INSTRUCTIONAL COMPETENCIES OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

TEACHERS IN A PRIVATE SCHOOL IN PASAY CITY:

THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO STUDENTS’
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

A Research Paper Presented

to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of

National Teacher’s College

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

in Special Topics in Philippine Studies

by

FRANCIS N. FRIA

MaEd Social Science

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Chapter 2

Review of Related Literature and Studies

This chapter presents relevant literatures and studies, both foreign and local that

have given direction to the present study.

Instructional Competencies

According to the Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers (1997), a professional

teacher is a licensed professional who possesses dignity and reputation with high moral

values as well as technical and professional competence. S/he adheres to observe, and

practice a set of ethical and moral principles, standards and values. In connection to this,

a teacher who is a keen observer of these practices should have a high level of instructional

competency. In general, teachers must not be in any way, negligent of the instructional

competencies that they must own so as to assure betterment and quality education on the

students’ part.

The teaching profession consists of members who have acquired by training

experience some specialized techniques. These are basically intellectual in nature. They

form associations as means of promoting the purposes of the profession, establish a degree

of unity in purpose and procedure, oversee and set the standards of the training of recruits

and guarantee the competence of the new members establish and enforce standards of

practice that is usually embodied in a proclaimed code of ethics. It has a large degree of

individual autonomy in the practice of the profession, places altruism, service and social

welfare ahead of personal gain. It promotes the personal welfare of its own members,

counsels the government with respect to the necessary legal regulations,

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informs the public and guides its expectations concerning the profession and cooperates

with other professions in adjusting related overlapping functions.

The teachers being central to the achievement of instructional goals and objectives

should see to it that effectiveness is assured and output is maximized. The success and

failure of the school program rests entirely on their hands. In them lies the future of the

educational institution that they pledge to serve enthusiastically and diligently, considered

by all as a moral obligation and responsibility to the society where they belong (McLendon,

2003).

Joyce, Weiland and Calhoun (2008) analyze teaching into five processes which

involve effective control over a certain area of reality that is essential to teaching.

The first one is to make and use knowledge. The teacher must understand what is

meant by knowledge – those methods or concepts one uses to organize life experiences –

and he must know how to instill this operational knowledge in students. Knowledge is

not simply data or information; it is the way one goes about seeking data and drawing

generalizations. Second to that is to shape the school. Every teacher must develop strategies

whereby he/she can identify critical educational problems and along with his/her

colleagues, make decision towards solving them by doing the necessary solutions to the

difficulty. He/she has to organize the curricula around coherent themes so that the growth

of the students’ knowledge from year to year is cumulative rather than dispersive or

sporadic. These curricula, in brief, will deal with the content of subject matter, with ideas

methods and values to be taught, with instructional resources, with the organization of

students into classes or group with testing and evaluation, and with every other general

educational influence on students. Every teacher must learn how to cooperate with his/her
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colleagues to make comprehensive decisions affecting several interacting problems. The

third process is to teach with strategies. For carrying out the various curricular decisions,

the teacher must learn how to employ a wide range of teaching strategies – that is – the set

of methods of approaching the students. They must find appropriate methods and materials

and then reward the behaviors they want to encourage in students and inhibit those they

wish to discourage. When appropriate, they need to let students, individually or

collectively, plan largely on their own. Most importantly, teachers must exercise self-

control with students so that their personal feelings or needs do not interfere with their

efforts to carry out professional decisions. In short, they must learn to implement curricular

decisions to the best effect.

The fourth process is to create interpersonal climates. The teachers must learn how

to work with groups of people – students and colleagues. They must recognize their effect

on groups and vice-versa. As members of a team of teachers, they must know both how to

lead and how to cooperate. With students, they must further know how to lead and how to

cooperate in groups in a shared search for knowledge. All of these call for an ability to

experiment with varieties of organization, to compromise with fellow teachers on plans

and procedures, and to diagnose the needs and interest of students who must be organized.

The last process is to control a teaching personality. The teacher must learn to cope

with himself/herself. He/she must handle information and theories with flexibility and

accurately, with minimal personal bias and with result and understanding. He/she must be

able to control himself when students challenge established authority and standards, and

he/she must help them develop their own standards. He/she must provide a
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mountain of support for the brightened and insecure students. He/she must learn to

radiate the interpersonal climate appropriate to the task at hand and to the students being

taught. He/she must be able to access his/her behavior objectively and then work

deliberately to improve it; he/she cannot afford to be defensive about his/her current

personality or practices.

