Education Quarterly Reviews

Effective teaching is one of the key elements in the teaching-learning transaction that has caught the attention of many stakeholders in education. Although much has been said and written on this issue, it is still obvious that teaching is not really effective in some schools especially when compared to students performances in various class works and end of course examinations. Based on this, the paper examines some factors that contribute to ineffective teaching in some selected secondary schools in Bamenda municipality in the North West region of Cameroon. A systematic sampling technique was used to select a sample of 120 teachers from Government Bilingual High schools Bamenda, Bayelle, and Atiela. From the observation and the questionnaire administered, the findings revealed that majority of the teachers hardly carried out intensive research and that hindered effective mastering of the content knowledge of the lessons taught. Some of them used methods that were more of teacher-centeredd, majority of the teachers scarcely prepared their lessons before the actual teaching and some did not consider the differences in learners learning styles during the teaching-learning transaction. Verbal communication in the classroom was more of teacher-centered. Most of the teachers used basically traditional materials neglecting the use of advanced media and community resources while only 30% of the teachers made an effort to create awareness on the purpose and importance of the knowledge learners learned. All these rendered the teaching-learning transaction less effective. In order to improve on this situation, teachers should carry out intensive research, effectively prepare their lessons, vary and use the constructivist approaches of teaching so as to meet up with the demands of Competence-Based Learning and complement the use of traditional media with advanced and community resources.


Introduction
The issue of effective teaching has been a problem in the educational system, especially in the Cameroon context. Falling standards of education are often associated with the way teaching is carried out despite the fact that most teachers in public schools are trained. In most cases, teachers are concerned with what they teach and not on how they can teach in order to enhance the teaching-learning transaction. If a teacher teaches and there is no effective learning, it means there was no effective teaching. Therefore this paper is aimed at finding out some of the factors that contribute to ineffective teaching-learning in some selected schools in Bamenda municipality of the North West Region in Cameroon despite the training given to teachers in these schools.

