Motivational Instructional Skills for Improving Teaching Among Teachers of Primary School Pupils

This study was carried out to investigate the primary school teachers' perceived motivational instructional skills needed for improving teaching and learning in Enugu State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The study sample was 1,196 teachers, comprising of 579 males and 617 female teachers. Multistage sampling technique was used in the selection of the sample size. The instrument used for data collection was ‘Perceived MotivationalInstructional Skills Needed for Teaching' Questionnaire' abbreviated (PMISNTQ). Using Cronbach Alpha method, the instrument had aninternal consistency coefficients of 0.87. The instrument was administered to the participants in their respective schools. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test statistics and the hypotheses was tested at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that the motivational skills needed by the teachers are: attributing pupils' successes to their (pupils') effort; encouraging pupils to always try their best in class workand informing pupils that they can always do well in class work. Furthermore, the hypotheses tested in the study revealed that there is no statistically significant difference in the mean rating of male and female teachers on theperceived instructional skill needs of teachers for improved teaching.Theskills discussed in this study should be integrated into the teacher education curriculum as a separate course that students must credit before certificate of teaching could be awarded to them.