Assessment of the Competence and Improvement Needs of Metalwork Instructors in Colleges of Education in South Western States of Nigeria

Abstract

The study focused on the assessment of the competence and the improvement needs of the Metal Work Instructors in colleges of education in the south-western states of Nigeria. Four research questions in line with the different areas of the metal work were developed to be answered by the study. The instrument used for data collection was a 98 structured competency cluster questionnaire items and a 30 item competency multiple choice test instrument which was face validated by three experts. The population of the study was 35 instructors in colleges of education in South-western states of t Nigeria. All copies of the questionnaire were obtained from the respondent and were for used for data analysis. Product moment correlation and cronbach alpha reliability method were adopted to determine the internal consistency of the competency questionnaire item and the multiple choice test items; a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.88for the competency questionnaire and 0.81 for the multiple choice test items was obtained respectively. 35 copies of the instrument were administered and were retrieved and analysed using percentage, mean and improvement need index (INI) for answering the research questions. Frequency and percentage were also used to analyze the data for competency of the instructors in teaching Metal work to students. Findings from the study revealed that the instructors in metal work at the colleges of education in south-western states of Nigeria had a high competence in teaching sheet metal work and welding and fabrication, an average competence in Machine shop practice and a low competence in teaching Foundry and Forging based on the result from the competency based multiple choice test items. It was therefore recommended that the identified competencies in which improvements were needed by the instructors be packaged and use for re-training them to enable them meet the training needs of the student.