CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM

INTRODUCTION

Much of the discussion in educational reform hinges on the question of whether

schools matter. Over the past two decades, policymakers have called for improvements

in the academic performance of Filipino students. Many educational reformers,

particularly those associated with the standards movement, hold that the key to

improving student performance lies in improving schools, teachers teaching proficiency

and students attitudes towards learning. If academic standards are rigorous, curriculum

and assessments are aligned to those standards, and teachers possess the skills to teach at

the level the standards demand, student performance will improve. However, this

perspective is to some extent at odds with another that has emerged from the discussion

about school improvement, namely that it is student’s attitudes and teacher proficiency

rather than schools that make the difference.

Teacher’s Teaching Proficiency

Teaching proficiency means the knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes which

teachers need to have in order to promote learning processes and design lessons

(Reinmann, 2011). It refers to a combination of expert and didactical knowledge,

practical teaching experience, skills that have been learnt and practised, insights and
attitudes, above all with respect to interaction with students and the teacher’s own role.

What counts are the attitudes a teacher has towards teaching, the stance he or she adopts

towards students, and their willingness to adapt lessons to the conditions, abilities and

expectations of the students.

Hattie describes this teaching proficiency as follows: “It is the teachers who are

open to experience, learn from errors, seek and learn from feedback from students and

who foster effort, clarity and engagement in learning” (Hattie, 2009).

This requires a willingness and ability to reflect time and time again on one’s

approach to teaching and is not simply knowledge that can be learnt. It evolves as

teachers consciously design their lessons to the needs of the students and their specific

dispositions and then watch carefully how their students respond. The teachers

communicate with their students and repeatedly adjust their lessons to the latter’s needs

and learning progress.

Student Attitudes

Attitude is considered as an essential factor influencing language performance

and received considerable attention from both first and second language researchers. Al-

Mamun, Rahman, Rahman, and Hossaim argue that attitude is the feeling people have

about their own language. Thus, attitude to language is a construct that explains

linguistic behavior in particular.

 In order to be able to evaluate the students’ attitudes, some definitions of the term

‘attitude’ are presented. Al-Mamun, Rahman, Rahman, and Hossaim (2012) defined the

term as a psychological construct which defines a particular behavior. To Brown (2001)

(as cited in İnal, Evin, & Saracaloğlu, 2005), attitude is characterized by a large

proportion of emotional involvement such as feelings, self, relationships in the

community. Learning could not come about easily unless students have positive attitudes

toward it on one hand, and attitudes might originate from life experiences, on the other

hand. As such, since attitude can influence success or failure in learning it plays a very

crucial role. Ajzen (2005) believes like any personality trait, attitude is a directly

unobserved hypothetical construct and must be inferred from measurable responses

which reflect and evaluate positive or negative attitudes (as cited in Dehbozorgi, 2012).

Next to or beyond the performance criteria, defined in quantitative terms, the

topics debate upon teacher’s teaching proficiency and students attitudes towards

Academic Performances concerning in particular academic subject. All these elements

have a special significance when related to the student, as a non-traditional beneficiary

(Khiat, 2013) of the educational services provided by the schools and universities. This

is due to the fact that the difference between Teachers Teaching Proficiency, Students

Attitudes and English Academic Performance learning lies in the difference of approach

towards the learning process, in the motivational and attitudinal configuration resulting

from the both learning experience background, which he mobilizes in the learning

process. As advocated by (Gorges and Kandler, 2011) adults learn differently because

they relate differently to the learning tasks, depending on their goals, mediated by their
beliefs and expectancies towards the learning environment, the institutional requirements

and the perceived self-efficiency measurement (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000).

Therefore, the effective learning implies the performance reflected by results,

which necessarily needs to be associated with positive attitudes towards the learning

activities, towards the teaching factors involved and towards oneself. We will further

define the elements under discussion

 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

TEACHER’S TEACHING STUDENTS’

PROFICIENCY ATTITUDE

DEPENDENT VARABLE

ACADEMIC
PERFORMANCE
IN
ENGLISH

Figure 1. A Model shows the relation of the Independent and Dependent Variables.

This study, with its formulated title, “Teacher’s Teaching Proficiency and

Student attitudes between academic performances in English among Grade Dove

students of San Pablo National High School” has considered twin variables - the

independent and dependent variables.

 The independent variable of the study is the “Teacher’s Teaching Proficiency

and Students’ Attitudes” which is expected to ascertain its link to the “Academic

Performance in English” of the Students, the dependent variable.

