Influence of Principals' Leadership Styles on Senior Secondary School Students' Achievement in Chemistry

Abstract

The study explored the influence of principals' leadership styles on senior secondary school students' achievement in chemistry in the Kogi State of Nigeria. It was guided by one research question and three hypotheses. Correlation survey research design was used. The target population was Senior Secondary Class Three chemistry teachers and students in all the public secondary schools in Kogi State. The sampling technique used was multiple stage samplings which included purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Based on the sampling technique, 42 teachers of 264 and 420 students of 4100 were selected. Two instruments were used to collect data, namely a questionnaire titled "Principals' Leadership Style Questionnaire" (r = 0.88), and a pro forma designed to collect student's results from the principal's offices. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. The results revealed that authoritarian leadership was the dominant leadership style used by the senior secondary school principals in Kogi State. In addition, chemistry students under the leadership of democratic principles performed better than their counterparts under authoritative and laissez-faire principals. It is recommended, among others, that principals of senior secondary schools adopt a democratic leadership style and that principals should be given orientation on the use of democratic leadership.