Background on Teaching
Teaching has been variedly defined by different authors, and the definitions transform as time goes by. From a lay perspective, it is simply transferring information to learners. Farrant (1982:168) defines it as the process that facilitates learning. For Kneiler (1972), teaching is an intentional activity that aims to bring about learning. To Nsamenang (2004), teaching is the facilitation of learning, a definition, perhaps inspired by his africentric approach to educational psychology as the teaching-learning transaction. From these definitions, it is clear that teaching goes with learning, and therefore, effective teaching is a transactional process between the teachers and the learners that brings about effective learning. It is difficult to establish when teaching actually began, especially when we know that teaching started informally in homes long before the establishment of the first private, mission, or public schools. In ancient times, the art of teaching was the preserve of the literate in society who in most cases were priests and prophets. The history of teaching during the medieval period shows that knowledge was a privilege given reserved only for the children of the wealthy and noble (Highet, 1964). The teaching objectives were mostly centered on transferring skills that could enable the children in taking up future roles in leadership and business. The scribes were revered for this specialized role of imparting knowledge and occupied an envious position in the strata of society. They were people endowed more with wisdom than with knowledge of moving society forward. Teaching in the ancient period was everything but for academic learning.
In the Middle Ages where the authority of the church and Pope stood supreme, teaching was entrusted in the hands of monks whose teaching interest rested on, although not limited to, matters of faith and morality (Highet, 1964). Indoctrination was the traditional approach of imparting knowledge. Learners of the time were more or less passive recipients of knowledge with little critical skills. It was all about faith in the Men of God who owned the monopoly of knowledge. According to Tchombe (2019), the teaching methods used during the middle ages were more of drill and repetition, which encouraged more of rote learning. This shows that learners were not encouraged to be creative or to discover more knowledge on their own. This, therefore, made the teachinglearningg process less effective. During the Renaissance and Reformation periods in early modern Europe, the omnipotent teaching philosophy of the ancient and medieval periods came under sharp criticism. Scholars principled by the spirit of enquiry and age of reasoning that accompanied the Renaissance and Reformation deconstructed the view that "the teacher knew everything and the learners were tabula rasas." This brought a new relationship in the teaching-learning transaction where the teacher even though remaining at the centre of teaching, realized that the learners had something to contribute. Some changes in the 19 th century determined many elements that re-interrogated the essence of teaching.
Teaching in most parts of the 19 th and the early part of the 20 th century was defined in terms of imparting knowledge. Standards for teaching made an emphasis to the conduct of the lives of teachers over their professional abilities. For instance, as Arends (2007) states that in common or public schools in the United States between 1825 and 1850, the purposes of schools were few and the teachers' role rather simple. Basic literacy and numeracy were the primary goals of 19 th century with curriculum dominated by what later came to be called the THREE 'Rs,' Reading, writing and Arithmetic; a curriculum that was also imposed by missionaries in Africa (Cameroon) during the colonial period. (Gwanfogbe, 2006). Standards governing teaching was almost nonexistent, and emphasis was on rules and regulations governing teachers' personal lives and moral conduct. For example, a teaching contract included engagements like 'I promise not to fall in love, to become engaged or secretly married.' This is clear testimony that 19 th c. Concern for teaching was tilted towards moral character and conduct instead of pedagogic abilities. In principle, it was heavily teacher-centered. The interest of the learners was hardly taken into consideration. This lapse was recognized by William James as cited in (Lesgold and Glaser, 1989), an educational psychologist who carried out extensive classroom research tailored to fit the needs (conditions) of the learners and not the condition that the teacher assumed the learner should be in. He supported the use of discussion, projects and activities, laboratory experiments, writing, drawing, and the use of concrete materials in teaching. This is a classical example of a learner-centered design, which unfortunately took time to be embraced as an effective teaching culture.
So far, the presentation of teaching in historical perspectives has raised the vision, mission, and method of teaching across time. Understandably, there was a need to organize teaching to meet desired targets or to build learners holistically, hence the development of pedagogy, the art, and science of teaching. According to Arends (2007), teaching has a scientific basis since its practices are based on research and scientific evidence; it is also an art based on teachers' experiences and wisdom of practice. In order to enhance learning, teaching must be effective, although teachers are considered as facilitators, they play a key role in enhancing learning. The falling standards of education in Cameroon are most often related to the teaching process. Although more than 70% of teachers in public schools are trained, the performances of learners in some of these schools are below standards. Therefore it becomes crucial to examine the factors affecting the teaching-learning process in some of these schools. In line with this objective, the research question that guided this research was: What are the various factors that inhibit effective teaching in some public secondary schools in Bamenda?

Methodology
This research was designed to assess some of the factors that inhibit effective teaching in secondary schools. The research design used in this study was a cross-sectional survey as data was collected from a cross-section of teachers in Bamenda two and three municipalities in the North West Region of Cameroon. A purposive sampling technique was used to select three public schools, which were Government Bilingual High school Bamenda, Government secondary school Nkwen, and Government High School Atiela. These schools were purposely selected because majority if not all the teachers were trained, but students performances were still not encouraging therefore as a teacher trainer I was curious to find out the factors affecting teaching-learning process in those schools. A systematic sampling technique was used to select a sample of 120 teachers from the three selected schools, specifically those teaching in the first cycle (forms 1-5).
A questionnaire and an observation guide were used to collect the data from the teachers. The questionnaire was designed for teachers, and it consisted of two sections. Section A was made up of the demographic data of the respondents which had an implication on the findings especially the item on the longevity of service and section B was made up of the factors that hinder effective teaching. The questionnaire had both open and closed-ended items. The copies of the questionnaires were administered to teachers in their various school campuses. Most of them were administered in the staff rooms while a few of them in their respective classrooms. Generally, the respondents used at most 45 minutes to fill the copies of the questionnaire. The observation guide was designed purposely to help the researcher observe some teachers during the actual teaching. It was based on the use of teaching methods and materials, consideration of individual differences during teaching and verbal communication between the teachers and learners. It should be noted that observation was meant to complement the data collected from teachers. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, specifically Frequencies, percentages, and thematic analysis.
As far as the ethical issues were concerned, consent was sought from the school administrators and teachers who were implicated in the study. The nature and purpose of the research were explained to them, and fortunately, all the respondents gave their consent to participate in the study. I assured the respondents of the principle of confidentiality, and that was why there was no space provided on the questionnaire for their names. I technically avoided any situation that could warrant them to mention their names, especially based on the fact that the research was carried out during the period of the socio-political crisis in Cameroon.

