INTRODUCTION

Government of Thailand recognizes the need of Human Resources Development of teaching professionals as a key to maintain standards of education at an internationally competitive level. Considering the large number of teachers currently in service whose expertise in new teaching and learning approaches will be critical in implementing the educational reform, it is surprising that very little work has been done in planning, developing and delivering training in new teaching and learning methods. The biggest impact of the teaching and learning reform rests with the teachers currently in the classrooms and yet little attention has been given to (a) developing an in service training programme to help these teachers to adopt student centered learning and other new practices, and (b) considering innovative approaches to delivering. This is matter of serious concern as many of teachers have not had any training since they graduated some twenty or more years. ago and certainly no training in new teaching or learning methods. Since in-service training can’t be taken away from classes, there is urgent need to direct resources to planning, developing and delivering of in-service training. (National Institute for Development of Teachers, Faculty Staffs and Educational Personnel, Ministry of Education, Annual report 2007) .

At its meeting on March 4, 2004, the Fourth Scrutinizing Committee of the Council of Ministers

gave its approved to the Strategic Plan for Reform of Teachers and Educational Personnel 2004-

2013. The Plan recommends various strategies including that for development of teachers’

capacity, which could be enhanced through School-Based Training - SBT. (The Office of the

Secretariat of the Prime Minister, 2004). Though several areas of training viz types of knowledge, new learning strategies, assessment and evaluation, ICT competency, action research etc have been discussed in these reports, but none of the studies in Thailand has shown any concern with perception of teachers and school leaders regarding competencies and training needs. Therefore the present study was conducted with the following purposes:

1. To analyze the perceptions of high school teachers regarding competencies and training needs.

2. To analyze the perceptions of school leaders regarding competencies and training needs for teachers.

3. To rank the competencies and training needs as perceived by teachers and school leaders.

4. To find any correlation exist between perceptions of teachers and school leaders.

Literature Review

Salleh and Air Bin(1998) revealed that knowledge of subject matter content, instructional and class room management skills , and knowledge of skills in assessing progress in student’s learning were the major areas of in-service program. In many respects, teachers were significantly different in terms of their problems and their training needs and comparisons were made based on their qualifications and teaching experiences. This study showed the importance of needs, assessments in planning in-service training for teachers. Also findings of this study suggested among training planners and organizers more attention should be given to all teacher’s problems or needs, their differences and their specific needs for training.

Mama (1998) revealed that no efforts were made to involve teachers in planning, evaluation and follow up of in-service training programs. Sharma (2003) revealed that training programs for teachers should focus training needs of teachers. This was endorsed by group of Delphi experts. Surasak Labmala (2006) revealed the negative attitude of teachers towards training programs as all training programs lacked expectations of teachers and school.

In light of the various researches and available literature, the present study was conducted to explore the perceptions and expectations of teachers and school leaders towards in-service training needs for teachers.

Research Methodology

The present study was conducted using a questionnaire developed by Regional Institute of Education Mysore, India, and a unit of National Council for Education Research and Training, New Delhi, India. The original questionnaire was modified by reducing statements to fifteen from thirty reason being the various competencies mentioned in the original questionnaire were not known to teachers in Thailand due to lack of any pre service training or absence of teaching qualifications. The questionnaire administered consisted of fifteen competencies divided in three categories- Student’s focus, Pedagogical focus and Teacher’s focus. The response pattern for each statement is mentioned in Table 1 and Table 2

Table 1-Response pattern for teachers

Table 2- Response pattern for school leaders

The questionnaire for teacher’s was given to all high school teachers from 10 government schools being 80 in number and 10 private schools being 76 in numbers. Similarly questionnaire for school leaders was given to all school leaders from the sample schools, government school being 30 in number while private schools 34. The chi square test was applied to observe the pattern of responses between two school systems for competencies and training needs, followed by percentage of responses

admitting competencies as very much essential or fairly essential and training is needed or not, to rank the competencies and training needs as perceived by both teachers and school leaders. The ranks were correlated to establish the relationship between perception of teachers and school leaders.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Analysis of perception of teachers and school leaders about competencies

Table 3: Perception of teachers for competencies: Student’s focus

From Table 3 it is evident that in all five cases the response pattern of teachers is independent of school system. There is significant independence between nature of schools and perception of teachers regarding competencies at .01 significant levels. It can be commended that over 87.8% of teachers perceive that Diagnose student’s learning difficulties is very much essential or fairly essential for teachers followed by providing effective feed back to students( 85.25%), identifying student’s personal needs and difficulties (82%) , organizing instructions for enrichment ( 76.9%) and organizing remedial instructions(55.1%).

Table 4: Perception of School leaders for competencies: Student’s focus

From Table 4 it is evident that in all five cases the response pattern of school leaders is independent of school system. There is significant independence between nature of schools and perception of school leaders regarding competencies at .01 significant levels. It can be commended that over 81 % of school students(75%), identifying students personal needs and difficulties(71.8%) and organizing remedial instructions(45.3%).

