Effect of Dimensions of Professional Competency on Demographic Variables of Secondary School Teachers

Effect of Dimensions of Professional Competency on Demographic Variables of Secondary School Teachers

Dr. R. Siva Prasadh* Dr. K. Jaya ram**

Abstract

The study is to assess the impact of teaching competencies, among a sample of 500 teachers from secondary schools in Visakhapatnam district. It used a 35-item five-point Professional Competency Scale covering important dimensions of professional competencies of teachers. Descriptive and inferential statistical tools such as means, t-test and ANOVA were used to analyze data using the Statistical package for Social Scientists (SPSS). A significance level of α = 0.01 was used to test the null hypotheses. On the analysis of data, it was found that the overall inquiry-teaching competence of the teachers was significantly below the acceptable level. The findings say that the teachers do not differ significantly in terms of gender, locality and age in possession of professional competency. The findings are likely to benefit teachers, and teacher trainers in improving performance and classroom learning environment in secondary school teaching.

Key words: ANOVA, SPSS, Teacher trainers, Workshop, Competencies.

TEACHER PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY Donald M.Medly (1982) disclosed that the teacher professional competency as ‘those of knowledge, abilities and beliefs a teacher possesses and bring to – the teaching situation. Teacher professional competency differs from teacher performance and teacher in that it is a stable characteristic of the teacher that does not change appreciably when the teacher moves from the one situation to another.

Teacher professional competency is the potential to make educative process effective, with expertise and thoroughness of content, which was fabricated beautifully with the methodology of teaching and clear exposition, precise skill, abundant knowledge and creative mind to make the work style outstanding and to improvise low cost and no cost teaching learning material to supplement his teaching.

* Principal (I/c), Institute of Advanced Studies in Education (IASE), Andhra University, Visakhapatnam.
** Lecturer, Dr. L. Bullayya College of Education, Visakhapatnam.

DIMENSIONS OF TEACHER PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY Out of many dimensions of teacher professional competency, five dimensions are considered in here. They are – (1) Activity based teaching & hurdles (2) Child centered practices (3) Teaching learning material & display (4) Evaluation strategies and (5) Novel techniques.

Activity based teaching and hurdles include concept teaching abilities, illustrations, practical approach etc. Child centered practices refer to pupil needs individual differences, interpretations, child participation etc. Teaching learning material and display refers to selection and presentation of teaching learning material preparation, display etc. Evaluation strategies include remedial measures, construction of test items different types of evaluation etc. Novel techniques refer to interpretations, teaching strategies creative ideas etc.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To study the inter-correlations between the various aspects of Professional competency of Secondary school teachers. professional competency.

2. To study the five dimensions of professional competency among the sample of secondary school teachers and find out the relationship of them with the demographic variables: gender, locality and age.

HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY

H1. There will be no significant relationship among the five dimensions of professional competency, and between dimensions of professional competency and total professional competency among the selected secondary school teachers.

H2. There is no significant difference within the gender (male and female), locality (rural and urban) and age (below and above 40 years) of secondary school teachers in possession of professional competency.

SAMPLE OF THE STUDY

For the study, the data from a stratified random sample of 500 secondary school teachers of Visakhapatnam district was collected. In order to have a representative sample of the secondary school teachers, the investigator took necessary care to include teachers belonging to demographic variables like gender, locality and age in the present sample.

Tool used for the study: PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY SCALE (PCS)

Professional competency scale (PCS) was constructed and standardized by Dr. Udayagiri Nageswararao. It consists of 35 items (23 positive items and 12 negative items)and each item is given with five alternatives viz., Strongly Agree (SA), Agree(A), Neutral (N), Disagree (DA) and Strongly Disagree(SDA). Weightages to the alternatives are 5,4,3,2,1 for positive items and 1,2,3,4,5 for negative items. The tool’s reliability is 0.78 and validity is 0.88. High score obtained by the teachers indicates high professional competency and low score indicates low professional competency.

