the question of if and
how well the teachers (of secondary education particularly) produced in Cameroon are equipped
and up to the challenge of providing the quality of education sought after?

It is these two theoretical lenses which shall be employed to assess the potential output of quality
from teacher training in Cameroon. For one, the aspect of gender sensitivity in required quality
education is impinged by the engendered teacher training process. Due to the lack of gender
sensitive training, teachers produced subsequently carry their traditionally patriarchal perceptions
and stereotypes into the classrooms where as the Social Reproduction theorist would have us
understand class/social structure specifically in terms of gender construction is generated and
passed on to the next generation. Likewise, the absence of different learning styles in training
student teachers ensures they caters to learners of certain cognitive styles over other children
with different aptitudes or special needs, thus reproducing an unequal learning system. This
teacher training therefore leaves teachers inept at providing learner centric education required of
quality education. Following the Capabilities Approach, the teacher training process equally falls
short given that most applicants into teacher training institutions are below average students who
venture into teacher resignedly as opposed to inspiringly. They can hardly deliver an education
which enables functioning, when their teaching as a last resort expresses the limits of their own
functioning.
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It is clear that there are significant problems with the situation Cameroon’s secondary education
teacher training process. The subsequent part of this paper shall use two theories to assess the
possibility of quality education resulting from the situation outlined above. The idea of Social
Reproduction first came to public attention through the work of Bowles and Gintis (1976).

2.2.1 Social Reproduction theory

Social reproduction theory argues that schools are not institutions of equal opportunity but
mechanisms for perpetuating social inequalities. This review discusses the emergence and
development of social reproduction analyses of education and examines three main perspectives
on reproduction: economic, cultural, and linguistic. Reproduction analyses emerged in the 1960s
and were largely abandoned by the 1990s; some of the conceptual and political reasons for this
turning away are addressed. New approaches stress concepts such as agency, identity, person,
and voice over the structural constraints of political economy or code, but results have been
mixed. Despite theoretical and methodological advances including new approaches to multilevel
analysis and alertness to temporal processes the difficult problem remains to understand how
social inequality results from the interplay of classrooms, schools, and the wider society.

This theory also asserts that formal education reproduces class structures either by who has
priority access to the education or by what is taught and passed on in classroom. The Capabilities
Approach on the other hand is a multidisciplinary framework that was originally formulated by
economist Amartya Sen in the 1980’s (Sen, 1985). This framework is a normative one which
proposes that the true indicator of wellbeing is what people are capable of doing, being,
achieving (functioning) (Unterhalter, Vaughan and Walker, 2007). The Capabilities Approach
asserts that education is an instrument of expanding people’s capabilities and freedoms to
achieve those functioning (Robeyns, 2006) which are important to them. Alkire (2005) also
asserts that education is vital to agency as people need to be educated to participate politically
and strive for change and the expansion of their valuable freedoms. Education is thus an
achievement (functioning) on its own as well as a means enabling the individual to pursue
subsequent freedoms (Robeyns, 2006). The Capabilities Approach is thus employed in
educational research in evaluating and assessing the extent to which the education one receives
offers the individual necessary freedoms and abilities to achieve valuable functioning.

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2.2.2 American Marxist theorists

They argued against the idealistic belief that education and schooling was a means of equalizing
disparities across social classes. Their work asserted that on the contrary, education was a means
to a capitalist end of reproducing of economic/social classifications (Nash, 1984).

Marxists sociologists Bowles and Gintis (1976) argue that the main function of education in
capitalist societies is the reproduction of labour power.

They see the education system as being subservient to and performing functions for the
Bourgeoisie, the capitalist class who own the means of production: the Bourgeoisie require a
workforce that is hardworking, accepts authority, and who won’t kick up a fuss if they are
exploited, and the main function of school in capitalist societies is to indoctrinate children into
these norms and values.

The education system does this through the hidden curriculum – which consists of the things
pupils learn through the experience of attending school, rather than the stated education
objectives in the ‘formal curriculum’.

a) Bowles and Gintis: The Correspondence Principle

The correspondence theory is the idea that the norms and values pupils learn in school
correspond to the norms and values which will make it easy for future capitalist employers to
exploit them at work.

Bowles and Gintis say that ‘work casts a long shadow over school’.

