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Diagnostic Study of Factors Underpinning the Quality of Academic Research Amongst Pre-Service Teachers in Akwa Ibom State, South-South, Nigeria

Stella A Usen and Glory U Evans

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that underpinned the quality of academic research among pre-service teachers. A descriptive survey design of causal comparative type was adopted in the study. The study population consists of 2320 pre-service teachers in tertiary institutions in Akwa Ibom State for 2023/2024 academic year. The multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted to select 660 sample size for the study, and the research instrument entitled “Factors Underpinning Pre-service Teachers Research Quality” (FUPSTRQ) was used for data collection. FUPSTRQ consists of three distinct sections comprising 70 items questions arranged in Likeret scale format that measured, respondents’ demography, five factors of research quality namely: research facilities, research ethics, research attitudes, research skills, and research emotion. While research quality was measured using checklist to assess randomly selected pre-serve teachers’ final year project reports. To ensure face and contents validity of FUPSTRQ, three experts of which two were of Test, Measurement and Evaluation background and one in English Language vetted the research instrument. The research instrument reliability was established through a pilot survey, whose outcome was tested using Cronbach Alpha reliability test. The index of reliability that ranged from 0.71- 0.85 was achieved. Data were collected from pre-service teachers, analyzed using multiple regression and paths, and deployed to provide answers to research questions. Results revealed that, quality of research is 99.1% dependent on research facilities through indirect path, while it is 56.0% dependent on research skills through direct path. The causative factors underpinning research quality among pre-service teachers were research skills, research facilities, research attitudes, research emotion, and research ethics in that order.

Keywords

Research SkillsResearch EthicsResearch FacilitiesPre-service Teachers

References

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