The Impact Of Any Educational Programme

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

INTRODUCTION

The impact of any educational programme or innovation depends primarily upon the teacher. It is therefore quite accurate to say that a school’s effectiveness depends directly upon the effectiveness of the teacher. Maximizing Teacher Effectiveness is the major goal of education. Teacher Effectiveness comprises of creative art of teaching and harmonious adjustment.

There has been an enormous research on the characteristics of effective teachers, teacher evaluation, process products, dimensions of creativity, measurement of creativity, characteristics of creative persons, class room social interactions and group dynamics, etc. Unfortunately, much attention of research is not drawn to correlate the common dimensions of Teacher Effectiveness with Job Satisfaction and Institutional Climate. It is clear that a school teacher should be happy and maintain good interpersonal relationships to elicit and achieve desired learning outcomes.

It is to be evaluated at the macro level is Teacher Effectiveness correlated with Job Satisfaction? If so, to what extent? How far Teacher Effectiveness and Institutional Climate are related? Those are the two specific queries to be answered by the research. At the micro level it is to be ascertained what dimensions of Job Satisfaction can enhance Teacher Effectiveness? And to what extent? And secondly what dimensions of Institutional Climate improve the Teacher Effectiveness, and to what extent? These are the basic problems need immediate solutions. In order to answer the above questions a thorough understanding of the concepts Teacher Effectiveness, Job Satisfaction and Institutional Climate is necessary. So a conceptual framework is attempted hereunder.

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1.1 TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS

In educational research Teacher Effectiveness is a complex variable difficult to define specifically. "Teaching success", "Successful teacher", "Teaching efficiency", "Teacher performance" and "Teaching ability" are some of the other terms used to indicate Teacher Effectiveness. In this connection, Barr , (1961) aptly remarks that "as one looks through heap of investigations in this field one finds various terms used to designate or describe the successful teacher". The words teacher efficiency and teaching efficiency are used to represent teacher related and teacher-behaviors-related activities of Teacher Effectiveness. Thus efficiency is the most commonly used word in the literature of Teacher Effectiveness.

Even though, there is some agreement over the words used to represent Teacher Effectiveness, there is not much agreement over the description of teaching competence and in fact competent teaching is a relative description. The ambiguity over the description of teaching competence is hinted at by Biddle (1964). The term competence has been used by some investigators to refer to training processes; properties of teacher; behaviors exhibited by teachers and effects produced by teachers. The same variables are referred to as ‘effectiveness", "criteria of competence", "ability to teach", "teacher efficiency", "teacher effectiveness", "teacher competency", "teacher performance" and "teacher success". Thus success, ability, and product quality are the criteria of Teacher Effectiveness.

"Teacher Effectiveness is an area of research which is concerned with the relationship between the characteristics of teachers, teaching act and

their effects on educational outcomes of class room teaching" (Flanders and Simson, 1969).

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Others also tried to describe Teacher Effectiveness in terms of the activities that teacher’s generally perform in the educational settings. For example, according to Ryans (1960) "It might be said that teaching is effective to the extent that the teacher acts in ways which are favorable to the development of basic skills, understand in, work habits, desirable attitudes and value judgments, and adequate personal adjustment of the pupils". Though these definitions or descriptions outline the scope and meaning of the terms they still fail to give an exact operational and measurable definition.

The complexity in defining the term Teacher Effectiveness may be mainly due to the vagueness in the definition of teaching. This is described aptly by Rosen shine and Frust (1971). "The inadequacy of the concept of teaching lacking empirical base has been one of the major road blocks in the way of Teacher Effectiveness".

In spite of the fact that the research in the measurement of human traits has made great strides, the appraisal of personal qualities proved ineffective in describing Teacher Effectiveness. In this direction, Teacher Effectiveness has been studied in terms of three components: presage, process and product. The presage component refers to the training aspect and personality factor of the teachers. The process component refers to the practice of the class room such as managing the students, interaction with them, etc. The product component refers to the qualities of the output such as the qualities of the students produced. Though they are referred to as three separate components, they are not mutually exclusive but possess elements of commonness.

