Abstract

The purpose of study was to correlate principals’ managerial strategies and teachers’ use of innovative instructional strategies in secondary schools in Anambra State. The correlational survey research design was adopted and the six education zones were covered in the study. The population of the study is 6,653 respondents comprising 258 principals and 6,411 teachers in all the state government owned secondary schools in Anambra state. Sample size for this study was 899 respondents consisting of 641 teachers and 258 principals of public secondary schools in the State. A researchers-developed questionnaire titled Principals’ Managerial Strategies Questionnaire (PMSQ) and Teachers’ Innovative Instructional Strategies Questionnaire (TIISQ) which were validated by three experts and used for data collection. The PMSQ and TIISQ were made up of two sections, A and B respectively. Section A elicited information on the status of the respondents while section B contained items on principals managerial strategies and teachers use of innovative instructional strategies respectively. The validity of the instrument was determined by two experts in Educational Management and one expert in Measurement and Evaluation. The reliability of the instruments was established using Cronbach’s Alpha method and this yielded reliability coefficients of 0.72, 0.75 and 0.77 for the three managerial strategies elicited in PMPQ and 0.81 for TIISQ. Data obtained from the field were analysed using Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The correlation coefficients for the research questions were interpreted using Nworgu (2015). On the other hand, decisions relating to the test of hypotheses were made using the P- value. Thus, when the obtained P-value was less than the stipulated level of significance, in this case 0.05, the null hypothesis was rejected whereas when the P-value was greater than 0.05 the null hypothesis was not rejected. The findings of the study showed among others that a very high positive and significant relationship existed between principals’ instructional supervisory strategies, staff development strategies and teachers’ use of innovative strategies. Based on the findings and conclusion from the study the researchers recommended among other things that teachers should also from time to time be invited by the State Ministry of Education and the Post Primary School Service Commission to attend staff development programmes where they will be enlightened on the application of various innovative instructional strategies. This will help them apply varied teaching methods that can cater for different categories of learners for improved performance.