With the information on the variables and meeting the essentials for the research

site, the researchers, then, proceeded to the field to gather the needed data with the nod

given by the research instructor.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study aimed to determine the relationship between Teacher’s Teaching

Proficiency and Student attitudes between academic performance in English among

Grade Dove students of San Pablo National High School.

Specifically, this study sought answers to the following questions:

1. What is the status of Teacher’s Teaching Proficiency towards Academic

Performance in English among the Grade Dove students?

2. What is the status of Students Attitudes towards Academic Performance in

English?

3. Is there a significant relationship between Teacher’s Teaching Proficiency and

Student attitudes towards academic performance in English?

 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

This study established the null hypothesis below which was tested at 0.05 level of

significance for confirmation or disconfirmation.

Ho1: There is no significant relationship between Teacher’s Teaching Proficiency and

Student attitudes towards academic performance in English.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study shall give benefits to the following individuals.

Students. The findings of this study will inspire to pursue this study for better learning

and better academic performance

Teachers. The result of this study will encourage them to play as real second parents

advising and motivating their pupils to give more time to studying as educational success

is not found online but in the classroom.

Parents. This study will encourage them to give counselling, guidance to their children

by teaching them to manage their time well when engaged in some curricular activities.

They should stir their children to devote more time in their studies with some success

stories of professionals.

School Administrators. This study will give them information of the level of academic

performance the children may have in school and work collaboratively with teachers on

the improvement by addressing some problems affecting.

Future Researchers. This study can serve as a form of related literature and can even

inspire for possible replication.

SCOPE AND LIMITATION

This study will be considered selected students as the respondents of this study.

As a total of 41 students are all in Grade Dove in San Pablo National High School. This

group of students was considered to be under the observation about the research and the

survey question will be delimited on the research study entitled “Teacher’s Teaching

Proficiency and Student attitudes towards academic performance in English.

This study covered the various features leading to the research study conducted

in San Pablo National High School. This study has been able to cover the possible

features that contribute to some factors in Teacher’s Teaching Proficiency and students’

attitudes towards Academic Performances in English learning process which may have

been responsible for their poor and high performances. These study include, factual

information from the teachers regarding with the performance of the respondents related

to the study. It is needed to give weight on the result from the conducted survey before

proceeding to next chapter.

Therefore we ask them the data gathered will seek to answer what is the probable

effect of Teacher’s Teaching Proficiency and Students’ attitudes, and what are the

achievements on them especially on their academic aspect.

 THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

The theoretical framework of the study will be based on theory Deductive and

Inductive Research Theory or Approach.

The deductive theory is developed from an already existing theory. They start

with a social theory that they find compelling and then test its implication data. The

researcher studies what other have done, reads existing theories and then test hypothesis

that emerge from those theories.

The inductive theory, the researcher collect data that is relevant to the study of

interest. Once a consideration amount of data has been collected, the researcher will then

take a time out from the data collection, stepping back to get a bird’s eye view of their

data.
 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Attitudes. Refers to the respondent’s opinion or general feeling to the research study

conducted in San Pablo National High School inside school campus.

Teaching Proficiency. The knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes which teachers need

to have in order to promote learning processes and design lessons

Academic Performance. The outcome of education – the extent to which students

achieved their educational goals manifested through General Weighted Average of all

the curricular subjects.

San Pablo National High School. The place of the study – one of the public secondary

schools of District of San Pablo.

Respondents. This refers to the Grade Dove students of San Pablo National High

School.

School Facilities. A type of building that is use by the respondents for their academic

and non-academic endeavour for a smoothly run teaching and learning process.

Learning Process. Significant changes in behaviour of the respondents through active

participation and their critical thinking capability.

 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND RELATED STUDIES

This chapter presents the review of related literature and related studies which the

researchers believe to have relevance on the study. This includes data from different

resources such as the internet, some theses output and other materials which truly helped

in shedding light to the present inquiry.

It provides the investigation of a background regarding the relationship of

Teacher’s Teaching Proficiency and Students’ attitudes towards academic performances

in English of Grade Dove.

Overview

Human beings have the privilege of not having to begin anew in every generation

but take advantage of knowledge that has been accumulated over the centuries. This fact

is of particular importance in research. The knowledge gained by the previous

researchers not only leads the present researchers to a greater understanding of the

problem and stimulates their research work but also provides comparative data on the

basis of which they could evaluate their own research programmes.

As the problem of the present study is “Teacher’s Teaching Proficiency and

Students’ Attitudes in San Pablo National High School towards Academic Performances

in English,” the investigator reviewed studies in Internet and resource materials related
to teaching competence, students’ attitudes and the academic performances in English of

Secondary students, and has presented below the salient features of these studies.

