COTTON PRODUCTION SKILLS REQUIRED BY TEACHERS OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE FOR EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTIONAL DELIVERY IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE NORTHERN EDUCATION ZONE OF TARABA STATE

Abstract

The study was carried out to determine the cotton production skills required by teachers of Agricultural Science for effective instructional delivery in Senior Secondary Schools in the Northern Education zone, of Taraba State. Three research questions guided the study while two hypotheses were formulated for the study. The study adopted survey research design. The study was carried out in the Northern education zone of Gombe State. The population of the study was one hundred and four (104) made up of ninety-four (94) teachers of Agricultural science and ten (10) Agricultural Extension Officers from the Ministry of Agriculture, Gombe State. There was no sampling due to the small size of the population. The instrument used for data collection was a- 50 item structured questionnaire which was face validated by three experts, one from the Department of Crop Production and two from the Department of Science Education (Agricultural Education Unit), Federal University, Kashere, Gombe State. Cronbach Alpha reliability method was employed to determine the internal consistency of the instrument and it yielded a coefficient of 0.89. One hundred and four copies of the instrument were administered on the respondents and were all retrieved. Mean and standard deviations were used to answer the research questions while t-test statistic was used to test the hypotheses of no significant difference at 0.05 level of significance and 102 degree of freedom. It was found out that all the 50 cotton production skills identified were required by teachers of Agricultural Science for effective instructional delivery in Senior Secondary Schools in the Northern Education zone of Taraba State. It was therefore recommended that the identified cotton production skills be integrated into the curriculum of crop production in Senior Secondary Schools. This will encourage the teachers to teach the topics effectively. The identified cotton production skills be integrated into the curriculum of skill acquisition centers for teaching the secondary school-leavers and unemployed tertiary institutions graduates.