Instructional Delivery Performance and Educational Philosophy:
Basis for Recruitment and Hiring
Rogelio A. Murro1*
1 Jose Rizal Memorial State University, Philippines
*Corresponding Author: rogeliomurro@jrmsu.edu.ph
Accepted: 15 September 2021 | Published: 1 October 2021
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Abstract: This study determined the Faculty Members` Instructional Delivery Performance and Educational Philosophy of some selected Higher Education Institutions specifically in the Teacher Education Institutions Faculty Members. It employed a descriptive design in the analysis of data using the Educational Philosophy Self-Assessment Questionnaire- Checklist in identifying the respondents` educational philosophy and the Instructional Delivery Performance Evaluation Instrument (National Budget Circular 461) for their instructional delivery performance as evaluated by their immediate supervisors, peers, and students. A total enumeration method was used in determining the respondents and a total of sixty-two (62) science and language teachers as respondents. The statistical tools used to answer the research problems and to test the hypotheses were simple Percentage, Chi-Square, and Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation. Findings revealed that there is a variation of educational philosophies among faculty members but they are not aware of their educational philosophy.
There is a significant relationship between the field of specialization and educational philosophy. There is also a significant relationship between the educational philosophy and their instructional delivery performance. The instructional delivery performance is Very Satisfactory. Faculty members who adhered to progressivism performed Very Satisfactory in their instructional delivery. Faculty members adhered to a variety of educational philosophies without knowing them. Educational philosophies are related to fields of expertise and the effectiveness of instructional delivery. In terms of educational delivery, progressivist faculty members were a major hit. It is concluded that higher education institutions should hire progressivist applicants to teach language subjects. It is further recommended that when recruiting language and science faculty, the hiring committee should conduct an Educational Philosophy Inventory to determine the educational philosophy of the faculty applicants in order to recognize those who are progressivists for language and information processing for science subjects.
Keywords: Philosophy, Instructional Delivery, Hiring, Recruitment
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1. Introduction
Teachers serve as mentors to their pupils, encouraging them to learn for themselves. However, in order to do so as a coach, they must have their own teaching philosophy ("Why is it important for teachers to study philosophy of education," 2020).
Educators are faced with philosophical concerns regarding the essence of intelligence, teaching, and schooling, as well as how schooling can be carried out: What is real? What proof do I have? What does it mean to deserve, and what do I value? Teachers' views and viewpoints on these issues form important scaffolding for the teaching and learning environments they
build in the classroom, even though they are not directly answered in the classroom.
Philosophical principles for addressing these types of issues are well-developed, and they offer a crucial basis for exploring our teaching beliefs (Beatty et al., 2008).
Educational philosophy was not considered by the higher learning institutions as one of the factors to determine the effectiveness of instructional delivery of the teaching forces. Many classroom teachers at all educational levels claim they have no "philosophy of education" or that their philosophy is very abstract and not consciously thought about very frequently (Petress, 2003). A faculty member does not even know the exact educational philosophy that he adheres. Similarly, a teaching philosophy is a self-reflective statement of one`s beliefs about teaching and learning. It captures one`s goals and reason for teaching (Tupas & Pendon, 2016).
Quality instructional delivery, on the other hand, depends on how well they do their work and carries out their teaching plans. It is also important for educators to have a clear understanding of the things they teach and what the program needs. Strong governance in schools and good leadership can enable teachers to perform their duties more efficiently and effectively.
Evaluation is required to analyze the schools in all respects (UNICEF, 2010).
According to Montero, et.al (2018), multiple tests will assess the efficiency of instruction. This may be achieved by peers, school principals, or external evaluators by classroom evaluations.
Another way is to measure gains in student success or student scores. Teacher self-reports and reviews of classroom artifacts and teacher portfolios are useful in measuring the success of teaching.
The faculty member`s educational philosophy determines the amount of focus put on learning subjects, even though it concerns the students' own learning goals and objectives. It dictates how the students communicate with and react to them. It also defines the number of communication hours for their students, from which they allow their students` learning observation and appraisal and the technique they take to convey the material to them.
Educational philosophy is a composite of assumptions, goals, choices, attitudes, and values that coalesce to form a way of seeing one's task and offers guidance in performing the teaching duty (Petress, 2003).
Empirically, a faculty member needs to define or even analyze and refine his/her educational philosophy on which to construct both material and pedagogy as the basis of his/her instructional delivery success, teaching as a career that affects so many people's lives. Essay argues that a teaching philosophy can and does affect the teaching-learning process; that is contextualizes, frames, and focuses pedagogical activity (KC Petress, 2003).