1.1.1 TEACHING

Teaching is generally described as an interactive process carried out in the classroom for the attainment of the set goals. Since there is an attainment

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of a goal, the process needs effort and efficiency. The verb to teach may be used either in an "intentional sense" or in a "success sense". In the former sense, it refers to the successful implementation or performance of a communicative act by the teacher, the later sense is meant to bring about some predetermined change. Teacher-related factors are not responsible for the non-attainment of goals, if we refer to teaching in the "intentional sense". If we refer to teaching in success terms the failure on the part of the student, is also taken as a failure of the teacher. In any case we should not take student learning as the sole criterion. In the present study, teaching is used in the intentional sense only; hence pupil attainment is not within the scope of this study.

1.1.2 Evaluation of teaching

Evaluation is an indispensable process in any goal-directed activity. In the process of teaching, where teachers and learners are the participants, learning outcomes are the goals. Since the accomplishment of educational goals is done mainly through teaching, evaluation of teaching is an essential step in the process of education. The aims and objectives of teacher evaluation apart from the process of teacher evaluation are of universal concern and a burning problem. The usual aims of teacher evaluation are selection, promotion, incentives and awards, placement, assignment of work, etc.,

In fact, faculty evaluation is not a new phenomenon in the informal sphere. Students and co-teachers always try to assess the teacher on all possible occasions. Seldin (1982) observes that evaluating faculty performance is hardly new on campus. Historically, students have sized up their teachers’ strengths and weaknesses and shared such assessment with fellow students. Teachers also assess themselves through introspection and from the experience of interaction with students and colleagues.

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1.1.3 CRITERIA of TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS

When we accept that teacher evaluation is a necessary and important step in the educational process, the obvious aspect on which we have to bestow our attention is the criteria of Teacher Effectiveness. What constitutes effective teaching or what are the criteria of good teaching is a global issue. Here in this present study, an attempt is made to re-examine the constituent nature of effective teaching in the areas of Job Satisfaction and Institutional Climate at the primary and secondary levels of teaching.

As already mentioned, the criteria most commonly used are related to presage, process and product. Mtzel (1982) identified four types of research designs, each involving one of the following four types of independent variables; pupil learning experiences, teacher performance, pupil learning outcomes and teacher competence. The four different types of research are Type L research, Type P research, Type C research and Type T research

Pupil learning outcome is the dependent variable in the type L research and the independent variables may include pupil characteristics or learning experiences. The aim of this type of research is to find out the important learner characteristics responsible for maximum learning and the type of learning experiences most effective in producing the desired outcomes. The unit of study in this is the pupil.

5In type P research, the dependent variable is the pupil learning experiences and the independent variables include teacher performance and measures of internal context. The unit of study is the teacher. The primary intention of this study is to find out the methods and strategies which can produce the desired learning experiences.

In type C research, the dependent variable is a measure of teacher performance in implementation of a particular teaching strategy – and the independent variables are measures of competencies in the teacher’s repertoire and the external context variables. The unit of analysis primarily is teacher. The main purpose of this type of research is to find out the knowledge, skills and values that a teacher must possess to implement effectively a strategy or model of teaching in a given situation.

In type T research, the dependent variable is a specified competency and the independent variables are the teacher characteristics and elements in teacher training. The unit of analysis here is the pupil. The purpose of T type research is to find out how to select and train teachers to get mastery of the competency under study.

This is nothing but a refinement of presage, process and product variables of Teacher Effectiveness – Kyriaon and Newson (1982) proposed four variables – presage, process, context and product. Context variables relate to a host of other variables which may have an influence on teacher and pupil behavior during teaching – learning transaction. Institutional Climate can be considered as one of such context variable.

1.1.4 DIMENSIONS OF TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS

There are many dimensions of Teacher Effectives but four dimensions namely; personal, professional, intellectual and social are considered as relevant in the present study.

