Safety Management Strategies and Students’ Learning Behaviours in Public Secondary Schools in Calabar Education Zone

ABSTRACT:

The study examined the relationship between Safety Management Strategies and Students’ Learning Behaviour in public secondary schools in Calabar Education Zone. Two objectives and two research questions were raised while two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Correlational research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 1,813 teachers in the 94 public secondary schools in Calabar Education Zone. The sample size was 328 teachers. Two sets of researcher’s developed instruments entitled: ‘‘Safety Management Strategies Questionnaire (SMSQ) and Students’ Learning Behaviour Questionnaire (SLBQ)’’ were used for data collection. The instruments were validated by two experts from the Department of Curriculum Studies, Educational Management and Planning and one expert from Psychological Foundation Department, all from the Faculty of Education. The inter-item reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instruments which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.78 and 0.88 respectively. The research questions were answered using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) while the null hypotheses were tested using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that safety management strategies such as; safety programmes and safety supervision significantly relate to students’ learning behaviours in public secondary schools in Calabar Education Zone, Cross River State. It was recommended amongst others that safety supervision should not be left for administrators alone, but should be carried out by teachers as well since they are closer to the students. This may help modify students’ learning behaviors in a positive direction.

Keywords: Safety Programmes; Safety Supervision; Students’ Learning Behaviour; Public Secondary Schools; Teachers; School Safety