Teacher’s Teaching Proficiency

Teacher Teaching Proficiency is defined as the teacher’s own judgments in his or

her capability to organize and perform action to successfully accomplish a specific

teaching task. The sense of teaching proficiency is the specific beliefs about teachers’

ability to motivate students.

(Chiong, 2009) A study to determine the effect of teacher proficiency in pupils'

performance in English VI concluded that there is a significant difference. Correlation

between teacher efficacy and college students' performance in written and oral discourse

by (Ravina-Santos, 2003) showed that there is no significant relationship.

(Varlas, 2009) wrote, "working definitions of teacher effectiveness are often

elusive or so politically charged that they are unusable. However, the urgent need for

highly effective teachers in every classroom calls for a clear definition of effectiveness

and action toward creating the conditions for it. Simply put, education communities must

develop a comprehensive definition of teacher effectiveness, the professional support to

maintain and build it, the methods to measure it, and the sustained incentives to reward

it.

Research shows that teacher effectiveness is the single most important school-

based factor in student success. Students who have highly effective teachers for three
years in a row will score 50 percentile points higher on achievement tests than students

who have less effective teachers three years in a row.

(Goe, Bell and Little, 2008) In many cases students' knowledge is summarized as

a test score, and teachers' effectiveness is perceived as their contribution to that test

score. But test scores do not give a full picture of teacher contributions and student

circumstances. Definition of teacher effectiveness beyond teachers' contribution to

student achievement gains to include how teachers impact classrooms, schools, and their

colleagues as well as how they contribute to other important outcomes for students.

(Carney et. al., 2014) examined the impact of a state-mandated K-12

mathematics professional development course on knowledge, self-efficacy, and beliefs

of nearly 4,000 teachers and administrators in Boise, Idaho, USA. This study adds to our

understanding of the potential usefulness of mandating large-scale professional

development as a policy vehicle for influencing educators’ mathematics knowledge and

beliefs.

(Bandura, 1997) Self-proficiency, as defined by was the theoretical framework

for the development of the SETMI instrument. The complex belief systems of English

teachers provided insights into the elements of English beliefs that could be relative to a

teacher’s self-proficiency beliefs.

 (McGee and Wang, 2014) Evidence of reliability and validity were collected to

determine whether the SETMI is an adequate instrument to measure self-proficiency of

elementary English teachers. Construct validity of the revised SETMI was tested using

confirmatory factor analysis. Findings indicate that the SETMI is a valid and reliable

measure of two aspects of self-proficiency: pedagogy in English and teaching English

content.

(Newman, 1994) analyzed the New York City teachers’ teaching proficiency

which led to the evaluation of tenurial teachers. He argued that teacher proficiency could

be measured objectively in terms of attendance, class control and completion of clerical

duties. This study included those aspects of teaching that were subject to the perception

and attitude of the person who was doing the evaluation as well. How well teachers are

able to meet the needs of their students and how well they are able to motivate them to

learn are a couple of instances of teachers’ behaviour that cannot be evaluated

objectively. Other factors that affected teacher competencies were the influence of

teachers' union and the input from children’s parents. Newman concluded that 5 to 20%

of the teachers in New York City schools were not competent.

(Stewart & Mwanatabu, 1994) researched on those competencies needed for

working with diverse learners. 161 teachers and principals in the state of Washington

from districts with students’ population of over 10,000 were surveyed on their

perceptions about the importance of nine selected competencies that improved students’
learning and the extent to which these competencies were emphasized in their training.

The results showed a discrepancy between the practitioners’ perceptions of the

importance of some competencies and the faculty’s perceptions of these competences. A

significant discrepancy was found between the practitioners’ perception of the emphasis

placed on these competencies during teacher training and that of the faculty. These

results suggest that schools of education pay a lot of attention to those competencies

needed to promote the intellectual development of the learners.

(Fai & Tommy, 1996) examined the relationship between teacher proficiency and

teachers' inferences of students' self-concept and knowledge. The study found that the

more competent the teachers were the better they could infer students' self-concept and

knowledge. In addition, the contribution of teacher competence in classroom procedures

towards predicting teachers' inference of students' self-concept and knowledge was

greater than the contribution of teacher competence in interpersonal skills. This was due

to the fact that the items for measuring teacher competence in classroom procedures

included some elements of teachers' communication with students inside the classroom.

It was clear that teaching was a two-way process between teachers and students.

Teachers made use of the teaching methods to communicate with students and students

gave teachers their feedback. Thus communication and interaction between teachers and

students became obvious. In the final analysis, teachers who were competent in teaching

methods and skills could communicate with students better and had better abilities to

gauge and assess their students' self-concept and knowledge.

