Research Competence and its Usage among Professional Academic Staff of School of Sciences Federal College of Education Pankshin - Plateau State

Abstract

The paper focused on research competence among academic staff of school of Sciences, Federal College of Education, Pankshin, Plateau state. Four research questions and one hypothesis were stated. The survey method of research design was utilized in the study, which covered a population of 41 professional academic staff. The entire population was used as a sampled since it was not too large. The questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection which yielded 76 reliability coefficient in a pre-test. Means were used to answer the research question, while the t-test was used in verifying the only hypothesis. It was discovered among others .that the respondents generally had very high knowledge and good research competence as indicated by x=3.5 and x=3.4 responses respectively. Also the respondents generally had poor use of research as shown by x = 2.9 response and when the t-test was used to verify the only hypothesis, it was discovered that there was a significant difference in knowledge of research among the professional staff according to gender. Based on these results, it was recommended that professional teachers in higher institutions be educated on the importance of research and that instead of individual research work group research should be encouraged.