This study compared pedagogical innovation and teacher effectiveness between traditional and modern teaching methods among public secondary school teachers in Calabar Education Zone, Cross River State, Nigeria. A comparative survey design was adopted. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The population comprised 1,500 teachers in public senior secondary schools in the zone. Stratified random sampling was used to select 300 teachers across schools. Data were collected using a 15-item, 4-point Likert “Teacher Training and Pedagogical Innovation Questionnaire” (TTPIQ) with two subscales: Pedagogical Innovation, 8 items; Teacher Effectiveness, 7 items. Face validity was established by two test and measurement experts from University of Calabar. Cronbach's alpha yielded reliability coefficients of 0.97 for the overall instrument, 0.94 for Pedagogical Innovation, and 0.93 for Teacher Effectiveness. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and independent samples t-test at 0.05 level of significance. Results showed that teachers using modern methods reported significantly higher pedagogical innovation (M = 3.42, SD = 0.58) than those using traditional methods (M = 2.85, SD = 0.65), t(298) = 8.12, p < 0.001. Similarly, teacher effectiveness was significantly higher for modern methods (M = 3.60, SD = 0.52) than traditional methods (M = 3.05, SD = 0.62), t(298) = 7.95, p < 0.001. The study concludes that modern teaching methods significantly enhance both pedagogical innovation and teacher effectiveness compared to traditional methods. It is recommended that teachers receive continuous professional development on modern, student-centered pedagogies and that government provides adequate resources to support their implementation.