Teacher Creativity and Commitment as Correlates of Junior School Students’ Achievement in English Language in Owerri, Imo State of Nigeria

Teachers’ creative thinking, creative teaching, creative learning, commitment, English Language reading comprehension.

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June 28, 2018

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Teacher creativity and commitment is the pivot that could sustain quality African education for growth and development. Until the need to develop in teachers a sense of creativity and commitment, realization of quality education stands a mirage, most especially in a dwindling economy of many African States. This study is a correlation study. Three research questions guided the study. Cluster and sampling to proportional size techniques were used to select 200 Junior School 2 students and 72 English language teachers from 15 public schools in Owerri Education Zone 1 for the study. Four 4-point rating scales: Teacher Creative Thinking (r= .67), Teacher Creative Learning (r= .53), Teacher Creative Teaching (r= .80), and Teacher Commitment (r= .76) were administered on the English Language teachers while English Language Comprehension Test with r= .79 on students. Pearson Moment Product Correlation (r) was used to analyze data. Teachers’ creative thinking, creative teaching, and creative learning significantly predicted students’ achievement with minor errors while teachers’ commitment had no significant relationship with students’ academic achievement. However, when combined and tested with t-test statistics, the prediction was significant at 0.05, hence, showing their interrelatedness. It is therefore recommended that English language teachers should be creative and committed.