PRINCIPALS’ ANALYTICAL AND COGNITIVE DECISION-MAKING SKILLS AND TEACHERS’ JOB PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS

This study examined principals’ analytical and cognitive decision- making skills and teachers’ job performance, in public secondary schools in Edo State, Nigeria. It was guided by three research questions and one hypothesis. This study used an ex post facto research design with correlational and descriptive statistical methods. The population for this study was 6, 130, comprising 5, 815 teachers and 315 principals from all 315 public secondary schools in Edo State. The sample for the study comprised 376 respondents, consisting of 47 principals and 329 teachers drawn from public secondary schools in Edo State. The sample size was determined using Yamane' s (1967) formula at a 0. 05 level of precision. A multi- stage sampling technique was used to select the sample for the study. Data for this study were collected using two questionnaires.  The questionnaires were tagged Principals’ Analytical and Cognitive Decision- Making Skills Questionnaire (PACDMSQ) and the Teachers' Job Performance Questionnaire (TJPQ), which were validated through face and content validity. Cronbach Alpha reliability method was used to determine the reliability and coefficient values of 0. 803 and 0. 824 were obtained for PACDMSQ and TJPQ respectively. Data obtained were analyzed using mean and standard deviation, simple correlation, coefficient of determination, and regression analysis.  Findings show that principals in public secondary schools in Edo State demonstrate various cognitive and analytical decision- making skills which significantly enhanced teachers’ job performance. The study recommends that government and school authorities in Edo State should institutionalize continuous professional development programmes that focus on enhancing principals’ cognitive, and analytical, decision-making skills to help strengthen principal capacity in decision-making for improved school effectiveness.