Diversity Of Desired And Observed Levels Of Qualities Among Teacher Candidates Perceived By Private School Management

Abstract

The trend of enrolment in private schools is growing rapidly. The criteria of quality for teacher candidates is complex one, great value is placed for oral interviews along with other formal techniques of selection process. The present study focused to investigate the desired and observed levels of qualities for teacher candidates perceived by their employers at private educational institutions in Pakistan. Interviews of personnel involved in selection process, a focus group discussion and a survey were used as the research method. After semi-structured interview with 20 employers the initial three levels of dimensions of qualities for teacher candidates i.e. dimensions of educational and professional knowledge; dimensions of teaching and professional skills; and dimensions of values and attitudes were developed and kept for focus group discussion. In this way six qualities for each dimension were finalized and the survey was conducted to rate the desired and observed levels of 18 items. A total number of 139 responses were available through this survey. The mean of desired and observed responses for each item was calculated. The difference between means, standard deviations and t-values were also calculated. The differences in mean values for desired and observed levels for all three categories indicate that employers of private schools are not satisfied with the output of teachers training programs.