DESIGN OF THE STUDY

|S.No. |Name of the Variable |Description |Category |Sample |Total |
|01. |Demographic variable- I |Gender |Male Teachers |299 |500 |
| | | |Female Teachers |201 | |
|02. |Demographic variable -II |Locality |Urban Teachers |325 |500 |
| | | |Rural Teachers |175 | |
|03. |Demographic variable -III |Age |Below 40 years |222 |500 |
| | | |Above 40 years |278 | |

METHOD OF ANALYSING THE DATA

For analyzing the data, frequency, mean, median and mode were used. To understand the nature of distribution measures of central tendency, skewness, kurtosis were computed. Chi-square values were used to find out item analysis. t - scores and ANOVA were implemented to testify hypothesis regarding demographic and professional variables on all the five dimensions of professional competency. The data was scored with the help of hand calculator as well as the computer with SPSS package.

NATURE & DISTRIBUTION OF SCORES - PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCY:
Skewness of distribution of scores of dimensions of Professional Competency Scale

|S. No. |Dimensions of Professional competency scale |AM |Median |SD |SK |
|01. |Activity based teaching & hurdles |500 |498 |0.556 |0.000* |
| |Child centered practices | | | | |
|02. |Activity based teaching & hurdles |500 |498 |0.537 |0.000* |
| |TLM & display techniques | | | | |
|03. |Activity based teaching & hurdles |500 |498 |0.498 |0.000* |
| |Evaluation strategies | | | | |
|04. |Activity based teaching & hurdles |500 |498 |0.113 |0.020* |
| |Novel techniques | | | | |
|05. |Child centered practices |500 |498 |0.167 |0.001* |
| |TLM & display techniques | | | | |
|06. |Child centered practices |500 |498 |0.490 |0.000* |
| |Evaluation strategies | | | | |
|07. |Child centered practices |500 |498 |0.580 |0.000* |
| |Novel techniques | | | | |
|08. |TLM & display techniques |500 |498 |0.410 |0.000* |
| |Evaluation strategies | | | | |
|09. |TLM & display techniques |500 |498 |0.550 |0.000* |
| |Novel techniques | | | | |
|10. |Evaluation strategies |500 |498 |0.470 |0.000* |
| |Novel techniques | | | | |

*Significant at 0.01 level.

From the above table it is to learn that, there is a significant positive relationship between any two dimensions of professional competency. Hence, part of the first hypothesis i.e., “there will be no significant relationship among the dimensions of professional competency” is rejected.
Significance of ‘ r ’ between Dimensions of Professional Competency and Total Professional Competency
|S.No. |Dimension |N |df |r- value |Sig. |
|01. |Activity based teaching & hurdles |500 |498 |0.482 |0.000* |
| |Total Professional competency | | | | |
|02. |Child centered practices |500 |498 |0.670 |0.000* |
| |Total Professional competency | | | | |
|03. |TLM & display techniques |500 |498 |0.720 |0.000* |
| |Total Professional competency | | | | |
|04. |Evaluation strategies |500 |498 |0.491 |0.000* |
| |Total Professional competency | | | | |
|05. |Novel techniques |500 |498 |0.810 |0.000* |
| |Total Professional competency | | | | |

*Significant at 0.01 level.

To testify the second part of first hypothesis regarding the relationship between the five dimensions of professional competency and total professional competency, statistical details are mentioned the following above table.

It is clear from the above table that, there is a significant positive relationship (0.482) between every dimension of professional competency and total professional competency. Hence, the second part of the first major hypothesis is rejected.

The mentioned r - values reveal that among the dimensions of professional competency, novel techniques are highly significant with all other dimensions and even with professional competency. This indicates that teachers with innovativeness readily seek and accept help from others, willingly invite new strategies, then only make attempts to invent new, think afresh and invite changes readily. These results substantiate the relationship between the five dimensions of professional competency.

Verification of Second Hypothesis & Interpretation

The second hypothesis of the study states that “there is no significant difference within the gender (male and female), locality (rural and urban) and age (below and above 40 years) of secondary school teachers in possession of professional competency.”

