Teachers' competence, locus of control and performance of Grade 10 students in Physics

Abstract

This descriptive correlational study determined the relationship of teachers' competence and performance of grade 10 students in physics. Also, to find out the differences in students' performance according to teachers' locus of control in public secondary schools in the Fifth District of Iloilo. The respondents of the study include 359 grade 10 students and their 35 grade 10 science teachers. The antecedent variable in this study was area of specialization; the independent variables were the teachers' competence and teachers' locus of control. The dependent variable was the performance of students in physics. The students' performances were measured by the raw scores in the final examination. To gather data, the researcher-made questionnaire for teachers' competence, the teachers' locus of control by Rose and Medway which was revised by the researcher to suit Philippine setting, and the unified final examination in physics were utilized. Four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using One Way Analysis of Variance, Pearson's r, and the t-test. The study revealed that there is; (1) no significant differences in the teachers' competence according to area of specialization (2) no significant differences in teachers' locus of control according to area of specialization (3) no significant relationship between teachers' competence and the performance of the students and (4) no significant differences in the performance of students according to teachers' locus of control. It was concluded that the competence of teachers and locus of control are comparable regardless of their area of specialization in teaching Physics. Furthermore, students' performance does not reflect their teachers' competence and locus of control. This could be due to some factors like commitment, age, and number of years in teaching Physics.