The Study on the Attitudes Towards the Child-centered Teaching Approach of the Instructors and the Administrators in Lower and Higher Vocational Certificates in Electrical Technology, Electronics and Telecommunication

Abstract

The research was aimed to study the instructorsû and the administratorsû attitudes towards the childcenteredteaching approach. The main features of the study were the instructorsû and the administratorsûknowledge of the child-centered teaching, their satisfaction on the approach set as well as, their readiness toimplement the obtained knowledge in their situations. The population in this study consisted of 56 administratorsand 341 instructors from 14 technical colleges in northern provinces.

Two sets of questionnaires were used as research tools. The first set was a five-rank rating scale usedfor measuring the instructors and the administratorûs attitudes on their satisfaction and their readiness for theapproach. The second set contained a special forced choice format questionnaire, measuring the knowledge ofthis approach. The questionnaires were validated by 7 child centered specialists. The obtained results hadreliability of 0.733 and index of concurrence between objectives and questions ranging from 0.5 -1. Thequestionnairesû responses given back were 297 or 74.81%. They were analysed by means of SPSS statisticalanalysis to determine the percentage mean ( X ) and the standard deviation (SD).

The study showed that both the instructors and the administrators had nearly the same level ofknowledge (66.00% and 66.83%, respectively). Howerver, the administrators revealed that they had more profoundknowledge than the instructors (30.60% and 17.33%, respectively). Both the instructors and the administratorswere satisfied with the child-centred teaching approach. (X = 3.8 and 3.9, respectively). The administrators,however, were more ready to implement this teaching approach than the instructors (X = 3.42 and 3.57,respectively).

In conclusion, this comparative study revealed that the instructors and the administrators did not havemuch differences in either their satisfaction or their knowledge of the child centered teaching approach. However,both instructors and administrators had positive attitudes towards the child contered teaching approach andready to support this approach.