Impact of Teachers and Learning Environment Variables on The Academic Achievement in English Language Among Senior Secondary School Students in Delta State

This study investigated the impact of teachers and learning environment variables on the academic achievement in English Language among senior secondary school students in Delta State. Guided by the Input-Process-Output (IPO) model by Scheerens (1990), which posits that teacher-related inputs and environmental conditions mediate the process of instruction and ultimately shape student output in the form of academic achievement, one research question was raised and three null hypotheses were formulated. The study adopted the Ex-Post Facto design with a sample of 778 students and 84 teachers selected from 467 public senior secondary schools using the stratified sampling technique, with schools stratified by local government area and proportionate random sampling applied within each stratum. Grades of students were extracted from the WAEC broadsheet for 2023, while the Impact of Teachers and Learning Environment Variables Questionnaire (ITLEVQ), a 30-item instrument structured across three subscales measuring teacher qualification, teacher sex, and class size was used to elicit information from teachers. The instrument was validated through expert review by five specialists in Educational Measurement and English Language Education. The reliability of the instrument (Pearson r = 0.85) was established using the test-retest method. Mean, standard deviation, ANOVA, and independent samples t-test were used for data analysis at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that academic achievement in English Language was generally low, with the majority of students scoring within the C6 grade range and no student recording A1 or B2. The study further found no significant impact of teacher qualification, teacher sex, or class size on the academic achievement in English Language among senior secondary school students in Delta State. It was concluded that these variables do not significantly predict academic achievement in English Language in Delta State. It was recommended among others that government and school administrators should focus on improving the overall quality of instructional delivery and the conditions of the learning environment in order to address the inadequacy in academic achievement in English Language among senior secondary school students in Delta State.

Teacher qualification, teacher sex, class size, learning environment, academic achievement, English Language.

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