According to Arthur and Philips (2002), competence gives the teacher the

responsibility to present evidence of the achievement of the students. The question is how

teachers perform, identifies the competencies and relate to overall performance of the

students according to the capacity.

According to Kyriacou (2001), the essence of being an effective teacher lies in

knowing what to do to foster students’ learning and being able to do it. Effective teaching

is primarily concerned with setting up a learning activity for each student which is

successful in bringing about the type of learning the teacher intends.

Successful teaching is thus crucially bound up with developments on both decision-

making skills and action skills. This distinction between these two types of skills is

extremely important, because teaching is as much a thinking activity as it is observable

actions. Developing skills as a teacher therefore is as much about developing and extending

the type of decisions that teachers make about their own teaching as it is about the

successful execution of those decisions.

In the Philippine system of education, there are factors that give difficulty to the

implementation of objectives. The problems of inadequately-trained teachers, lack of

support either from the government or from private sector, lack of solid planning, lack of

follow-up of result – all these add to the difficulty (Nem Singh et al., 2009).
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In evaluating teacher’s instructional competencies, the use of student achievement

as the basis to assess or evaluate teachers is one of the many approaches of teacher

evaluation. Other approaches in evaluating teacher’s instructional competencies include

classroom observation, student ratings, peer ratings, principal/HOD/administrator ratings, self-

rating, teacher interview, parent rating, competency tests, and other indirect measures (Joshua

et al., 2006).

Mastery of the Subject Field

Ornstein and Lunenburg (2008) identify that the teacher must have a thorough grasp

of the subject he teaches. Effective learning demands that the teacher must possessa solid

knowledge of his/her subject.

A well trained and certificated teacher must show evidence of mastery of the subject

matter. According to Dunhill (2000) teacher knowledge must be of two fold nature. A good

teacher must first possess a wide general knowledge and within the confines of this general

knowledge, a sound understanding of the subject he is to teach in the classroom. Quadri,

(2004) corroborates that a good teacher must be well knowledge versed in his area of

specialization. He must know which to teach, when to teach and how to teach. The quantity

and quality of the teacher's knowledge will give the teacher enough material and confidence

to teach effectively.

Knowledge of the subject matter is a definite factor in successful teaching. Lack

of it may cause narrow views or bluffing on the part of the teacher and distrust on the part

of students (Nem Singh, 2009). One the other hand, present-day teaching demands that a

teacher must possess a general understanding of other branches of knowledge. If ateacher

expects to help children understand and appreciate the world they live in, he must
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understand the interrelation and interdependence of the various areas of knowledge. He

must be able to show his subject fields, particularly in the solution of life’s problems.

Furthermore, children at present have a wide range of interests, background, experiences

and abilities (Ornstein et al., 2008).

The teacher must know about truth and fallacy, about evidence and bias, and

about the nature of theory. He needs to know what scholarly inquiry is, how knowledge is

produced, held, used, and made obsolete. Because he will have to help students about

scholarly discipline by practicing these disciplines with them, he needs to know what it

means to practice scholarship (Joyce et al., 2008).

According to Shulman (1987) as cited in Ornstein and Thomas (2000), to teach all

students according to today’s standards, teachers need to understand subject matter deeply

and flexibly so that they can help students create useful cognitive maps, relate one idea to

another, and address misconceptions. Teachers need to see how ideas connect across fields

and to everyday life. This kind of understanding provides a foundation for pedagogical

content knowledge that enables teachers to make ideas accessible to others. Therefore,

general understanding of other branches of knowledge must be acquired bythe teacher to

help students build the knowledge by putting it into the context of the learners.
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Teaching Skills

To promote learning effectively, a teacher must know not only what, which is the

subject matter, but also how which is the method to teach. Hence, the third essential

requirement of effective teaching is the skill with teaching methods (Ornstein et al, 2008).

