Influence Of Teachers’ Professional Standards On Students’ Attitude Towards Christian Religious Studies: A Study In The New Juaben Municipality

Abstract

The study sought to investigate the influence of teachers’ professional standards on students’ attitude towards Christian Religious Studies in the New Juaben Municipality of the Eastern Region, Ghana. The study covered all the Christian Religious Studies students and teachers of the eight public senior high schools in the Municipality. The cross-sectional descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Using the proportionate allocation of sample size and simple random sampling procedure, 396 students and 30 teachers from the public senior high schools in the New Juaben Municipality were selected for the study. Questionnaires were used to gather the requisite data for the study. The data was analysed using frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation as well as multiple regression analysis. The study found that most of the CRS teachers had professional qualification and high professional knowledge, while most exhibited professional values. Also, there was a statistically significant relationship between teachers’ professional standard and students’ attitude towards CRS. However, the professional knowledge of teachers was not significant in determining the attitude of students towards CRS. Again, the study clearly showed that professional attitude and the professional practice of teachers were the only determinants of students’ attitude towards Christian Religious Studies. The study recommended that, school management of the various Senior High Schools should orient students on the opportunities available in taking CRS as a course. Again, the Ministry of Education should provide teaching and learning resources needed for teaching CRS in senior high schools.