Vol 7 No 1 - August 2014

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International Journal
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Vol.7 No.1
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VOLUME 7 NUMBER 1 August 2014
Table of Contents
A Comparative Study of Multicultural Awareness among In-service School Teachers .............................................. 1
Brian Vassallo
A Multicultural view of Mathematics Male-teachers at Israeli Primary Schools ........................................................ 23

Eti Gilad and Shosh Millet
Discovery Learning with the Help of the GeoGebra Dynamic Geometry Software ................................................... 44
Trung Tran, Ngoc-Giang Nguyen, Minh-Duc Bui and Anh-Hung Phan
Impact of Culture on Communication Interactions: Case of Mixed Ethnic Secondary Schools in Botswana ......... 58
James G. Chisambi
Organizational Justice Influences Foci Commitment of Teachers via Trust ................................................................. 78

Shueh-Chin Ting
The Contribution of In-Service Training Programs to the Professional Development of Mathematics Teachers .. 93
Ilana Levenberg and Dorit Patkin
The Coach-Athlete Relationship and Self-Determination: Assessing an Athlete Centered Scale in Sport ............. 105
Frode Moen and Roger A. Federici
A Close Study of the Effects of ESP Learners Beliefs on the Choice of Language Learning Strategies ................. 119
Abbas Zare-ee and Malihe Salami
Do Children Accept Virtual Agents as Foreign Language Trainers? .......................................................................... 131

Manuela Macedonia, Roland Kern and Friedrich Roithmayr
The Role of Social Appearance Anxiety in Metacognitive Awareness of Adolescents ............................................ 138
Eyp elik, Mehmet Emin Turan and Neslihan Arc
Bridging the Cultural Gap: Strategies for Multicultural Teaching and Learning in Malta ...................................... 148
Brian Vassallo
Assessing Principals Coordinating and Controlling Strategies for Effective Teaching and Quality Learning
Outcome in Secondary Schools in Ondo State, Nigeria ................................................................................................ 180
Adeolu Joshua Ayeni, Ph.D. and Comfort Ayandoja Akinfolarin, Ph.D.
An Evidence-based Approach to the Design of a Learning Program: Evaluating Preliminary Data Sets ............. 201
Andrea Carr, Jo-Anne Kelder and Juliet Sondermeyer
1
International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research

Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1-22, August 2014
A Comparative Study of Multicultural

Awareness among In-service School Teachers
Brian Vassallo
Abstract. The paper examines Multicultural Awareness as perceived by

in-service school teachers across three different countries. After
conducting a review of literature on multicultural awareness, the author
realized that 1) literature on multicultural awareness seems to focus
almost entirely on pre-service teachers and 2) different circumstances
have prompted different countries to catalyze measures to accommodate
the changing multicultural contexts. The study aims to provide
scholarship for school teachers on the complexity of multicultural
education. Using the Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory (Henry,
1986, modified) the study highlights various aspects of awareness namely
cultural awareness in the classroom, cross-cultural communication, culturally
diverse families, multicultural learning environment, and assessment criteria.
These are then analyzed using Chi Square statistics. Results indicate
disparities in some areas of cultural awareness in the classroom and
culturally diverse families. Conclusions and suggestions for future
research follow, based on findings.
Keywords: Cultural Awareness, Multicultural Education, Chi-Square,

Analysis.
Introduction
While a lot of research is currently being conducted and published in the realm
of multicultural education, multiethnic awareness, diverse attitudes, multiple
skills and multilingual environments, such research seems to be focused almost
entirely on pre-service teachers (Eg: Watson, Park and Lee (2011); Brown, (2011),
Premier and Miller (2010)). Research conducted by Larke (1990) and by Milner et
al. (2003), has shown that pre-service teachers' attitudes with respect to cultural
diversity are improving. Milner et al. (2003) also revealed that pre-service
teachers were not quite sure about how to integrate their learning programs
with the changing multicultural environments, assessments, and curricula in
order to support all children present in the classroom. They conclude that
teacher education programs must continue to focus on issues of multicultural
education, ever though an improvement has been registered. This claim of
improvement has prompted the researcher to investigate the current state of
multicultural awareness among in-service teachers by undergoing a literature
review on the subject which proved to be rather scarce.
@2014 The author and IJLTER.ORG All rights reserved