 Henson, Tyson & Sientz (2000) examined a new model of teacher efficacy that

proposed to define important variables clearly and integrate two theoretical traditions in

the study of teacher efficacy. A new instrument was developed to assess a means-end

task analysis and context-specific efficacy, both important parts of the model. Task

analysis and global- and context-specific efficacy were measured in 109 emergency

certification teachers underlying the fact that task analysis may be more explicit in the

case of novice teachers. Factor analyses of the global- and context-specific efficacy

measures suggested subtle but important distinctions in constructs related to efficacy.

Canonical correlation analysis indicated the importance of personal teaching competence

to instructional efficacy judgments and external locus of control to classroom

management efficacy. Although task analysis was not found to be a significant predictor

of either global- or context-specific efficacy, exploratory results suggested the potential

value of task analysis in future assessments of teacher efficacy.

Students’ Attitude

Different people have defined differently the concept of attitude, in broad terms.

To begin with, Anold (2005) defines attitude as either mental readiness or implicit

predispositions that exert some general or consistent influence on a fairly large class of

evaluative responses, which are usually directed towards some objects, events or

persons.
 Ewen (2003) on the other hand, defines attitude as a mental and neural state of

readiness organised through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon

the individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related.

In education, attitudes could be both an input and an output. A favourable attitude

to language learning may be a vital input in language achievement. (Baker, 1992) found

the following: First, attitudes have a positive correlation with success in learning a

second language; and second, they facilitate learners’ motivation to learn the language in

relation to goal attainment. Attitudes can also be an outcome. After a language-learning

course, the teacher and learners may have favourable attitudes to the language learnt, if

they expect to benefit from it. In this way, learners will strive to achieve highly in the

expectation of doing well in examinations and mastering the language, which in turn

facilitates better performance.

In language learning, attitudes seem to be very important in predicting learners’

academic performance. The learner’s favourable attitude to the language she/he is

learning would facilitate success in it.

(Tahaineh and Daana, 2013) argue that personal beliefs about one’s capabilities

and positive attitudes towards what one is learning positively influence learning. In this

way, learners’ positive attitudes to the language they are learning could help them to

master the language, leading to success in their performance at school and after school

linguistic needs in real daily-life situations.

(Mapunda, 2013) Students’ Attitudes and motivation differ in that while attitudes

are learners’ feelings of approval or disapproval to learn the target language.

 (Ushida, 2005) Motivation to learn language is an extent to which an individual

strives to learn the target language because of a desire to learn the language and

satisfaction experienced in the activity of learning. In this, a motivated learner is eager to

learn the language, expand efforts to learn it, and to sustain the learning activity.

(Wilkinson, 2015) This encourages language retention, fluency, need for

achievement and improved strategies to increase students’ language comprehension

levels.

According to (Ushida (2005), motivation mediates the relationship between

language Students’ attitudes and their achievement.

(Gardner, 2000, Ushida, 2005) The current study, however, examined the role

students’ language attitudes in their performance in English without including

motivation as mediating factor between the two variables under study, because other

studies have dealt with this.

(Kidenyi and Getui, 2011) As a part of English Academic, studying Language as

a tool for socialisation and determinant of individual knowledge of the world is highly

gendered in language use in school and society. Gender as a social constructed concept

shapes interpersonal relation and the way people perceive language, that is, their

attitudes towards that language in its use as well as learners’ overall performance. It

determines how female and male students feel about the language they learn.

(Baker, 1992) In education, learners’ attitudes could be both an input and an

output. A favourable attitude to language learning may be a vital input in language

achievement. Baker (1992) found the following: First, attitudes have a positive
correlation with success in learning a second language; and second, they facilitate

learners’ motivation to learn the language in relation to goal attainment. Attitudes can

also be an outcome. After a language-learning course, the teacher and learners may have

favourable attitudes to the language learnt, if they expect to benefit from it. In this way,

learners will strive to achieve highly in the expectation of doing well in examinations

and mastering the language, which in turn facilitates better performance.

In English Academic learning, attitudes seem to be very important in predicting

learners’ academic performance. The learner’s favourable attitude to the language she/he

is learning would facilitate success in it.

(Tahaineh and Daana, 2013) argue that personal beliefs about one’s capabilities

and positive attitudes towards what one is learning positively influence learning. In this

way, learners’ positive attitudes to the language they are learning could help them to

master the language, leading to success in their performance at school and after school

linguistic needs in real daily-life situations.

However, little is known about the contribution of students’ attitudes to English

to their performance at the secondary school level in San Pablo Municipality. The

present study therefore was intended to address this issue.