Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Publication Date

10-10-1979

Abstract

A new climate of teaching has been established in which English teachers must be able to demonstrate those teacher behaviors, charac­teristics and qualifications that foster high quality instruction in the classroom.

The 1976 National Council of Teachers of English's (NCTE) Committee on Teacher Preparation and Certification published a statement on "Qualifications Needed by Teachers of English." These qualifications, based on an earlier set of Guidelines in 1967, suggested desirable competencies for teachers of English. The latest qualifications prepared by the NCTE Committee on Teacher Preparation and Certification represented progress from the generalities of previous efforts to a set of specific qualifications in four areas: knowledge, abilities, attitudes and experiences. The importance attributed to these quali­fications had not been determined previously since English curriculum coordinators and English educators, concerned with pre-service and in-service preparation of teachers, had not evaluated the qualifica­tions.

The study was conducted to determine:

1. The degree of importance English curriculum coordinators and English educators assigned to qualifications needed by teachers of English and

2. If there were significant differences in responses between English curriculum coordinators and English educators.

"Qualifications Needed by Teachers of English" was used as a basis for the instrument. The instrument consisted of a 60-item questionnaire that described qua1ifications needed by teachers of English in four areas: knowledge, abilities, attitudes and experi­ences. Content va1idity was established by a panel of experts and reliability was determined through a pilot study.

English curriculum coordinators and English educators were surveyed because they were assumed to be the best qualified to assess the preparation and performance of prospective teachers of English. Twenty-six percent of the English educators and 71 percent of the English curriculum coordinators responded to the instrument by mail. Their responses showed the degree of importance they assigned to the 60 teacher qualifications, using a 1-7 rating scale. Items rated 4 or higher were put into a frequency distribution. The priority of the items was determined by the percentages of scores obtained in the frequency distribution and the ranks assigned to those scores.

The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare rankings of the importance assigned to the teacher qualifications by English curric­ulum coordinators and English educators. The significance level was .05.

A comparison of the mean ranks of English curriculum coordinators and English educators showed general agreement by the two groups on a majority (50) of the 60 variables. A significant difference existed in the mean ranks of the two groups on 10 of the variables--5 knowledge, 2 abilities, 2 attitude and 1 experience.

Responses from English curriculum coordinators and English educators indicated that language and language instruction must be given priority in teacher preparation. It was noted also that educa­tional technology should become an integral part in the teaching of English, thereby requiring that prospective teachers of English become knowledgeable about technological resources and their uses in the teaching of English.

The data revealed that high priority had not been placed on the individual students' dialect, diverse cultures and work with students of different ethnic groups. Further investigation is needed of the attitudes of English coordinators and English educators to the needs, feelings and aspirations of others in a pluralistic culture.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy

First Committee Member (Chair)

Robert Harold White

Second Committee Member

George C. Stoumbis

Third Committee Member

Roderic L. Wagoner

Fourth Committee Member

Wayne Paul Moellenberg

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