2
This paper attempts to do justice to a missing link in a chain of research aimed at

highlighting the experience of in service teachers in environments which are
more heterogeneous in nature than any other unprecedented epoch. The study
also aims to whet the appetite of teachers and other educational stakeholders
who are always on the lookout for up to date research and who aim to use that
research as a platform for more apt classroom environments which is inclusive
of diverse cultures. It is also the aim of the paper to provide scholarship for
novel researchers willing to embark on the new and exciting praxis of
multicultural teaching and learning.
The study also aims to increase our understanding as to how teachers currently
teaching students of diverse cultures are experiencing everyday cultural
diversity and also provides a comparison of this experience across three
different schools in three different continents namely North America, Europe,
and Australia. The study uses the same subscales of the Cultural Diversity
Awareness Inventory (Henry, 1986; Larke, 1990) namely Cultural Awareness in
the classroom, Cross-cultural Communication, Culturally Diverse Families,
Classroom Environment and Assessment Criteria. Some modifications were
deemed necessary to reflect to reflect the nature of the study. Literature review
follows by highlighting the various aspects of Cultural Awareness.
Literature review
Banks (2007), in his study on American classrooms claims that the increased
diversification in classrooms has brought additional challenges for school
teachers in the dynamic world of teaching. Todays classrooms are no longer
homogenous but host within them students of different cultural backgrounds,
racial compositions, socio-economic statuses, and linguistic backgrounds.
Cultural Awareness in the Classroom

Todays classroom environments are no longer homogenous but look more like
a rainbow of different hues which blend together in a kaleidoscopic array of
radiant faces ready to learn. Society at large expects schools to function like clog
wheels in a clock, synchronized to perfection, and governed by beliefs and
behaviors which, in turn, affect the academic prowess and social skill
development of all students. Within this rather complex but rich scenario
teachers need to become aware of their own cultural biases and inclinations,
demonstrate apt cultural competencies, possess adequate cultural knowledge,
foster a positive and cultivate the skills necessary to work in harmony with
students from diverse backgrounds. Being aware of ones own cultural legacies,
principles, moral imperatives and prejudices and the extent to which these
impinge on our interactions with diverse groups is an important precept in the
development of teachers perception of multicultural competence. (Sue et al.,
1982). Multicultural awareness "is central to what we see, how we make sense of
what we see, and how we express ourselves" (DuPraw & Axner, 1997 quoted in
Multicultural - Welcome to NACADA (n.d.). Conflicts may arise if we fall short
of understanding what constitutes cultural identity. As DuPraw and Axner
(1997) note, "often at times we aren't aware that culture is acting upon us.
Sometimes we are not even aware that we have cultural values or assumptions

3
that are different from others!" (pp. 293).
Cross-cultural Communication
Disparities in teachers and students cultural background do not automatically
mean the ineffectiveness a of teacher-student communication. However,
research shows that the teachers knowledge of their students cultures, as well
as the infusion of culturally sensitive pedagogy and materials has an influence
on students academic performance (Pope and Wilder, 2005). Other research
conducted by Cho and DeCastro-Ambrosetti in 2006 shows that teachers'
attitudes improved as they developed an increased awareness of and
appreciation toward other cultures and that this had an effect on the attainment
of students. Studies conducted by Pope and Wilder (2005) and Taylor and
Whittaker (2009) showed that cross-cultural communication programs are not
urging pre-service teachers to acquire knowledge, awareness, attitude and skills
which deliberately address the needs of culturally diverse students.
Furthermore, these researchers indicate that many teacher education programs
are failing to acknowledge the various contributions of different cultural groups
and lack the necessary skills to equip teachers to critically examine their
attitudes toward student diversity. The beliefs and values that teachers impart
on their students have an effect on their daily interaction with culturally diverse
students which, in turn, has an effect on how students perceive their learning
environment and academic attainment.
Culturally Diverse Families