Significance of difference of Means within the demographic variables of secondary teachers in possession of Professional Competency

S.No. |Demographic Variable |Category |AM |SD |N |df |t- value |Sig. | |01. |Gender |Male teachers |94.16 |10.86 |299 |498 |0.996 |0.320* | | | |Female teachers |93.15 |9.09 |201 | | | | |02. |Locality |Urban teachers |93.02 |11.21 |325 |498 |0.962 |0.337* | | | |Rural teachers |94.13 |9.75 |175 | | | | |03. |Age |Below 40yrs |101.44 |12.64 |222 |498 |1.19 |0.236* | | | |Above 40yrs |103.12 |14.10 |278 | | | | |*Not significant.

The t-value is found to be insignificant between male and female teachers, between urban and rural teachers, and between teachers below and above 40 years of age. As the t-values are not significant, part of the second hypothesis is accepted.

The second hypothesis is further split into five parts for the convenience of verification in respect of all the five dimensions of professional competency –activity based teaching & hurdles, child centered practices, teaching learning material & display, evaluation strategies and novel techniques with regard to demographic variables.

Values of ‘t’ within gender, locality and age in possession of Professional Competency – dimension wise

S.No |Dimension |Category |AM |SD |N |df |t-value |Sig. | |01. |Activity based teaching & hurdles |Male |32.35 |4.56 |299 |498 |0.443 |0.658* | | | |Female |32.17 |3.55 |201 | | | | | | |Urban |32.06 |4.38 |325 |498 |0.717 |0.474* | | | |Rural |32.39 |4.13 |175 | | | | | | |< 40yrs |32.34 |3.89 |222 |498 |0.266 |0.791* | | | |> 40yrs |32.23 |4.44 |278 | | | | |02. |Child centered practices |Male |29.11 |4.58 |299 |498 |0.187 |0.852* | | | |Female |29.19 |4.18 |201 | | | | | | |Urban |28.74 |4.93 |325 |498 |1.160 |0.249* | | | |Rural |29.32 |4.18 |175 | | | | | | |< 40yrs |29.33 |4.16 |222 |498 |0.750 |0.454* | | | |> 40yrs |28.99 |4.64 |278 | | | | |03. |Teaching learning material &display |Male |20.59 |3.29 |299 |498 |1.174 |0.087* | | | |Female |29.19 |4.18 |201 | | | | | | |Urban |20.34 |3.19 |325 |498 |0.251 |0.802* | | | |Rural |20.42 |3.14 |175 | | | | | | |< 40yrs |20.36 |3.19 |222 |498 |0.155 |0.877* | | | |> 40yrs |20.41 |3.14 |278 | | | | |04. |
Evaluation
strategies |Male |12.10 |2.40 |299 |498 |1.621 |0.106* | | | |Female |11.73 |2.08 |201 | | | | | | |Urban |11.89 |2.41 |325 |498 |0.440 |0.660* | | | |Rural |12.00 |2.24 |175 | | | | | | |< 40yrs |11.79 |2.26 |222 |498 |1.246 |0.213* | | | |> 40yrs |12.08 |2.31 |278 | | | | |05. |Novel techniques |Male |29.67 |2.58 |299 |498 |1.621 |0.106* | | | |Female |28.91 |2.36 |201 | | | | | | |Urban |29.21 |2.53 |325 |498 |0.480 |0.660* | | | |Rural |29.67 |2.46 |175 | | | | | | |< 40yrs |27.69 |3.19 |222 |498 |1.521 |0.197* | | | |> 40yrs |26.91 |3.14 |278 | | | | | *Not significant.

From the above table the t-values are found to be insignificant between male and female teachers, between urban and rural teachers and teachers with different age groups with regard to activity based teaching & hurdles, child centered practices, teaching learning material &display, evaluation strategies and novel techniques. As the t-values are not significant, part of the second hypotheses is accepted.

Padmajakshi reported male teachers are more professionally competent than female teachers, urban teachers are more professionally competent than rural teachers and teachers below 40 years of age tend to possess more professional competency than teachers above 40 years of age. Sheeba concluded that gender, locality and age have no influence at all in effecting professional competency.

The present findings are contradicting the previous research findings of Padmajakshi. But the present research findings are in conformity with the research findings of Sheeba.