The goal of this study is to establish the relationship between the Teacher Education Institution faculty members` educational philosophy and their performance in classroom instructional delivery, faculty member respondents educational philosophy in terms of area of specialization;
the significant relationship between the area of specialization and educational philosophy of faculty member-respondents and the significant relationship between the educational philosophy of the respondents and their instructional delivery performance.
2. Literature Review
Several suggestions are available concerning the classification of educational philosophies in the literature. Cohen (1999) identified educational philosophical approaches that are currently
used in classrooms. They are Perennialism, Essentialism, Progressivism, and Reconstructionism. These educational philosophies focus heavily on WHAT we should teach, the curriculum aspect.
Perennialism. For Perennialists, education aims to ensure that students acquire understandings of the great ideas of Western civilization. These ideas have the potential for solving problems in any era. The focus is to teach everlasting ideas, to seek enduring truths which are constant, not changing, as the natural and human worlds at their most essential level, do not change.
Teaching these unchanging principles is critical. Humans are rational beings, and their minds need to be developed. Thus, cultivation of the intellect is the highest priority in a worthwhile education. The demanding curriculum focuses on attaining cultural literacy, stressing students' growth in enduring disciplines. The loftiest accomplishments of humankind are emphasized–
the great works of literature and art, the laws or principles of science.
Essentialism. Essentialists believe that there is a common core of knowledge that needs to be transmitted to students in a systematic, disciplined way. The emphasis in this conservative perspective is on the intellectual and moral standards that schools should teach. The core of the curriculum is essential knowledge and skills and academic rigor. Although this educational philosophy is similar in some ways to Perennialism, Essentialists accept the idea that this core curriculum may change. Schooling should be practical, preparing students to become valuable members of society. It should focus on facts-the objective reality out there--and "the basics,"
training students to read, write, speak, and compute clearly and logically. Schools should not try to set or influence policies. Students should be taught hard work, respect for authority, and discipline. Teachers are to help students keep their non-productive instincts in checks, such as aggression or mindlessness.
Progressivism. Progressivists believe that education should focus on the whole child, rather than on the content or the teacher. This educational philosophy stresses that students should test ideas by active experimentation. Learning is rooted in the questions of learners that arise through experiencing the world. It is active, not passive. The learner is a problem solver and thinker who make meaning through his or her individual experience in the physical and cultural context. Effective teachers provide experiences so that students can learn by doing. Curriculum content is derived from student interests and questions. The scientific method is used by progressivist educators so that students can study matter and events systematically and first hand. The emphasis is on process-how one comes to know. The Progressive education philosophy was established in America from the mid-1920s through the mid-1950s. John Dewey was its foremost proponent. One of his tenets was that the school should improve the way of life of our citizens through experiencing freedom and democracy in schools. Shared decision making, planning of teachers with students, student-selected topics are all aspects.
Books are tools, rather than authority.
Reconstructionism/Critical Theory. Social reconstructionism is a philosophy that emphasizes the addressing of social questions and a quest to create a better society and worldwide democracy. Reconstructionist educators focus on a curriculum that highlights social reform as the aim of education. Theodore Brameld (1904-1987) was the founder of social reconstructionism, in reaction to the realities of World War II. He recognized the potential for either human annihilation through technology and human cruelty or the capacity to create a beneficent society using technology and human compassion. George Counts (1889-1974) recognized that education was the means of preparing people for creating this new social order.
Information Processing. Information processing theorists focus on the mind and how it works to explain how learning occurs. The focus is on the processing of a relatively fixed body of knowledge and how it is attended to, received in the mind, processed, stored, and retrieved from memory. This model is derived from analogies between how the brain works and computer processing. Information processing theorists focus on the individual rather than the social aspects of thinking and learning. The mind is a symbolic processor that stores information in schemas or hierarchically arranged structures. The intake and representation of information is called encoding. It is sent to the short-term or working memory, acted upon, and those pieces determined as important are sent to long-term memory storage, where they must be retrieved and sent back to the working or short-term memory for use. Short-term memory has very limited capacity, so it must be kept active to be retained. Long-term memory is organized in structures, called schemas, scripts, or propositional or hierarchical networks.
Something learned can be retrieved by relating it to other aspects, procedures, or episodes.
Many strategies can help in both getting information into long-term memory and retrieving it from memory. The teacher's job is to help students to develop strategies for thinking and remembering.
Behaviorism. Behaviorist theorists believe that behavior is shaped deliberately by forces in the environment and that the type of person and actions desired can be the product of design. In other words, the behavior is determined by others, rather than by our own free will. By carefully shaping desirable behavior, morality and information is learned. Learners will acquire and remember responses that lead to satisfying aftereffects. Repetition of a meaningful connection results in learning. If the student is ready for the connection, learning is enhanced; if not, learning is inhibited. Motivation to learn is the satisfying aftereffect or reinforcement.
