Influences of Some Teacher Characteristics on the ,Utilization of Teaching Materials

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the
effect of teachers experience, qualification, attitude and sex on
utilization of teaching materials. The sample consisted of 112 male
and 72 female teachers randomly selected from 8 primary schools in
and around Nekemte. Analyses of the data gathered through a
questionnaire and classroom observation checklist revealed that less
experienced and less qualified teachers performed significantly
higher than the more experienced and more qualified teachers in
utilizing teaching materials. Besides, it showed that the correlation
between attitude towards teaching and. application of teaching
materials was positive and significant. Furthermore, less
experiencf1d and less qualified teachers demonstrated more
favorable attitude towards teaching than the more experienced and
more qualified ones and this contributed to the performance
difference observed within these groups. Implications were
discussed and recommendations to alleviate the problem were
forwarded.