Journal of Teacher Education

108 Pages·2012·1.27 MB·English

Journal of Teacher Education
Volume V N0. 1 June 2014 ISSN: 2307-2199
Amhara National Regional State Education
Bureau
Teachers, Head Teachers, and Supervisors
Development Core Process
© Amhara National Regional State Education Bureau (ANRSEB)
Teachers, Head Teachers, and Supervisors Development CoreProcess (THTSDCP)
B.O.Box 764
Tel.- [phone]
[phone]
Fax- [phone]
Bahirdar, Ethiopia
Editorial Board
Editor-in-chief Lisanwork Tesfahun
Editor Legas Ahmedin
Managing Editor Birhanu Addis
Associate Editor Abeba Sisay
Associate Editor Mulugeta Misganaw
Guest Editor Animaw Tadesse (Debre Markos CTE)
Note: Views and opinions reflected in this Journal is the
responsibilities of the researchers, and does not
necessarily reflect neither views nor opinions of the
Amhara Region Education Bureau nor the Editorial
Board
Journal of Teacher Education
Volume V Number 1 June 2014
Research Articles
Page
Teachers as Parent Figures: Perceived Socio- Emotional
Support, Quality Relationship and Self-Determination of
1
Primary School Teachers at Sekota Administrative Town
Shambel Molla
Communicative Competence of Students atDebre Birhan
College of Teacher Education: Focus on Non-Language 19
Major Students
Getu Tefera
በሰቆጣ ከተማ አስተዳደር ባሉ የመጀመሪያ ደረጃ 1ኛ ሳይክል
ትምህርት ቤቶች በስነ ጥበብ ትምህርት አሰጣጥ ሂደት ላይ
37
የሚታዩ ችግሮች ዳሠሣ
ደስታይትባረክ
The Effects of Teaching Methods on Students Test Scores: A 65
Quasi Experiment
Animaw Tadesse Bayih
Finding Ways to Help Learners in Piano Finger Practice and
85
Sound Identification at Debremarkos CTE
Atalay Mesfin
Journal of Teacher Education Vol.V, No.1, June 2014
Teachers as Parent Figures: Perceived Socio- Emotional Support,
Quality Relationship and Self-Determination of Primary School
Teachers at Sekota Administrative Town
ShambelMolla1
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of first cycle primary
school teachers’ perceived socio-emotional support, self-determination and quality
relationship. To accomplish this objective, self-reported closed ended questionnaire was
administered for 47 comprehensively selected first cycle primary school teachers. To
validate the data from teachers, focused group discussion was made among 37 purposely
selected grade 4 students and interview was conducted with two vice director and three
principals. Then, the quantitative data was sorted to Excel Microsoft;SPSS was applied for
analysis. Means, standard deviation, one sample t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient
were used as data analyzing techniques for quantitative data and description was used for
qualitative data. At last, it was found that teachers’ level of socio-emotional support and
quality relationship were found to the optimum level. However, teachers’ level of self-
determination was found tobelow level. And this result was in line with the qualitative data
gathered from students and directors. In case of differences among the mean scores of the
aforementioned variables, it was found to be statistically significant as tested by one-sample
t-test against the expected mean. The Pearson correlation coefficient alpha was computed
between perceived socio-emotional support, quality relationship and self-determination; as
result, socio-emotional support has positive and statistically significant relationship with
both self-determination and quality relationship. From these findings, it was possible to
conclude that teachers perceived that they have no strong relationship with their students;
they are not socially and emotionally supporting students to the level they are expected and
they have little self-initiation in helping students to be adaptive in overall school life. Hence
it was found difficult to concludethat teachers are parent figures for school children per the
variables under investigation. Having this conclusion in mind, it was recommended that
teachers, school directors, woreda, zonal educational departments and Sekota college of
teachers educational should work together to develop psychosocial aspects of teachers so
that students will benefit from the process.
Key terms ፡ Parent Figures, Perceived Socio- Emotional Support, Quality Relationship
andSelf-Determination
Introduction
In terms of early period relationships, teachers seem to be the persons who the
students meet after their parents and who have important influences in children.
