School Type and Leadership Pattern of Principals as Predictors of Science Teachers’ Job Performance in Rivers State Nigeria

Abstract

This study, investigated the effect of school type (public and private) and leadership pattern of principal on teachers' job performance in Rivers State Nigeria. The design for the study was survey.  The target population for this study comprises of all the Senior Secondary School Three (SS 3) students and their teachers in public and private Schools in Rivers State Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 370 'respondents (60 teachers and 310 students) and, stratified random sampling was used to select twelve (12) secondary schools. Data were collected using Students' Perception of Teachers' Job Performance Questionnaire (SPTJPQ) and Teachers' Perception of School Type and Principals' Leadership Style Questionnaire (TPSTPLSQ) with 0.74 and 0.92 reliability coefficients respectively using Cronbach Alpha statistic. Three research questions guided the study, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regressions were the statistical tools used for data analysis with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. This study showed relationships among and between variables in terms of their direction and strength. All the variables considered in this study have relationships with the criterion variable at varying strengths. While the school type (r = -.008 p>0,05), autocratic leadership style (r = -.112 p<0.05) and laissez faire leadership style (r = -.008 p>0.05) are negatively correlated; only the autocratic leadership style had significant relationship with the criterion. The study therefore, concluded that all the variables of the study are correlated at varying strength and different direction.