They must also realize that all students have different levels of strengths and

weaknesses. It is only through teaching skills that a teacher can introduce creative and

effective solutions to the problems of the students. Thus, a teacher can enhance the learning

process (Kyriacou, 2001). According to Hindman and Stronge (2006), effective teachers

know how to use instructional techniques, such as mastery learning and cooperative

learning. When used appropriately, these strategies can result in student achievement that

is at least one standard deviation higher than that of students taught without the use of

strategies. Effective teachers use technology during instruction to offermore individualized

student attention, to provide hands-on experiences, and to shift the focus from the teacher

to the students. Effective teachers also use the students’ prior knowledge as a starting point

with hands-on, inquiry-based approaches to facilitate increased levels of learning.

Furthermore, effective teachers use questioning effectively.

In the studies conducted by Osakwe (2009), it was concluded that teaching skills

was one of the significant correlating factors and predictors of effective classroom

interaction. This is because no educational goals and objectives will be achieved where

there is lack of good communication skills used by the teacher in the instruction. Therefore,

effective classroom interaction could be influenced by the teacher’s skills. The

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teachers should be provided with opportunities where they can develop such attributes

through seminars, workshops, conferences and educational programs.

Classroom Management

Classroom management is closely connected to, and often discussed inconjunction

with, dealing with students’ misbehavior by disciplining (Muijs et al., 2001). Lellough

(2003) identifies classroom management as the process of organizing and conducting a

classroom to maximize learning by creating a learning environment that encourages

positive social interaction, active engagement in learning and self-motivation.According to

Rodriguez (n.d.), classroom management deals with identifying classroom problems and

addresses suggestions for preventive strategies and practical solutions in response to the

maintenance of the conducive learning environment for the students.

Classroom management and management of student conduct are skills that teachers

acquire and hone over time. To be sure, effective teaching requires considerable skill in

managing the myriad of tasks and situations that occur in the classroom. Skills such as

effective classroom management are central to teaching and require common sense,

consistency, a sense of fairness, and courage. These skills also require that teachers

understand in more than one way the psychological and developmental levels of their

students (ADPRIMA, 2010).

For teachers to be successful, they must have a profound knowledge of thelearner.

The nature of the child must be studied and understood by the teachers. They must realize

that children differ in bodily health, mental ability and temperament. Good teachers must

always remember that the learners are product of different home

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environments and they have different potentials and opportunities to develop their learning

interests. Teachers have to know and understand the learners' previous experiences and

their individual differences. A good teacher must take cognizance of the learners'

psychological needs, adaptive behaviors and constraints (Dunhill, 2000).

The principle is that effective teaching and learning take place in well-managed

classrooms. The inability of teachers to effectively manage the classroom environment and

behavior often contributes to the low academic achievement of the students (Oliver et al.,

2007).

Nem Singh and Padilla (2009) raised five major concerns in classroom

management: (1) individual concerns; (2) harnessing self-control; (3) encouragement; (4)

reaching-out to students and (5) disciplining students’ behavior.

Class management then, can be defined as the provisions and procedures necessary

to create and maintain an environment in which teaching and learning could occur (Agno,

2009).

Evaluation Skills

The process of evaluating students includes any task students perform in order to

demonstrate knowledge or ability in the subject area. The teacher should use as many

instruments as possible on as many occasions as possible to ensure valid and reliable

indicators of student progress and attainment (Assessing and Evaluating Students, n.d.).

Ornstein and Lunenburg (2008) claim that if teachers expect to guide learning

effectively, they must know how many children at various levels of maturity are capable
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of understanding that would determine the nature of the assessment and evaluation of the

students.

The choice of assessment and evaluation of an effective teacher must accommodate

and cater these differences (Dunhill, 2000).

The nature of evaluating students influences what is learned and the degree of

meaningful engagement by students in the learning process. According to Wiggins (1998)

as cited in McMillan (2000), the process of evaluating students should be authentic, with

feedback and opportunities for revision to improve rather than simply audit learning; the

more general principle is that understanding how different assessments affect students.

Therefore, tools to be used in evaluating students must be valid, fair, ethical, usesmultiple

methods, efficient and feasible.

Nem Singh and Padilla (2009) define the purpose of evaluation as determining

marks to be given based on the collected information from the students for evaluation is a

process of making measurements and rendering judgment which also should be fair and

realistic.