Results
After analyzing the data collected from the teachers, it was realized that some of the factors that inhibit effective teaching in G B H S Bamenda, GBHS Bayelle, and GBHS Atiela. Were related to; insufficient research, individual differences especially the different learning styles of learners, lesson plan, instructional methods, instructional materials, the purpose of knowledge acquired in each subject by learners and verbal communication which was more of teacher-centered. These factors are further presented in details.

Research
The results on Table 1 shows that out of the 120 teachers who participated in the study, a minority (45%) of them affirmed to the fact that they carried out intensive research on at least 90% of the topics they had to teach. Some of the teachers emphasized that the fact that they had been in the teaching profession for a long time did not imply that they should not carry out research on what they had to teach. Some of them said they always wanted to update their knowledge in their subject areas and others said they read intensively and extensively to avoid embarrassments from the "intelligent" and inquisitive students during the teaching-learning process. It was realized that majority (52.5%) of them only flashed through the lessons on the prescribed textbooks before teaching. A few (3%) stated that they did not carry out any research before the actual teaching because they had been in the teaching field for a long time and therefore they had mastered the content of their subject area to the extent that they did not need to do any research before teaching effectively. According to some of the teachers, they did not carry out any intensive research because of the scarcity of textbooks in some disciplines. At times, some of the books found in the school libraries were outdated.

Lesson Preparation
Apart from insufficient research on the content knowledge, another challenge faced by most teachers was to plan their lessons effectively. From the data collected, it was realized that very few teachers (30%) in the field actually prepared their lessons before the actual teaching while 70% did not see any reason to prepare their lessons before going to class. See table two. According to some of the respondents who prepared their lessons, lesson planning is a very important tool for effective teaching because it helped them to prepare beforehand the learning activities, methods and instructional materials needed for the lesson. Some of the teachers who did not plan their lessons said they had been in the field for more than ten years and they had mastered the teachinglearning process, therefore they did not see any need planning for a lesson before the actual teaching in the classroom. It was observed that most of these teachers who did not plan their lessons were not really presenting their lessons in a sequential manner, thereby making learning difficult for the learners. This was noticed from the type of questions asked by the learners. In the course of teaching, some of these unprepared lessons were very sketchy and lacked illustrative materials. During the observation process, I realized that some of the teachers who did not plan their lessons before the teaching dangled in class while others suffered from slowdowns. Some of these teachers hushed students down when they asked challenging questions, while others considered the questions as take-home assignments. It was also realized that some of the teachers who did not prepare their lessons had problems with time management. Some had it difficult to exhaust the time allocated for the subject while others encroached into other periods.

Individual learning styles
As far as the issue of learning styles were concerned, The results on table 2 shows that 70 % of teachers in the selected schools were aware of the fact that learners have different learning styles that need to be considered for the teaching-learning transaction to be effective but they often neglected this in the course of teaching because most of the classes were overcrowded, making it difficult for teachers to determine the different learning styles of each learner. The results on table 2 show that only 40% of teachers considered individual learning styles during the teaching-learning process. Therefore, the teaching strategies and learning activities used by most teachers hardly favoured all the learners. According to some of these teachers, if there were to consider the learning styles of every learner they would not be able to complete the scheme they were assigned to before the end of the academic the year. This still confirms the fact that teachers are most often concerned with what they teach and not how it should be taught for learners to learn effectively.

Instructional methods
On the part of the use of instructional methods, the results on table 2 indicate that most (54%) of the teachers varied their methods of teaching depending on the lessons they taught but neglected the issue of learners' needs. It was discovered that only 30% of teachers assigned students to carry out research on certain themes and present in class. This method, according to some teachers, was time-consuming. It was also realized that 55% of them used the discussion method when teaching some lessons. According to some (33.3%) of the respondents, since the ratio of the teachers and students in most classrooms was 1:70, they tend to use direct methods like lectureillustration, so as to complete their scheme of work for the given class. This might have hindered the learning process of some learners.

