Professional Teachers’ Research Development Needs Assessment in the First District of Batangas, Philippines

Professional Teachers’ Research Development Needs Assessment in the First District of Batangas, Philippines

Mr. Michael John V. Francisco

Batangas State University, ARASOF-Nasugbu Campus

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.806129

Received: 22 May 2024; Revised: 07 June 2024; Accepted: 13 June 2024; Published: 11 July 2024

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to identify the training needs of professional teachers in the First District of Batangas, as an input for a research training program and other possible trainings in response to their professional development needs.

Descriptive research was utilized, and questionnaires were employed through the use of Google Forms. The statistical tools used to analyze and interpret the data were frequency, percentage, and rank.

The study found that the majority of the respondents are novices in the field of teaching and have minimal exposure to research writing. With this, the respondents prioritize research training that highlights the introduction to research writing, including the formulation of the statement of the problem, the delimitation and limitation of the study, and other related concepts. Moreover, this study shows the suggestions of the respondents on different training topics that can be given to them. Aside from that, the majority of the respondents also suggested to have training focusing on Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Key Words: professional development, research training program, needs assessment

INTRODUCTION

Professional development for teachers provides a mechanism for acquiring new information, practicing new skills, and being updated on the trends in the field of education. Based on the Framework for Professional Development released by the Department of Education, professional development may cover induction programs, career progression programs, and special programs. The induction programs are planned based on the needs of newly hired teachers. The career progression programs are designed to elevate the professional practice of current teachers and school leaders based on the indicators of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers. The special programs are constructed to cover supplementary competencies that are essential in the delivery of emerging and non-pedagogical-related tasks (Framework for Professional Development, n.d.).

Research has been one of the areas for the professional development of teachers. The first domain of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers clearly specifies that teachers must demonstrate an understanding of research-based knowledge and principles of teaching and learning. Aside from acquiring research-based knowledge and principles, it also includes conducting various research for the advancement of the art and science of teaching (Llego, 2019).

In order to build a strong foundation for writing a research paper, teachers need to have adequate training based on the result of a needs assessment. In the study of Hilton et al. (2016), training is a process that is key to improving one’s skills, attitudes, and knowledge. It can be considered one of the important factors that are correlated with the performance of an employee. Furthermore, training is part of their professional development in the academe, which supports the study by Hammond et al. (2017), where teacher professional learning is of increasing interest as a critical way to support the increasingly complex skills students need to learn in order to succeed in the 21st century. Sophisticated forms of teaching are needed to develop student competencies such as deep mastery of challenging content, critical thinking, complex problem solving, effective communication and collaboration, and self-direction. In turn, effective professional development is needed to help teachers learn and refine the instructional strategies required to teach these skills.

Being a researcher is a fulfilling task as it develops different skills, abilities, and competencies. Such improvement involves increasing teachers’ confidence in their abilities and improving future instruction. With this, it is necessary for teachers to understand the nature and ways of conducting and writing research. But there are teachers who are hesitant to explore research for some concerns, such as the skills that they need. One of these is writing, which takes a great deal of practice in order to communicate thoughts and ideas properly to their audience. To address this concern, the College of Teacher Education of the Batangas State University conducts needs assessment and provides training in relation to the professional development needs of the teachers.

Statement of the Problem

This study identified the training needs of teachers in response to their professional development needs.

It answers the following specific questions:

a. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:

1. 1. age;
   2. sex;
   3. highest educational attainment;
   4. position; and,
   5. length of service?

b. What are the needed research training topics of the respondents?

c. What are the respondents’ training needs relative to their professional development that may be prepared?

METHODOLOGY

The study employed a descriptive research design to describe the profile of the respondents and the trainings needed by the

Respondents and Sampling Procedure

Teachers in selected high schools from the First District of Batangas were the respondents to this study. The total number of respondents is 91. In selecting the respondents for the study, researchers used a purposive sampling technique.

Table 1: Distribution of Respondents

Table one shows that the majority of the respondents were from the municipality of Lian withy sixty-two (62) or 68.13 percent. Followed by fourteen (14) or 15.38 percent from the municipality of Nasugbu. And the rest are from Calatagan, Tuy, Balayan, and Lemery. The town where teachers are affiliated would help the study assess the respondent’s contribution to the performance of their school and the improvement of the academic performance of their students.

