invotec XV:2 (2019) 43-57

Innovation of Vocational Technology Education

Available online at http://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/invotec

Assessment of the Capacity Building Needs of Agricultural Science

Teachers for Innovative Instructional Delivery in Secondary Schools in
Rivers State, Nigeria

Anthony Imo Arthur Ekezie and Owo Offia Tugwell

Department of Vocational/Technology Education, Rivers State University, P. M. B. 5080 Port Harcourt, Nigeria
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article history: The study was conducted to assess the capacity building needs
Received: 12 June 2019 of Agricultural Science teachers for innovative instructional
Received in revised form: 29 July 2019 delivery in secondary schools in Rivers State, Nigeria.
Accepted: 25 August 2019 Descriptive survey research design with a sample of 28
Available online: 31 August 2019 Agricultural Science teachers drawn through purposive sampling
from a population of 244 teachers in secondary schools drawn
from both Andoni and Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Areas of
Rivers State was used. Three research questions guided the
Keywords: study. A 20-item research instrument entitled “Capacity Building
agricultural science, Needs of Agricultural Science Teachers Questionnaire
capacity building, (CBNASTQ)” was developed and used for the study. Likert 5-
innovative instruction, point mean rating scale was adopted. Cronbach’s Alpha
teacher reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency
of the CBNASTQ and a reliability coefficient of 0.81 was
obtained. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the
Authors email:
research questions. The study revealed amongst others that
offia.owo1@ust.edu.ng
Agricultural Science teachers need to improve on the skills
acquired through continuous professional development. Based
on the findings, it was recommended amongst others that
Government should ensure the continuous capacity building of
teachers through the organization of workshops, seminars,
symposia, and conferences to enable them to interact with one
another and acquire new skills.

1. Introduction
1.1 Significance of the main topics

Teaching is a profession that requires a great deal of competent personnel as teachers,

instructors and administrators. Teachers and instructors who teach in secondary schools would not
be able to give their best to the students unless they are competent in their job roles. Competencies
can be used in human resource systems to identify actions that need to be taken to do a job well
(Green 1999). Competency can be defined as an integrated set of personal characteristics,
knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for effective performance in various teaching contexts (Stoof

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et al., 2002; Tigelaar, Dolmans et al., 2004). A competent teacher is one who has mastered the art
of teaching, while an efficient teacher is one who can apply the art of teaching as instructed. An
effective teacher is one who applies knowledge of the arts of teaching creatively and consequently
enhances students’ academic achievements. Therefore, effective instructional delivery in secondary
schools demands teachers and instructors to have adequate competences to deliver instructions
effectively to students. This is so true because they are the facilitators of learning and the students’
achievements to a large extent is anchored on the competencies of the teachers. In relation to this,
capacity building of teachers becomes very important since it serves to develop the teachers’
competencies in diverse areas such as social, learning, technology-based competencies among
others. Building teachers’ capacities entails personal and professional development of the teachers
for efficiency, effectiveness and quality knowledge transfer. Capacity building as defined by Fazekas
and Burns (2011), is the process of helping local actors to acquire and use information relevant to
successful policy implementation. Fullan (2011) posits that capacity building concerns
competencies, resources and motivation. Individuals and groups who continuously develop their
knowledge and skills by putting in so much time, energy and resources towards achieving
improvement in their jobs and duties usually get things done effectively. And this is why building the
teachers competencies as effective classroom managers, instructors and facilitators of learning is
very crucial to the development of our educational system. In the school, the teacher is the main
facilitator of teaching and learning activities. Teachers therefore, play an all-important role of
stimulating and retaining students’ interests in learning. They also integrate information coming from
multiple sources and effectively utilize this information to solve teaching problems for the 21st century
learners who are surrounded by so much distracting factors like internet, video games, mobile
phones, and other digital media (Segers & Verhoeven, 2009). Teachers directly apply such teaching
strategies like cooperative learning, inquiry learning and constructivist approach to help students
think creatively and construct their own knowledge. These teachers need to update their knowledge
to deliver quality instructions in the classroom. Quality instructional delivery cannot be realized in
secondary schools without competent teachers. The success and development of every educational
system as obtainable in any organization depends on the quality of its human and material
resources. Of all these factors, the human resources appear to be the most important because
without it, all other factors are inept. Human capacity building hinges absolutely on the educational
system and of course, the teachers are the pivot of the education system.
Building capacities also entails building abilities, relationships and values that will enable
organizations, groups and individuals to improve on their performances and achieve effectively, their
developmental objectives. Building capacity include strengthening the processes, systems and rules
that influence collective and individual behaviours and performances in all developmental
endeavours. Capacity development therefore is seen a process of change directed towards
managing transformations. Peoples’ capacities, institutional capacities and societal capacities
change over time (Ekpiken, 2015). Capacity building as defined by Osuji (2014) is the allocation and