6 Mannerism, expression, punctuality and dress, etc, come under personal characteristics of a teacher. All these personal characteristics constitute the personal dimension of Teacher Effectiveness. The professional

dimension of Teacher Effectiveness includes teacher’s interest in the subject he teaches, preparation, interest in teaching, accomplishment of teaching objectives and motivating the student, etc. The intellectual dimension of the Teacher Effectiveness refers to his mastery of the subject, suggesting references in the field of study, and informing latest trends of his subject, etc. The social dimension of Teacher Effectiveness includes maintaining good social relations with colleagues, being sportive to student’s comments, greeting the students, finding the social relevancy of the theory he teaches, and active participation in cultural and co-curricular activities etc.

Most of the researches in the field of Teacher Effectiveness confirm that the above qualities of a teacher influence the Teacher Effectiveness.

1.1.5 Measurement of teacher effectiveness

There are four approaches in teacher evaluation namely, 1) Evaluation made in terms of the qualities of the person as in personality rating, 2) Evaluation of teacher behavior as in the rating of performance in terms of interpersonal qualities of desirable professional characteristics, 3) Evaluation of knowledge, skills and attitudes, etc, and 4) Evaluation of Pupils’ growth and development.

1.2 INSTITUTIONAL CLIMATE

Schools are the symbols of progress and the centers of past and present values where human beings are equipped with academic competence technical skills and develop a number of other desirable qualities to lead their lives. Just by living in the society, people go through millions of experiences and pick up information from their surroundings.

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Anyone who visits a few schools notes quickly how schools differ from each other in their feel. In one school teachers are enthusiastic and confident in what they are doing. They find pleasure in working with each other. This pleasure is transmitted to the students who are thus given a chance to discover that their school can be a happy experience. In a second school the situation may be entirely different. We may find the intolerant and uninteresting teachers cursing their fates; the heads trying to hide their incompetence and lack of sense of direction behind the clock of authority. The psychologically weary faculty of the school spillover their frustration on the students. The resultant feedback is indiscipline and despair. In a third school the scenario may be marked by neither joy nor despair but by hallow ritual. The contrasting climate postulates different scenario in the school environment. The learning may be smooth or even grip in one situation but it appears to have little meaning for the participants and so as one moves to other schools one finds that teaching learning, administration, social relations, innovations, each appear to have a personality of its own. The faculty, the students etc., with varied experiences constitute Institutional Climate.

1.2.1 WHAT IS INSTITUTIONAL CLIMATE?

8 The intellectual or the Institutional Climate of an institution refers to the academic atmosphere or the learning climate in particular. It is that environment in which intellectual, creative and productive powers of the individuals blossom and flower forth to their full. The intellectual climate motivates the students to learn, to work and to make all kinds of concentrated affords. It possess the potentials of stimulating the students to develop their power of perception, power of problem-solving, analysis, synthesis, conceptual thinking and critical evaluation. It is the Institutional Climate which inspires the students for independent study and encourages originally and creatively (I josh-1975).

The institutional environment embodies in it, the interaction of pupils with the teachers, teachers with teachers, teachers with the Head of the Institution and a provision of all those facilities or situations which produce better learning.

1.2.2 MEASURMENTS OF INSTITUTIONAL CLIMATES

In the last few years, a number of scales for the assessment and evaluation of institutional environment have been developed and contracted. Some of the Well-known tools happen to be VIZ., College Satisfaction India (CSI) by Game in (1953), Environmental Assessment Technique (EAT) by Holland (1961), Medical College environment Scale (MCES) by Hutchinson (1962), College and University Environment Scale (CUES) by Pace (1963), High School Characteristic Index (HSCI) by Stern (1963), Organizational Climate Index (OCI) and Evening College Index (ECI) by Stern (1963), Organizational Climate Descriptive Questionnaire (OCDQ) by Halpin and Craft (1963) etc.,

In the year 1974-75 different seminars and work-shops were held all over Gujarat state, where the importance of the area of climate was discussed. Here the principal’s and teachers’ contentions are that their behavior patterns or interaction alone do not go to build up the Institutional Climate. On the basis of that observation the present investigator feels to study the Institutional Climate with four correlate names-

1) Teaching Learning Climate

2) Administrative Climate

3) Social Climate

4) Innovative and Creative Climate

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1.2.3 TEACHING LEARNING CLIMATE

Pupil becomes creative in the classroom when the teacher is warm and nurturing towards the divergent behavior. The efficiency of a teacher can be highly influenced by the teaching learning process. It is an important aspect in the educative process.