School children regard the teacher as the representative of parents at school.
Children use their teachers as examples in many respects, including behavior,
clothing, and even manner of walking (Ryan & Connell, 1989).
1Lecturer at Sekota CTE, Department of Behavioural Science
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Journal of Teacher Education Vol.V, No.1, June 2014
The child’s interaction with his teacher is important both for social development
and for learning (Barret & Pahl, 2006). Relations, teacher establishes with children
in the early childhood period form the basis for the interpersonal relations the
children will establish in thefuture.
Previous research reported associations between emotional support and children’s
positive social behaviors and self-regulatory skills. For example, in a study of 14
first-grade classrooms, higher observed teacher emotional and instructional support
was associated with more positive interpersonal behavior and less intrapersonal
behavior problems among children. A greater sense of choice, more self-initiation
of behavior, and greater personal responsibility, is an important developmental goal,
and it is becoming increasingly clear that promoting self-determination is the
avenue to attaining outcomes such as creativity, cognitive flexibility, and self-
esteem among teachers(Deci, 1981).
In terms of education, it has become ever more apparent that self-determination, in
the forms of intrinsic motivation and autonomous internalization, leads to the types
of outcomes that are beneficial both to the students and to the society.
The mission of our public schools has been—and still needs to be—to prepare
students to be productive citizens, to cultivate moral character, and to promote an
appreciation of the useful traditions and cultures. Emphasizing the importance of
learning along with other qualities that are essential to our society, such as fairness,
concern for others, and responsibility, helps promote a shared commitment to the
school’s goals, establishes common ground, and shapes the norms that govern daily
interactions. To get all the aforementioned advantages, our teachers are the
immediate substitutionsof children’s parents.
Hence there need to be emphasis on socio-emotional support, good relationship and
self-determination of teachers as they are instrumental for children’s overall
psychological health in school by substituting children’s parents that they left home
otherwise challenges will be there within the child and the child’s perceptions and
focus of academic issues will be loosened.
Statement of the Problem
In school-age children, problems in socio-emotional development typically manifest
themselves as challenging, socially disruptive patterns of behavior that without
intervention can evolve into persistent antisocial behavior, such as physical
aggression and bullying and ultimately adolescent delinquency. For teachers and
classmates, these disruptive behaviors are a major challenge to educational success
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Journal of Teacher Education Vol.V, No.1, June 2014
because children with socio-emotional problems deflect valuable time, energy and
attention from the entire classroom learning experience(Raver and Knitze, 2002).
As scholars argue, to be prepared for learning, children also “must be” excited and
be curious about learning and confident that they can succeed (motivational
qualities). They “must be” able to understand the feelings of others, control their
own feelings and behaviors and get along with their peers and teachers (socio-
emotional skills). Indeed, primary school teachers rate these motivational and socio-
emotional skills as more important to school success than being able to hold a
pencil or read. They want children to be ready for learning — able to cooperate,
follow directions, and demonstrate self-control and “pay attention” (Boyd et al.,
2005: 2).
In addition to contexts mentioned so far in relation to the consequences of the
variables under investigation, the first initiative in conducting this research on
aforementioned title was my professional knowledge and personal reading in many
child development books that teachers are crucial for psychosocial development of
children in the earlier grade levels as they are the first social environments that
students face out of their families. In the second place, many local research
findings, annual reports directions from the regional educational bureau focused
on/around students’ achievement, assessment, active learning methods, language
proficiency and accuracy, instructional aides and sex differences in level
achievements and classroom participation as constitutes for quality education.
These inclinations triggered me to see the other side of important elements for
quality education in seeking variables which have direct effect on students
achievement including socio-emotional support, quality relationship and self-
determination of teachers for students overall school adjustment. Hence, this study
tried to answer the research questions mentioned here under:
1. To what extent do teachers perceive their provision of socio-emotional
support for school children’?
2. To what extent do teachers perceive they are self-determined in nurturing
school children?
3. To what extent do teachers perceive they have quality relationship with all
their students?