Establishing effective meaningful relationships is a process requiring a
commitment from all educational stakeholders. It involves sharing and
sustaining open lines of communication and understanding. Culturally Diverse
families need to be provided with relevant school information in their language
of origin. Also translators and interpreters need to present and able to work in
close collaboration with school authorities to promote active family participation
in their child's education (Harry, 2008)
Classroom Environment
Different circumstances have prompted different countries to adopt strategies to
infuse cultural adaptations in the curriculum. In the United States, the growing
number of immigrants in the 1960s, spurred the country towards a continuous
change in demographics (Daniels, 2008). In 2007, one in five children in the US
spoke another language other than English (US Census Bureau, 2009). In 2050
this number is expected to be 50% (National Centre for Education Statistics,
NCES, 2010). Of primary concern is the fact that the rapid change of ethnic
composition is placing additional demands on teachers who need to foster a
multicultural environment into a classroom (Baeten et al. 2013). For such a
challenging enterprise, a teacher has to promote changes in the academic
curriculum, in the learning environment and also in the approach of the teachers
toward the students. Children coming from different cultures have different
understanding levels and hence require for different teaching methods. It is the
teachers primary duty to cultivate an environment which aims at bridging
cultural gaps.

4
The late 1970s saw educational authorities in various European countries

heading towards the creation of new subjects due to the growing numbers of
diverse students in schools. In France this led towards the Auslnderpdagogik
(pedagogy for foreigners) and the pdagogie daccueil (pedagogy of reception),
whose aim was to cater for the educational needs of foreign children. However,
this approach has been criticized as being assimilatory in scope rather than
inclusive. Later, in the 1980s theoretical frameworks have been put forwards
and strategies investigated paving the way for the beginnings of intercultural
pedagogy (Portera, 2003, 626; 2006, 89100).
The teachers ability to look through the lenses of students with diverse cultural
backgrounds, study and purport culturally relevant pedagogies, select and
propose culturally relevant material, all contribute towards the attainment of
students. Banks (2007) argues that teacher preparation programs are failing to
design cultural courses that fit into existing curricula.
In Australia, the Bracks government came into power with a clear agenda of
eliciting benefits from the states cultural diversity, and to promote racial and
religious tolerance and social cohesion. To promote his agenda, the Bracks
government introduced a number of laws. The Racial and Religious Tolerance
Act (2001) was introduced in the governments first term while the Multicultural
Victoria Act (2004) was introduced in the second term of the government
legislation. It established overarching principles of multiculturalism for the state,
and set up mechanisms of accountability for government departments in
relation to multiculturalism. According to former Premier Bracks, these
legislative innovations were advocated by many community groups, who were
concerned about the federal governments stance on multiculturalism. Later, in
2006, the Howard government spearheaded the introduction of the Human
Rights and Responsibilities Act which stated that people of all cultural,
religious, racial or linguistic backgrounds have the right to enjoy their culture,
declare and practice their religion and use their languages. A new multicultural
policy was then launched in 2009 recognizing the importance of minority groups
as important contributors to the Australian economy. This new policy
recognized the rapidly changing international learning environment and the
impact of globalization on Australian society.
The Council of Europe started to adopt strategies of multiculturalism and

multicultural education in the 1970s focusing almost exclusively on a double
track strategy aimed at integrating children from diverse cultures within their
host nation, urging schools to maintain linguistic and cultural links with
students of multicultural origin, thus fostering integration between students. In
1983, The Council of Cultural Cooperation unanimously passed a resolution
where it recognized the importance of Intercultural Education. It also
highlighted the importance of schooling for migrant children and the
importance of the intercultural dimension of education. This intercultural
perspective has contributed to the development of co-operation and solidarity
among nations.