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investment of resources; physical, intellectual or human especially when other intervening variables
have failed within a given institutional or social contest. Furthermore, Chukwu (2009) in his opinion
identified capacity building as skills/developments and knowledge needed by groups in order to
participate fully in the labour market. Within the context of systemic reform, capacity is the ability of
the education system to help all students meet more challenging standards. Capacity building in the
views of Peretemode and Peremode (2005) is any planned activities that focus on increasing and
enlarging the capabilities of employees so that they can successfully have greater or assume higher
positions in the organizational hierarchy to better handle current responsibilities. For the
development and realization of educational goals, quality education transcends building teachers’
capacity for knowledge, skills, and curriculum but should also include building teachers’ welfare and
empowerment. In every level of the education system, low morale and motivation often lead to poor
teacher performance and invariably affect students’ learning outcome (Udofot, 2005). Diverse
approaches are available to enhance the Agricultural Science teachers’ capacities such as training,
formal education, capacity building projects, networking, seminars, conferences amongst others. A
training workshop usually can go as far as building human capacities at an awareness raising level.
The concept of capacity building has become an important word in education reform discourse
internationally both in developed and emerging economies (Egbo, 2011). Capacity is the ability to
understand or do something and building is an increase in the amount of something over a period of
time. Capacity is the ability of individuals, organizations or systems to perform their functions
effectively, efficiently and sustainably. Thus, capacity building is the process by which individuals,
groups, organizations, institutions and societies increase their abilities to perform core functions,
solve problems, define and achieve objectives. It is an avenue for individuals, groups, organizations,
institutions and societies to increase their abilities to understand and deal with their developmental
needs in a broad content and in a sustainable manner (Goldemberg & Reid, 1998). According to the
United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (2005), capacity building has moved
from being a focus to concern individuals, individual training, the development of institutions and
recently to complex systems philosophy when individuals’ capacities are linked with those of
institutions and systems at large. Recently capacity building definitions emphasized the continuing
process of strengthening of abilities to perform core functions, solve problems, define and achieve
objectives and understand and deal with developmental needs (UNESCO, 2005). Capacity building
in this context refers to a set of activities and processes geared towards improving the competencies
and capacities of Agricultural science teachers for innovative instructional delivery in secondary
schools. Capacity building of teachers enables them to offer students the learning opportunities that
will prepare them to meet world class standards in a given content area and successfully assume
adult responsibilities for citizenship and work. It also empowers the individual teacher and community
of educators to make complex decisions, identify and solve problems, to connect theory, practice
and student outcomes (Chukwu, 2009). When the teachers’ capacities improve, their productivity
increased. Thus, the more they acquire more professional training to grow on their job roles, the

