TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION OF PUBLIC SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC WRITING ABILITY IN EGOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

ABSTRACT

This study explores teachers' perceptions of the academic writing abilities of students in public senior secondary schools. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the research gathers qualitative and quantitative data from a diverse sample of teachers. The findings reveal significant insights into the strengths and weaknesses observed in students' writing skills, as well as the impact of socio-economic factors, school resources, and curriculum design. Teachers identify common challenges such as grammar, coherence, and critical thinking, while also noting the influence of motivation and classroom environment on student performance. The study underscores the need for targeted interventions and professional development to enhance teaching strategies, ultimately aiming to improve the academic writing proficiency of secondary school students. The population of this study consisted of all the public senior secondary school teachers in Egor Local Government Area of Benin City. A total of sixty (60) teachers were randomly selected as the sample size from six (6) public secondary schools out of the thirteen (13) public senior secondary schools in Egor Local Government Area of Benin City. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents. The research instrument used was validated by experts in the Department of Educational Foundations. Data collected from the survey were analyzed using percentages, mean scores, standard deviations and t-test. It was discovered that several academic writing strategies are usually adopted by public secondary school teachers in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. In addition, there is no significant difference in academic writing strategy use between male teachers and female teachers in public secondary schools in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State, there is also no significant difference in teachers academic writing strategy on the basis of class. Based on the findings it was recommended that learners should use a variety of cognitive strategies to understand and remember them, teachers should encourage interactive group learning of academic writing amongst the students irrespective of their gender or class, etc.