Challenges students face in summary writing a case study of Ghana Secondary Technical School, Takoradi

Abstract

The research sought to find out the challenges students face in summary writing in Ghana Secondary Technical School, Takoradi, and ways of improving performance in summary among students. The sampled population was 90 final year science students and 10 English Language teachers. The study was conducted with both qualitative and quantitative methods executed through interviews, tests and questionnaires for which 90 students responded to both quantitative and qualitative data while 10 teachers responded to qualitative data. The study employed an explanatory sequential mixed method approach. The quantitative data were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS version 24.0 together with percentages for the research questions. Findings indicated that teacher effectiveness significantly contributed to students’ academic performance in summary writing, but a positive school climate as one of the teacher efficacy was found to be the best indicator of students’ success in academic excellence. Based on the findings, it was recommended that stakeholders in education should motivate and resource the teacher for better academic performance. Finally, data revealed that some variables such as large class sizes and teacher feedback techniques played important roles in influencing the performance of students in the study of summary.