COMPETENCY IMPROVEMENT NEEDS OF TECHNOLOGY TEACHERS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF BASIC TECHNOLOGY

The study was carried out to determine competency improvement needs of technology teachers in the implementation of basic technology in Kogi State. Five research questions guided the study while five null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted survey research design. The population for the study was 344 teachers and supervisors of basic technology. There was no sampling because of the manageable size of the population. The instrument used for data collection was structured questionnaire. Three experts validated the instrument. Cronbach alpha reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument in which 0.82 and 0.77 reliability coefficients were obtained for the two set of instruments. Weighted Mean and Improvement Needed Index (INI) were employed to analyze data for answering research questions while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that teachers of introductory technology needed improvement in 15 competencies on instructional planning for the implementation of basic technology, in teaching 50 out of fifty four contents of basic technology curriculum to students and classroom and laboratory management for the implementation of basic technology. Teachers of introductory technology needed improvement in applying varieties of teaching methods and techniques for the implementation of basic technology. Teachers of introductory technology also needed improvement in evaluating the learning outcome in basic technology. The hypothesis tested revealed that there was no significant difference in the mean responses of teachers and supervisors of technology on the competencies improvement needs in planning instruction for the implementation of basic technology, in teaching the contents of basic technology curriculum to students in junior secondary schools, classroom/laboratory management for the implementation of basic technology, in using teaching methods and techniques for the implementation of basic technology and evaluating the learning outcomes in basic technology. It was recommended that workshop and seminars should be organized for the teachers of introductory technology in order to build their capacity for the implementation of the basic technology in junior secondary schools in Kogi State. It was also recommended that teachers of technology should be retrained based on areas of needs identified in the study.

A good educational system is a strong base for technological development. It equips people with knowledges and skills for designing methods and process that will enable them to make maximum use of their natural resources for the benefit of the society. The development of a nation also depends mostly on the type of technology education, the process of impartation inherited or invented and the ability to train her citizens to sustain the level of such technological education development. Technology according Waziri (2005) is the use of the product of creativity, inventions and scientific research in the service of man. Miller, Bakare and Ikatule (2010) described technology as

the process by which humans modify nature to meet their needs and wants.

In years back, the teaching of technology education has not been made a major focus at the lower level of Nigerian educational system most especially at secondary school level. To address the lapses, the Federal Ministry of Education brought about the former 6-3-3-4 system that introduced the teaching of introductory technology as a subject in junior secondary schools in Nigeria. Ajeyalemi (1990) stated that what is now technology education was formerly restricted to technical education which in essence meant skills training in crafts and in certain trades and can be used interchangeably.