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better their ability to engage in innovative teaching which impacts the lives of the students. This
invariably will lead to increase students’ academic achievements. In building the capacity of
Agricultural Science teachers in Rivers State, Nigeria, the strategy should embrace the UNCED’s
aspirations and focuses on the educational goals and needs as enshrined in the National Policy on
Education of 2013. In the words of Fullan (2011), capacity building concerns competencies,
resources and motivation. From the foregoing, Capacity building of teachers could be seen as a
veritable tool that can enable teachers to offer students, the learning opportunities that will prepare
them to meet world class standards in a given content area and successfully assume adult
responsibilities for citizenship and work. Innovative teaching can be defined as any process leading
to creative learning by the implementation of new ideas, methods, tools, and contents, which can
benefit learners and facilitate active learning and creativity of students (Ferrari, Cachia, & Punie,
2009; Zhu, Wang, & Engels, 2013). People tend to have their own views of the meaning of innovative
teaching (Ferrari, Cachia, & Punie, 2009; Slabbert, 1994). Some of these innovative teaching
processes emphasized the need for the development of cognitive abilities or emotional aspects of
students, while others stressed on the innovative aspects displayed by teachers, either by the use
of new methods and techniques or by managing the classroom environment effectively (Amabile,
1989; Slabbert, 1994). According to Martin and Ramsden (1994), innovative teaching practices of
teachers are related to their perceptions of teaching and learning. Teachers’ perception of innovative
teaching often guides their decisions in the classroom and influence many aspects of classroom
management and coordination including the degree of students’ autonomy, interaction, and
assessment in the classroom (Stipek et al., 2001). Modern teaching and learning approaches affect
the way young people learn and understand especially in this current world of technology. In order
apply innovative teaching in instructional delivery, it is imperative for teachers (Agricultural Science
teachers inclusive) to continuously strive to improve on their knowledge base, thinking patterns, and
evaluation systems (Darling-Hammond & Snyder, 2000). The teacher is seen as the source of
creativity and innovation to learners. This is because no matter how good the policies of an
educational programme appear; its effective implementation lies on the teachers (Ng & Smith, 2004).
Thus, teachers need to be able to promote students’ learning by appropriate application of innovative
teaching approaches.
Some of these innovative teaching strategies according to Redecker (2008) include student-
centered learning and constructivist-oriented learning. Student-centered teaching and problem-
based learning are seen as innovative teaching and learning strategies adopted by teachers to
encourage students’ usage of effective strategies for representing and processing new information
in ways that lead to active learning and problem-solving (O’Sullivan, 2007; Whitman 1983). Young
and Shaw (1999) are of the views that teaching should be sensitive to the individual student’s self-
concept and preferred role in the classroom. This means that Agricultural Science students needs
to take responsibility for their learning through inquiry learning, collaborative learning, problem based
learning, experiential learning, industrial visitations, amongst others.

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The performance of Agricultural Science students in Nigerian secondary schools today are
nothing to write home about in terms of practical skills acquisition in agricultural education practices.
This can be seen in the students’ nonchalant attitude to farming, fishing, and other Agro-based
occupations. Many investigations by experts in the field of Agricultural education revealed that
secondary school students are currently exhibiting dwindling interests in Agriculture (Esiobu, 2005).
The colossal failure of students in the country’s educational institutions is a clear indication of the
fact that there are significant problems within the educational system. However, students’
achievement in Agricultural Science depends on the teachers whose performances depend on their
capacity and competence. According to Egbo (2011), there is a general perception that a significant
number of Nigerian teachers are not well-equipped to deliver quality education for a number of
interconnected reasons such as training-related issues, educational policy, educational structure,
curricular, infrastructural limitations, low morale amongst others. This implies that students in Nigeria
are not receiving the kind of education that will prepare them for lifelong global educational
competitiveness of the 21st century that demands innovativeness, creativity, critical thinking,
information communication technologies, ingenuity, adaptability and transferable skills acquisition
(Egbo, 2011).

1.2 Previously related studies

In a related study by Koster et al. (2005), teacher competency is divided into five categories:
Domain-specific knowledge, communication, organization, pedagogy, and attitude. Each
competency can have several behavioral indicators which can be utilized for effective instructional
delivery in classrooms.in the views of Luo and Li (1997), these competencies are manifested through
teachers’ teaching activities and behaviors in the classroom. That is, whether the teacher is
competent in a particular area or not is demonstrated naturally while teaching. Some categories of
individual characteristics are considered to underlie specific competencies and thereby contribute to
effective performance (Luo & Li, 1997). According to Egbo (2011), different areas of capacity building
in educational system include:

1.2.1 Building capacity for educational policy

Nigerian Government is aware of the need to engage qualified and competent teachers in
relevant fields for the achievement of its national development objectives as well as meeting its
commitment to international initiatives as Education for All (EFA), geared towards the achievement
of basic education 2015, and the Millennium Development Goals 2020 projects. In view of this, the
importance of capacity building of teachers in developing a viable, sustainable education system
cannot be over-stressed. According to the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2013), all teachers in
educational institutions across the country should be undergo mandatory professional development
to be effective and productive in their duties. Furthermore, other Federal Government training
institutions such as the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) also

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emphasized the importance of capacity building of teachers in education for increased productivity.
According to Osuji (2014:10), all programmes for enhancing teachers’ capacities and competencies
for educational sustainability in Nigeria should focus on:
 Developing survival skills, becoming competent in basic skills and expanding teacher’s
instructional flexibility.
 Acquiring instructional expertise.
 Contributing to the professional growth of their colleagues.
 Exercising leadership in decision making for effective implementation of educational policies.
Therefore, effective capacity building of teachers’ calls for those who are charged with
teaching the nation’s children, subsequently implementing the educational policies at all levels of the
educational system should be treated with principles of social justice with their counterpart in other
professions and organization (Osuji, 2014).