The physical, intellectual, emotional and ethical integration of the individual into a complete man is a broad definition of the individual aim of education. This is possible due to education alone. In the Bi-Polar educative process, teaching and learning aspects were considered to be vitally important and Dr. D.S. Kothari stated "Competent teachers can produce good students and indifferent teachers can only produce student of indifferent quality". Thus qualitative teaching evidently aims at shaping the destiny of a country in class-room and the able teaching reflects as effective learning and it makes an indelible impression on qualitative improvement of education.

H.N. Debnath in his study-Teaching Efficiency its measurements and some determinants-found the important correlates of Teaching Efficiency as follows.

1) Knowledge of the subject matter;

2) Sincerity in teaching;

3) Mastery of method of teaching;

4) Academic qualifications;

5) Mode of exposition;

6) Sympathetic attitude towards student;

7) Proper use of aids and appliances in teaching

8) The art of questioning; and

109) Ready attitude of encouraging student’s participations;

Professional training, intelligence interest in teaching friendliness, democratic behavior, ability to just judge are other factors to measure teaching efficiency. In the teaching learning process both the teacher and the taught must be considered. Hence the learning aspect should be vitally viewed with equal significance as that of teaching. The educative process as discussed earlier is a process in which the constant interaction takes between teacher and taught. Learning process totally views at behavioral change of an individual. Hence the change will be

1) Acquisition of knowledge;

2) Ability of understanding a concept

3) Right approach of applying the learnt thing in a situation;

4) A healthy development of an attitude; and

5) A right way of nurturing the aptitude and interest which was

being possessed.

All these are result of learning. Considering the significance of teaching learning aspect, the investigator includes it as the first vital factor which promotes Institutional Climate.

1.2.4 ADMINISTRATIVE CLIMATE

11Education, as stated previously is the constant interaction of human being with animate and inanimate things in the universe. This makes it clear that education will be through various types of agencies-formal and informal. A school or an institution is a formal agency of education. For effective use of this type of formal agencies administrative aspect is a crucial factor and the functioning of school evidently depends upon the administrative aspect. Administration has been defined by Ted as – "a comprehensive effort to direct, guide and integrate associating human strivings which are focused towards some skilful ends of aim."

Educational administration is the dynamic side of education. Educational philosophy sets the goal, educational psychology explains the principles. Educational administration tells how to implement objectives and principles of education. The administrative aspect of an ideal institution has the following components:

1. Decision making;

2. Planning;

3. Organization;

4. Direction;

5. Control

6. Co-ordination; and

7. Evaluation;

The authoritarian tendency and the considerate nature of the principal towards the staff and students are some of the important aspects of administration. Similarly the inclination towards old, traditional methods of teaching and the ready acceptance of adopting new techniques will come under this head and they constitute their share in farming institutional climate. Hence the investigator includes this administrative aspect as the second factor in studying Institutional Climate.

1.2.5 SOCIAL CLIMATE

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12 The educative process will be considered to be qualitative only when there is interpersonal relationship between the teacher and the taught. A person who chooses teaching as a career assumes the obligation to conduct himself at all times in accordance with the highest standards of the teaching profession, aiming at quality and excellence in his work and sets himself as an example in commanding the respect of the pupils, the parents, his

colleagues and the society at large. Teaching is a profession and it calls for a sense of personal and corporate responsibility for the education and welfare of the pupils.

The National Policy of Education 1986 reveals that the teacher should treat all his students with love and affection and should be impartial to all irrespective of their caste, creed religion or region. The teacher should also inculcate a sense of love for the mother land and universal brotherhood among students.

The interaction between teacher and student community is of vital importance for identifying the factors responsible for climatic conditions which are prevailing in the institutions.

As a teacher he should co-operate with other staff members in the institution to bring innovative climate among teaching fraternity. He should also assist new entrants.

From the above facts, the investigator felt the need of interpersonal relationship between student-student, student-teacher to promote the educational objectives in this study. Hence the investigator includes the social climate aspect as the third factor in studying Institutional Climate.

