Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A review of the relevant literature of the research is presented in this chapter.

These are the previous studies of foreign and local researchers. The topics include

professional competence, level of professional competence, school performance, Araling

Panlipunan as subject, and professional characteristics.

Professional Competence

The task of a teacher is directly related to the nature of the classroom. According

to Darling (2016) the 21st century classrooms demand from the teachers “to prepare

virtually all students for higher order thinking and performance skills.”

The teacher has many tasks to perform in classroom e.g. managing and organizing

classroom activities, maintaining record and discipline, contact with parents, creating

conducive environment for learning with patience and touch of humor, arranging

workshops, helping weak students, guiding intelligent students etc. The competent

teacher can handle all above mentioned tasks confidently and effectively.

According to Varvel (2013) the competent teacher is “one who effectively and

efficiently accomplishes a task (instructs) in a given context (in classroom) using

appropriate knowledge, skills, attitudes, and abilities that have adjusted and developed

with time and needs.”

He feels responsible for students learning difficulties and takes active steps for

their resolutions. He provides friendly environment to students to get aware with their

problems and for free expression of their ideas. He provides clear explanations, relevant
 16

examples, asks questions to develop students’ confidence, believes in research; maintain

classroom management and involvement of society to get latest ideas and demands for

enhancement of teaching learning process.

Nadeem (2013) elaborates factors affecting teachers’ performance and

competence. The teaching is successful only when it takes place in peaceful and relaxed

environment. However, various factors internal or external place obstacles in provision of

such an environment. For example low income, misconduct of students, work pressure,

Job placement in distant areas, negative attitude of colleagues, lack of encouragement

from management, household responsibilities, health (physical, mental, emotional) stress,

transport problems, home distance from school location, lack of A.V aids, lack of

facilities in school, terrorism and etc. These few factors negatively affect the performance

of teachers and hinder in their way to success. The teacher’s poor performance ultimately

affects the students’ achievement and low quality education system.

Several studies was conducted by researches one was the study of Simon (2013)

recommended the urgent emphasis on qualitative improvement education since new

subject areas are being incorporated in the curricula, which call for the necessity of new

assessment procedures. Moreover, the schools are assuming responsibilities in the

developing countries involving relationships with local communities. Thus, in the context

of these development’s, the tasks of teachers tend to be diversified calling for effective

community development program.

On the other hand Sanchez (2013) led him to describe the public’s fear that the

schools are gradually being staffed by incompetent teacher. Profound changes in

 17

teacher’s tasks and roles and working conditions taking place, which affect their status

and initial and continuing rating.

The frequent absences of pupils due to lack of enthusiasm is the result of poor

teaching motivation, he claimed that in mathematics teaching, teachers should increase

understanding of the new mathematics objectives. He further stressed that one hindrance

to effective teaching of mathematics is teacher’s lack of adequate knowledge of the

subject.

The study of Khan (2014) shows that teaching today does not simply mean to

transfer some information or facts to the students; rather teaching has become more

comprehensive, multi-faceted and complex phenomenon, in which the roles of teacher

and students have been changed. In the new paradigm of teaching-learning process,

teaching means to prepare students for future where they will meet more complicated

situation that will force them to think in some different ways to stay in change. Effective

teaching is the only way that can prepare students to meet the challenges of such

situation. Effective teaching means teaching through which desired objectives may be

achieved and students may learn with full understanding. It is effective teaching that

prepares the students to absorb new knowledge, connect it with previous knowledge and

make a chain of knowledge for working in the changing environment.

The perception of Arazo (2014) states the role of the teacher in teaching situations

as that of facilitator of learning; leading discussion; asking open-ended questions; guiding

process and task; and enabling active participation of learners and engagement with

ideas. Teachers, therefore, need to be able to adopt a range of roles and skills to suit
 18

specific situations, often during the same teaching session. Teachers need to adopt a

variety of strategies that would facilitate learning in the classroom.

The notion of Reyes (2016) views evaluation aiming to promote the growth and

development of the teacher by means of an analysis of the criteria of good teaching. It

should help teachers discover and understand their strengths and weaknesses so that they

can utilize their skills to a great extent and improve on areas where they are weak.

Level of Professional Competence

According to the New Mexico (USA) (2013) Public Education Department there

are nine indicators/competencies of teachers. National Council of Teacher Education has

identified ten competencies for making the teachers professionally competent.