1.2.2 Building teacher’s knowledge and skills

Building teachers knowledge and skills is a crucial component of change and reform in
education. Teachers need knowledge of subject matter, curriculum, students and subject-specific
pedagogy in order to impact and help students to learn effectively. To do this, teachers’ dimensions
of capacity building have to be understood because the new global standards for education calls for
the students to acquire deeper thinking and problem solving abilities, creativity and entrepreneurial
skills. To help the students reach these new standards, Nigerian teachers must have a deeper and
more flexible base than is needed for basic skills. In traditional in-service programs, while skills and
knowledge interact and develop together, researchers have demonstrated a considerable gap
between teacher’s beliefs, (his disposition) about how they should be teaching to satisfy new
educational reforms and their abilities to actually put it into practice (Federal Government of Nigeria,
2004). Enacting educational reforms requires a disposition to meet new students learning and to
make a necessary change in the teacher’s pedagogy. However, despite the extensive policy
enactment and legislation, teacher education, and the teaching profession generally in Nigeria
remain problematic. Therefore, it is pertinent to include teachers’ capacity building as one of the
requisite conditions for teacher certification and licensure (Egbo, 2011).

1.2.3 Curriculum and instruction (Pedagogy)

Like the focus on building teachers’ capacity in knowledge and skills, improving the curriculum
and instruction to reflect the present day global economy, serves as an essential strategy for bridging
the gap in Nigerian educational system. In Nigerian school system today, some teachers have
continued to adhere to the traditional pedagogical orientations that are based on learning skill. Some
have not changed their orientation of role performances as simply transmitting their official
knowledge to students, stressing that they are mandated to teach. Sometimes those who want to
adopt empowering strategies as routine practices are constrained by lack of the pedagogical

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knowledge to do so (Egbo, 2011). Teachers should be seen as facilitators in classrooms thereby

providing opportunities for students to construct their own learning.

1.2.4 Provision of modern infrastructure

Capacity building of teachers goes with the availability of infrastructures for the teachers to
teach effectively. For quality delivery of educational goals and sustainable development of Nigerian
school system, the availability of modern infrastructures to meet the standard based reforms is
imperative. Most of the facilities and educational infrastructures in most of the Nigerian institutions
are dilapidated and absolute. Although a lot of improvements have been made by some state
governments to upgrade these infrastructures, much is also needed especially in most of public
owned schools in local/rural areas where some teachers have no chairs, tables, staffrooms,
unequipped or no laboratories, libraries, lack of ICT’s, Agricultural farms and lack of electricity etc.
Building teachers’ capacity means that policy makers/stakeholders in education must provide the
necessary resource materials that are required to teach effectively by the teachers. Given the
prevailing learning conditions of our educational institutions, it should not be surprising that there is
a gap in educational policy and practice in Nigerian educational system.

1.2.5 Building of organizational capacity

Teachers practice and effectiveness is shaped in part by the contexts (society/community) in
which they work and learn including the communities formed by their relationships with other
professionals inside and outside the school system. There is an interdependence of organizational,
structural and individual capacities of the teachers which implies that reform strategies should seek
to build organizational capacity of various educational institutions and the stakeholders/organizations
responsible for quality to bridge the gap in educational policies aimed at promoting the teachers’
capacity building. The organizational development in educational sector should be concerned with
the elaboration of management structures, processes and procedures, not only within the school
system but also the management relationship between the different educational organizations and
sector (i.e. public, private and community) through partnership, networking. Institutional and legal
framework development should be strengthened by making legal and regulatory changes to enable
these stakeholders, organization, institutions and agencies at all levels to enhance their capacity in
coping with the challenges. Doing this, they will also have the capacity to develop and impact on
human resources (teachers) in the educational system. Building organizational/institutional capacity
will help to develop in the teachers a community of practice that will facilitate the sustainability of the
programmes/policies and their results.

