Teaching is an ever-evolving field of the profession that comprises a magnitude of skills, talent, and dedication. This descriptive study intended to revisit some primary characteristics of a 21st century teacher in the standpoint of 123 conveniently selected college students.

The findings of the study were as follows: The respondents answered "Agree" on the context of professional and personal attributes that a teacher should possess; while in terms of the primary skills exhibited by a teacher, it got an answer of "Very Satisfactory". Significant differences were observed in Professional Attributes, Learning and Innovation Skills, and Life Career Skills when grouped according to the respondent's profile.

Furthermore, there was a low to moderate evidence of the relationship that existed between the attributes of a teacher and skills. This was further confirmed through regression analysis and found out that the attributes of a teacher significantly affect the teaching skills. Based on the findings, practical suggestions on professional and personal improvements of a teacher was discussed and recommended.

Excerpt

Introduction

Methodology

Results and Discussion

Conclusion

Recommendations

References

Abstract

Teaching is an ever evolving field of profession which comprises a magnitude of skills, talent, and dedication. This descriptive study intended to revisit some primary characteristics of a 21st century teacher in the standpoint of 123 conveniently selected college students. The findings of the study were as follows: The respondents answered Agree on the context of professional and personal attributes that a teacher should possess; while in terms of the primary skills exhibited by a teacher, it got an answer of Very Satisfactory. Significant differences were observed in Professional Attributes, Learning and Innovation Skills and Life Career Skills when grouped according to respondent’s profile. Furthermore, there was a low to moderate evidence of relationship that existed between the Attributes of a teacher and skills. This was further confirmed through regression analysis and found out that the attributes of a teacher significantly affects the teaching skills. Based on the findings, practical suggestion on professional and personal improvements of a teacher were discussed and recommended.

Keywords: Attributes, Skills, Perspective of college students, 21st century teacher, teaching

Introduction

In the 21st century curriculum, change always plays a vital role for adopting a newer and better set of teaching strategies and principles which will again put teachers into the test of tides in terms of their teaching attributes and skills. A good teacher is more than just an educator. The characteristics that make a teacher good are complex and extensive. (Bullock, 2015)

Education is such a great motivator and at the same time a source of investment. Policy makers are revolutionizing teacher evaluation by attaching greater stakes to student test scores and observation-based teacher effectiveness measures, but relatively little is known about why they often differ so much. (Harris, Ingle, Rutledge, 2014) But naturally, the results of these tests will not decide the future of students, reality will hone their skills and merging with the society will also have a great impact on the holistic development of students. Educating a nation of culturally, ethnically/racially, and linguistically diverse students are one of the many challenges facing teachers and teacher educators, resulting in teachers questioning their ability to improve learning for these groups. (Chu, 2011)

Over the years of teaching practice and innovation, several attempts were used to quantify some important strategies and methodologies in teaching. In the words of Gargani & Strong, (2014) Teacher observations have become a national education phenomenon, mandated by federal policies and promoted by philanthropists. They are crucial components of teacher evaluation systems that often have high stakes for teachers and school systems, but have sparked little innovation. A study also found out that rating instruments, including disposition surveys, clinical practice observation, ratings and portfolio assessment each measure a single underlying dimension rather than the multiple constructs they were designed to measure. (Henry, Thompson, Campbell, Patriarca, Luterbach, Lys & Covington, 2013)

On the other hand, the associations of both positive and negative relationships (teacher-student) with a student’s school engagement were medium to large, whereas associations with a students’ school achievement were small to medium. (Roorda, Koomen, Spilt & Oort, 2011). Furthermore, stronger effects were found in high grades and negative effects of relationships were stronger in primary than in secondary. Accordingly, Loeb, Soland & Fox (2014) exposed that teachers who were effective with English learners also tend to be effective with their non-English learners and vice versa. There was also evidence that some teachers are relatively more effective with English learners than with non-English learners and that this increased efficacy is predicted by a teacher’s fluency in students’ home language and whether he or she possesses a bilingual teaching certificate.