According to Hidalgo (2001), for evaluation to be effective, the teacher must

employ some general principles in evaluating the students. Evaluation must be based on

the clear concept of the aims of education outlined in our constitution, of the school, and

the course of study. It must also be comprehensive, continuous, functional, cooperative,

diagnostic and must be made an integral part of all teaching and learning. Evaluation should

be based on accepted criteria, standard, and principles of validity, reliability, objectivity,

practicality, and appropriateness in the particular situation to be appraised. Evaluation must

be considered as basic to guidance and must also be conceived in terms

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of the educational purpose of teaching and learning. Lastly, it must consider all aspects of

school and community life that affect the growth of each student.

Academic Performance

According to Jarvis (2006), the outcome of the teaching process had to be

measurable so that the emphasis on behaviorism, as learning is defined as what students

can actually do when they have finished a course of study obtaining a change of behavior

after an experience(Central New Mexico Foundation, 2010), reflected the objectives set. If

teachers could undrerstand how the learning process occurred they could endeavor to

ensure that their activity was efficient and achieved the predetermined outcome.

According to Bell (2009), academic performance reflects the learning of a student

and on how well the students meet the standard set by the educational governing bodies.

Peterson (2000) described this as the core concern about educational program and adding

that student achievement is the most compelling evidence about teacher quality. In

particular, the interest is in what students gain while working with the teacher – the

difference between where pupils start and end in their achievement. Essentially, it

determines the contributions of the teacher, or teacher effects, on student learning.

In Philippine colleges and universities, the letters are replaced with numerical

values which correspond to the measured achievement of the student in particular subject.

However, in basic education, academic achievements are expressed as percentages (De

Guzman-Santos, 2007).

In the Philippines, there are two types of grading systems which measure the

students’ academic performance: the averaging system and the cumulative grading
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system. The averaging system is done by looking at the average of the learner from the past

learning period and the present. In the cumulative system, the present learning is observed

to have improved or not based from the previous grading period.

In Don Bosco College Canlubang, each academic year is divided into four grading

periods and the method for computing grades is averaging (Bosconian’s Daily Guide,

2011).

Relationship between Instructional Competencies and Students’ Academic

Performance

A study was conducted by Hamdan, Ghafar and Hwa Li (2010) on the teaching

competency and dominant characteristics of 309 teachers from different secondary and

primary schools in Johor Bahru. Their competencies are determined through teaching

skills, concern for Johor Bahru, concern for students and concern for self, forming a

comprehensive and practical model of teachers’ competency characteristics. The result

showed that all teachers are competent, and there are significant relationships between

teaching competency and gender, specializations, and academic achievement. It is

suggested that teachers have to enhance their competence in other elements such as
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subject knowledge, teaching prowess, classroom management, instructional planning,

collegiality, concern on schools, students and oneself to build the image and ability as a

competent teacher.

Schacter and Ycow Meng Thum (2004), sought to use research to identify

effectiveness in teaching. They reviewed research on the effects that teachingcompetencies

had on students’ performance. They devised twelve standards of teaching performance (i.e.

Teacher Content Knowledge, Lesson Objectives, Presentation, Lesson Structure and

Practicing, Activities, Feedback, Questions, Thinking, Grouping Students, Motivating

Students, Classroom Environment, and Teacher Knowledge of Students.)

Espino (2001) determines the correlation of the instructional skills ratings of

selected high school teachers of Saint Michael’s College of Laguna with the academic

achievement of their respective students for school year 2000-2001. The study made use

of the normative survey descriptive method of research utilizing the correlational

procedures. The instrument used to gather data was Instructional Skills Inventory. The

teachers were rated satisfactory on lesson planning, very satisfactory on preparatory

activities, satisfactory on developmental activities, and satisfactory on physical

environment and routines. In general, the students average grades were satisfactory ranging

from 86 to 90. The relationship between the teachers’ instructional skills and the students’

academic achievement was positive, moderate and substantial.

