Interview Question 3 (IQ3)

The third interview question, IQ3, was “How do you view the role of school teachers regarding achieving effective learning and students’ success?” Among the form five respondents, five out of the six students agreed and acknowledged the important role of the teacher towards facilitating effective learning and students’

success, and that they actually had hard working teachers who were willing to help.

However, S5-332 admitted that some of her teachers do not explain properly and failed to complete the curricula on time, which leaves her feeling upset and somewhat hopeless as she dejectedly noted ‘there is nothing I can do.’ This is instructive as it represents a reality that students may be powerless to address complacency regarding their teachers’ performance. Following this type of setting, depending on the emotional and mental state of the student, he/she may seek external or alternative help or even more worryingly become demotivated and may even choose to give up. Their parents corroborated the vital role of the teacher to ensuring effective learning, through their knowledge base, teaching style and curricula delivery. Some parents were sure to recognise the key role of the teacher being an exemplar, technologically proficient, good time manager and avail themselves to courses in psychology to help in understanding students’ personalities. This aspect of being an exemplar is important especially when taken in context with S5-332 comments. If a teacher does not complete curricula and fails to effectively explain concepts, the example being set is not a positive one and will be a definite deterrent to effective learning and academic success.

The form six respondents agreed that the teacher is key to effective learning by being knowledgeable in the content, providing interactive learning opportunities, making students feel comfortable, and having a teaching style and caring attitude to which students can respond positively. However, they significantly acknowledged that at their level, students must take initiative in their learning to really underscore the opportunity for effective learning and success. Their parents corroborated these views and P6-776 underscored the general views of all the parents by stating that:

the teacher plays a major role, teacher can make or break a student … Duty of teacher to create perfect learning environment for learning, duty of the child to take advantage of all learning opportunities.

From the teaching perspective all of the teachers agreed that the teacher was key to effective learning through their competence, preparation and delivery of the curricula to suit the needs of each learner.

ST-5, with 17 years’ experience, importantly recognised the critical fact that Excellence High is a denominational school and there are cultural and religious implications that must not be overlooked. Interestingly ST-5 is not of the school’s denomination but she clearly respects and highly regards the denominational nature of the school. She emphasised that:

we have to be cognizant of what our views are, what the school’s views are in terms of the religious stances. For e.g. religious autonomy and being able to speak your mind is one thing, but in a different environment could be considered rudeness. The role of the teacher is to assess the culture of the school first, the needs of the students, the teacher’s own competence to mesh all of this to create an effective learning environment for the student. (ST-5).

Her views are particularly noteworthy because, of all the teachers, she is the only one who made mention of the denominational nature of the school and of teacher assessment by the students. Interestingly, ST-5 was not the Principal but her response shows how vested she is in Excellence High and how much value she places on the culture of the institution, particularly as she is not of the school’s religion. This is notable, when taken in context with the findings regarding the questionnaire responses shown in figures 9, 10 11 and 12, which supported that school culture seemed more important than the religious teachings of the denomination. School culture essentially defines reality for those within a social organisation, gives them support and identity, and creates a framework for occupational learning (Stoll 1998, p.9). These data do support the importance of school culture and environment to the educational process and success at Excellence High. Thus, in my view, regardless of religion or spirituality, pupils’ learning, non-academic and academic achievements, and discipline may be constructively built upon in assemblies, workshops and the day-to-day experiences of the Excellence High’s schooling processes and culture.

Due to T&T’s denominational schools being classified as public/government assisted schools, denominational boards have little control over the educational content taught

as this is determined by the MOE. However, they do have a large autonomy over the values that are imparted in their institutions, hence school culture can be critical to effective learning and educational success. In so doing teachers are well placed to structure content while remembering that the aim is to complete students’ knowledge, add meaning to learning and systematically engage in strategies which will help them to learn for themselves (Marchesi 1998, p.28). Consequently, an appropriately unified, trained and cultured staff may be instrumental in the creation of a motivated, creative and flexible teaching environment that is representative of the denomination’s culture and values at the foundation.

ST-5 crucially notes that students ‘must also have a role to play in assessing the teaching and learning.’ Regarding teachers being considered professional, they must realise the importance of student review of their practice, such that there can be genuine reflective processes in the teaching and learning process. Marsh and Roche (1993, p.218) proposed four objectives of student evaluations of teaching effectiveness: diagnostic feedback to faculty that will be useful for the improvement of teaching; a measure of teaching effectiveness to be used in
personnel and administrative decision making; information for students to
use in the selection of courses and teachers; and an outcome or a process description for research on teaching. However, these four objectives are heavily dependent on the student as an evaluator in conjunction with the teachers’ supervisors in the forms of Heads of Department, Principal and Vice Principal. While the school’s leadership may be relevantly trained for such measures, the reality may be that students do not have the background and experience to make an objective and adequately informed decision, especially if the evaluation instrument is not well constructed (Theall and Franklin 2000, p. 95). Hence, fitting research must be undertaken regarding the construction of these teacher evaluation instruments such that the data gathered could facilitate the type of reflection that may be important to ensuring effective learning and ultimately student success. Also, critical to note, is that some of the teacher sample included Heads of Departments, however their responses made no mention of modes of supervision or methods and strategies used to ensure that teachers under their purview actually deliver effectively in the classroom.