E-journal of All India Association for Educational Research (EJAIAER)
VOL.20 Nos: 3
& 4 September
& December, 2008
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ORIENTATIONS OF COLLEGE TEACHERS ON THE BASIS OF SOME PRESAGE
VARIABLES
S. R. Pandya
INTRODUCTION
Every
teacher shows preference to and adopts a specific philosophy, style and
behaviour for carrying out the teaching-learning process in the classroom. The
specific philosophy provides a basis for selecting teaching-learning process
through which a teacher’s orientation towards his / her teaching gets
reflected. According to Duck (1981), the following indicators are necessary for
analysing a teacher’s classroom behaviour: The nature
of the learner may presume to be passive (Lockean) or
active (Platonic).The nature of the subject matter may
be amorphous (rote-learning) or structured (understanding the
relationship among the components of the subject matter).The manner in which
the subject matter is used to guide students towards meaningful learning
activities could be cognitive or
affective. The nature of behaviour trends one should exhibit in order to carry
out one’s philosophical position could include encouraging students for
convergent thinking or divergent thinking.
PHILOSOPHICAL
BASIS OF TEACHING
There
are six different philosophies which could influence a teacher’s behaviour
which are as follows:
Perrenialism emphasises humanities as
presented in great books with the assumption that there are no absolute truths
and standards more real than the physical world. The teaching would be based on
S-R association theories of learning with behavioural objectives and assumption
of one correct answer. The behaviour trend of the perennialist
is convergent thinking - the authoritarian world-view. The nature of the
learner is platonic (active). The nature
of the subject matter is structured. They are geared strongly towards cognitive
learning and to some extent, towards affective learning.
Essentialism
emphasises physical sciences as used by authorities.
It assumes that there are no absolute truths and that success is based on
absorption of knowledge about the physical world. As far as
the essentialist is concerned, the learner is passive, and the subject matter
is strongly structured and to some extent amorphous. Students are geared
strongly towards cognitive learning and convergent thinking.
Experimentalists
believe in active learning and learners. As it is believed that all knowledge
has some internal correlation with each other, it necessarily has to be
structured. The aim of the teacher while using subject matter
to guide students towards meaningful learning activities so as to gain
knowledge. They strongly believe in divergent thinking and a
non-authoritarian world-view. Experimentalists emphasise
on social sciences as a framework for problem-solving, assuming that the
physical world is constantly changing.
In
case of existentialism school of thought, the assumption is that the learner is
active, the subject matter learnt is structured, the
focus is more on affective learning and divergent thinking. It emphasises problem-solving in the area of highly
controversial and emotional issues in any subject matter, the assumption being
that the learners “confine” themselves and their relationship to the
environment by their choices.
Reconstructionism implies that one has decided what the
“perfect” form of society is and seeks to reach that society through teaching
techniques associated with experimentalism or existentialism. The learner here
is active and the subject matter is structured. On the other hand, they organise subject matter towards affective learning and not
cognitive. There is a characteristic shift from acceptance of students’
contributions to an emphasis on the best solution – a shift from divergence to
convergence, which gives it a special appeal.
Behaviourism implies that one has decided what the “perfect” form
of society is and seeks to reach that society through teaching techniques
associated with essentialism. The learner here is passive and the subject
matter is amorphous. The behaviourist encourages
cognitive and affective learning as well as convergent thinking.
CONCEPT
OF TEACHER ORIENTATIONS
Some
teachers give high importance to one type of orientation and less to the other
type. On the other hand, some teachers give high importance to both
orientations. According to Duck (1981, p.275), “teachers with low level of
student orientation usually believe in the philosophies of perennialism,
behaviourism or essentialism.” If such a teacher’s
content orientation is also low, he / she believes that the students are lazy
and careless about studies, and is unable to change this situation and hence
his/her main job is to provide information to his/her students. However, if a teacher with
low level of student orientation possesses a high level of content orientation,
he / she believes that the students do not really want to learn but they will
respond to strong direction and control. On the other hand, teachers with high
level of student orientation usually believe in the philosophies of
existentialism, reconstructionism
or experimentalism. If such a teacher’s content orientation is also low, he /
she believes that the students do not really want to learn but they will
respond to teachers they like. Such a teacher’s primary responsibility is to
win students’ friendship so that they can be taught.