There are four ways in which the norms and values of school correspond to the required norms
and values of work in capitalist society:

1. It helps to produce a Subservient Workforce of Uncritical, Passive and Docile

workers

In a study based on 237 members of the senior year of a New York high school, Bowles and
Gintis found that the grades awarded related more to personality traits rather than academic
ability: low grades were related to creativity, aggressiveness and independence, while higher
grades were related to perseverance, consistency and punctuality. The education system was
creating an unimaginative and unquestioning workforce through rewarding such traits.

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 2. Encouraging an Acceptance of Hierarchy and Authority

Schools are hierarchical organisations – pupils have little say over what they learn, or how the
school day is organised, and in day to day life, pupils are expected to obey the authority of the
teachers. Later on at work, workers are expected to obey the authority of managers.

3. Motivation by External Rewards

This is where pupils are taught to be motivated by the qualifications they will receive at the end
of school, rather than the ‘joy of learning’ itself, while at work, workers are motivated by the
wage packet at the end of the month rather than ‘the joy of working’ itself.

This is probably the most important aspect of the correspondence principle:

In Marxist theory, if people have control over it, work is actually enjoyable: many people
engage in ‘work’ as part of their hobbies: if left to their own devices, people will naturally
engage in work because it gives them a sense of satisfaction: as an example think of a car-fanatic
who will happily spend hours putting together a car engine, or the whole car itself in his garage,
or an allotment owner who will do the same when ‘growing their own’ – if people control the
whole process of work, and can ‘see themselves’ in it, they will happily work, even for no pay.

However, work in capitalists societies becomes alienating and exploitative – Capitalists require
workers to be like machines, working as part of a ‘production line’ for example, because this
means production is more efficient and their profits are thus greater – so rather than individuals
or small groups of individuals each setting up their own garages to make cars, or small scale
farms growing food for a few dozen people, work becomes larger scale, organised into massive
factories, and workers become part of the ‘machine’ of production, where the worker has no
control, and work is repetitive and dull. In this industrial-capitalist system of work, workers have
no intrinsic motivation to work; they need to be motivated externally, by wages.

Because this is such an unnatural and miserable situation, there needs to be a long process of
convincing people this is normal – which is where school comes in – school is about learning to
put up with boring lessons, and the motivation for this is at the end – through the qualifications.

Thus capitalism requires school to teach people to not be inquisitive, to just ‘learn what I tell you
to learn’ and put up with boredom, to work hard now (study) in order to achieve the grades at the
end of the year… there is no reward in education for those ‘doing their own thing’, because this
is not what future employers require.

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 4. The Fragmentation of Subjects at school

Learning at school is fragmented into different subjects, split up into maths, English, history,
sciences, with lessons lasting only 45 minutes to an hour. Knowledge is thus fragmented into
different academic subjects, rather than being holistic’.

This corresponds to the fragmentation of the workforce in later life – workers specialise in
particular tasks in the office or the factory, without having an appreciation of the whole.

This fragmentation makes workers easier to control because they are divided, which makes it
more difficult for them to unite and challenge their exploitative conditions.

b) Understanding the Nature of Man

Everyone grants that a teacher, above most other persons, needs to understand the nature of man.
It is hoped that this understanding will come from study in prescribed courses. But what shall
these courses be? It is obvious to everyone that a thorough exploration of only the fields of
psychology, physiology, and anthropology, would take far more time than is available within the
traditional four years, so this alternative is rejected. Usually a course is constructed out of those
aspects of a particular field which, in the eyes of the selector, seem to be most needed by
teachers. So there are courses in educational psychology, physiology for teachers, and
anthropology for teachers. Blair’s1 study of the content of texts in educational psychology shows
how little agreement there is among the experts as to what content is appropriate. Similar studies
in other courses for teachers would quite probably show that similar confusion existed in them.
The persistent application of research to an intensive study of the individual as an entity will
continue to result in more and more specific knowledge about him as he is. Deciding which the
choicest bits of this knowledge are for teachers must always be done in an arbitrary manner,
since no generally acceptable criteria for selection can be developed. By what means can one tell
that knowledge of the physiology of the adolescent is more important for a teacher than
knowledge of-human genetics? Why should the psychology of learning be included and the
psychology of the emotions be omitted? Questions such as these can produce argument and
discussion, but no final answers.

