Competencies of Non-Departmental Primary School Classroom Teachers

Year 2006, Volume: 48 Issue: 48, 531 - 556, 01.09.2006

Ali Sabancı Ahmet Şahin

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine how competent non-departmental primary school classroom teachers were. The data were collected by a questionnaire from primary school inspectors, primary school administrators and departmental and non-departmental primary school classroom teachers. According to the findings primary school inspectors, primary school administrators and departmental classroom teachers hold the idea that non-departmental classroom teachers are not competent in terms of ‘pedagogical knowledge and guidance to students', ‘personal competence required for the profession', ‘program and subject knowledge', ‘school, family and environment relations'. However, non-departmental classroom teachers hold the opposite idea that they are competent. The results indicate that in-service courses and the other efforts to train non-departmental classroom teachers were not fully successful in developing their competence. Consequently, the paper concludes it would be advisable to employ the existing non-departmental teachers in their proper subject areas and make use of those who have followed the necessary undergraduate program for classroom teachers at a faculty of education. Summary There is a close relation between the success of an education system and teachers' qualities and performances (Çakıroğlu ve Çakıroğlu, 2003; Denner, Salzman ve Bangert, 2001; Gültekin, 2002). Therefore, teachers are expected to have necessary professional knowledge and skills to follow the changes and developments to perform their responsibilities effectively in the profession. Professional competence is defined as the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to perform a profession effectively (Celep, 2004; Sünbül, 2002; Şişman, 2002). The literature shows that the areas of the teacher's competence have been defined in terms of personal and professional competence. Professional competence can be described as “program and curriculum knowledge”, “teaching skills and teaching process”, “student acknowledgement and guidance”, “school, family and environment relations” (Erden, 2001; Küçükahmet, 1999; MEB, 2002; MEB, 2004; NJDOE, 2004; Özdemir ve Yalın, 2000; Sünbül, 2002; TBMM, 1973; TTA, 2003). Training and appointing teachers as specialists who are qualified to plan and deliver effective instruction process continues to be one of the most important problems in Turkey (MEB, 1981; MEB, 1995; Tekışık, 2004). Until recent years, quantity has been more important than quality in teacher training policies in Turkey. Although teaching has been considered as a specialized profession, which requires special knowledge and skills, non-departmental teachers who were not exposed to the necessary undergraduate program for classroom teachers at a faculty of education have been employed as classroom teachers. Therefore, there have been debates going on among both practitioners and theoreticians about whether non-departmental teachers are competent enough to teach at classroom level. (Akyüz, 2001; Duman, 2002; Günçer, 1998; Korkut, 2002; Oral, 2000; Tekışık, 2003; YÖK, 1998a). There is a continuous need to evaluate and develop personal and professional competence of classroom teachers. The importance of primary education is heightened by the fact that approximately 13% of all children attend pre-school in Turkey (Eğitim-Sen, 2004). Since primary education plays a crucial role in developing system awareness of the citizens, it is compulsory for each and every individual. This research aims to contribute to the debate concerning contemporary circumstances of primary school teachers employed from non-departmental sources. Therefore, the following specific research questions were addressed in order to determine how competent the non-departmentally appointed primary school classroom teachers are. 1.Do the views of state primary school administrators, departmental and non-departmental primary school classroom teachers and primary school inspectors differ on how competent the non-departmental primary school classroom teachers are in terms of their competencies? 2.Do the views of the groups differ in terms of a) gender, b) work experience, c) academic background? Method The population of the study consists of 69 primary school inspectors, 369 administrators, 2036 primary school departmental and non-departmental classroom teachers working in 129 state primary schools in Antalya in 2005-2006 Educational year. The research sample comprised randomly chosen 57 inspectors, 51 administrators, 222 departmental primary school classroom teachers and 105 non-departmental primary school classroom teachers. A questionnaire developed by the researhers was used to elicit data from participants. A 70-item questionnaire was pre-tested for reliability and validity. In the process of explonatory factor analysis the items with a factor loading less than .40 were removed from the instrument. The final form of the instrument consisted of 37 items under the headings of four sub-dimensions, namely “pedagogical knowledge and guidance to students”, “personal qualities required for the profession”, “the competence of programme development and subject knowledge”, “school, family and environment relations”. The four sub-dimensions were able to explain 65.75 % of the total variance. The factor loadings of the variables ranges between 0.52 and 0.74 Within-items reliability test was done using the Cronbach reliability correlational analysis. The Chronbach Alpha value of the instrument was 0.97. A five point Likert Scale ranging from “never” to “always” was used in this research. Specific descriptive analyses including percentage, frequency, means, t-test and one-way ANOVA for independent sampling were conducted to analyze the data. In case there was a significant difference between groups, Tukey HSD test was conducted. An alpha level of 0.05 was set for all the analyses. Results and Findings The findings show that state primary school administrators, departmental primary school classroom teachers and primary school inspectors think that non-departmentally appointed primary school classroom teachers are sometimes competent in “pedagogical knowledge and guidance to students”, in “personal qualities required for the profession”, in “the competence of programme development and subject knowledge”, and in “school, family and environment relations”. In contrast, non-departmental primary school classroom teachers believe that they are very often competent in these areas. The findings show that: 1. Primary school administrators, departmental primary school classroom teachers and primary school inspectors hold negative views about a) pedagogical knowledge and guidance to students, b) personal competence required for the profession, c) program and curriculum knowledge, d) school, family and environmental relations concerning non-departmental primary school classroom teachers. 2. There is a significant difference in the views of departmental primary school classroom teachers concerning work experience in terms of school, family and environmental relations. The teachers who have 6-10 years work experience hold more positive views than those who have 21 years and more work experience. 3. Views of the teachers who have pre-licence education also significantly differed from those who have licence degree. Teachers who have pre-licence education hold more positive views in terms of school, family and environmental relations 4. It is quite surprising that non-departmental male teachers' views are different from those hold by female teachers about programme development and subject knowledge. The female primary school classroom teachers hold more positive views than their male counterparts. 5. There is also a significant difference in the views of non-departmental primary school classroom teachers concerning work experience in terms of personal qualities required for the profession. The teachers who have 6-10 years of work experience hold more positive views than those who have 16-20 and 21 years and more work experience. Conclusion and Suggestions This article focused on determining the views of inspectors, administrators, departmental primary school classroom teachers and non-departmental classroom teachers concerning personal and professional competency of non-departmental teachers. Inspectors, administrators and departmental primary school classroom teachers believe that non-departmental classroom teachers are not fully competent in this subject area which requires special education. Non-departmental classroom teachers, however, believe that they are competent in teaching profession. When the data were evaluated as a whole, the non-departmental teachers were found to be more likely to have difficulty in preparing an effective learning atmosphere according to the students' needs in terms of tolerance, patience and creativity. Another difficulty for non-departmental teachers seems to appear in associating concepts related with students' physical, mental and emotional characteristics. The results obtained are expected to shed light on policies intended to cope with the circular shortage of teachers in the future. Urgent action is needed to provide the primary school classroom teachers with the opportunities to develop themselves. The ministry tries to compensate for the lack of appropriate training with in-service training. However, the findings of this study suggest that in the opinion of the colleagues in service training does not achieve the desired improvement. In this respect, the non-departmental classroom teachers should be redeployed. An alternative to redeployment could be additional training but this training would need to be comprehensive and comparable to the training received by undergraduate education program. Further studies are needed to understand the effects of teachers' incompetency on students in pedagogical knowledge and guidance to students, in personal qualities required for the profession, in the competence of programme development and subject knowledge, and in school, family and environment relations. Consequently, Turkey's both short-term and long-term need for teachers should be planned so that it produces consistent results, which are going to meet national needs for teachers.

