**4. Research question**

What is the impact of teacher workload on academic excellence and learners' metacognition?

*Impact of Teacher Workload on Academic Excellence and Learners' Metacognition… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114316*

### **5. Aim and objectives**

The motive of the study was derived from the researcher's personal experience, including witnessing the excessive workload of teachers. Not only are they expected to teach but they are also expected to perform administrative duties. The objective of the paper was to investigate the effects of teachers' workloads on learner academic excellence and metacognition in two high schools.

### **6. Research and methodology**

A qualitative research approach was adopted in the study. An interpretivist approach was followed in this study. The interpretive framework was appropriate as the researcher shared information on various effects of teachers' workload on learners' academic performance. Data analysis involved reducing and interpreting data that were gathered through audio-taped interviews. Given that the researcher wanted a detailed reflection on schools, and to ensure confidentiality, participants were interviewed individually, which also gave them a chance to express themselves freely. The researcher used semi-structured individual interviews to collect first-hand data regarding the effects of teacher workloads on learner academic excellence. Population consisted of 26 teachers from school A, 16 females, 10 males and 30 teachers in school B, 18 female teachers and 12 males. Purposive sampling helped identify information-rich cases related to teacher workloads. The sampling comprised 4 teachers and 2 principals from the two selected schools.

### **7. Ethical considerations**

Ethical consideration consisting of informed consent letters, confidentiality and for anonymity pseudonymization were utilised by the researcher. The researcher also guaranteed no harm or risk would be put exposed or subjected to the participants because of their participation.

### **8. Findings**

On the issue of the effects of excessive administrative work and the workload of teachers on learners' academic excellence and metacognition, the following were shared:

*The workload is too much; there is not much time to finish the syllabus and at the same time do daily preparations. We rarely receive free periods; there is a lot of paperwork that must be completed and most of the time due dates for submissions are not met.* (Teacher A.)

Contrary to what Teacher A said, a principal stated that:

*The reason why some teachers end up having too much workload is because they submit their work to the SMT's late.* (School Principal A.)

However, another teacher also emphasised that teachers were overloaded, adding that:

*We are expected to teach subjects that we do not specialise in whilst teaching our own subjects which increases the workload because one must do preparations on all these subjects that are allocated to us. Hence, we sometimes submit assessments late to the Head of Departments for moderation. The administrative work that we must do as teachers is also too much now, we also expected to record marks on SASMS by ourselves.* (Teacher C.)

Teachers B and D concurred with some issues that were highlighted by Teacher C indicated in the above excerpt. Below is what the teachers said:

*The subject allocations that we are given by our SMT do not allow us to finish on time nor submit on time tasks that are needed because we are faced with too many preparations, marking, and recording of that work."* (Teacher B.)

*The rotation of learners that the schools faced during the Lockdown has also added on teachers' workloads, because teachers had to go back to teaching what they taught learners the week that they had come to school because learners had forgotten what was taught or they did not do their tasks that they were given that week.* (Teacher D.)

The participants were all in agreement that teachers had excessive workloads and administrative work, which affected their teaching time and metacognition.

Regarding the effects of shortage of teachers and overcrowded classrooms on academic excellence and metacognition of learners, below is what participants responded:

A principal indicated that:

*Teachers cannot expect to have too many free periods whilst the school has a shortage of teachers that would lead to a much higher rate of learner failure.* (School Principal A.)

However, a teacher reiterated that:

*Shortage of teachers causes stress and a burden to us, as we are expected to assist in teaching those subjects without teachers.* (Teacher C.)

Another teacher highlighted that:

*Some teachers tend to neglect subjects that they are given that aren't within their area specialisation which leaves learners unattended to and that leads to them failing.* (Teacher A.)

Teacher B agreed with what Teacher A, and highlighted that:

*With the big classes that we are given to teach and the number of subjects that we are allocated as teachers, it is difficult for us to finish the syllabus on time.* (Teacher B.)

Further comments are capture below:

*Impact of Teacher Workload on Academic Excellence and Learners' Metacognition… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114316*

*With the Covid-19 Lockdown and closure of schools, we have high numbers of learner failure. The repeating learners add to the number of new entrants of progressed learners, which increases the numbers in our classes.* (Teacher C.)

*We have been requesting for more appointment of educators from the Department of Education, but we are told that we do not meet the quorum as we have just appointed two teachers in our school, but we are still short of teachers as we have huge numbers of learners that need to be taught* (School Principal B.)

Understaffing seems to be one of the major causes of work overload for teachers, pointing to the need for the Department to closely monitor teacher-learner ratio.

### **9. Discussions and recommendations**

### **9.1 Effects of excessive teacher administrative work and teaching workload on learner metacognition and academic excellence**

The study revealed that teachers have excessive administrative work and teaching workloads. This resonates with the main conclusions of the work by [17] and that by [19], which indicate that the complexity and time strains of teachers' workloads, the degree of compliance and additional "time consuming, cumbersome" administrative tasks are consuming their teaching and learning time. Adams [16] discovered that inadequate planning and assessment of teachers with over workload hinders learners progress as these teachers may choose to quick lesson planning and assessment that aim at memorization rather than encouraging critical thinking and metacognitive skills in learners. Where metacognition is concerned, Smith [12] highlights that reduced feedback and guidance can hinder learners' ability to reflect on their learning processes and make needed changes, hence teachers who are loaded with administrative duties and grading may have limited time and energy to offer timely and constructive feedback to their learners. The researcher is of the view that teachers are overly worked and have excessive administrative work, which affects learner academic excellence.

### **9.2 Effect of shortage of teachers and overcrowded classrooms on academic excellence and metacognition of learners**

The study revealed that schools have a shortage of teachers and that they teach overcrowded classrooms. It also discovered that overcrowded and shortage of teachers causes stress to teachers. According to Manuel et al. [11], efficiency of teaching and learning in an overcrowded classroom is threatened; learner performance is reduced and, subsequently, teachers are demoralised. Just like it is indicated by [10], the quality of teaching and learning appears to be compromised by overcrowded classes with limited educators. Furthermore, Ogunode et al. [21] found that most government secondary schools lacked sufficient teachers. Ogunode et al. [21] claimed that there was a problem of understaffing in higher education institutions. Consequently, due to stress, the classroom environment and learner metacognitive development can be hindered as learners may be distracted by the educators' visible stress [22]. Thus, it is clear from the findings that overcrowded classrooms and shortage of teachers have impacted learners' metacognitive skills and academic excellence negatively.