Table 5: Perception of teachers for competencies: Pedagogical focus

From Table 5 it is evident that in all five cases the response pattern of teachers is independent of school system. There is significant independence between nature of schools and perception of teachers regarding competencies at .01 significant levels. It can be commended that over 87% of teachers perceive that developing multi grade teaching skills is very much essential or fairly essential for teachers , followed by developing learning activities and competencies on subjects(82%) , adopting problem solving methods(70% ) , adopting project methods(69%) and developing self instructional tool(56.4%).

Table 6- Perception of School leaders for competencies: Pedagogical focus

From Table 6 it is evident that in all five cases the response pattern of school leaders is independent of school system. There is significant independence between nature of schools and perception of school leaders regarding competencies at .01 significant levels. It can be commended that over 81.25% of school leaders perceive that developing multi grade teaching skills is very much essential or fairly essential for teachers , followed by developing learning activities and competencies on subjects(68.75%) , adopting problem solving methods(60.9% ) , adopting project methods(56.25%) and developing self instructional tool(45.31%).

Table 7- Perception of teachers for competencies: Teacher’s focus

From Table 7 it is evident that in all five cases the response pattern of teachers is independent of school system. There is significant independence between nature of schools and perception of teachers regarding competencies at .01 significant levels. It can be commended that over 87.1% of teachers perceive that Conducting action research is very much or fairly essential for teachers followed by publishing research papers (86.5%) developing total quality management skills (85.25%), developing emotional intelligence skills(84.61%) and organizing workshop for professional development(66.6%).

Table 8- Perception of School leaders for competencies: Teacher’s focus

From Table 8 it is evident that in all five cases the response pattern of school leaders is independent of school system. There is significant independence between nature of schools and perception of school leaders regarding competencies at .01 significant levels. It can be commended that over 82.81% of school leaders perceive that developing emotional intelligence skills is very much essential or fairly essential for teachers , followed by conducting action research (81.25%) , publishing research paper (78.12%), developing total quality management skills(76.5% ) and organizing workshops for professional development(42.18%).

Table 9- Correlation amongst Teacher’s & School leader’s Perceptions

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Competencies Spearman rank correlation (r_s) Remark

Student’s Focus + 0.7 Positive and high relation

Pedagogical focus +1 Positive very high relation

From table 9 it is evident that there is positive and very high relationship between rankings of competencies as perceived by teachers and school leaders on Pedagogical focus, while it is positive and high relationship on student’s focus and perception of teachers and school leaders on teacher’s focus.

Table 10- Perception of Teachers and School leaders for training needs for teachers: Student’s focus

It is evident from table 10 in all five cases of perception of teachers; the response pattern of teachers is independent of school system. There is significant independence between nature of school and

perception of teachers towards training needs at, 01 level of significance. It can be commended that 82.69% of teachers needs training for diagnosing student’s needs, followed by identifying student’s personal needs (69.2%), organizing instructions for enrichment (55.12%), providing effective feed back to students (47.4%) and organizing remedial instructions (37.1%). Similarly it is also evident that response pattern of school leaders is independent of school system. There is significant independence between nature of schools and perception of school leaders towards training needs of teachers at .01 level of significance. It can be commended that 70.3% of school leaders suggest training for diagnosing student’s need ,followed by identifying student’s personal needs (60.9%),organizing instructions for enrichment (53.12%),providing effective feed back to students(46.8%) and organizing remedial instructions(40.6%).

Table 11- Correlation amongst teacher’s perception and school leader’s suggestion on training needs for competencies associated with Student’s focus

It is evident from table 11 that there exist perfect relationship between teacher’s perception on their training needs and school leader’s suggestion s on training needs for teachers.

Table 12- Perception of Teachers and School leaders for training needs for teachers: Pedagogical focus

It is evident from table12 in all five cases of perception of teachers; the response pattern of teachers is independent of school system. There is significant independence between nature of school and perception of teachers towards training needs at, 01 level of significance. It can be commended that

78.2% of teachers needs training for developing multi grade teaching skills ,followed by developing learning activities and competencies on subjects (64.7%),adopting problem solving methods (55.12%),adopting project method(37.1%) and developing self instructional tool (29.4%). Similarly it is also evident that response pattern of school leaders is independent of school system. There is significant independence between nature of schools and perception of school leaders towards training needs of teachers at .01 level of significance. It can be commended that 68.75% of school leaders suggest training for developing multi grade teaching skills ,followed by developing learning activities and competencies on subjects (62.5%),adopting problem solving methods (53.12%),developing self instructional tools(37.5%) and adopting project methods(34.3%).