1.2.6 Building teacher’s capacity through welfare and empowerment

For the development and realization of educational goals, quality education transcends
building teachers’ capacity for knowledge, skills, and curriculum but should also include building
teachers’ welfare and empowerment. Nigerian teachers are the most traumatized and the most de-
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motivated in the world from the primary to the tertiary level. They are de-motivated right from the
time they were recruited into the profession through their training to the period of deployment. Even
when they retire from the service they are not paid their retirement entitlement. This phenomenon
does not only affect the job performance of the Nigerian teacher but also pose serious mental stress
to the affected persons. If it is true that the teacher is the key person in the education system whose
training could mar or improve the education results, it could be argued that the much talked about
qualitative education in Nigeria now and in future would be an illusion if the conditions of service of
the teachers are not improved. Building the teachers’ capacity therefore goes with the availability of
infrastructures for effective teaching. Hence, building Agricultural Science teachers’ capacity in
knowledge and skills may translate into effective instructional delivery in Agricultural Science.

1.3 Purpose and research gap of the study

The study was conducted to determine the capacity building needs of Agricultural Science
teachers for innovative instructional delivery in secondary schools in Rivers State. By implication,
the study tries to assess different competencies possessed by Agricultural Science teachers for
quality innovative teaching in Secondary Schools in Rivers State. Prior to this time, several studies
have been carried out by different authors on teachers’ competencies and need for their professional
development through capacity building in different geographical locations and on diverse subjects
and contexts. However, none of these previous studies was carried out on the capacity building
needs of Agricultural Science teachers for innovative instructional delivery in secondary schools in
Rivers State, South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Therefore, the need for Agricultural Science
teachers in secondary schools in Rivers State of Nigeria to embrace professional development to
improve on their competencies to deliver effectively, innovative instructions to students is the missing
link that necessitates this present study titled “Assessment of the Capacity Building Needs of
Agricultural Science Teachers for Innovative Instructional Delivery in Secondary Schools in Rivers
State”.

1.4 Research questions

 What are the technology competencies needed by Agricultural Science teachers for
innovative instructional delivery in secondary schools in Rivers State?
 What are the social competencies needed by Agricultural science teachers for innovative
instructional delivery in secondary schools in Rivers State?
 What are the learning competencies needed for innovative instructional deliver agricultural
teachers in secondary schools in Rivers State?

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2. Materials and Methods

The study adopted descriptive survey research design. This design was considered suitable
for the study because questionnaire was used to collect data from Agricultural Science Teachers.
The population of the study was 36 Agricultural Science Teachers obtained from the 17 Secondary
Schools in Andoni and Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Areas of Rivers State. Out of the 17 schools
in these two Local Government Areas, 13 of them (10 in Andoni and 3 in Opobo/Nkoro Local
Government Areas in Rivers State) are used for the study. Purposive sampling technique was used
to select 28 Agricultural Science teachers from the study population and used as the study sample.
A 20-item instrument titled “Capacity Building Needs of Agricultural Science Teachers Questionnaire
(CBASTQ)” was developed by the researchers and used for data collection. The test instrument
which was composed on a 5-point Likert mean rating scale of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A),
Undecided (U), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD) corresponding to numerical values of
5,4,3,2 and 1 respectively was divided into two sections. The first part takes care of the respondents’
personal and demographic data while the second part contains items bordering on the three research
questions that guided the study. The instrument was face and content validated by 2 experts in
Agricultural Education from Rivers State University, Port Harcourt. Their corrections and suggestions
were incorporated into the final stage of the instrument’s development. Cronbach’s Alpha reliability
method was used to determine the internal consistency of the CBASTQ and a reliability coefficient
of 0.81 was obtained which proved that the instrument was very reliable. Three research assistants
were engaged to help the researchers in the administration and retrieval of the questionnaire. 36
copies of the instrument were given out from which only 28 yielding 77.8% of the total questionnaire
were successfully retrieved and used for data analysis. Data collected for the study were analyzed
using mean and standard deviation.
A criterion mean of 3.00 was used for decision making. Any item having a mean rating of 3.00
and/or above was regarded as needed competencies while any item with mean rating less than the
criterion mean was regarded as not needed. Also, any item with a standard deviation of 1.96 or
below revealed that the respondents were close to the mean and not too far from one another in
their responses.