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) adopted by DepEd underlines the importance

of having a high-quality teacher in every classroom in every school. It specifies what

defines a highly qualified teacher, is based on the premise that teacher excellence is vital

to realizing improve student achievement. Along with typical hiring and compensation

systems, assumes that years of teaching experience, teacher certification, engagement in

certain types of course work, and performance on standardized assessments are indicators

of highly-quality teachers.

Under the K to 12 program, DepEd revised the evaluation of the competency of

teacher from Competency-Based Performance Appraisal for Teachers to Result-Based

Performance Management System in 2016 to develop teacher’s behavior which leads to

professional and personal growth of the department. It was subdivide into two
 19

competencies, namely core behavioral with six areas of competencies; and core skills

with three areas of competencies as follows:

Behavioral competencies. Educational research shows that pupils' learning

achievement and well-being is not only influenced by the teaching behavior of the

individual teacher, but also by the quality of school management and school culture.

Assessment of behavioral competency of teachers is important because it is a requirement

for effective teaching performance particularly in the public schools. In the present study,

behavioral competences of teachers tend to related in this areas:

Self-management. Koegel and Koegel (2016) considered this as pivotal to the

development of other skills. It is a highly generalizable, foundational skill that can be

used in many context to teach a number of cascading skills. They added that to be

successful in life, all have to learn to manage their behavior. People tailor their behavior

to different situations based on the unspoken rules and social norms that govern those

situations. While the strategies they use to regulate their behavior are often not readily

apparent to others, individual people devise ways to monitor their behavior, reflect upon

their behavior, and adapt the behavior when they recognize that are not as successful

and/or acting as appropriately as they would like. In the school context, self-management

system can be used to increase desired behaviors and/or decrease interfering behaviors by

teaching learning how to monitor their behavior, record their performance, and obtain

reinforcement when their performance meets a pre-established behavior criterion.

Professionalism and ethics. School should maintain the professionalism and

ethics which is very vital to enhance teacher performance. McKeen and McArdle (2012)
 20

revealed that professionalism goes hand in hand with performance and they state that one

of the hallmarks of any profession is the commitment of its member to code of ethics

which sets out professional values and responsibilities. Unfortunately they do not show

how actually the code influences actual teachers’ performance. They observe that the

young teachers may need an outing often with members of the opposite sex and visit

clubs or watch movies. However, for them their observation and findings is very good

and educative.

Result focus. If someone said to be results focus, it means that he/she is practical

and concentrates on achieving a purpose, rather than being distracted by other matters.

Delvin (2013) that result focus is one of the important aspects of teaching in determining

the result they want to achieve. This intent as it embeds the essential ingredients of a

strong academic foundation with the important attributes of a positive mindset,

independence and students’ passions and interests. She also suggests a too narrow results

focus will result in dull, uninspired individuals who do not have the skill to problem

solve, create and lead to a better world.

Teamwork. Senge, et al., (2014) state, the team can come to a mutual

understanding, shared responsibilities, plan what to work, how to work, and finally, there

is coordinated action which is not joint action it is carried out independently by various

members of the team. When people working together are more effective than a collection

of individuals working alone. Teamwork does not happen automatically, it requires

willingness and consistency. There are much research into teachers' teamwork is based on

an instrumental view of teachers working together. Such teamwork includes sharing

 21

material, giving advice, preparing lessons jointly or even team teaching-activities

instrumental to teaching pupils, aimed at improving teacher effectiveness (Martinez,

2014).

Service orientation. According to Hogan, et al., (2014), service orientation can be

defined as a set of attitudes and behaviors affecting the quality of interaction between

teachers and students. In other words, it is the disposition used when providing service to

the students. For Canada National Research Council (2015), this involves putting oneself

into the mindset of the stakeholder and facilitating delivery of solutions that meet their

underlying and unexpressed needs. It implies a genuine desire to assist others while

developing and maintaining strong relationships with them. Focuses one’s efforts on

discovering and meeting the needs of client(s) and strategic priorities.