1.2.6 INNOVATIVE AND CREATIVE CLIMATE

13It is a common observation that the institutional environments of our centers of learning leave much to be desired as far as the development of pupil potentialities is concerned. According to the report of Indian Education Commission, ( 1964 ) "Even the talent that enters schools and succeeds in climbing the educational ladders does not flower fully because it is not discovered sufficiently early and is often studying in the poor schools." Obviously, the schools are ‘poor’ or ‘rich’ with respect to the environments they provide for their children. Among the various factors which contribute towards building innovative and creative climate ‘environment’ of an institution, viz., classroom communication patterns, teaching strategies and teacher characteristics, motivation, incentive, blame and rewards, spirit of competition, pupil readiness, organizational set-up and climate, etc., are important components. These variables are also important from the point of view of developing pupils’ potentialities and creativity. Creativity does not blossom in vacuum. A creative mind has to interact vigorously with a nexus of supporting and stimulating factors in the environment to promote effective interaction. According to humanistic psychology creative behavior can be viewed as an emergent property to realize his potential in his interaction with the environment. It should, therefore, be interesting to study pupils’ innovation and creativity in different types of Institutional Climate.

From the above facts, the investigator feels the need of innovative and creative climate among the students to promote the educational objectives in the study. Hence the investigator includes the innovative and creative climate as the fourth factor in studying Institutional Climate.

1.3 JOB SATISFACTION

14 The term Job Satisfaction is generally used in organizational behavior in business management. One of the surest signs of deteriorating conditions in an organization is low Job Satisfaction according to Keith Davis (1993). Job Satisfaction is the favorableness or un-favorableness with which employees view their work as per Bruneberg. (1976). It signifies the amount of agreement between one’s expectations of the job and the rewards the job provides. Job Satisfaction is concerned with a person or a group in the organization. Job Satisfaction can be applicable more to parts of an

individual’s job. If each person is highly satisfied with his job then only it will be considered as group Job Satisfaction.

"Job Satisfaction is part of life satisfaction." says Janet and other (1978). Since job is an important part of life, Job Satisfaction influences

one’s personal life satisfaction.

Generally Job Satisfaction is related with number of employee variables such as turnover, absence, age, occupation and size of the organization in which he works. The degree of satisfaction of job largely depends on satisfaction of employee variables. According to Gorton (1976), employee’s satisfaction and morale are attitudinal variables that reflect positive or negative feelings about particular persons or situations. Satisfaction when applied to work context of teaching it seems to refer to the extent to which a teacher can meet individual, personal and professional needs as an employee. -STRAUSS, (1974).

Maslow, (1970) Herzberg (1959), Hoy and Miskel (1978), and others proposed number of theories on Job Satisfaction. According to Maslow a person’s satisfaction is determined by the fulfillment of his five levels of

need. Herzberg’s motivator hygiene theory assumes that two variables determine a person’s satisfaction. 1. Internal factors like achievement, recognition etc and 2. External factors such as Salary and Interpersonal relationship. Lortie (1975) believed that teaching continues to be rather limited in its available extrinsic regards and that if teacher Job Satisfaction is

15 to be increased efforts are to be made to improve the teaching situations. According to Edward and others (1976) a high performance leads to high Job Satisfaction, which then becomes feedback to influence future performance. Better performance leads to high rewards. This improvement in satisfaction reciprocates rewards in proportion to the performance . On the other hand ,

if rewards are seen as inadequate for one’s level of performance, dissatisfaction occurs.

The Indian Education Commission (1964-66) also states that "Nothing is more important than providing teacher’s best professional preparation and creating satisfactory conditions of work in which they can fully be effective." Stapleton, Croft and Frakiewiz, (1979), found a positive relationship between Job Satisfaction and effective teacher behavior. In the light of the above theoretical frame work teacher Job Satisfaction may be considered as one of the important factors which can enhance teaching competency.

