Psychosocial Variables, Teacher Effectiveness and Academic Performance of Community Health Students in Primary Health Care Examination

Abstract

This is an empirical research report. The research problem was on poor academic performance in Primary Health Care Examinations. From available data in 3 years (2011 – 2013), the overall percentage of 87.2% in the year 2011 dropped to 67% in 2012 and 62.7% in 2013. The study sought to determine the relationship between students’ psychosocial factors, teacher effectiveness variables and academic performance in Primary Health Care Examination among Community Health students in south south states of Nigeria. The objective was to determine the extent to which these factors predict achievement in Primary Health Care (PHC) Examination. Appropriately developed and validated instrument comprising; Student Psychosocial Factors Questionnaire (SPFQ), Teacher Effectiveness Rating Scale (TERS) and Primary Health Care Achievement Test (PHCAT) were validated with acceptable reliability indices. The research instruments were administered to 592 final year Community Health students of Colleges of Health Technology in south south of Nigeria. The resulting data were analysed using Pearson Moment Correlation, Multiple Regression and Independent t-test Statistics. The result showed all the students’ psychosocial factors as well as all the teacher effectiveness variables to be significantly related to predict achievement in PHC. The predominant role of student’s educational aspiration and perception of teacher instructional effectiveness in predicting achievement in Primary Health Care Examination was observed. In conclusion, it was recommended among others that student with substantial educational aspiration and capacity to learn should be encouraged and motivated by parents and their teachers.