Innovation. Teachers’ competencies for innovative teaching are presented in

actual teaching practices. The outcomes of innovative teaching, such as the development

of cognitive abilities or emotional aspects of students, while others stress the innovative

aspects of the teaching processes, such as the use of new methods and techniques or by

managing the classroom environment. Brouwer and Korthagen (2015) indicated that

innovative teaching competencies can be nurtured and should be developed in teacher

education. Teachers’ competency for innovative teaching is a key factor influencing

innovative teaching performance. Lin, et al., (2016) research points out that many

teachers have lack of competencies for innovative teaching in general. Ferrari, et al.,

(2016), that the concept of innovative teachings is not equivalent to new teaching, but on

the new teaching method or strategy, but not all new methods and strategies are necessary
 22

innovative. Therefore, it is a necessity for all teacher to have innovative teaching in order

to meet the educational needs of the new generations.

Core skills. It is the ability to read, write and count or the ability to apply these

skills in a given context (www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/37801.html). The competencies of teachers

have three skills that are key to teaching-learning of the secondary teachers preferable in

teaching English subject. DepEd have identified these skills as those most likely to be

needed by English teacher. Not every teaching job need teacher who is proficient in all

three core skills but every teaching job will require some level of ability in some or all of

these skills.

Meanwhile, the European Education Council (2016) priorities for improving

teaching quality and teacher education that the need to improve teacher competencies,

teacher requires a specialist knowledge of subjects, pedagogical skills, comprising teach

heterogeneous classes, use ICT, teach transversal competences, create safe attractive

schools, cultures/attitudes of reflective practice, research, innovation, collaboration,

autonomous learning.

The art of communication involves listening and speaking as well as reading and

writing. Teachers need to be highly skilled in all these areas to excel in their profession.

Proficient communicators receive information, understand and synthesize it and express

themselves at a high level. They make excellent teachers because they are able to

transmit knowledge, skills and values at the same time they communicate their caring for

the students entrusted to their care (http://work.chron.com/communication-skills-

10512.html). The core skill in communication has two components, these are:
 23

Oral communication. Richards and Renandya (2012) state that effective oral

communication requires the ability to use the language appropriately in social

interactions that involves not only verbal communication but also paralinguistic elements

of speech such as pitch, stress, and intonation. Moreover, nonlinguistic elements such as

gestures, body language, and expressions are needed in conveying messages directly

without any accompanying speech.

Written communication. Writing in English is important to me because it is a form

of written communication. English is an international language that allows us to

communicate with people from all over the world. Wingard (2016), noted three

inseparable aspects when teaching English language: writing as a channel of a foreign

language is the use of it alongside listening, speaking and reading in the process of

learning important elements of the language; Writing as a goal of a foreign language

learning , is the development of writing skills to fulfil such purposes as: note-taking,

summarizing, narrating, reporting for various real-life situations and Writing with

cohesion , is the employment of various linguistic means by which the parts of a written

text are related to one another, with continuity and organization (Wingard, 2016).

Computer/ICT skills. Teaching and learning process requires innovative

techniques to make it more effective. Computer and Information and Communication

Technology focuses on the ability to use IT to process information in ways which will be

useful in work. Van Merrienboer et al., (2015) that an innovative teacher is aware of how

to integrate modern educational technologies to enhance reasoning, provoke critical

thinking, and deepen student understanding. It fits very well with modern instructional
 24

theories that focus on the implementation of real-life tasks as the driving force for

learning. Lynes (2015) introduced the initiative which is connecting classrooms around

the world. He spoke of the responsibility of everyone (in the room) as educators to impart

core skills to future generation (to deal with the changing world) through digital literacy,

critical thinking and through developing global citizens. Srinivas (2014) presented a topic

on learning English through internet suggested that computer literacy should be a must

for learners and teachers as well, as today’s education does not stress upon memory based

education.

Passi and Sharma (2013) conducted a study with an objectives of the study were

to study the relationship between variables and teaching competency. They identified

fourteen teaching competencies required for a Hindi teacher at higher secondary level.

The listed competencies included loud reading, asking questions, creating interest,

improving pupils’ reading behavior, using relevant reinforcement, managing classrooms

etc. They also found that there was a significant positive co-relation between teaching

competency liking of their pupils of their teaching behavior.

Chowdhary (2015) study on teaching competencies of teachers teaching English

at the secondary school level revealed a positive correlation of all the competencies;

while competencies were influenced by locality of the school and educational

qualification were found to be related to teacher competencies.