Conclusions

There is a significant positive relationship between every dimension of professional competency and total professional competency and there is a significant positive relationship between any two dimensions of professional competency. Gender, locality and age have no influence at all in effecting professional competency of secondary school teachers.

Professional organizations of teachers and teacher educators have to take an active role in improving the competency of teachers. Ability to put the same point in different ways to suit the needs of students of differing competence in a class demands great communicational competence and consequently great facility in language. Teachers must address themselves to the question of handing over some of the tasks they are called upon to handle to general education. That will free them to concentrate on inter-disciplinary approaches which bear upon their discipline.

References

Agarwal, M. (1969). “ Measurement of competence of teachers of primary schools (M.P.)” Ph.D. Edn., Sag.,Univ.

Dave, P.N. & Dave, Jyotsna, P. (1978). The determinants of teacher effectiveness in India-a review of research, IDRC, Ottawa, Canada.

Donald, M.Medley. (1982). “Teacher Effectiveness”, Encyclopedia of Educational Research, V edition, New York, McMillan.

Jangira, N.K. et al. (1982). “Effectiveness of Diferent Strategies of Integration of Teaching Skills in Developing General Teacher Competence of student-teachers”, Dept. of Teacher Education, NCERT.

Padmajakshi, U. (2007). “A study of stress as a stumbling block on professional competency and professional pleasure”, unpublished M.Phil dissertation, Acharya Nagarjuna Univ, Guntur.

Seshasree, S. (2002). “Teaching competency of teachers in relation to stress, job satisfaction, attitudes, institutional climate and interpersonal relationship-A study”, unpublished Ph.D.thesis, Andhra University.

Sheeba. (2006). “A study of work style of teachers and its impact on professional competency”, M.Phil thesis, Calicut University.

Sitaramaraju, P.V. (1994). “A study of teaching competency of teachers in relation to their adjustment and attiudes towards teaching”, unpublished Ph.D.thesis, Andhra University, Visakhaptnam.

Thakkar, V.R. (1977). “A study of potential teacher’s effectiveness-their educational attitudes in relation to their rapport with the students and their survival and job satisfaction in the profession”, Ph.D. Edn., MS Univ, Baroda.

Uday Koundinya. (1999). “A study of change proneness as an influencing factor to determine and enhance school effectiveness, Research paper presented in Regional Seminar, RIE, Mysore, NCERT.

References: Agarwal, M. (1969). “ Measurement of competence of teachers of primary schools (M.P.)” Ph.D. Edn., Sag.,Univ. Dave, P.N. & Dave, Jyotsna, P. (1978). The determinants of teacher effectiveness in India-a review of research, IDRC, Ottawa, Canada. Donald, M.Medley. (1982). “Teacher Effectiveness”, Encyclopedia of Educational Research, V edition, New York, McMillan. Jangira, N.K. et al. (1982). “Effectiveness of Diferent Strategies of Integration of Teaching Skills in Developing General Teacher Competence of student-teachers”, Dept. of Teacher Education, NCERT. Padmajakshi, U. (2007). “A study of stress as a stumbling block on professional competency and professional pleasure”, unpublished M.Phil dissertation, Acharya Nagarjuna Univ, Guntur. Seshasree, S. (2002). “Teaching competency of teachers in relation to stress, job satisfaction, attitudes, institutional climate and interpersonal relationship-A study”, unpublished Ph.D.thesis, Andhra University. Sheeba. (2006). “A study of work style of teachers and its impact on professional competency”, M.Phil thesis, Calicut University. Sitaramaraju, P.V. (1994). “A study of teaching competency of teachers in relation to their adjustment and attiudes towards teaching”, unpublished Ph.D.thesis, Andhra University, Visakhaptnam. Thakkar, V.R. (1977). “A study of potential teacher’s effectiveness-their educational attitudes in relation to their rapport with the students and their survival and job satisfaction in the profession”, Ph.D. Edn., MS Univ, Baroda. Uday Koundinya. (1999). “A study of change proneness as an influencing factor to determine and enhance school effectiveness, Research paper presented in Regional Seminar, RIE, Mysore, NCERT.