LECTURERS’ PERCEPTION OF INTERPERSONAL SKILLS (IPS) REQUIRED FOR EFFECTIVE KEYBOARDING SKILLS ACQUISITION BY BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN EBONYI STATE

Abstract

The study ascertained the interpersonal skills required for effective keyboarding skills acquisition by business education students as perceived by lecturers. Two research questions guided the study while one null hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of signigificance.  The researcher used descriptive survey research design. All business education lecturers in tertiary institutions in Ebonyi State constituted the population and a census was taken since the population was manageable. Questionnaire entitled (LEPIPSREKSA) was used to collect data.  The questionnaire was face and content validated by three senior lecturers in the department of business education, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki.  The internal consistency reliability for the instrument was established using Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Coefficient which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.83. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the two research questions while t-test was used to test the null hypothesis. The findings shows that lecturers consider positive attitude and taking responsibility as skills required by business education students for effective keyboard skills acquisition. The result of the research hypothesis shows that the t-cal value of 0.220 is less than the t-crit value of 2.021.  Thus, the null hypothesis was retained. It was therefore concluded that establishing positive relationship based on corresponding interpersonal relationship between lecturers and learners is key to effective keyboarding skills acquisition. The study recommended among others that keyboarding lecturers should see the need to begin keyboarding courses with orientation on the behavior expected of the students in order to truly connect with them for effective learning of the course.  Moreover, NBTE should review the course content of keyboarding in such a way that each level of the keyboarding courses: Keyboarding I, II, III and IV should be made to begin with interactive session that will teach the students to have position attitude towards the teacher, the course and team mates and also to take responsibility for their actions and inactions.

Key words: Interpersonal skills, Keyboarding skills, skills acquisition, Business education students