Hamdan (2015) conducted a study to 309 teachers belonging to different

secondary schools in Johor Bahru. The study was aimed in determining their

competencies with regard to their teaching skills, instructional strategies, classroom

 25

management and adoption of novel techniques for teaching and evaluation. The study

revealed that all the teachers were competent and there existed a significant relationship

of teaching experience and specialization with their competency, whereas qualification

had no significant influence on their teaching competence.

Samillano (2015) investigate the level of competency of MAPEH teachers in

teaching performing arts in public secondary schools in Northern Cotabato shows that

most MAPEH teachers are non-MAPEH graduates mostly teaching for more than 5

years, had encounter problems like lack of facilities, equipment and instructional

materials, however they attended seminars and trainings related to performing arts.

Competency of teachers showed appreciation in performing arts. They also cannot

demonstrate mastery in teaching the subject to their students as well as integrated

knowledge.

Eslami & Fatahi (2014) states that language proficiency constitutes the foundation

of the professional competence of teachers. Language competence has been rated as the

most essential characteristics of a good teacher.

School Performance

School performance refers to the quality and quantity of knowledge, skills

techniques and positive attitudes, behavior and philosophy that school and/or learners

achieve or acquire. This ability is evaluated by the marks and grades that the pupils attain

in a test or examination which is done at the end of a topic, school term, and year or

education cycle. The scores and grades that each pupil obtains measure the degree of

achievement. The quality of the grade and the number of candidates who pass in various
 26

grades determine the level of academic performance in a given class or institution in a

given period in a particular examination, be it internal or public.

There are two types of grading systems to determine school performance of pupils in the

Philippines: the average system and the cumulative grading system. The average 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 all public elementary schools in Aklan, each academic year is divided into four

grading periods and the method for computing grades is averaging (DepEd, 2017).

On the other hand, Bell (2013) states that pupil school performance most

commonly is measured through pupils written and oral tests, presentations, field work,

classroom activities, discussions, homework, teacher observations, etc. Pupils school

performance does not only involve the grades in exams, but other factors like their

behavior, skills, communication, situation handling, creativity, art etc. also determine in

school performance. Some pupils cannot perform well on paper due to certain reason, e.g.

illness, death of some relative, depression, etc., but it does not mean that they did not

achieve the objectives.

According to Arshad (2016) that system teachers’ performance is considered one

of the most significant factors in students’ achievement and school effectiveness.

Teachers maintain their high performance with the help of continuous research and

professional attitude. The 21st century has faced various challenges (e.g. technological

developments, nuclear weapons, natural disasters etc.); to compete in this era critical

teachers are essential for students’ progress and high achievement.

 27

The National Education Association (2014) Pupils’ understanding about

themselves affects the quantity of efforts they are agreeing to apply in learning, their

educational ambitiousness, and their academic achievement. Researchers find out that

high attitude about self-cause a great motivation for learning. Students' feelings of

responsibility for their learning, interest, rate of attendance in schools, physical and

mental health, positive attributions towards learning, e.g. success is due to hard work, and

negative attributions e.g. failure is due to luck or external factors put a great effect on

quality performance and high or low achievement.

Gravely (2014) describes that students spend most of their time in school, so it is

obvious that the environment and people of school has a crucial effect on their

performance and achievement. According to Scand (2013) one way to improve students’

achievement is to make possible the provision of effective teachers. With the political

pressure on education, teachers are in critical check by administration, families, students

and media. In this regard students’ academic results are considered a primary source for

teachers’ evaluation.

Hallinan (2013) describes in her article that researches proved that content

knowledge, teaching experience, training and certification make a teacher more effective

and active in the classroom. According to Harris et al (2016) teacher quality is the

dominant factor among other factors in relation with students’ high achievement.

Kyoshaba (2016) states that the results of latest researches have shown that the

competence of teachers has a major influence on the performance and high academic
 28

achievement of students than any other factors. The achievement gap can cover easily by

providing effective teachers to low achievers.

There some evidence suggests that the efficiency of teachers largely depends

upon the amount and type of training they have received. Students achieve at higher

levels when they are taught by better and qualified teachers and those with certification in

their teaching

A local study conducted by Silverio (2015) on academic achievement in Araling

Panlipunan and its relation to teaching strategies and instructional materials both in

public and private high schools in the District of Ibajay revealed that in her district,

academic achievement of students in Araling Panlipunan described as Proficiency. Their

academic achievement do not vary significantly in the sense that teachers from both the

public and private schools are observed to be using the same instructional materials in

teaching Araling Panlipunan. The reason why there is no significant relationship between

the teaching strategies used by teachers and academic achievement of students may be

due to the fact that there are many teachers in both public and private schools who have

not attended trainings and seminars so that they use varied strategies in teaching Araling

Panlipunan.