Generally acceptable criteria can be developed, however, if the answers to the nature of man are
sought through looking at qualities as primary. Research is then directed toward such questions

14
as: What is the nature of intelligence? How and why does man become intelligent? What is the
nature of thought? How and why does man learn to think? What is the nature of rivalry? How
and why does man learn to compete? While the number and variety of the relationship of
qualities which exist appear to be great, they are undoubtedly far less numerous than the number
of specific items of knowledge which have already been discovered about man as an entity. And
they are themselves susceptible to further analysis and generalizing. It is highly probable that an
intensive study of relationships will result in a relatively few general principles which can
explain much about how and why each person has become what he is, and how and why he can
become different from what he is. From this point of view, the individual exists as an individual
solely because of the unique extent to which he exhibits specific qualities. Criteria for selecting
that understanding of the nature of man which should be common to all teachers should not be
difficult to define. The process of teaching is directed toward increasing or decreasing the degree
to which pupils exhibit specific qualities. The teacher must understand the nature of those
qualities which the school seeks to inculcate, the nature of those qualities which it seeks to
eliminate, and the nature of the individual as he exhibits more of the desired qualities and less of
the undesired ones.

It is proposed then, that the education of the teacher include, as one of five parts, an
understanding of the relations or qualities which man, as an individual can exhibit, and which the
school seeks to have him acquire or lose.

c) Understanding the Nature of Environment

The second part of the education of the teacher is an understanding of the nature of environment.
Here, too, there is considerable multiplication of minutia. Scientists long ago discovered that
only an arbitrary line divides the organic from the inorganic; that physics and chemistry are
inseparable; and that both are closely related to biology. Life, gravity, energy, electromagnetism,
and mass seem to be inextricably interwoven, to be parts of some greater whole, or to be varying
ways in which the same quality is exhibited. Yet organized study of the environment is still
based on ideas which are related through logical systems which were developed prior to the
theories of relativity. Botany, zoology, physics, geology, cenetics, organic chemistry, inorganic
chemistry and geography, are still taught as separate disciplines. And there are many others.
Institutions which train teachers construct courses in physical science for teachers, geography for

15
teachers, and the like. They are faced with a tremendously increasing amount of specific
knowledge about things. Men study rocks, birds, insects, rivers, plastics, fungi, metals, and
countless other objects, treating each as an entity, rather than as a collection of qualities. And so
courses in the sciences multiply, and someone selects, arbitrarily, the particular content to
include in science courses for teachers. Undoubtedly, there is little similarity among these
courses because there are no generally acceptable criteria for selection of content.

d) Understanding the Nature of Society

The third part of the education of teachers is an understanding of the nature of society, of culture,
of community, of class, and of group. Increasing emphasis in these areas in recent years is an
encouraging trend. Systematic research in these fields is a relatively recent development and
much remains to be discovered. But much is already known. This research, like that in the
physical sciences, is of two kinds, some based on the old logic, some based on the new. Because
the social sciences are new, the new logic has had considerable influence. Studies of the
stockyard areas in Chicago, for example, show that whatever group of people moved into them
exhibited substantially the same qualities. This research was directed toward an understanding of
relationships and not toward an understanding of things. Yankee City, Elmtown’s Youth, and
Caste and Class in a Southern Town are other examples of more or less systematic analysis of
qualities or relations. Mead and Benedict in cultural anthropology, Lewin and Lippit in the study
of groups, and numerous other social scientists have searched or are searching in the right
direction.

2.3 Empirical Review

Effandi and Iksan (2007) stated that the quality of education that teachers provide to students is
dependent upon what the teacher does in the classroom. The use of traditional teaching method
such as lecture in Geography classroom has been the underlying factor for students’ poor
performance in the subject. Clar and Lalarham (2003), observed that Geography has traditionally
used a wide range of teaching methods than any other subjects. Because of the nature of the
subject which has both physical and human, it calls for paradigm shift from teacher-centered to
learner-centered instructional strategies that permit the involvement of learners.

According to Hunter (1984) and Reinhartz (1980), teaching is a constant stream of professional
decisions that affects the probability of learning decisions that are made and implemented before,
during and after interactions with the students explaining, defining, giving examples, stressing

16
critical attributes and demonstrations. A teacher has to set a test to find out if students have
learned well and the students should show whether they have understood the lesson by their
academic achievement.