Research Instruments

In gathering the data for the study, researchers used a questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into three parts. Part I includes the profile of the respondents, covering their age, sex, educational attainment, position, and length of service. Part II deals with the training topics for research writing. The last part is the suggestion of the respondents for other trainings in connection with their career advancement.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This presents the data and analysis based on the response to the questionnaires collected from the respondents. The data were presented systematically in tables and given the corresponding interpretation.

1. Profile of the Respondents

The profile of the respondents was grouped into five: age, sex, highest educational attainment, position or designation, and length of service, respondents selected their profile based on the list.

1.1 Sex.

Table two shows the frequency and percentage of the respondents’ profile in terms of their sex. This profile helps the researchers determine the number of respondents in terms of their sex which are male or female.

Table 2: Profile of Respondents in Terms of Sex

Based on table two, among the ninety-one (91) respondents, seventy-one (71) or 71.03 percent are female and twenty (20) or 21.97 percent are male. It shows that the majority of the respondents were female, which infers that even decades later, still women dominate the field of the teaching profession. According to Startz (2019), elementary school teachers are overwhelmingly women. For the secondary school level, there has been an increase in the number of women because the secondary school teaching jobs have become more accessible to them.

1.2 Age.

Under the profile of the respondents, age was considered necessary to understand the extent of training needs for professional development in research training. Table three presents the frequency and percentage of the profile of respondents in terms of the age of the teachers.

Table 3: Profile of the Respondents in Terms of Age

Based on the third table, most of the respondents are between the ages of 20 and 30. They are new to the teaching profession since the average age of graduating students in the Philippines is 23 (Philippine Social Science, n.d.). It was followed by the respondents with an age between 31-40 with 28 or 30.77 percent. Teachers at this age have the desire to attend seminars and training sessions that center on research writing, since some of them have started to enroll for a higher educational degree as reflected on the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (Llego, 2019). Ages between 41-50 having a frequency of 7 or 7.69%, 51-60 with a frequency of 5 or 5.49%, and 61-70 with 1 or 1.10 are known as highly proficient teachers because they had acquire necessary knowledge and skills that are developed over years of teaching experience compared to the younger teachers (Ismail, et al., 2018)

1.3 Highest Educational Attainment.

The highest educational attainment of the respondents is related to the respondents’ access to teaching professions. Their qualifications for teaching activities and tasks are clearly demonstrated.

Table 4: Profile of the Respondents in Terms of Highest Educational Attainment

Based on the table four, fifty-two (52) or 57.14 percent of respondents have a Bachelor’s degree in education. Thirteen (13) or 14.29 percent earned Master’s degree units, while twenty-six (26) or 28.57 percent completed their Master’s degree. The results demonstrate that respondents are still in the process of earning or completing professional development to raise their expertise and credentials. It is expected that teachers are exposed to writing a research paper as one of their requirements for each degree level. Also, the knowledge and skills that they acquire could help them achieve their task and the learning objectives of their lesson (Consultores, 2022).

1.4 Position.

The fifth table indicates the teaching position of the respondents. The teaching position of the respondents will provide idea regarding their hierarchical arrangement in their respective schools.

Table 5: Profile of the Respondents in Terms of their Position in their Affiliated School

Table five shows that fifty-six (56) respondents, or 61.54 percent, are Teacher I. This position is the entry level in public schools (Llego, 2019). Seventeen (17) or 18.68% are Teacher II, eleven (11) or 12.88 percent are Teacher III, and the remaining respondents are Master Teachers, Head Teacher, and Instructor. This shows that the majority of the respondents are in the first level of the hierarchy but still look up to higher levels. Their position may reflect their accomplishments, since research serves as another requirement to attaining a higher position in the field of education (Llego, 2019).

1.5 Length of Service.

Length of service is the total of all periods of time during which the respondents have been in the teaching field. The length may reflect the job satisfaction of the profession and provide a sense of the quality of a good teacher.

Table 6: Profile of the Respondents in Terms of Length of Service

According to Table six, sixty-one (61) or 67.03 percent of the respondents have been in service for less than five years. Thirty (30) or 32.96 percent of the respondents are five years of age or older in the service. The majority of respondents are novices in the service; therefore, they are not yet greatly exposed to different professional development seminars and trainings.