A
teacher with high levels of both orientations believes that students like to learn
and explore and a teacher’s primary responsibility is to integrate students’
and system’s needs by creating a learning climate and make learning meaningful
and relevant. A teacher with moderate levels of both orientations believes that
students’ and system’s needs are incompatible. It is of primary importance that
something be taught, but students’ needs cannot be ignored. A teacher’s primary
responsibility is to push students enough for them to maintain classroom
morale. In other words, on the basis of their student and content orientations,
teacher performance / behaviour can be studied. The present research is aimed
at comparing senior college teachers on the basis of their gender, faculty and
location of the college in terms of Mumbai and Thane districts, qualifications,
nature of appointment and teaching
experience.
OPERATIONAL
DEFINITION OF THE TERMS
Teacher
Orientation is a sum total of a teacher’s orientation towards his / her
students and content.Student Orientation refers to
the extent to which a teacher places emphasis on facilitating students’
psychological, social, emotional and intellectual growth and development.
Content Orientation refers to the extent to which a teacher places emphasis on
gaining knowledge, mastering skills and methodologies, using the best
methodologies of teaching, reaching the matter to students, developing
professionally, being known as an effective teacher and successfully completing
the content.
OBJECTIVES
1.To study Mean Teacher Orientations of senior college
teachers.
2.To
compare Teacher Orientations of senior college teachers on the basis of (a)
Gender, (b) Location of the college in terms of Mumbai and Thane districts, (c)
Faculty, (d) Qualifications, (e) Nature of Appointment and (f) Teaching
Experience : 1.Student Orientation(SO); 2. Content
Orientation (CO); and Total Orientation (TO).
NULL HYPOTHESIS
There
is no significant difference in the Student Orientation, Content
Orientation and Total
Orientation of senior college teachers on the basis of the (a) Gender, (b) Location of the college in terms of Mumbai
and Thane districts, (c) Faculty, (d) Qualifications, (e) Nature of Appointment
and (f) Teaching Experience.
METHODOLOGY
The
present study deals with teacher orientations of existing senior college
teachers. Hence it has adopted the descriptive method of research. The
investigation is aimed at comparing teacher orientations of existing senior
college students on the basis of their gender, faculty, location of the
college, nature of appointment, qualifications and teaching experience. Hence it has adopted the causal comparative
method.
Sample
The
sample of the study was selected using a four-stage sampling technique. At the
first stage, two districts in which colleges affiliated to
Initially,
data were collected from 168 teachers. However, 8 forms of teachers were
discarded as they were incomplete. Thus, the final sample included 160
teachers. The wastage rate of data was
4.76%. The data were collected from 18
senior colleges situated in Greater Mumbai and Thane districts and affiliated
to
TOOLS
1.
Personal Data Sheet for Teachers
This
tool was prepared by the researcher to collect data from teachers regarding
their name, name of the college, gender, faculty of study, teaching experience,
qualifications and nature of appointment.
2.S-C Teaching Inventory
This
tool was used to measure teacher orientation in terms of Student Orientation,
Content Orientation and Total Orientation. The SC Inventory (Spire, 1974)
includes 40 items covering four categories of statements which are as follows:
Category
I: Statements which reflect a teacher’s willingness to share classroom
authority and responsibility with students.
Category
II: Statements which reflect a teacher’s tendency to centralize classroom
authority in his/her own hands.
Category
III: Statements which reflect a teacher’s concern for the content of the job
i.e. the performance of task activities, including planning and scheduling
course content and evaluating student progress.
Category
IV: Statements which reflect a teacher’s concern for “role attribute” on the
job, including having respect from students and colleagues, being an expert, or
modelling behaviour for students to evaluate.
The
internal consistency reliability of this tool was established using the Cronbach’s Alpha and was found to be 0.83 and the
test-retest reliability of this tool was found to be 0.77 on a sample of 106
students including 51 girls and 55 boys in the Indian context. The scoring was
done in such a way that higher the score, higher the score on the specific
orientation. The minimum possible score on the Student Orientation as well as
Content Orientation 0 and the maximum possible score on these two aspects was
20 each.
ANALYSIS
OF DATA
The
techniques used for inferential analysis of the data in the present study
includes the t-test, ANOVA and ù2 Estimate. The Mean SO and CO of senior college
teachers is 10.66 and 10.38 respectively and hence can be termed as average
since the maximum possible scores on both these dimensions are 20. Further
analysis of the data revealed that (i) 6 teachers
have a High Score on Student Orientation and Low Score on Content Orientation,
(ii) 17 teachers have a High Score on SO and High Score on CO. Both these
categories of teachers usually believe in the philosophies of existentialism, Reconstructionism or experimentalism. (iii) 11 teachers
have a Low Score on SO and Low Score on CO, (iv) 10
teachers have a Low Score on SO and High Score on CO. Both these categories of
teachers usually believe in the philosophies of perennialism,
behaviourism or essentialism. (v) 116 teachers have a
Moderate Score on SO and Moderate Score on CO.