The effects of teacher training and qualifications on teacher and student performance in
developing countries have been matters of considerable interest recently. A forerunner to this
debate was a relationship hypothesized by (CE. Beeby) between the levels of general education
and professional training of teachers and passage through the various stages of educational
development. In a recent critique of Beeby's stages, it was argued that the stages concept is
theoretically and methodologically unsound; however, the relationship between teachers' training
and performance received only cursory attention. This article pursues the issue further through an
analysis of recent literature reviews on teacher effectiveness in developing countries. Given the
objections to stage analysis, Beeby's hypothesis was recast to predict a positive relation? ship
between teachers' general education and professional training as independent variables and
teachers' performance as dependent variable. The two less restrictive and more wide-ranging of
the literature reviews provided considerable support for this hypothesis in developing countries,
but made clear that the exact nature of the relationship is complex and varies considerably
between different educational and cultural contexts. It was noted that considerable attention is
needed to operational specification of the hypothesis according to the needs of individual
countries. Research should no longer concentrate on whether such a relationship exists, but
should seek to establish the particular nature of the relationship in the different contexts.

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 CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Scope and Historical Background of the Study Area

3.1.1 Scope of the Study

This study will be carried out in the South West Region precisely in Buea Sub-Division.

3.1.2 Historical Background

Buea Sub-Division is under Fako Division the second-order administrative division situated in
South-West region of Cameroon. The estimate terrain elevation beyond sea level is 2833m; and
geographically lies in the middle of latitude: 4°10'0.01" and longitude: 9°10'0.01".This division
shelters an area of 2,093 km² and as of 2001 had a population of 534,854 inhabitants. It is
administratively divided into five communities; Buea, Idenau, Limbe, Muyuka, Tiko with its
capital being Buea. Buea Sub Division is found in Fako Division of Cameroon’s South West
Region. To the north, Buea shares frontier with the Muyuka Sub Division, to the East by the
gigantic historical Mount Cameroon (Departments of Cameroon, 2015). Buea covers a surface
area of about 36,000 hectares (Courage al., 1970). It is positioned some 55Km from Douala,
20km from Limbe (Courade, 1970). It is situated in the transition zone between the coastal plains
of the Littoral Region and the Atlantic Ocean.

3.2 Research Design

In this study, descriptive research design approach was adopted. According to Sekaran (2009)
descriptive studies are structured with clearly stated investigative questions. According to
Nachmias and Nachmias, (2007) descriptive survey is used to obtain information concerning the
current status of the phenomena to describe what exists with respect to variables in a situation,
by asking individuals about their perceptions, attitudes, behaviour or values. Descriptive research
design was chosen in this study because the study aims at examining the effect of training on
teachers’ performance in Secondary Schools in Fako Division. The purpose of the study is to
determine a certain aspect intensively and comprehensively to that one can get the background
aspect and the current status.

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 3.3 Target Population

Borg and Gall (2008) describe target population as a universal set of study of all members of real
or hypothetical set of people, events or objects to which an investigator wishes to generalise the
result. The target populations of this study was the secondary schools teachers of Fako Division
while the study population was 20 government and private school teachers of Fako Division as
tabulated in table 3.1 below.

Secondary school teachers Target population Percentage

Government Secondary 10 50%
Private secondary 10 50%
Total 20 100%

3.4 Sample and Sampling Design

A sample is defined as subject of a population that has been selected to reflect or represent
characteristics of a population (Kothari, 2004). Stratified proportion sampling will be employed
to obtain a suitable unit representative of analysis. This is because of the heterogeneity of the
population and respondents all had equal opportunity of participation. (Kothari, 2004) argues that
a stratified proportional sample increases a sample statistical efficiency and provides adequate
data for analysing the various populations. This method is cost effective, fast track data
collection, and access to the unit of analysis and elements of the study, the researcher will use
stratified random sampling technique to select the respondents.

3.5 Data Collection Methods

The study will use primary data. The most common tool of collecting data within the study
approaches are through the use of questionnaire. Primary data will be collected with a semi
structured questionnaire that will be self-administered by the researcher to the respondents.

3.6 Data Instruments

The researcher used questionnaires as the main tool to collect data, the questionnaire will have
both structured (closed ended). Structured or close-ended questions are the questions with a list
of all possible alternatives from which respondents select the answer that best describes their

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situation. They are easier to analyse since they are in an immediate form, and are economical to
use in terms of time and finance.

3.7 Data Analysis and Presentations

Data will be analysed by use of descriptive statistics. Specifically, means, average and
percentage will be employed by the researcher. The data analysis tools will be simple tabulations
and presentations of the report using spread sheets. The data will be presented using tables,
charts and graphs. Data will be analysed using quantitative method. Data will first be coded and
organise into concept from which generalisation will be made from the entire population. Data
will then be tabulated and frequencies calculated on each variable under study and interpretations
made from the field findings. Percentages will then be calculated and interpretation made.

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