Instructional Materials
Also, the findings of this research proved that 80% of teachers in the selected schools used instructional materials in teaching, but the problem was that they used mostly traditional media like the board, charts, textbooks and workbooks to the detriment of advanced media and community resources which could make teaching-learning more interesting and effective. Only about 25% of teachers used advanced media, specifically the computer, to carry out research. See table 3. It was realized from both the questionnaire and observation that no teacher used the projector in teaching in these schools. According to most of them, they were not using advanced media because some of them were very expensive to purchase, and some of them were not trained on how to use these materials. Some teachers proposed that the school authorities should provide them with materials like the projectors and computers and also organize workshops to train some of them on how to use these materials.

6 Purpose of the content taught in each subject
Also, from the data gotten from some of the respondents, it was realized that only 30% of them made the learners to be away of the importance of the information or knowledge they were being taught while 70% only focused on the transmission of the information. According to some of the teachers who focused only on the transmission of the knowledge, most of them did that to have good results at the end of course examinations like the General Certificate of Education (GCE) Ordinary level. It was realized that teaching was more of examination-oriented.

Verbal communication
It was equally found out that one of the most important aspects that affected the effective teaching-learning process was the use of verbal communication. From my observation, it was realized that more than 60% of the verbal communication in the classroom was done by teachers. One of the reasons that made teachers to dominate in the lessons which I observed was because they mostly used the objectivist approach of teaching which entails the telling/lecture method of teacher which was more of teacher-centered approach. Also, the teachers and students ratio of 1:70 made some of these teachers to communicate mostly with the learners seated on the front benches to the detriment of those seated behind. This problem was also associated with the arrangement of the classroom. The issue of arranging the benches in to columns and the teacher's table position in front was not the best, and it hindered effective communication as the teachers mostly concentrated on those in front. Students mostly communicated through feedback (responding to teachers questions)