Behaviorism is linked with empiricism, which stresses scientific information and observation, rather than subjective or metaphysical realities. Behaviorists search for laws that govern human behavior, like scientists who look for patterns in empirical events. Behavior change must be observable; internal thought processes are not considered.
Cognitivism/Constructivism. Cognitivism or Constructivists believe that the learner actively constructs his or her understandings of reality through interaction with objects, events, and people in the environment, and reflecting on these interactions. Early perceptual psychologists (Gestalt psychology) focused on the making of wholes from bits and pieces of objects and events in the world, believing that meaning was the construction in the brain of patterns from these pieces.
For learning to occur, an event, object, or experience must conflict with what the learner already knows. Therefore, the learner's previous experiences determine what can be learned.
Motivation to learn is experiencing conflict with what one knows, which causes an imbalance, which triggers a quest to restore the equilibrium. Piaget described intelligent behavior as adaptation. The learner organizes his or her understanding in organized structures. At the simplest level, these are called schemes. When something new is presented, the learner must modify these structures to deal with the new information. This process, called equilibration, is the balancing between what is assimilated (the new) and accommodation, the change in structure. The child goes through four distinct stages or levels in his or her understandings of the world.
Humanism. The roots of humanism are found in the thinking of Erasmus (1466-1536), who attacked the religious teaching and thought prevalent in his time to focus on free inquiry and rediscovery of the classical roots from Greece and Rome. Erasmus believed in the essential
goodness of children, that humans have free will, moral conscience, the ability to reason, aesthetic sensibility, and religious instinct. He advocated that the young should be treated kindly and that learning should not be forced or rushed, as it proceeds in stages. Humanism was developed as an educational philosophy by Rousseau (1712-1778) and Pestalozzi, who emphasized nature and the basic goodness of humans, understanding through the senses, and education as a gradual and unhurried process in which the development of human character follows the unfolding of nature. Humanists believe that the learner should be in control of his or her destiny. Since the learner should become a fully autonomous person, personal freedom, choice, and responsibility are the focus. The learner is self-motivated to achieve towards the highest level possible. Motivation to learn is intrinsic in humanism
Meanwhile, (Ozmon & Craver, 2007) identified five traditional western philosophies, which form the structure of most educational practices; these are idealism, realism, pragmatism, existentialism, and reconstructionism. These western philosophies serve as a foundation and perspective for the analysis of educational practices. On the other hand, Wiles and Bondi (2007) as cited by Gezer and Boylan (2018) consider educational philosophies under six headings: perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, re-constructionism, naturalism, and existentialism. On the other hand, While Apps (1973) as cited by Gezer and Boylan (2018), analyses educational philosophies under five headings: perennialism, essentialism, progressivism, re-constructionism, and existentialism.
Majority of teacher education faculty held the progressive educational philosophy and their preference for teacher-centered teaching style did not match. This may indicate that they believe in but are not utilizing, the concepts of learner-centered teaching styles. The COE and faculty were in congruence with the same philosophy; however, they differed in the faculty preferred teaching style. Except for gender and Pk-12th grade teaching, demographic variables had no statistical significance (Teaching style preferences and educational philosophy of teacher education faculty at a State University," n.d.).
The teacher’s educational beliefs and practices affect their teaching behavior (Dobson, 1983 and Largo, 2010). Tupas & Pendon (2016) found out that the college faculty were likely to accept reconstructionism, behaviorism, and progressivism as educational philosophies when taken as a whole and when classified according to sex, age, and area of specializations. While, Ediger (2012) in his article, The Philosophical Arena and Reading mentioned that existentialism encourages reading by promoting free choice of reading materials and relating decisions to results.
In a study conducted by (Yazon & Ang-Manaig, 2018), it was found out that teacher- respondent's performance differs significantly when they were grouped according to highest educational attainment, academic rank, and years in service. However, the data are not sufficient enough to support the existence of significant correlations between teacher's philosophy, teaching style, and performance. The researchers concluded that when teachers were grouped according to highest educational attainment, academic rank, and years in service, significant differences between their mean performances exist. It implied that the higher the level of education, academic rank, and the longer the teacher's length of service, the better the performance.
3. Methodology
As a framework for recruiting faculty members for Higher Education Institution specifically in the Teacher Education Institutions, this research concentrated on correlating the educational philosophy and instructional delivery performance of the Teacher Education Institution faculty members. This included faculty members who, at the tertiary level, teach language and science subjects and holds a permanent position.