2. Topics for Research Training

The purpose of research is to enhance the teaching-learning process by advancing knowledge through the development of scientific concepts and ideas or by producing tangible output such as instructional materials and action plan. Knowing the target topics for a research training would help provide relevant extension activities. Table seven presents the topics for research training.

Table 7: Topics for Research Training

Based on table seven, thirty-eight (38) or 41.76 percent of the respondents agreed that they needed training that highlighted writing the statement of the problem, delimitation and limitation of the study, etc. Writing these parts are crucial since it is the first step where researchers have to narrow down the ideas of the study. This part would provide the foundation for the study in order to pique the readers’ interest in the study.

Second in rank is understanding research presentation and publication with thirty-six (36) or 39.56 percent which implies that respondents are willing to expose and share their study with others. Research is said to be a collaborative work of different studies to generate new ideas, and being presented with others may bring light to a wide audience. Training on this topic may guide them in the proper process of presenting their paper at a national or international research conference.

Writing and analyzing review of related literature and studies obtained thirty-four (34) or 37.36 percent which implies that respondents believed that related literature would support understanding their study. Through this, researchers can distinguish the similarities and differences of the present study from other studies. Thus, it would be easy for the respondents to present their study with confidence as they utilized these supporting materials.

In writing methodology thirty- two (32) or 35.16 percent of respondents believed that they need to clearly indicate their research design, including the subjects, instruments, and procedure of the study. Knowing the appropriate methodology for the study would help them in determining the success and overall quality of the research study and its documentation. Additionally, being familiar with how this is employed in a field of study allows one to understand it more effectively.

Last in rank is writing the result and discussion with twenty-eight (28) or 30.77 percent, this is where researchers discuss the data gathered and explain their acquired understanding. This implies that respondents want to train themselves on how to easily present the results of their study to their audience. Through interpreting the data, researchers could construct insights and possible solutions for the study.

3. Training Needs for Professional Development

As a response to the changing world, teachers as professionals are expected to explore different areas, especially research writing. Training is one of the ingredients that would help them develop their knowledge and skills; besides, these are said to improve the teaching and learning processes.

Table 8: Training Needs for Professional Development

Table eight shows the suggestions of the respondents about the training topics that they need for professional growth and development. The researcher found that the majority of the respondents suggested that administration should provide training that tackled the field of ICT. Using technology in the classroom plays an important role in enhancing and supporting the teaching and learning process. In the 21^st century, this has been seen as an advantage that helps increase academic performance since it engages the students in the discussion. Moreover, it accommodates multiple learning styles, especially if teachers are able to utilize it properly.

Training in their field of specialization with sixteen (16) or 17.58 percent is second to the rank. Teachers find it important to know the trends when it comes to their area of expertise. This only implies that respondents want to improve the methods and strategies that they will use in their field of specialization. Teaching strategy and assessment rank third among the training needs of teachers, with (thirteen) 13 or 14.29 percent of respondents. It shows that teachers are anchored in the use of different strategies for students easily understand the lesson and to know student’s strengths and weaknesses, which may result in better learning.

Research, grammar, and language are the last on the list of training needs of the respondents. With this result, some respondents see the value of addressing the information in different aspects. Training is important for both new and seasoned teachers to be updated on different strategies, techniques, and methods to address the needs of their students in a changing world.

CONCLUSIONS

The following conclusions are found out after analyzing the data:

1. Majority of the respondents were 20-25 years old, female, Bachelor’s degree holders, Teacher I, and below five years in teaching.
2. Respondents are genuinely interested in learning about research writing, thus, majority of them needs training that centers on the foundation or introduction of writing a research paper.
3. Respondents suggest to provide trainings that target topics about ICT, specialization, and followed by teaching strategy and assessment.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings and conclusions drawn from the collected data, the researchers recommend the following:

1. The administration may provide trainings, seminars, and workshops to support teachers’ needs in writing research to improve the quality of instruction.
2. Teachers are monitored to conduct research that address different concerns in the field of education.
3. Future researchers may conduct studies related to training needs of the teachers for professional growth and development.

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