5
Later, the Council of Europe expanded its cooperation across all Europe voicing
human rights and the rights of minorities (Foucher, 1994). After the September
11 events, the Ministers of Education across European countries launched a
number of initiatives to foster intercultural and inter-religious dialogue
amongst which were the Intercultural dialogue and conflict prevention (2002-
2004); Youth building peace and intercultural dialogue(2004); Heritage classes
international exchanges (2010) and The new challenge of intercultural
education, religious diversity and dialogue in Europe.
Today, intercultural education and intercultural pedagogy are regarded as a
more appropriate response to the new context of globalization and the
increasing convergence of different languages, religions, cultural behavior and
ways of thinking. New assessment criteria are being advocated and are replacing
previous approaches. Hence, the education of children from multicultural
backgrounds can now be seen as an opportunity rather than as an obstacle. The
development of personal and social enrichment was recognized as being the
result of effective synergy between people from different cultural, ethnic, and
religious backgrounds. Teachers have now the possibility of capitalizing on the
experiences of their counterparts in other European countries, study models and
stratagems employed and infuse them in their daily interaction with students.
Such was the case in Malta, in the document entitled For all children to succeed
(2005), the minister of education has proposed a new network organization for
schools and colleges in Malta and Gozo, whose sole purpose was to deliver
quality education for all children. In the document (ibid: 2005), he emphasized the
need of putting the child at the centre of every educational reform, giving
particular attention to the teaching-learning process. In his own words:
(The reform).. intends to spur a critically constructive and

mature debate and an implementation process that aims at radically
improving the quality of education in Malta where the child remains
the central hub of all our plans. Our focus in this restructuring and
renewal process is the child who will benefit from enhanced teaching-
learning process. The expectations of all of us in the education system
are high; we expect standards to be raised; we expect the quality of
education to heighten; we expect people in every community to
experience a refreshing change and to take an active role in the
process (ibid, 2005: xiii).
This new reform presented itself with particular challenges amongst which, is
the issue of increasing numbers of students from different cultures in our
schools and classes. Children from different cultures through mixed marriages,
foreign adoption, immigration (legal or illegal), have become a salient and
permanent feature of the school milieu in Malta. This increasing diversity of
students in Maltese classrooms, has urged Maltese educators to cultivate interest
in the dynamics which make up a multicultural class (Vassallo, 2008). Moreover,
The Maltese National Minimum Curriculum document, entitled Creating the
Future Together, endorsed the new reality of multicultural education and stated
that: Importance should be attached to the principles of a holistic education and
education for diversity (1999 p.78).
6
Assessment Criteria
All children, irrespective of gender, race, cultural orientation or socio-economic
status, have a right for a fair, non-discriminatory assessment which enables
pupils self-assess their achievement in learning. Assessments should reflect the
cultural composition present in the classroom in a way that no child is
disadvantaged. It must be stated that it is difficult to find complementary
assessments designed for specific cultural groups. However it is the role of
researchers and other educational stakeholders to include all cultures. For
example, it should not be assumed that English Language is understood by
everybody and children whose first language is not English should not feel left
out or considered as low-achievers. It is our duty as teachers to celebrate
uniqueness in diversity and hence make students proud of their achievements.
The study aims at providing inservice teachers with scholarship on multicultural

awareness, using the five aspects outlined above. These five aspects provided
the framework against which results from the questionnaire are compared
Methodology
Quantitative methods of investigation were used in the study. Creswell (1994)
pointed out that a quantitative approach is context free and the intent is to
develop generalizations, relying heavily upon statistical results represented with
numbers and is done to determine relationships, effects, and causes.
Furthermore, Creswell (2009) describes quantitative research as a method for
testing objective theories by examining the relationship among variables. These
variables can be measured on instruments so that numbered data can be
analyzed using statistical procedures. As the purpose of this study was to
investigate aspects of awareness and how these vary across three different schools,
it was determined that the quantitative method was best for the study.
Participants and Procedure

An extensive internet search was carried out to establish the ideal schools in
which to carry out this particular research. Interested schools were then
contacted and a pilot study was conducted. Then three particular schools
hosting within them students between the ages of eleven and sixteen were then
chosen based on the multiethnic diversity and cultural richness present in the
schools. Questionnaires were then forwarded by email to and subsequently
returned. Fifty-four teachers out of a total of 96 from a multicultural school
(School 1) in the northern part of the United States participated in the study.
Hence 56% of the questionnaires were returned with actual participants being 35
females and 19 males. Forty-eight teachers out of total of 105 teachers from a
multicultural school (School 2) located in Southern Europe participated in the
study. Hence 45% of the questionnaires were returned with the actual sample
consisting of 28 females and 20 males. Ninety-four teachers out of a total of 119
teachers from a multicultural primary school (School 3) in Australia participated
in the study. Hence 79% of the questionnaires were returned. This amounted to
a total of 76 females and 18 males. Therefore the average return rate of the
questionnaire was 60% with a total number of 139 females and 57 males. Since
7
data consisted of frequencies with which subjects belong to different categories