Keywords

Teacher competencies , teacher training , primary school teachers.

Farklı Branşlardan Atanan İlköğretim Okulu Sınıf Öğretmenlerinin Yeterlik Düzeyleri

Abstract

Bu araştırmada, farklı branşlardan atanan ilköğretim okulu sınıf öğretmenlerinin yeterlik düzeyleri belirlenmek istenmiştir. Araştırmacılar tarafından geliştirilen ölçek, Antalya ili merkez ilçe sınırları içinde görev yapmakta olan ilköğretim müfettişlerine, ilköğretim okulu yöneticilerine, branşlarında görevlendirilen ve farklı branşlardan atanmış sınıf öğretmenlerine uygulanmıştır. Farklı branşlardan atanan sınıf öğretmenleri, ‘mesleğin gerektirdiği kişisel yeterlikler', ‘program ve içerik bilgisi', ‘öğretim ve öğrenme süreci', ‘öğrenciyi tanıma ve öğrencilere rehberlikte bulunma', ‘okul aile ve çevre ilişkileri' boyutlarında değerlendirilmiştir. İlköğretim müfettişlerinin, yöneticilerin ve branş öğretmenlerinin farklı branşlardan atanan sınıf öğretmenlerini yeterli bulmadıkları buna karşılık farklı branşlardan atanan öğretmenlerin kendilerini daha olumlu algıladıkları anlaşılmaktadır. Çalışmanın sonuçları, öncelikle farklı branşlardan atanan öğretmenlerin hizmet içi eğitim vb. çalışmalarla öğretmenlik yeterliklerinin geliştirilmesinde başarı sağlanamadığını ortaya koymaktadır. Bu nedenle mevcut farklı branşlardan atanan sınıf öğretmenlerinin yetiştirildikleri alanlara kaydırılması ve sınıf öğretmeni gereksiniminin karşılanmasında eğitim fakültelerinin ilgili alanlarında mezun olan atıl durumdaki adaylardan yararlanılması büyük önem taşımaktadır.

Keywords

Öğretmen yeterlikleri , öğretmen yetiştirme , sınıf öğretmenleri

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