1.3.1 DIMENSIONS OF TEACHER JOB SATISFACTION

Of so many dimensions, the researcher considers the following dimensions for measuring Job Satisfaction. They are 1. Class room teaching 2. School administration 3. Professional pleasure 4. Climatic factors 5. Inter personal relations 6. Student behavior 7. Societal factor 8. Working conditions 9. Professional development 10. Personal factor.

Classroom teaching confines to preparation innovation, inspiration, hard work, and effective teaching.

School administration refers to the attitude of the head master, professional guidance, appreciation, assigning responsibilities, allotment of teaching work, and participation in decision making.

Professional pleasure is related to enjoyment in the profession, love, happiness in general and happiness with high level students, in guiding and supporting the students.

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Climatic factors refer to congenial atmosphere, meager amenities, resource, freedom, interests and inspirations.

Inter personal relations refer to relations with colleagues, parents, students, and also with higher authorities in school.

Student behavior is concerned with the impact upon the teacher caused by student’s creativity, indiscipline, activities, views, performance and observation.

Societal factors relate to parent teacher associations, village education committees, society and agencies of school education.

Working condition deal with salary, place of work, advancement schemes, medical reimbursement, work load and extra activities.

Professional development is related with in-service programmes, teacher centered meetings, improvement of qualifications, professional organizations and innovative practices.

Personal factors refer to home conditions, children’s success, personal relief and energy to work.

1.3.2 MEASUREMENT OF TEACHER JOB SATISFACTION

Job Satisfaction measuring procedures appear to be complicated at

17first glance. It seems simple to go to the employees and get data from them and feel easy to interpret the given data. But the experiences reveal that careless procedural errors can limit seriously the validity and usefulness of the survey. Keen attention should be given to question construction, maintenance of anonymity for employees and sampling procedures according to Donald and Charlie’s (1975). Even in education field it is very difficult to measure the teacher Job Satisfaction.

After careful observation of the literature it is found that teachers Job Satisfaction can be measured mainly in two ways. I. Observation and interviews 2. Use of tests including inventories and working scales developed by some psychologists, and educational researchers like Cook, Marlach, Hernia and others and Gaba teacher Job Satisfaction scale, Gupta and Srivastava teacher Job Satisfaction scale, Lodahl and Kejner’s job involvement scale and Job Satisfaction scale developed by Dixit are some of the tools available for measuring Job Satisfaction. However they are context specific and may not be suitable to the present study. Hence the researcher develops a teacher Job Satisfaction self rating scale. (Given in the appendix).

1.4. NEED for the present study

We know that the entire process of teaching learning transaction depends on the class room teacher. Hence the success of this process of education depends mostly on the efficiency of the teacher. This efficiency or competency in teaching is the product of many factors associated with that of teacher characteristics, the style or method of his teaching, his mental set towards teaching, the external forces acting on him, and the co-ordination he draws from students and his co-teachers, his satisfaction and his emotional balance.

Lot of research efforts have been put forth on teaching competency of teachers, the Teacher’s Stress, Job Satisfaction of teachers and Attitudes of Teachers. Considerable research efforts have been done to study the Institutional Climate and the Inter-personal Relationships of teacher.

18However there is a lack of co-ordination between these efforts. Hoping that

a unified research effort is needed to find out the nexus between these different factors which contribute to the Teacher Effectiveness.

Certain cognitive factors like Intelligence, memory, and creativity which contribute to teaching competency are studied thoroughly. A lot of theory has already been developed with a specific direction and universal acceptance in the field of cognitive theory. But affective factors like Stress, Job Satisfaction, attitudes towards teaching, perception of Institutional Climate and Interpersonal Relationships of teachers are not given much attention, more so towards the interrelationships between these variables.

Hence in the present study an attempt is made to study the Teacher Effectiveness from this dimension. The inter dependency of Teacher Effectiveness on two of the other variables namely Institutional Climate and Job Satisfaction, along with the differences between different demographic variables like sex, location, cadre and age in these variables are studied.

Even though there is a lot of research on Teacher Effectiveness there is much scope for further research since there are many directions from which it can be viewed. Also, The Indian Education Commission (1964-66) opines that of all the different factors which influence the quality of education – the contribution of quality, competence, character and adjustment with other teachers are the most significant inspiration behind the present research.