3. Results

The results were analyzed according to each research question posed by the researchers
which guided the study.
 Research Question 1: What are the technology competencies needed by Agricultural
Science teachers for innovative instructional delivery in secondary schools in Rivers State?

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Table 1. Technology competencies needed by agricultural science teachers for innovative

instructional delivery in secondary schools in rivers state
S/N Item Criterion (X ) SD Remarks
Mean
1 Agricultural Science teachers need electronic white 3.00 2.11 1.13 Disagree
board to teach the students.
2 Agricultural Science teachers need computers and 3.00 3.39 1.40 Agree
other ICT gadgets to teach students.
3 Agricultural Science teachers use the internet for 3.00 3.86 1.27 Agree
research and e-learning.
4 Agricultural Science teachers need to adopt e- 3.00 2.57 1.37 Disagree
learning strategy to deliver quality teaching to
students.
5 Agricultural Science teachers need multi-media 3.00 3.07 1.53 Agree
gadgets in instructional delivery in secondary
schools.
6 Agricultural Science teachers need modern farm 3.00 3.00 1.51 Agree
tools and equipment to teach students in secondary
schools.

Table 1 above shows that Agricultural Science teachers display strong technological
competencies in their instructional delivery in secondary schools as indicated by the mean rating
values whose figures were above the criterion mean of 3.00 with exception of items 1 and 4 with
values (2.11 and 2.57) respectively. The implies that Agricultural Science teachers in secondary
schools in Rivers State are technologically competent to deliver innovative instructions to students.

 Research Question 2: What are the social competencies needed by Agricultural science
teachers for innovative instructional delivery in secondary schools in Rivers State?

Table 2. Social competencies needed by agricultural science teachers for innovative instructional
delivery in secondary schools in rivers state
S/N Item Criterion ( X ) SD Remarks
Mean
1 Agricultural science teachers easily get along with 3.00 3.78 1.40 Agree
others.
2 Agricultural science teachers have good 3.00 3.54 1.27 Agree
communication skills for innovative teaching.
3 Agricultural science teachers engage in informative 3.00 3.39 1.57 Agree
interaction with students and colleagues.
4 Agricultural science teachers in secondary schools 3.00 3.07 1.22 Agree
like working as a team.
5 Agricultural science teachers pays attention to 3.00 3.64 1.26 Agree
individual students’ needs.
6 Agricultural science teachers make teaching 3.00 2.52 1.32 Disagree
practically interesting to the students.
7 Agricultural science teachers help students to 3.00 4.04 1.32 Agree
construct their own learning.

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From table 2 above, the respondents believed that all items whose values are above the
criterion mean of 3.00 are social competencies displayed by Agricultural Science Teachers for
Innovative Instructional Delivery in Secondary Schools. However, they disagree with item 6, whose
mean value is 2.52, this mean that Agricultural Science teachers do not make teaching an interesting
experience to students.

 Research Question 3: What are the learning competencies needed by Agricultural science
teachers for innovative instructional delivery in secondary schools in Rivers State?

Table 3. Learning competencies needed by agricultural science teachers for innovative instructional
delivery in secondary schools in rivers state
S/N Item Criterion (X ) SD Remarks
Mean
1 Agricultural Science teachers use learning 3.00 3.46 1.55 Agreed
resources in an active manner in instructional
delivery in secondary schools.
2 Agricultural Science teachers utilize new teaching 3.00 3.64 1.49 Agreed
strategies in instructional delivery in secondary
schools.
3 Agricultural Science teachers usually make 3.00 3.18 1.31 Agreed
judicious use of instructional time allotted to them.
4 Agricultural Science teachers evaluate their 3.00 3.54 1.30 Agreed
teaching effectively.
5 Agricultural Science teachers teach with practical 3.00 3.14 1.53 Agreed
experience.
6 Agricultural Science teachers learn creatively to 3.00 3.82 1.23 Agreed
develop their innovative teaching skills.
7 Agricultural Science teachers engage in research 3.00 3.04 1.35 Agreed
work to maximize efficiency and productivity.

From table 3 above, it was observed that all the stated items have their mean ratings above
the criterion mean. Thus, both the highest and least mean values corresponding to 3.82 for item
number 6 and 3.04 for item number 7 are greater than the criterion mean which is 3.00. This implies
that Agricultural Science teachers had acquired learning competencies for innovative instructional
delivery in secondary schools in Rivers State.