Discussion of Findings
The idea of effective teaching is meaningless if it does not lead to effective learning; therefore one of the most important aspects to be considered in order to render teaching effectively is mastery of the subject matter of the discipline being taught which can be achieved mostly through intensive research. From the findings of this study, it was realized that majority of teachers did not carry out intensive research or really read out of the prescribed texts and that is why they found it difficult to answer some questions or to clarify the doubts of some of their learners. In order to have command of the subject matter to be taught, the teacher must carry out extensive reading before teaching. Although most teachers complained of inadequate textbooks in the school libraries, some of the blame was on them because to become effective teachers, and they should not rely solely on the school library to prepare for a lesson. Instead of attributing blames to inadequate textbooks, teachers should cultivate the habits of consulting other reliable sources of information like the internet, which can serve as online libraries, periodicals like newspapers, magazines, and journals. This, therefore, means that for teachers to become effective, it is good for them to familiarize themselves with syllabuses, read the prescribed textbooks and supplement them with other sources of information weeks ahead of the lessons (Awoniyi, 1980). Take note that there are some students who read extensively and even come to class with the aim of challenging their teachers. Therefore, in order to overcome this challenge and to render the teaching-learning transaction effective, teachers are obliged to read and master their course content if they really have to assume the role of a facilitator. This can be supported with the views of Nsamenang (2004) who emphasizes that one of the core tasks of an effective teacher is to have knowledge of the content of what is to be taught which can only be achieved through intensive research. It is high time teachers started cultivating the habit of diversifying their sources of information in order to master and defend the content of what they teach at any time.
Apart from having a mastering of the content through intensive research, another challenge faced by most teachers is to plan their lessons effectively. It was realized that very few teachers (30%) in the field plan their lessons before the actual teaching. Some of these teachers used the same lesson notes for several years without any revision despite the introduction of the New Pedagogic Approach (NPA) and subsequently the Competence-Based Approach (CBA) in the Cameroon educational system. Their main focus was to complete the syllabus and not whether learning has really taken place. Although most teachers in Bamenda municipality were not interested in planning their lessons, a few numbers of them as earlier mentioned planned their lessons before the actual teaching especially those who graduated from the teachers training colleges a few years back. Lesson planning is one of the key elements of effective teaching because it helped teachers to prepare beforehand the activities, methods, and instructional materials needed for the lesson. According to Anja (2006), lesson planning is very essential prior to any teaching-learning process because it helps the teachers to understand exactly what and how to teach and what and how learners will learn in the process. When teachers prepare their lessons effectively before the actual teaching, they are able to choose the appropriate methods, material, and the activities to initiate based on the needs of the learners. A well-prepared lesson can also help another teacher to pick up the lesson plan and successfully teach the class without further instructions. It should be noted that the lesson plan helps the teacher to determine and evaluate the learning objectives of a particular lesson which enhances effective teaching. According to Sellers, Roberts, Giovanetto, Friedrich and Hammargren, (2007), objectives are concise, explicit statements that describe what exactly you expect students to learn and the skills you hope they will acquire during the lesson. Therefore when objectives are well stated, they will help the teacher to select appropriate instructional methods, create learning activities, and choose appropriate evaluation or assessment methods. Unfortunately, lesson planning is probably one of the most neglected tools among teachers in most of our schools. As teachers of the 21 st century, they should take upon themselves as a challenge to always prepare their lessons before the actual teaching. A good lesson plan will enable any teacher to be able to move smoothly from one activity to another, thereby avoiding dangling, truncation, flip-flop, and slowdowns; this will definitely ensure effective teaching and learning.
Also, another factor that enhances the teaching-learning transaction effective is the consideration of various learning styles of the individual learners. Although majority of teachers are aware of the fact that learners have different learning styles that need to be considered for the teaching-learning transaction to be effective, they often neglect this in the course of teaching because most of the classes are overcrowded, making it difficult for teachers to determine the different learning styles of each learner and their individual needs. In order to make effective teaching, teachers should try to employ teaching strategies that will be appropriate for the three types of learning styles; visual, auditory, and kinesthetic/tactile. The visual learners learn by seeing; they often prefer to see things written in text or projected materials, and they find maps, graphs, charts, and other visual learning tools to be extremely effective. Auditory learners' best learn by hearing; they prefer lectures and discussions. Their learning process can be facilitated with the used of audio tapes and radio programmes. On the other hand, kinesthetic\tactile learners learn by doing, moving, and touching. Tactile/Kinesthetic persons learn best through hands-on approaches or actively exploring the physical world around them. In order to improve on their learning, teachers should consider use activities like debates, simulations or use the manipulative media like computers. If this is done effective, it can also enhance inclusive education in our schools. Moore (1992) supports the view that learners have different ways of learning, and teachers have to consider these learning styles in order to enhance effective teaching. This means teachers should employ teaching methods and materials that are commensurate with these learning styles. Therefore when teachers are trained and send to the field, they should avoid being an auditory nor a visual teacher but a dynamic teacher who will be able to facilitate learning in all the learners despite their individual differences. Teachers should use a variety of methods, materials, and examples in each lesson because regardless of learners best mode of learning, it will help every learner at the same time (Rosenshine & Furst, 1973).
It is obvious that in the course of discussing about the learning style, we have highlighted some ideas on teaching methods. This is one of the most important aspects as far as teaching effectiveness is concerned. Once in the classroom, the teacher must be able to apply a number of different methods of teaching to reach students with different learning styles. In order to encourage critical thinking and real-life application, students must be pushed to think outside the box. This means teachers need to be able to create an environment for this to occur. Most (54%) of the teachers in some secondary schools in Bamenda municipality stated that they vary their methods of teaching depending on the lesson they were teaching but neglected the issue of learners need. Although there is no best method of teaching, in order to teach effectively and enhance effective learning, teachers should vary their teaching methods. There are many methods of teaching, as there are lessons and learning differences and outcome. The methods used to teach any lesson will depend largely on the teaching tradition that the teacher has. If he is an objectivist, ie, teaching following the factory model of teaching, he will like to standardize and pass on information to learners in the form of known truths. According to Arends (2007), knowledge of an objectivist teacher is somewhat constant and unchanging. Teachers of this tradition are individuals who have acquired a chunk of 'important 'knowledge, and their role is to transmit the knowledge in the form of facts, concepts, and principles to students. Learning by this indication is a passive process where rectangular rooms, fixed seating, chalkboards, and reading stands at the front of the classroom are designed for the mono-lineal transmission of knowledge from teachers as the students sit quietly like tabula rasa listening and taking down notes. Arends (2007,) describes it as traditional 19 th c teaching, but this culture spread back to the history of teaching from the ancient times. Today such a teaching tradition has won the trademark; teachercentered education. The greatest weakness of this approach is that, the method encourages a passive form of learning with very low student involvement. Secondly, the objectivist approach is mostly a one-way communicational channel where little attention is given to individual learning differences and very unsuitable for learners in the lower rungs of education. This is not really the best method of teaching, especially in this twentyfirst century, but teachers could use this objectivist approach to teach in presenting background information when introducing a lesson presentation or unit of reference.