of one variable the CHI SQUARE TEST was to examine the relationship between
the different categories and the frequency with which subjects fall in each
category.
Instrument
The instrument consisted of a questionnaire divided into two parts (see
appendix). The first part consisted of basic demographic data and this was used
to obtain background information of the participants. The second part consisted
of the Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory (adapted). The Cultural Diversity
Awareness Inventory (CDAI), originally created by Henry (1986) consisted of 28
statements in which the respondents had to register their self-perception in
regard to their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors towards multiethnic students.
The adapted version of the inventory however consisted of 27 opinion

statements using a 5-point Likert scale (5 = Strongly Agree 4= Agree, 3= Neutral,
2=Disagree, 1= Strongly Disagree). Statements 1-4 consisted of statements
examining Cultural Awareness, statements 5-9 tested cross-cultural communication,
statements 10-15 examined perceptions towards culturally diverse families,
statements 16-23 examined the extent of which the classroom environment is
conducive to multicultural education, while statements 24-27 tested assessment
criteria. These five areas provided the basis for analysis from which a discussion
emerged. A statistical analysis follows, based on findings.
Results and Discussions

Raw data from the CDAI inventory were computed using the Statistical Package
for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Results were organized in tabular form to ensure
easy comparison between results. Tables 1 (see appendix) shows the results of
demographic data as resulted from the questionnaire while table 2 to table 6 (see
appendix) show the quantitative results of Awareness subscales as exemplified by
the modified version of the CDAI. Five mean amalgamated scores derived from
the percentage scores were computed for each of the five areas. The composite
scores were computed by finding the mean for all of the strongly agree/agree,
neutral, and strongly disagree/disagree responses in each of the five areas
measured.
Table 2 (see appendix) provides a quantitative summary of responses generated

from Cultural awareness in the classroom. A Chi Square test (2) was used to
determine whether the schools differ in scores from each other. This resulted in
2= 18.291 (at 2crit = 13.28, df =4, p = 0.0011, =0.01).This means that the three
sets of data differed significantly from one another. A closer look reveals that
data from school 1 compared to that of school 2 was the major contributor to the
disparity (2obt = 15.101, at 2crit = 9.21, df = 2, p= 0.0005, =0.01). Scores indicate
that school 1 was more inclined to give strongly agree or agree than the other two
schools (65.7%). School 2 (Southern Europe) placed the majority of responses in
the neutral scale (41.6%).
Table 3 (see appendix) analyzed the area of cross-cultural communication among

teachers, parents, and students. A chi squared (2) analysis reveals that scores
8
did not differ across the identified schools in the area of cross cultural
communication (2=10.547 < 2crit= 13.28, df= 4, p =0.0332, =0.01). Similar
amalgamated scores were registered across all subsets of the cross-cultural
communication area.
Table 4 (see appendix) displays a tabular representation of teachers perceptions

towards Culturally Diverse Families. A chi squared (2) analysis was performed
across the three identified schools to identify teachers perceptions towards
Culturally Diverse Families. Results show disparity between the three groups of
teachers (2obt=15.868, at 2crit =13.28, p= 0.0032, =0.01). Since 2obt > 2crit, the
three sets of data are significantly different from one another. A closer look
reveals noticeable disparities in the amalgamated scores (see italics) between the
SA/A percentage of school 1 and the SA/A percentage of school 2. Similarly a
noticeable difference in scores is registered between the D/SD segment of school
1 and the D/SD segment of school 2. A 2 test was carried out to examine
difference in responses between school 1 and school 2 show a statistically
significant disparity between the two sets of data (2obt = 9.585 (at 2crit =9.21, p=
0.0083, =0.01), the largest difference being registered in the Disagree/ Strongly
Disagree responses of the two sets of data.
Table 5 (see appendix) gives a tabular representation of the scores obtained