4. Discussion

The table 1 revealed some of the technological competencies required by Agricultural Science
teachers for innovative instructional delivery in secondary schools in Rivers State. This finding was
in agreement with Zhu and Wang (2014) who posit that teachers should take part in active learning
in which case, they need to use the Internet to search for and extract information effectively. Zhu
and Wang (2014) further stressed that teachers should endeavor to use appropriate Information
Communication Technology (ICT) tools and multimedia in education not only to boost their innovative
skills in digital technology but also to register their strict compliance to global best practices in the
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field of education. This study finding is also in line with Obanya (2012) who posits that the success
of every education process depends on the wisdom and knowledge of the teacher and on the
teachers’ sensitivity to the students as no education system in the world can rise above the quality
of its teachers. This wisdom can be enhanced through relevant technology applications.
Table 2 revealed that Agricultural Science teachers displayed social competencies in
secondary schools which help the students to learn effectively by engaging the students on effective
interactions. This claim was supported by Zhu and Wang (2014) who pointed out that persistence,
effective communication, democratic leadership, fairness amongst other qualities are ways teachers
exhibit social competencies in classrooms. Similarly, the study finding was in support of Martin and
Ramsden (1994) who postulate that innovative teaching practices of teachers are related to their
perceptions of teaching and learning. In the same vein, the study corroborates Stipek et al. (2001)
who stated that teachers’ perception of innovative teaching often guides their decisions in the
classroom and influence many aspects of classroom management and coordination including the
degree of student autonomy, interaction, and other forms of assessment in the classroom. Therefore,
social interactions among students and teachers should be initiated by Agricultural Science teachers
to enable students learn some soft skills that would make them productive in the world of work.
Table 3 shows that Agricultural Science teachers can demonstrate learning competencies by
engaging in continuous lifelong learning for professional development. This could be possibly
pursued via enrollment in higher degree programmes, participation at academic conferences,
seminars and symposia for the development of their competencies. This finding agrees with Green
(1999) who stated that learning competencies in human resource systems helps to identify actions
required to be taken to carry out effective job via research and development. The finding was further
supported by Zhu and Wang (2014) who posit that teachers view learning competency as a
prerequisite for innovative teaching. In other words, the teacher needs to have the ability to learn for
himself first before transferring the acquired knowledge to students. One of the ways by which the
teacher ensures quality teaching and learning in school is through continuous participation in lifelong
learning programmes for capacity building and professional development.
Thus, Agricultural Science teachers need continuous professional development in the areas
of technological, social and learning competencies to enable them deliver quality innovative
instructions to students in secondary schools in Rivers State of Nigeria.

5. Conclusion

Teachers professional training and development enable them to acquire more skills and
competence in their teaching job. In-service training improves upon the teachers’ teaching method,
class control, supervision of students, knowledge of subject matter and use of instructional materials
thereby enhancing teaching effectiveness and quality outcomes. Innovative teaching which
encompasses teachers’ abilities to apply new ideas, methods, tools, and contents, etc. to the benefit

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of learners requires human capacity development. Therefore, lifelong learning programmes for
secondary school Agricultural Science teachers is a sure way of developing their technological,
social and learning competencies and as such should be encouraged by all stakeholders in the
education sector. It should be noted that whenever teachers demonstrate competencies in their work
roles, students learn easily and effectively by building their potentials through creative learning.
Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are suggested:
 Government should ensure adequate professional development of Agricultural Science
teachers through the organization of workshops, seminars, symposia and conferences to
enable them interact with one another and learn new teaching strategies and concepts
applicable to their subject areas.
 Agricultural science teachers in Secondary Schools in Nigeria should learn to engage in
active learning through relevant technological and multimedia tools in order to update their
knowledge in their subject of instruction for optimal productivity.
 Teachers of Agricultural Science in secondary schools in Nigeria should endeavor to carry
out personal and collective research in the field of Agriculture to ensure quality instructional
delivery in classrooms and to improve on the economy of the nation.
 Nigerian Agricultural Science teachers should teach students with practical examples as
applicable in real life situations to enable them have a clear picture of what the subject entails.
 Agricultural Science teachers in Nigeria should endeavor to carry out periodic personal
evaluation of their teaching to ensure improvement in instructional delivery.
 Agricultural Science teachers in Nigeria should always source for quality instructional
materials and use same while teaching to make learning more interesting and worthwhile to
the students.

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