Inspection approaches and teacher instructional effectiveness in government-aided primary schools in central Uganda

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between inspection approaches and teacher instructional effectiveness in government-aided primary schools in Central Uganda. The study was conducted in Mukono district because all inspection and teacher instruction conditions here were transferable to the wider Central Uganda context. The objectives of the study were to: assess the relationship between the directive inspection approach and teacher instructional effectiveness; examine the relationship between the non-directive inspection approach and teacher instructional effectiveness; and to establish the relationship between the collaborative inspection approach and teacher instructional effectiveness. The study was anchored on the pragmatist research philosophy; hence, it adopted the mixed research approach. Using the parallel mixed research design, quantitative data was collected using self-administered questionnaires while qualitative data was collected using interviews. Quantitative data collected was analysed using descriptive, inferential and regression statistics, while qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings of the study established that the directive inspection approach had an insignificant relationship with teacher instructional effectiveness. The non-directive inspection approach on the other hand, had a moderate relationship because only its aspect of directing had a significant relationship and teacher knowledge evaluation had an insignificant relationship with teacher instructional effectiveness. The collaborative inspection approach had a strong significant relationship with teacher instructional effectiveness. Therefore; it was recommended that school inspectors in government-aided primary schools in Central Uganda should use the collaborative inspection approach more often because it had a significant relationship with teacher instructional effectiveness. Similarly, the non-directive inspection approach aspect of team planning should be used and the directive inspection approach may for now be suspended because it had an insignificant relationship with teacher instructional effectiveness.