Journals / Kuram ve Uygulamada Eğitim Yönetimi / 2006 / Cilt: 48 - Sayı: 48
Competencies of Non-Departmental Primary School Classroom Teachers
- Pages
- 531–556
- DOI
- —
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 admin
Özet
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.