TESTING OF HYPOTHESES
1
(a): There is no significant gender
difference in the Teacher Orientations. This null hypothesis was tested using the t-test. The
t-ratios for SO, CO and TO were found to be 0.83, 0.54 and 0.89 respectively
and not significant at 0.05 level. Hence the null
hypothesis is accepted. Hence, there is no significant gender difference in the
(1) SO, (2) CO and (3) TO of teachers.
1 (b): There is no significant difference in the Teacher Orientations on the
basis of location of the college in terms of district. This null hypothesis was
tested using the t-test. The t-ratios for SO, CO and TO were found to be 1.93,
4.47 and 4.03 respectively and not significant at 0.05 level for SO but is
significant at 0.01 level for CO and TO. Hence the null hypothesis is accepted
for SO but rejected for CO and TO. The mean CO and TO of teachers from Thane
district are significantly greater than those from Mumbai district. However,
there is no significant difference in the SO of teachers from Thane and Mumbai
districts. 10.60 % and 8.70 % of the variance in Content Orientation and Total
Orientation of teachers is associated with the location of the college in
different districts. The probable reason for this could be that teachers from
Thane district might be giving more importance to teaching content matter, may
have stronger desire to acquire latest knowledge in the subject matter,
updating the learning material used by them, making efforts for their own
professional development, making detailed plans of each classroom activity,
planning appropriate question papers, implementing new teaching approaches in
the classroom, having stronger desire to be known as an effective teacher,
teaching basic as well as progressive curricula, emphasising
systematic student evaluation and attending professional meetings as compared
to teachers from Mumbai district. One of the probable reasons for this could be
that teachers teaching in colleges situated in Mumbai district have to travel
very long distance – as much as two to three hours a day to reach their place
of work leaving very little time and energy for professional development and
improvement. Moreover, Thane being a relatively smaller place compared to
Mumbai, teachers from Thane district might be having greater motivation to be
known as effective teachers.
1 (c): There is no significant difference in the Teacher Orientations on the
basis of faculty. This null hypothesis was tested using the technique of ANOVA. The
F-ratio was found to be 1.79, 5.57 and 5.32 for SO, CO and TO respectively and
not significant at 0.05 level for SO but is significant at 0.01 level for CO
and TO. Hence the null hypothesis is accepted for SO but rejected for CO and
TO. Hence, there is no significant difference in Student Orientation of
teachers from Arts, Science and Commerce faculties. There is a significant
difference in Content Orientation of teachers from Arts, Science and Commerce faculties.
5.40 % of the variance in Content Orientation of teachers is associated with
the faculty in which the teachers are teaching. There is a significant
difference in Total Orientation of teachers from Arts, Science and Commerce
faculties. 5.12 % of the variance in Total Orientation of teachers is
associated with the faculty in which the teachers are teaching. The Content
Orientation as well as Total Orientation of teachers from Commerce faculty is
significantly greater than those from the Arts and Science faculties. The
probable reason for teachers from commerce faculty having higher Content
Orientation as compared to teachers from arts and science faculties could be
that there is a very strong demand for admissions to commerce courses with an
emphasis on job-oriented courses thereby making it necessary for commerce
teachers to be giving more importance to teaching content matter, having
stronger desire to acquire latest knowledge in the subject matter, updating the
learning material used by them, making efforts for his / her own professional
development, making detailed plans of each classroom activity, planning
appropriate question papers, implementing new teaching approaches in the
classroom, having stronger desire to be known as an effective teacher, teaching
basic as well as progressive curricula, emphasising
systematic student evaluation and attending professional meetings as compared
to teachers from arts and science faculties.
1
(d): There
is no significant difference in the Teacher Orientations on the basis of
qualifications (classified into only PG, PG with M.Phil and PG with Ph.D.).This
null hypothesis was tested using the technique of ANOVA. The F-ratio was found
to be 0.97, 0.58 and 0.28 for SO, CO and TO respectively and not significant at
0.05 level. Hence the null hypothesis is accepted.
Hence, there is no significant difference in the Student Orientation, Content
Orientation and Total Orientation of teachers on the basis of their
qualifications.
