The nexus between instructional effectiveness of teachers and students’ academic performance: a survey on senior high school accounting teachers

The study assessed the instructional effectiveness of Senior High School accounting teachers and its impact on students’ academic performance. Given the important role teachers’ instructional effectiveness play on the academic success of students, this study investigated whether the decline in financial accounting performance of senior high school students in Upper West Region of Ghana, could be explained by their teachers’ instructional effectiveness. The researchers adopted a descriptive survey as the research design, collected data from 260 final-year accounting students randomly sampled across 22 senior high schools, and analysed the data using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found that senior high school teachers were instructionally effective as they were effective in their communication, use of questioning and discussion techniques, and students’ engagement. The teachers’ effectiveness did not differ based on the category of school. Finally, teacher instructional effectiveness was found to be positively associated with students’ academic performance, contributing 11.4% of students’ academic success. It is recommended that the effectiveness level of the teachers should be sustained through various forms of teacher continuous professional development programs. Also, any regulatory body should consider teacher effectiveness as the yardstick for the deployment of accounting teachers to the various senior high schools.