Another study which was conducted by Altea (1999) which endeavors to identify

the perceived instructional competencies and teaching methodologies of faculty in Systems

Technology Institute as they relate to students’ attitude and academic performance. The

study arrived with the findings that the Computer Science faculty
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members of Systems Technology Institute possessed an acceptable level of competency

in communication skills, work organization, work attitude and teaching effectiveness. The

faculty members were also effective in utilizing teaching methodologies to promote and

enhance student learning. This resulted to the academic performance of the senior students

in computer science as satisfactory. The study came up with a conclusion that teachers’

instructional competencies will greatly influence students’ academic performance as the

researcher obtained high correlation values of 127.24 and 44.29 and highly significant at

.01 and .05 levels.

It was revealed in the study conducted by Cangcungco and Yumul (2005) that

teaching-practices which the teacher applies have a vital role to the student-learning. This

study aims to identify the best practices of English teachers for the elementary grades at

Angeles Elementary School. In the process of identifying those practices, they enumerated

the ways of English teachers deliver their lessons accordingly; teaching style, subject

expertise, teaching environment, community involvement and professional development.

It was also in the study which was conducted by Arceo, Evangelista and Vinoya

(2004) that practices in teaching Mathematics are truly effective in obtaining student-

learning in Mathematics. In the process of identifying those practices, they enumerated the

ways of Mathematics teachers deliver their lessons accordingly; teaching style, subject

expertise, teaching environment, community involvement and professional development.

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Both in the studies of Cangcungco et al. (2005) and Arceo et al. (2004), the ways

of teachers deliver their lessons identify the best practices in teaching the subjects which

directly affects student learning.

Calara and Garcia (2003) identify the factors affecting the mathematical

comprehension of the students, which is the ability of the students to understand and

learn mathematical concepts. In one of the factors, it reveals that teacher-factor is one of

the important elements which affect students’ mathematical comprehension. Under the

element of the teacher factor are the capabilities of the teacher to explain the lesson, give

motivation to the students to learn, give motivation to the students in learning mathematics

and employ mastery of the subject matter.

The study of Fabrigas (2001) looked into the relationship between the teachers’

competencies and students' performance in the regional achievement test in English I-IV

in the fourth congressional during the school year 1998-1999. The respondents of this study

were twenty-three English teachers from the seven selected public secondary schools in

the fourth congressional district of Camarines Sur. There were 1,400 students from first

year who were used as student-respondents. It was assumed in the study thatthe English

teachers showed better competencies in all aspect and that the performance of students in

the achievement test varied from fair to poor. The hypothesis of this research states that

there is no significant relationship exists between the teachers' competencies and the

students' performance in the regional achievement test. In the course of the study reveals

that the teachers are very competent in all aspects of teaching except in the use of teaching

strategies where they are rated satisfactory; the performance of the students in English I-

IV in the 1998-1999 Regional Achievement Test is poor because their mastery

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level is below average; there is a significant relationship between the teachers'

competencies and students' performance in English I-IV; and the findings imply that the

teachers need to improve their instructional strategies in teaching the English language.

Barcena (2004) designed a study to determine if there is a significant relationship

between the teachers' teaching competencies and the academic achievement of the third

year high school students in Chemistry in the public secondary schools of Cateel, Davao

Oriental. It was found out that three out of the four teachers' teaching competencies affect

the academic achievement of the students. These three are the good assessment and

evaluation, promotion of professional growth and classroom management. Among the four,

problem-solving was not included in those that affect the academic achievement of the

students. Moreover, based from the results of the interview, it was revealed that lack of

training, insufficient knowledge and background of the subject matter of the teachers, and

the inaccessibility of suitable materials to supplement the teaching-learning process also

affect the teachers' teaching competencies and students' performance as well.

Balbosa (2010) came up with the special problem to determine the factors affecting

Mathematics Performance of one hundred fifteen Laboratory High School Students at

Laguna State Polytechnic University Academic Year 2009-2010. In the study,it revealed

that Personality traits had an average weighted mean of 4.50 and interpreted as “always.”

Teaching skills had an average weighted mean of 4.41 and interpreted as “often.”

Instructional materials had an average weighted mean of 2.98 and interpreted as

“sometimes.” In terms of the level of performance of the students in Mathematics, the

students obtained the mean grade of 88.23 with verbal interpretation of “Satisfactory” and

standard deviation of 4.84. Through the test of significance, the researcher concludes
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that there is no significant relationship between teacher-related factors that are of

personality traits, teaching skills and instructional materials and the performance

of the students in mathematics.