Moreover, emotions experienced by teachers while teaching are relatively unexplored avenues of research (Coleman, 2014). Emotional discomfort was a central theme as the teacher considered the children’s play in relation to the knowledge acquired in the graduate online course or vice versa. (Madrid, Baldwin & Frye, 2013) More specifically, the findings of the study revealed the teacher’s discomfort and the resulting struggle and ambivalence she encountered as new information about the children’s social worlds disrupted her prior beliefs, values, and feelings.

On the other side of the discussion, Baric and Burusic (2014) suggested that teachers with different professional status-related personal attributes are fairly uniform in their views, expectations, and satisfaction. Furthermore, they found it interesting to note about the relationship between school-based Catholic religious education and the parish-based catechesis, where existing relationship represents a weak source of religious education teacher’s satisfaction. For Amatea, Cholewa, Mixon (2012), they investigated a course at a large research university in the Southeastern United States designed to influence the attitudes of pre-service teachers (PSTs) about how they might work with low-income and/or ethnic minority families and found out that their attitudes were less stereotypic, they were more confident about using family-centric involvement practices, and conceptualized student’s problems in less blaming terms.

Local authors also share some important and revealing literature. Based on the study of Magno & Sambrano (2016), it was found out that the teachers practicing learner-centered approaches use their self-efficacy in order to be effective in teaching but it was also found out that being effective does not result in high teaching performance rating. On the other hand, Enanoza & Abao (2014) revealed that teachers generally carried out their roles excellently; likewise, there were significant interrelationships between and among the roles as well as the factors that affect them. The physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual factors directly affect the successful exercise of their roles. Moreover, Espina (2013) described the ideal teacher as one primarily with the “ability to share relevant knowledge and experiences to clarify the concept.” Also, “expertise in the subject matters taught” was identified as the most prevalent descriptor of the assessed teacher. Likewise, teachers were seen to be effective in instructional delivery and facilitating learning with a premium placed on humane treatment of learners. Lastly, De Guzman, Torres, Uy, Tancioco, Siy & Hernandez (2008) identified clusters of teacher roles that indicate caring behavior that implies acts of teaching become acts of caring depending on how the teachers, the efficient cause of education, perform their ordinary tasks in the context of extraordinariness. Interestingly, the extent to which teachers’ caring behavior is felt and experienced by the students positively shapes their orientations as cared for individuals.

This study focused on the idea of identifying the attributes and skills of a teacher in the viewpoint of college students in the 21st-century curriculum. The paper hopes to provide essential information about teacher’s attributes and skills in the fascinating world of the teaching career. Lastly, to add up to the research world some substantial data that would be very beneficial for future researchers who will endeavor in the same field with more enthusiasm and in-depth analysis.

Methodology

Research Design

This study used the descriptive research method with the questionnaire as the main instrument for gathering data. The study intended to analyze and interpret data that was gathered through the survey and later on describe its characteristics.

Since the study was concerned with the attributes and skills of a teacher as perceived by students in college, the descriptive method, therefore, is the most convenient method to utilize for the investigation.

Respondents

The researcher utilized 123 participants in this study from the different colleges in Olongapo City and Zambales area using a convenience sampling technique. The respondents were bona fide students, currently enrolled and studying within the semester of the academic year 2017-2018, in the different institutions in Olongapo City and Zambales province.

Instrument

A draft questionnaire was made by the researchers. It was then submitted for critiquing to several professors who are practitioners in the field of research for validity and reliability. Their comments were considered in revising and finalizing the construction of the questionnaire. To further test the clarity and validity of the questionnaire, it was first tested among students who were not included as subject participants in the study.

Statistical Treatment

In this study, Regression Analysis, Pearson-R, ANOVA, T-test, frequency count, and weighted mean were utilized. All data and information were gathered in order to be tallied, tabulated, classified, analyzed, and interpreted. The weighted values assigned to the awareness of college students were patterned after Likert Scaling.

Results and Discussion

The following tables represent the overall results of the study and were comprehensively analyzed and interpreted with discussion alongside it.

Table 1. Mean Distribution of Respondents on the Professional Attributes of a Teacher