GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT
The study was to assess the motivational teaching strategies of basic science teachers
and academic performances of preschoolers in Akwa Ibom State. The study adopted an
Expost-Facto research design conducted in Akwa Ibom State. The population of the
study consisted of teachers teaching basic science and preschoolers in nursery schools
in Akwa Ibom State. The study selected 8 school. From each of the school 5 teachers
and 30 preschoolers were selected and used for the study, which gave a total sample
size of 280 respondents (made up of 40nteachers and 240 preschoolers. The
instrument used by the researcher for the study was a questionnaire tagged
"Motivational Teaching Strategies and Academic Performances Questionnaire
(MTSAPQ)." Face and content validation of the research instrument was carried out by
an expert in tests and measurement. From the analysis, the reliability coefficient 0.82
was obtained and the value was considered substantially high enough to justify the use
of the instrument. The data obtained was analyzed using descriptive statistics and
regression analysis for research questions and hypotheses respectively. The calculated
values were compared with the critical values for the test of significance of the result at
0.05 alpha level. The study concluded that motivational teaching strategies improve the
academic performance of preschoolers. The study suggests that when teachers are
caring, and supportive the teaching learning process over the performance outcomes,
and when they give feedback, children tend to be motivated to achieve and to expect
success. However, motivation is the state that can maintain preschoolers' attention and
behavior as well as provide them with the energy needed to lead tasks to achievement.
One of the recommendations made was that basic science teachers should adopt
motivational teaching strategies such as curiosity, extrinsic, and intrinsic to improve
preschoolers' academic performance.
KEYWORDS: Motivational Teaching Strategies, Basic Science, Teachers, Academic
Performances, Preschoolers and Akwa Ibom State