This analysis used a descriptive design that corresponds with the Faculty Members`
Educational Philosophy and their Instructional Delivery Performance at the tertiary level. Best (1981) revealed the definition, analysis and evaluation of the data obtained is utilized by this process. It ties the relationships between the factors concerned: the educational philosophy and the instructional delivery performance. A total enumeration was employed to select and identify the 62 respondents of the study.
The study utilized standard classroom observation tool (National Budget Circular 461) reflecting the instructional delivery performance ratings for the following parameters such as lesson planning, instructional delivery methods and strategies, classroom management and communication skills. Instructional delivery performance is evaluated by peer, students, self and immediate supervisor. The approval of this research undertaking was sought from the Office of the Presidents of the State Colleges and the number of faculty member-respondents was determined from the Office of the College Deans.
Instructional delivery performance ratings were obtained from the observations made by the immediate supervisor, peer, self, and students during the unobtrusive class observation. The ratings were generated from the Office of the Human Resource Management. Data were tabulated and analyzed using simple percentage, Pearson’s product moment coefficient of correlation, and chi-square test of significance.
The validated and reliable Educational Philosophy Self-Assessment Questionnaire was the main instrument used in determining the educational philosophy of the respondents. Items were partly adopted from the questionnaire of Dr. Leonora M. Cohen and revision made to suit the situations of the institutions.
The validity has been established with a mean result of 1.84 indicating that the instrument was relevant and valid but revision of some items was made based on the recommendation of the panel of validators. In terms of its reliability, the instrument was piloted tested before this was finally used and subjected to Kuder and Richardson (KR-20) which yielded the result of 0.827, which indicates a very high reliability.
4. Conclusion
Based on the results of the study, the faculty members are adherents to progressivisms and in terms of area of specialization, language teachers are also adherents to progressivism. This results conform to the results of the study of O`Conner (2004) that language faculty members are adherents to progressivism and to the study of Tupas & Pendon (2016) that the college faculty were likely to accept reconstructionism, behaviorism, and progressivism as educational philosophies when taken as a whole and when classified according to sex, age, and area of specializations. Faculty members who adhere to progressivism create a lesson that focuses on the skills the student needs to solve daily problems and function in the real world. A grammar
lesson is directed toward the students is constructed to help them master the grammar skills necessary for the working field. Since science faculty members are adherents to information processing, their focus is on the mind and how it works to explain how learning occurs. The focus is on the processing of a relatively fixed body of knowledge and how it is attended to, received in the mind, processed, stored, and retrieved from memory (Cohen, 1999).
It can be seen in Table 4 that faculty members who are adherents to progressivism performed very satisfactorily in a classroom instructional delivery performance though the overall performance of the faculty member respondents was very satisfactory. This further implies that consistently faculty members meet the set of criteria in evaluating instructional delivery performance. Faculty member consistently demonstrates to the well-being and development of the students; consistently demonstrates dedication in his/her efforts to teach and support student learning and achievement. The faculty member consistently provides an environment for learning that encourages students to be problem-solvers, decision-makers, lifelong learners, and contributing members of a changing society (National Budget Circular 461).
There is a significant relationship between the area of specialization and the educational philosophy of the faculty member-respondents. This implies that faculty members with science as their field of specialization adhere to information processing while language faculty members adhere to progressivism.
There is also a significant relationship between the educational philosophy of the respondents and their classroom instructional delivery performance. This implies that instructional delivery performance depends on the educational philosophy a faculty member adheres. The result confirms the study of Dobson (1983) that teacher`s educational philosophy and practices affect their teaching behavior. The educational philosophy of the teachers influences the ideas about what should be taught like the basic skills, the classics, how to solve problems, or the psychological development of the whole child. Omas-as (2005) opines that teachers should make use of the philosophy of education to help them do things intelligently and meaningfully.
Teaching performance can be improved through understanding what they believe as adherent in one of the educational philosophies.
Progressive faculty members, according to the results of this study, create lessons that focus on the skills students need to solve daily problems and function in the real world. A grammar lesson for students is intended to help them master the grammar skills necessary for the workplace. A professor who follows progressivism excels in his or her instructional delivery in the classroom. A well-articulated teaching philosophy statement may reveal assumptions and values that are often taken for granted, allowing for a critical examination of the assumptions and values, as well as the factors that underpin them.
As a result, it is suggested that when recruiting language and science faculty, the hiring committee conduct an Educational Philosophy Inventory to determine the educational philosophy of the faculty applicants in order to recognize those who are progressivists for language and information processing for science.
More researches need to be done in this area to broaden the views. Other dimensions of educational philosophies must also be clarified by future scholars, if possible, factors not investigated must be taken into account to make this study more detailed.
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