Evaluation of the teaching competencies of english teachers in Jordan from multiple perspectives

Abstract

The study aimed at evaluating the current situation of the teaching competencies of secondary English teachers in Jordan by showing multiple perspectives, namely the students', the English supervisors' and those of the teachers themselves. Moreover, the researcher analyzed the content of the training materials of a number of teacher training programs offered by the Ministry of Education during the last 15 years for evidence of the teaching competencies that secondary English teachers actually need.

A number of instruments were used for data collection that included 3 questionnaires, interviews with experienced teachers (teachers and supervisors) and training program content analysis table. The three questionnaires and the content analysis table consisted of 40 essential specialized teaching competencies for English language teachers. These competencies were in 4 categories: " Subject knowledge and proficiency based competencies: Items 1 -12 " Cultural knowledge competencies: Items 13 - 18 " Teacher/ students relationship competencies: Items 19 - 24 " Instructional competencies: Items 25 - 40

The interview, on the other hand, consisted of one question in which the interviewees were asked to suggest a number of teaching competencies that they consider necessary or important for secondary English teachers in Jordan. The results of the study have shown the following: " The teachers' rating of their teaching competencies was very high in most of the teaching competencies except in 'cultural competencies' which were rated clearly lower than the rest of competencies. " The teachers' rating of their teaching competencies did not change according to their sex, qualifications or teaching experience for most competencies, though

significant differences were found at the level of ? ? .05 between the males and the females in favor of the 'females' in 'instructional competencies', and in favor of the longest experience' for 'cultural competencies'. " The students' rating of the teaching competencies of their teachers was relatively low in 2 areas when compared to their teachers' perceptions of their teaching competencies, namely 'instructional competencies' and 'cultural competencies'. " The students rating did not change according to their sex except for 'cultural competencies' where significant differences were recognized in favor of the males. " The supervisors rating of the teaching competencies of the teachers was clearly low in the four categories when compared to the teachers' own rating of their teaching competencies, regardless of the sex of these supervisors, their qualifications or their experience. " The results of the interviews with experienced teachers emphasized 24 teaching competencies as most important for English teachers in Jordan. The most frequently selected competencies of these were 'teaching speaking skills', 'teaching writing skills', and 'classroom management'. " The results of the content analysis of the training programs were consistent with those appearing in the other questions where 2 categories, namely 'cultural competencies' and 'subject knowledge competencies', were clearly lower than the rest of competencies. This indicates that the training programs offered to teachers need to provide more materials that can help teachers in these two areas. In general, the results of the study have shown that teachers need help in a number of teaching competencies. Therefore, the study suggests a new model based on the findings of the study which can be a core of future training program for English teachers in Jordan as well as for assessing their performance.