4. Are there statistically significant teachers’ mean score differences among
variables under this investigation?
5. Is there statistically significant relationships between socio-emotional
support, self-determination and quality relationship of teachers?
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Journal of Teacher Education Vol.V, No.1, June 2014
Objective/s/ of the Study
This study aimed at investigating teachers’ socio-emotional support, quality of
relationship and self-determination in nurturing school children. Specifically the
study has tried to understand:
 Teachers’ perceived level of socio-emotional support for their students.
 The level of quality of relationship between students and teachers.

The levels of teachers’ determination in nurturing children.
 Teachers’ mean score differences in variables such as socio-emotional
support, self-determination and quality relationship against the expected
mean.
 The relationships among variables such as socio-emotional support, self-
determination and quality relationship
Significance of the Study
Successful completion of this study would be important first for students and
teachers in primary schools as teachers could get training about child care
techniques; and students as well get benefit from these teachers by which they can
consider schools as their second home. Second, it would be instrumental for college
lecturers in filling the gap that primary school teachers lack for current trainees.
Third, it would be worthwhile for regional, zonal and woreda educational experts
who inclusively responsible in teachers’ continuous professional development as
they will have an insight to inculcate the issues in the program to increase teachers’
level of quality relationship and self-determination in supporting school children.
Fourth, it would be an evidence for curriculum developers when reforming the
existing primary school teachers training approach particularly in including child
care skills as one course module. At last, it will be potential frame work for
interested researchers in similar issues.
Delimitation of the Study
This study was targeted to investigate teachers’ level of socio-emotional support,
self-determination and quality relationship of teachers with school children; thus it
only focused on teachers’ self-initiation, emotional and social support, and quality
relationship as independent variables that describe teachers as parent figures which
was considered as dependent variable. The study also included only first cycle
primary school teachers as children left their home- fathers and mothers, this level
is more important for them than the upper level primary school students. In case of
geographical delimitation, the study was confined to Sekota Administrative Town
for its proximity and convenience for the researcher’s work place.
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Journal of Teacher Education Vol.V, No.1, June 2014
Limitation of the Study
This study was restricted to Sekota Administrative Town teachers. If the research
included all teachers in the Zone as sample frame, the research result was
generalized and significant for students and teachers in the zone. The other
challenge was respondents’ work load to complete the questionnaire on the same
day of the administration in that they could rate their untrue behavior if they discuss
the issue with others. With these limitations under consideration the conclusion was
drawn.
Review Literature
Quality Relationship
Positive relationships with adults are important ingredients in promoting positive
student development. For example, when teachers learn to make modest efforts to
form a personal connection with their students—such that the students feel
known—they can dramatically enhance student motivation in school and emotional
functioning outside of school (Zimmer-Gembeck, & Connell, 1998). In the early
grades, when teachers spend nondirective individual time with children who they
find challenging, the disruptive behavior of these students drops, and teachers report
more harmonious and learning-oriented interactions (Mashburn et al., 2008).
Socio-Emotional Support
Emotionally supportive teachers, by definition, can be observed as warm and kind,
sensitive to the social and emotional needs of each child, and thoughtful about the
way they respond to children. They offer gentle guidance to students, engage in
positive communication with students, and demonstrate respect for children through
eye contact, respectful language, and a warm and calm voice (Pianta, LaParo, &
Hamre, 2008). For example, in a classroom with a high positive climate, teachers
show frequent positive affect displays toward students, encourage students to be
kind and caring to one another, appear encouraging in their feedback about behavior
or schoolwork, demonstrate their understanding of individual children’s likes and
dislikes, and create opportunities in the classroom for children to voice their views
and ideas(Pianta, LaParo, & Hamre, 2008).
In contrast, emotionally supportive teachers do not display controlling behaviors,
criticize students, or use sarcastic language or punitive approaches to discipline; all
behaviors that, by definition, indicate the presence of a negative classroom climate.
However, teachers’ socio-emotional support or teachers’ care, warmth, support, and
involvement are highlighted in the classroom management developmental
(Steinberg, 1995)and educational psychology literature (Furrer & Skinner, 2003).