Araling Panlipunan as Subject

The National Council for Social Studies defines Social Studies or Araling

Panlipunan as “the integrated study of the Social Sciences and humanities to promote

civic competence.” It involves the study of social interaction and human behavior. Some
 29

fields include: sociology, history, political science, economics, religion, geography, and

anthropology.

According to White on his article “An Alternative Approach to Teaching

History,” the debates about the purposes, goals and uses of school history exacerbates by

the problem of choosing what constitutes historically significant events worth tracing.”

Furthermore, he stated that “the issue of historical significance has been further

exacerbated by the multiculturization of many Western societies rendering questions

about “whose” history to teach as important as to “which” story.

The importance of Araling Panlipunan in the Philippines is to learn more about

the culture, geography and tradition of a race or country, it is also important to know the

wars, contribution of civilizations and the history of the universe on how it began and the

life forms that rose during these eras.

The knowledge children acquire as a part of social studies called Araling Panlipunan

in the Philippines tends to be the highest priority for teachers, parents, and the children.

The common perception is that this is what social studies is all about, knowing things like

the location of the Rocky Mountains, the conditions aboard a slave ship, and the purpose

of a mailbox. This is too limited a view because Araling Panlipunan must be a vehicle for

children to become better communicators, thinkers, researchers, computer users, and

artists. Finally, all three definitions state that the ultimate goal of social studies is active

citizenship in our society, as our students use the knowledge they have acquired and the

processes they have mastered to make communities, the nation, and the world better

places. This is the position of the NCSS, that the “core mission of Araling Panlipunan
 30

education is to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and values that will enable

them to become effective citizens” (NCSS Task Force on Revitalizing Citizenship

Education, retrieved at https://catalogue.pearsoned.co.uk/assets/hip/gb/hip_gb_

pearsonhighered/samplechapter/013256551X.pdf, 6/30/2017).

On some research and documentation of Winkle (2013) suggests that what citizenship

education needs to do is teach the students to become historical, political actor, to further

the goals democracy in the country because Araling Panlipunan has been ranked among

other subjects as boring, irrelevant and not appealing to most students, teaching Araling

Panlipunan can be an interesting and rewarding activity if only when teachers know what

content and methodologies they can employ .It can also make learning relevant to the

learners and contribute in significant ways towards their intellectual development.

Unfortunately it has been observed that many teachers in are still far from making the

subject as relevant and meaningful to the learners who often view it that way (European

Journal of Educational Studies, 2014).

However, many problems can occur while teaching history. One of the biggest

problems Araling Panlipunan teachers have encountered is the lack of time. Textbooks

push large amounts of information on students in a short amount of time. According to

Haas and Laughlin (2015), more teachers are teaching current events because it is a great

tool for gathering of current information and a way to explain abstract concepts, but they

do not use current events. The Araling Panlipunan benchmarks encourage “teachers to

use current events as a means to support the learning of core knowledge in these

disciplines and makes it very difficult to find time or resources for the development of
 31

other units and projects”. Mary Haas and Margaret Laughlin (2015) feel by studying

current events, a student uses research and critical thinking skills. When teacher use

current events in their classroom, it develops a student’s empathy, global awareness, and

encourages tolerance. Araling Panlipunan classes confront many controversial issues.

Classroom discussion of controversial issues sparked through use of current events

allows students to hear other point of views and allow questioning in an academic

environment.

In the Philippine textbooks, Dela Cruz (2011) concluded that 84% of 2nd chapter

questions in Araling Panlipunan textbooks are subsumable under low level questioning, a

traditionally oriented techniques, while in the Brandwein, Fenton and Games &

Michellies series, foreign books and authors- his findings are 80%, 91.3 percent and 67%

high level questioning respectively, or an average of 79.4% .

Dayao (2012) conducted a study on the teaching of Araling Panlipunan and

associated variables and its implications to quality education, He found out that the

different personal profile of the teacher respondents were not significantly related to the

different variables used in the teaching of Araling Panlipunan such as methods, strategies

and approaches used, instructional materials, aids and devices and the types of

supervision extended to others.