within the area of Multicultural Learning Environment. A 2 test was conducted to
examine whether the three sets of data achieve a level of statistical difference as
this would show that the schools differ statistically from each other. The results
show a 2obt of 5.912 (at 2crit =13.28, p= 0.2058, =0.01) and hence 2obt < 2crit
which means that the three sets of data do not differ significantly from each
other.
Table 6 (see appendix) shows a quantitative representation of Assessment Criteria

as one of the factors which constitute Awareness of cultural differences in the
classroom. A 2 test was used to test whether the three sets of data differ
significantly from each other. The test revealed that there are no statistically
significant differences between the three sets of data 2obt =5.222 (at 2crit =13.28,
p= 0.2652, =0.01).
Discussion
Multicultural self-awareness among 196 in-service school teachers (teaching 11-
16 year olds) was determined using the CDAI (Henry, 1986, adapted). The
inventory measures five areas of multicultural awareness: cultural awareness,
culturally diverse families, cross-cultural communication, creating a
multicultural environment and assessment.
In the area of cultural awareness in the classroom, more than half of respondents in
schools 1 and 3, agreed/ strongly agreed with the statements outlined in the
questionnaire. A statistically significant outcome resulted in school 2 (2obt =
15.101, at 2crit = 9.21), with the majority of responses falling within the neutral
category (41.6%). These responses indicated uncertainty among participants (in
school 2), with the statements my culture is different from the pupils I teach
9
(44%) and I prefer to work with children whose culture is similar to mine (46%)
scoring neutral as their highest response. It is also noted that teachers teaching in
school 2 attended the least number of inset courses (with 85% having only
attended to nil or 1 course during their teaching experience). The results
highlight the need for importance for professional development opportunities
(Kea, Trent, & Davis, 2002) as vital steps towards the effective integration of
cultural awareness and classroom practice. Studies such as this one show that
teachers are still struggle(ing) to inclusion of multicultural students even
though enthused by the principles of National Minimum Curriculum
(Giordmaina, 2000).
In the area of Cross Cultural Communication teachers in the three schools

surveyed perceived this area as being a particularly important precept in Cross
cultural Awareness. In particular, the statement Avoiding communication with
parents through phone calls, e-mails, text messages etc registered similar results
with teachers in all three schools disagreeing with the statement, (school 1 =
72%, school 2= 46%, school 3= 41%). Of particular note is the fact that 56% of
teachers in the school located in the Southern European region reported a
neutral response to the statement Uncomfortable with people who speak non-
standard English, indicating that some teachers might feel uncomfortable when
interacting with people of different cultures.
In the area of Culturally Diverse Families data from school 2 shows that the
statement Parents should have a say in the schools academic program
achieved neutral responses in 65% of respondents. Of particular significance is
the statement When scheduling a meeting with a parent I take into account
cultural differences where a disagreement level of 50% (school 2) as opposed to
7% in school 1 and 37% in school 3. This highlights the different levels of
perceived awareness among teachers from different countries. International
symposia could be arranged to discuss the disparity between levels and to forge
the way forward as to how to reduce these disparities. Policy makers need to
restudy the outcome of these statements and repeat the study using other factors
in order to get a clearer picture as to what gives rise to higher or lower levels of
awareness towards culturally diverse families.
In the area of Multicultural Learning Environment the three schools presented
similar results. This illustrates the commitment of the school to foster a
Multicultural Learning Environment which is concomitant with the principles of
multicultural education and teachers are cultivat(ing) interest in the dynamics
which make up a multicultural class (Vassallo, 2008). Also, teachers in all three
schools demonstrated knowledge of their students cultures, as well as the
infusion of culturally sensitive pedagogy and materials (Pope & Wilder,
2005).
In the area of Assessment Criteria, statistical analysis shows that there are no
statistical differences between the three schools. All subsets tend to follow a
general consensus towards a need to look through the lenses of multicultural
students when it comes to the assessment criteria of students from diverse
origins. However the results do not give any indication as to the present state of

10
assessment procedures as to how and to what extent are cultural differences

taken into consideration. Focus groups consisting of professionals from different
countries could delve into such matters and come up with proposals which help
better understanding in matters of assessment.
Limitations of the study