Table 13- Correlation amongst teacher’s perception and school leader’s suggestion on training needs for competencies associated with Pedagogical focus

It is evident from table 13 that there exist positive and very high relationship between teacher’s perception on their training needs and school leader’s suggestion s on training needs for teachers

Table 14- Perception of Teachers and School leaders for training needs for teachers: Teacher’s focus

It is evident from table 14 in all five cases of perception of teachers; the response pattern of teachers is independent of school system. There is significant independence between nature of school and perception of teachers towards training needs at, 01 level of significance. It can be commended that

83.3%% of teachers needs training for developing emotional intelligence skills ,followed by publishing research papers (82.05%),conducting action research (80.76%),developing total quality management skills (79.48%) and organizing workshop for personal development (29.4%). Similarly it is also evident that response pattern of school leaders is independent of school system. There is significant independence between nature of schools and perception of school leaders towards training needs of teachers at .01 level of significance. It can be commended that 71.8% of school leaders suggest training for developing emotional intelligence skills, followed by publishing research papers (65.6%), conducting action research (64.06%), developing total quality management skills (62.5%) and organizing workshop for personal development (26.5%)

Table 15- Correlation amongst teacher’s perception and school leader’s suggestion on training needs for competencies associated with Teacher’s focus

It is evident from table15 that there exist positive and perfect relationship between teacher’s perception on their training needs and school leader’s suggestion s on training needs for teachers

DISCUSSION

The present study reveals the strong correlation between perception of teachers and school leaders on competencies of teachers and training needs of teachers. In terms of competencies related to student’s focus the spearman correlation (r_s=+0.7) indicating positive and high relationship. Both teachers (87.8%) and school leaders (81%) have ranked diagnosing student’s learning needs as the most essential competencies followed by providing effective feedback to students by teachers (85.25%) which is ranked third by school leaders (75%) while organizing instructions for enrichment by school leaders (70.35%) which is ranked fourth by teachers (76.9%).However both teachers and school leaders have put organizing remedial instructions as the least important competencies for teachers. In terms of training it is evident from table 5.1 (b) that teacher’s perception on training needs perfectly correlates with school leaders suggestions(r_s=+1).Therefore it can be recommended that teachers should be trained diagnosing student’s learning needs, identifying student’s personal needs and difficulties, organizing instructions for enrichment as these are the top priorities sorted out from findings.

In terms of competencies related to pedagogical focus there exist positive and very high correlation between perception of teachers and school leaders towards competencies (r_s=+1). Both teachers 87%)and school leaders (81.25%) perceive developing multi grade teaching activities as most essential competency for teachers , followed by developing learning activities and competencies on subjects(teachers 82% ,leaders 68.755), adopting problem solving methods(teachers 70%,leaders60.9%),and adopting project methods (teachers 69% and leaders (56.25%). In terms of training needs, there is positive and very high correlation between teacher’s perceptions on training

needs and school leaders suggestion (r_s=+0.9). Both teachers (78.2%)and school leaders (68.7%) rank first to developing multi-grade teaching skills, followed by developing learning activities and competencies on subject (teachers 64.7%,leaders 62.5%) and adopting problem solving methods (teachers 55.12% , leaders 53.12%) as training needs for teachers. Therefore it is highly recommended that teachers should be trained for these competencies.

In terms of competencies related to Teacher’s focus there is no relationship existing between teacher’s perception and school leader’s perception on competencies(r_s=+0.7). While 87.1% of teachers perceive conducting action research as most essential competency which is ranked second by school leaders(81.25%) whereas 83.1% of school leaders perceive developing emotional intelligence as most essential competency which is ranked third by teachers(85.25%).However other competencies are agreed upon by both vis publishing research paper( 86.5% by teachers ranking second, 78.1% by school leaders ranking third), developing total quality management skills ( teachers 84.61% ranked fourth, school leaders 76.5% ranked fourth).Organizing workshop for professional development is ranked last by both teachers(66.6%) and school leaders(42.18%).in terms of training needs there is positive and very high relationship exists between perception of teachers and school leaders(r_s=+1). This suggests that training needs are ranked equally by both teachers and school leaders. Both teachers (83.3%)and school leaders (71.8%) have ranked first to developing emotional intelligence skills, followed by publishing research papers(teachers 82.5%,school leaders 65.6%),conducting action research(teachers 80.76% ,school leaders 64.06%) and developing total quality management skills (teachers 79.4%,school leaders 62.5%).Therefore training for these competencies are highly recommended for teachers.

Conclusion

The present study has focused on training needs of high school teachers of government and private schools of Bangkok. The teachers prefer training in diagnosing students learning needs, identifying student’s personal needs and difficulties, organizing instructions for enrichment ,developing multi-grade teaching skills, developing learning activities on subjects, adopting problem solving skills, developing emotional intelligence skills, publishing research papers ,conducting action research and developing total quality management skills. Hence training for the aforesaid competencies is highly required.

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