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Journal of Teacher Education Vol.V, No.1, June 2014
Self-Determination
According to Deci and Ryan (1985), autonomous motivations enable people to
realize their authentic self, whereas controlled motivations are experienced as
sources of external or internal pressure. Thus, self-determination replaced the
extrinsic/intrinsic dichotomy with a more differentiated continuum of autonomous
versus controlled motivations. Self-determination Theory (SDT) and other
humanistic views in psychology and education posited that autonomous motivation
and the experience of autonomy are extremely important for growth and well-being.
In contrast, there are traditions in education and in psychology which clearly do not
value the experience of autonomy as much (Hand, 2006) Empirical studies in
various work settings show that autonomous motivation is associated with desirable
outcomes and there is ample research documenting the benefits of autonomous
motivation for students ( Ryan & Deci, 2004).
Research Methodology
Design of the study
The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of primary school teachers’
self-determination, socio-emotional support and quality of relationship with school
children in Sekota Administrative town. This study used descriptive research design
for it involved the collection of qualitative and quantitative data through interview,
focused group discussion and questionnaire in the attempt to answer leading
questions. Hence qualitative and quantitative research methods were used.
Along with this, other scholars emphasized that descriptive research is a purposive
process of gathering, analyzing, classifying and tabulating data about the prevailing
conditions, practices, beliefs, process, trends and cause and effect relationship,
thereby making adequate and accurate interpretations about such data with or
without the aid of a statistical method.
Data Sources
The researcher mainly targeted on first cycle primary school teachers who were in
Sekota Administrative town. Key informants were people who by virtue of their
placement have first-hand knowledge about a topic of interest, were the other
category of research participants. These informants include students, directors, and
the supervisor.
Sampling Frame,Sample Size and Sampling Techniques
The initial sampling frame for self-completed questionnaires was defined as all
teachers working in governmental first cycle primary schools in Sekota
Administrative town. It was restricted to governmental school teachers because it
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Journal of Teacher Education Vol.V, No.1, June 2014
wasfound important tocontrol intervening variables like salary, school settings, and
students’ academic characteristics that teachers were teaching. To determine the
sample size, three primary schools namely Azeba, General Hailu Kebede and
Medhanialem were selected depending on geographical convenience and adequacy
of participants as compare to the schools in that other schools had small number of
teachers and much distance from the town. This means, the researcher got four or
six teachers who were found unequally distributed in other governmental first cycle
primary schools. Then all teachers who were teaching only in the first cycle
primary level of the aforementioned schools were totally selected in order to
maximize generalization of the finding. According to Erikson, students in the ages
between 6-12 years seek higher psycho-social support from adults including
teachers for their overall school adjustment. Accordingly, from Medhanialem
primary school: 4 male and 14 female teachers; from General Hailu kebede: 5 male
and 16 female teachers and from Azeba primary school: 4male and 19 female
teachers that totally 62 first cycle primary school teachers were comprehensively
taken as participants of the study.
However, all informants were selected using purposive sampling depending on
some criteria. For instance, as they are small in number, the five school (three
principals and two vice directors) directors were informants on teachers’ socio-
emotional support, parent-hood relationship and self-determination in caring for
school children as parents do. And as lower grade level students may not clearly
explain the intended investigation, the other informants were selected from grade
four students; 15 students from Medihanialem, 10 students from Azeba, and 12
students from General Hailu kebede (totally=37) were chosen for focused group
discussion considering their classroom ability of expressing their ideas freely and
compressively as the purpose was to validate teachers self report on their self-
determination, socio-emotional support and parent-hood relationships for and/with
students.The summary of the sample units portrayed in table 1.
Table-1:Summary of Sampling Procedure and Sampling Size
Noof selected Total Stud Directors
No. Name of Primary Schools teachers sample ents
F M size
1 Azeba Primary School 4 19 23(100% 15 2
2 General H/Kebede Primary 5 16 21(100% 10 1
School
3 Medhanialem Primary School 4 14 18(100%) 12 2
Total sample size 13 49 62(100%) 37 5
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