An alternative to the objectivist teaching approach and one that has gained respectability in the educational circles today is the constructivist teaching approach. Rather than viewing knowledge as fully known, fixed and transmittable, the constructivist perspective holds that knowledge is somewhat personal and meaning is constructed by the learner through experience (Brooks, J. and Brooks, M. 1993). Learning in this view is a social and cultural activity in which learners construct meaning that is influenced by the interaction of prior knowledge and new learning events. The constructivist teaching tradition calls for active learner participation, which falls very close to the Competency-Based Approach, which is learner-centered. This view agrees with Nsamenang's (2004), adoption of the expression, the teaching-learning transaction for the exchange that a teacher establishes with the learners. To him, the teaching-learning process should be evident in a three -parts structure. On the one side, the teacher, on the other, the content and the third, the learner. In this process, the teacher and the learner negotiate strategies to construct meaning out of a set content. Metaphorically expressed, is a business transaction where the teacher is the seller, the content the commodity, and the learner the buyer. The teacher proposes a selling price which runs through bargain (from the learners or buyers). The amount that the commodity is finally disposed of is not only determined by the marketing strategies of the seller (the teacher) but the bargaining skills of the buyers (learners). This makes all the stakeholders of the business transaction active participants of the deal. Examples of teaching methods that fall under this approach are the discussion method, project method, laboratory method, and activity. These methods give learners the opportunity to explore their learning environment and to interact with their mates and the teacher. The use of these methods gives the teacher and the students the opportunity to use practical and real-life examples which help to connect theory with practical applications for more effective learning and teaching. The constructivist approach of teaching can also be supported by Piaget's (1978) idea of constructivism. He believed that children construct new knowledge from their experiences and therefore, the best method to teach them should be the discovery method where the learners can learn from their actions. One of the best methods of teaching as a transactional process between the teacher and learner is the discussion method which according to Tchombe (2019) help learners to develop problem-solving skills, share experiences and master the subject matter. In the teaching-learning transaction, there must be a relationship between teaching and learning. In this process, teachers do not teach for themselves but stand as facilitators. Teaching is much more than the efficient delivery of thoroughly prepared lessons. From all these, it shows that for teaching to be effective teachers should employ a combination of teaching methods especially those that are learner-centered because some learners learn by doing, others by listening and some need group interaction ( Tchombe, 2011).
Also, in order to avoid ineffective teaching, there is a need for effective use of instructional materials. From the findings of this research, it was proven that majority of teachers in some public schools in Bamenda municipality used some instructional materials in teaching although limited to the traditional materials like the board, charts, textbooks, and workbooks. The problem with these instructional materials used by these teachers was that they favored only the visual learners with little or no impact on the auditory and kinesthetic learners. Teachers should take note that for them to teach effectively, they should always prepare and use instructional media in every lesson they teach. There are different types of instructional materials that can be used in the teaching-learning process which can be classified as follows -Traditional media: models, print (textbooks, Journals, newspapers, magazine, flashcard etc.), charts, pictures, board etc; Community resources: resource places, resource persons, things and events; Advanced media: These are electromechanical devices that if properly used will improve on the teaching-learning process (Tambo, 2003). Some of these media are computers, televisions, radio, telephones, projectors, microphones, etc. Twenty-first-century teachers should complement the use of traditional materials with advanced instructional media. They should also encourage learners to use these tools, especially internet services, to carry out research and to facilitate communication between the teachers and students or to disseminate relevant information among their classmates. If this is effectively done the teaching-learning transaction will improve. The best way to use some of these resources (especially resource places and things) is through field trip which is commonly referred to as excursion. According to Clark and Starr (1967), the best resource the teacher has is the community. The community is both a source of subject matter and a source of instructional materials, therefore, it is like a teaching laboratory. Teachers can use the community to teach any subject.
Most often the emphasis of teaching is on the transmission of pedagogic information, and scanty attention is usually given to the purpose of the pedagogic information, this calls for the question of the utility of knowledge in the teaching-learning transaction. From the data gotten from some of the teachers in Bamenda municipality, it was realized that only 30% of them made the learners to be away of the importance of the information or knowledge they were being taught while most of them focused on the transmission of the information. It is very obvious that if a student does not know the purpose of the information, she learns, it will also be difficult to use that knowledge. Therefore for teaching to be effective teachers should ensure always to give the purpose of whatever they teach so that the learners can also be able to use the knowledge effectively. If students are aware of the purpose of what they learn, transfer of knowledge will be easier.
Apart from instructional materials and other aspects already mentioned, verbal communication is also very vital in enhancing the teaching-learning transaction. From the findings of this research, it was realized that verbal communication in the classroom was dominated by teachers. This affected the learning process because most students were very passive in class. One of the reasons for this was because most of these classes were overcrowded. To increase the level of pupils' participation in class, the ratio of teachers and learners should be reduced or maybe because of limited infrastructures two teachers can be assigned to teach a subject in one class.
The arrangement of the classroom should be changed from the typical columns, and the teachers table in front of a round table manner so that the teacher and the learners can easily get access to each other. Although the findings revealed that the teachers dominated the communication process during the teaching-learning transaction, the students also participated in one way or the other. They communicated mostly in response to questions from their teachers through, in some of the classes, they initiated the communication in terms of asking questions for clarification, taking permission and also contributed new ideas during some lessons especially when the lessons were interesting. Despite the fact that students were involved in the communication process, the fact that the teachers had the highest percentage (67) showed that teaching in some of these schools is still more of teacher-centered as it used to be in the 19 th and 20 th centuries. Teaching is not just the matter of teachers talking and students listening, for teaching to be effective it must involve interactive communication that is skillfully directed. Teachers should always make sure that students' freedom to respond and initiate communication in class is maximized and this will make the teaching-learning transaction more effective. One of the ways that teachers should use in checking this communication process in the classroom is Flander's Interaction Analysis. According to Moore (2001), Flander's Interaction Analysis system helps teachers and other school authorities to view typical patterns of verbal communication in the classroom.