On the study conducted by Mallari (2013) on the Analysis of the Performance in

National Achievement Test of Maliwalo High School showed that their level of

performance of students considered within the average mastery level in Araling

panlipunan. The overall mean percentage scores have consistently decreased over a
 32

period of three school years, none of the competencies/skills tested in NAT in Araling

Panlipunan yielded average mean percentage scores considered within the range of

mastered, closely approximating mastery, very low mastery, or absolute no mastery. The

competencies/skills have average mean percentage scores falling under the range of

average mastery.

Professional Characteristics

The professional characteristics of teachers provide information on professional

background which are of interest in their own right and as a context for later analysis in

this current study.

A study conducted by Lucas (2013) observed from the results of his study that

teaching performance is related to the following variables: (a) highest degree earned, (b)

field of specialization, (c) length of teaching and (d) in-service training program.

Educational qualification. Teachers’ degree background, the nature of their

licensure/certification, and their teaching experience may serve as a key gauge for how

much teachers are knowledgeable about content, curriculum, pedagogy, students, and

contexts. It is common belief that academic degree background has much to do with

teachers’ knowledge of content, pedagogy, and curriculum. About 20% of social studies

teachers had neither a major nor a minor in any of the social sciences, social studies

education or social studies related field. Teachers in social studies field which is one of

broad multi-disciplinarian areas are assigned to teach any of subjects within social studies

department. Although a teacher has a certificate in social studies field, he or she is not

qualified to teach all of the content areas in the field. Actually, over half of teachers who
 33

teach history did not have a major or minor in history. Teachers who are required to teach

subjects in which they have little education might invest more time on preparation for the

subject, and might allocate less amount of preparation time to their other courses

(Ingersoll, 2013). Pace’s (2012) research also shows an effect of social studies teachers’

academic background on their classroom practices. 7th grade social studies teachers who

participated in the study were originally elementary school teachers and did not have

much experience at the middle school level. Teachers who are educated well in their

content knowledge are more competent to design and convey powerful instructions than

out-of-field teachers (Wilson & Wineburg, 2013).

Teachers’ academic degrees (e.g., bachelors or master, etc.) are inclusive. Some

studies showed positive effects of advanced degrees (Betts, et al., 2013), while other

showed negative effects (Ehrenberg and Brewer, 2014). Some argue that the requirement

of a second degree raises the cost in terms of teacher education and the time it involves

and may prevent quality candidates from choosing teaching profession (Murnane, 2016).

Position. Aguirre (2012) states that the present position considered an important

related to the teaching creativity and management of teachers. She explained that

whatever the position of teachers (e.g., Teacher 1, Teacher 2, Teacher 3) need to possess

more knowledge and skills to be more creative and competent in their teaching

profession. The same findings with Mamades (2017) that teachers very high level of

competence is insignificantly related to their position held. All aspects of competency

shows very high level such as language and teaching, while highly competent in
 34

assessment and pedagogical competence in using mother tongue in teaching in the

District of San Jose de Buenavista.

Teaching experience. Pace (2013) stressed teachers’ gatekeeping role, asserting

that despite the influence of the high stakes testing on social studies teaching, “teachers

are not passive victims of school policy; they continue to make important decisions as

they interpret policy and create educational experiences for their students”. Teaching

experience appears to have much to do with teacher knowledge and professional ability

to balance between testing pressure and implementation of ambitious teaching. Smith

(2016) notes that as teachers are more experienced, they tend to be better informed about

social studies instruction, teaching strategies under time pressures, jam-packed classroom

full of students, mandated testing movement. Smith presumes that the subjects in her

study use wise, critical practices because they have ample teaching experience.

Studies on the effect of teacher experience on student learning have found a

positive relationship between teacher competence and effectiveness and their years of

experience, but not always a significant or an entirely linear one (Murnane and Phillips,

2013). Evidence currently available suggests that while inexperienced teachers are less

effective than more senior teachers, the benefits of experience appear to level of after a

few years (Rivkin, et al., 2013).

Trainings and seminars attended. It is very likely that teachers who teach

subjects for which they have little education or training are not knowledgeable about the

subjects they teach and do not have expertise in general and subject so that they can meet

diverse learning needs and abilities of students (Ingersoll, 2013). Teachers without a
 35

strong background in the field are unlikely to be competent in teaching students how to

think critically and arousing student interests in the subject.