Project title: Teacher education for new competencies for the knowledge society and the role of these competencies at educational goal attainment at school
Principal researcher: Cirila Peklaj
Research team: Janica Kalin, Sonja Pečjak, Melita Puklek Levpušček, Milena Valenčič Zuljan, Katja Košir
Period: 2006 – 2008
Project goals:
The most important aim of the study was to operationalize competencies that teachers need for successful teaching and classroom management. Furthermore, we tried to find out if teacher competencies as perceived by students are related to educational goals in school, such as academic motivation, school social behaviour (desirable and undesirable) and knowledge. In a separate study we also investigated development of teacher competencies in student teachers in the Educational Psychology course.
STUDY 1
Methodology:
296 university students were included in the sample; 217 females, 39 males. They were second-year undergraduate student teachers who participated in the Educational Psychology course at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. At the beginning of the academic year student teachers filled in the questionnaire on self-perceived teacher competencies, the questionnaire on academic motivation (MSLQ, Pintrich et al., 1991) and the revised goal orientation questionnaire (Elliot & McGregor, 2001). During the academic year students prepared and presented their seminar work in groups. After each seminar presentation students (i.e. presenters) filled in the questionnaire on preparation and presentation of seminar work. The professor assessed their seminar presentation by using 5 criteria of good presentation. At the end of the academic year student teachers assessed again their teacher competencies. We also collected students’ final grade in the course.
Results
Results showed significant changes in self-perceived teacher competencies from the beginning to the end of the academic year. An increase in teacher competencies was evident in the following domains: instruction, classroom management, use of ICT, giving feedback to students, team work. Subsequent regression analyses showed that the quality of students’ seminar activity independently predicted their final teacher competencies in the domains of instruction and team work. Teacher competencies as perceived by students at the beginning of the academic year served as the best predictor of teacher competencies as perceived at the end of the academic year.
STUDY 2
Methodology
The sample consisted of 470 primary school students (231 boys, 238 girls) who attended grade 7 and 8 and 437 secondary school students (176 boys, 261 girls) who attended grade 3. Students came from different schools in various Slovene regions. There were also 42 class teachers included in the sample. Students assessed the competencies of their teachers and their own academic motivation in math and the Slovene language. Teachers assessed the students’ school social behaviour (desired and undesired). We also collected the students’ final grades in math and the Slovene language and their general school performance in the previous and the current school year.
Results
Results showed significant differences between primary and secondary school students in all measures. We also found significant associations between perceived teacher competencies, academic motivation, school social behaviour and achievement. The integration of results was achieved by path analysis. With this multivariate method we checked for the effects of teacher competencies in academic motivation, school social behaviour and achievement in math and the Slovene language. Results showed that teacher competencies as perceived by students had indirect effects on achievement in both subjects through mediation role of academic motivation and social behaviour. By taking into account all the measures we used (perceived teacher competencies, students’ academic motivation and social behaviour) we can explain 44% to 55% of the variance in math and the Slovene language achievement.
Project related publications: Results were presented at different conferences and they will also be published in professional and scientific journals in Slovenia and abroad.