Conclusion
This paper has enlightened teachers on some of the factors that rendered the teaching process ineffective in some schools in Bamenda municipality. From the findings it was realized that most teachers overlooked salient issues like a lesson plan, the use of instructional media (specifically advanced media), individual learning styles, verbal communication, and the purpose of the knowledge taught in each subject during the teaching-learning process, and these rendered their teaching and students' learning less effective. Some of these teachers believed that since they had been in service for a long time, they did not need to dwell on some of these aspects, especially lesson planning, instructional materials, and teaching methods. Some of them had remained with the old tradition of 19 th -century teaching, which was more of teacher-centered. All that some teachers were interested in was to complete the scheme of work without considering how much learning has taken place. According to some teachers, they consider their long experiences in the field to mean that they are effective teachers, forgetting the fact that the world is fast-changing and they need to upgrade their teaching through research, lesson planning and effective use of instructional technologies. The century of great teachers who arrogated to themselves the monopoly of knowledge and considered learners' in John Lock's tabula rasa viewpoint can only be remembered in historical terms. As experts and professionals, teachers are expected to use best practices to help students learn essential skills and attitudes. Professional skills are no longer judged by vague global criteria such as 'acts in a professional manner,' has a good rapport," dresses appropriately." (Arends 2007). It should be more of understanding the context of learning realities, identifying appropriate teaching methods and orientating learning outcomes to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century