1
(e): There
is no significant difference in the Teacher Orientations on the basis of nature
of appointment (classified into permanent. on probation or temporary).This
null hypothesis was tested using the technique of ANOVA. The F-ratio was found
to be 0.75, 1.63 and 1.00 for SO, CO and TO respectively and not significant at
0.05 level. Hence the null hypothesis is accepted.
Hence, there is no significant difference in the Student Orientation, Content
Orientation and Total Orientation of teachers on the basis of their Nature of
Appointment.
1
(f) : There is no significant difference in the
Teacher Orientations on the basis of teaching experience (classified
into below 5 years and above 5 years).This null hypothesis was tested using the technique of
t-test. The t-ratios for SO, CO and TO were found to be 2.11, 1.40 and 2.27
respectively. This t-ratio is not significant at 0.05 level for CO but is
significant for SO at 0.05 level and for To at 0.01
level. Hence the null hypothesis is accepted for CO but is rejected for SO and
TO. Hence, there is no significant difference in Content Orientation of senior
college teachers on the basis of their teaching experience. However, the mean
SO as well as TO of teachers with more than 5 years of teaching experience is
significantly greater than those with less than 5 years of teaching experience.
It is probable that teachers with more than five years’ teaching experience
have gained adequate confidence so as to give more importance to the
development of knowledge and skills amongst students, provide their students an
opportunity to decide the aims of learning and content matter, provide them an
opportunity to evaluate teacher performance, provide them an opportunity to
make mistakes and learn from experience, make himself / herself available
outside the class to help students, have developed the intellectual capacity to
accept a mistake made by him / her that is pointed out by a student, to treat
students as individuals and create an informal atmosphere in the class. In
short, teachers with more than five years’ teaching experience focus their
attention more on the development of students as compared to teachers with less
than five years’ teaching experience.
The
magnitudes of Mean Student Orientation Score as well as the Mean Content
Orientation Scores are 10.66 and 10.38 respectively and hence can be termed as
average since the maximum possible scores on both these dimensions are 20.
According to Spire, this implies that the senior college teachers believe that
“students’ and system’s needs are incompatible. They believe that it is of
primary importance that something be taught, but students’ needs cannot be
ignored; the teacher’s first responsibility is to push students enough to get
the work done, but also to do something for them to maintain classroom morale.”
Similarly, the Mean Total Orientation Score of teachers is 21.15 and the
maximum possible score is 40. Hence it may also be termed as average. This also
implies that senior college teachers do not clearly indicate preference for any
specific philosophy of teaching. Thus it may be said that steps need to be
taken to enhance senior college teachers’ orientation towards development of
students and their own professional development so as to enhance their own
effectiveness as teachers with the ultimate aim of student development.
EDUCATIONAL
IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY
Teachers
teaching in colleges situated in Greater Mumbai need to be motivated to pay
more importance to their own professional progress. They also need to be given
more facilities for the purpose including residential quarters so as to reduce
travel time so that they can devote more time for improving their professional
performance. Similarly, teachers from Arts and Science faculties need to be
motivated for more effective professional performance. Besides, the implication
of this study for the field of teaching is that teachers need to be trained and
motivated to perform better with an emphasis on higher and equal importance to
fulfilling students’ and system’s needs so as to enhance their own and their
institution’s effectiveness. In practical and operational terms, teacher
effectiveness can be enhanced by enhancing their Student Orientation and
Content Orientation as follows:
Student
Orientation
Every
teacher need to be encouraged to organise his /her
subject around the needs and skills of every type of student, enable students
to have a say in subject content and objectives, help students to set subject
goals and content, allow students a voice in setting subject’s objectives and
content, allow students to evaluate the performance of their teacher, allow students to make their own mistakes and
to learn by experience, be available to discuss with students on an “as needed”
basis, tailor the subject content to the need and skills of each class, allow
students to plan their own subject of study according to their interests, take
an interest in the student as a person, modify his position if one of his
students show him where he /she was wrong,
to allow students to have a say in evaluating teacher performance, be concerned about the student as a person
and establish an informal classroom
atmosphere.
Content
Orientation
Every
teacher need to be encouraged to keep up to date in the field, to up-date class
and lecture materials constantly, attend
to his own professional growth, plan in considerable detail all class
activities, construct fair and comprehensive examinations, be known as an
effective teacher, plan and organize his coursework carefully, try out new ideas and approaches on the
class, have scheduled office hours to meet students, teach basic subjects as
well as more advances subjects, give examinations to evaluate student progress
and attend professional meetings.
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