A number of limitations could have hindered the outcomes of this study. The
data of this study was not collected randomly, but from preselected schools and
this makes it difficult to generalize. Since the study is a singular one, participants
can in no way be construed as being representative of a particular culture but
rather as belonging to a mix of cultures. A replication of the current study in
different countries using the current (or other) instruments would yield more
data on which to base future policies. Lastly, as with all studies requiring self-
reporting, the results are limited by the participants responses. Participants
may have felt the need to provide answers which the researcher was looking for,
rather than what they believed to be true. Also, the study proposed only a
quantitative means of investigation. The inclusion of a qualitative component
(such as video conferencing) could well have served to bridge possible
discrepancies and provide triangulation of evidence. It could also serve to tap
other aspects of cultural awareness not present in the instrument.
This study was based on the Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory (CDAI),
restricted in five cultural awareness areas which are by no means exclusive.
Hence, further research could include other areas in the range of cultural
awareness. Future research needs to include larger samples so that it could
provide more accurate and complete data. In addition, research should also
include data from preschool, primary and secondary schools so that a more
accurate picture could be studied
Conclusions and Suggestions for Further Research

Overall results show agreement between the three identified schools in the areas
of cross- cultural communication, multicultural learning environment and
assessment criteria, but differed in the areas of cultural awareness in the
classroom and culturally diverse families. Lack of research focusing on
multicultural awareness among in-service school teachers is evident. More
research needs to be conducted focusing on the awareness of in-service teachers.
Future teacher education programs and courses need to focus on preparing
teachers for the challenge of using their awareness to improve on their
pedagogical practices and be culturally tuned with their students background.
Also, further research on teachers awareness would provide educational
stakeholders with opportunities to identify factors which lead to increased (or
decreased) levels of awareness. It is hoped that the study has helped to bridged
the gap which exists in research on cultural awareness among in-service school
teachers.

11
Appendix
Table 1: Tabular representation of schools and number of teachers as separated by

Gender, Years of experience and Number of Inset Courses attended.
Gender
School 1, n=54 School 2, n=48 School 3, n=94
Males Females Males Females Males Females
n=19 n=35 n=20 n=28 n=18 n=76
(35%) (65%) (48%) (52%) (19%) (81%)
Years of teaching experience
0-5 6-10 11+ 0-5 6-10 11+ 0-5 6-10 11+
n=18 n=23 n=13 n=6 n=29 n=13 n=12 n=15 n=49
33% 43% 24% 8% 60% 27% 13% 16% 52%
Number of Inset courses
0-1 2-3 4+ 0-1 2-3 4+ 0-1 23 4+
n=35 n=19 n=0 n=41 n=6 n=13 n=52 n=15 n=27
65% 35 % 0% 85%* 13% 2% 55% 17% 29%
* = referred to in discussion section.
Table 2: Cultural Awareness in the classroom.
Area/ School School 1 School 2 School 3

Number (n = 54) (n = 48) (n= 94)
(Northern (Southern Europe) (Central
America ) Australia)
Cultural SA/ N D/ SA/ N D/S SA/A N D/
Awareness in A (%) SD A (%) D (%) (%) SD
the classroom (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Perceived 39 10 5 19 21 8 71 11 12
cultural (72) (19) (9) (40) (44)* (17) (76) (12) (13)
difference
12
between
teacher and
pupil.
Importance of 34 12 8 29 18 1 65 23 6
identifying (63) (22) (15) (60) (38) (3) (69) (25) (6)
immediately
with the
ethnic
composition
of pupils
I prefer to 34 18 2 12 22 14 25 44 25
work with (63) (33) (4) (25) (46)* (29) (27) (47) (27)
children
whose culture
is similar to
mine.
I prefer to 35 17 2 15 19 14 39 19 36
work with (65) (32) (4) (31) (40) (29) (42) (20) (38)
parents whose
culture is
similar to
mine.
Amalgamated (66) (26) (8) (39) (42)* (19) (53) (26) (21)
Score
SA/A= Strongly Agree/Agree, N=Neutral, D/SD = Disagree/Strongly Disagree
Table 3: Cross Cultural Communication

Area /School School 1 (n = 54) School 2 (n=48) School 3
Number North America Southern Europe (n=94)
Central Australia
Cross cultural SA/A N D/SD SA/A N D/SD SA/A N D/SD

communication (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Uncomfortable 15 6 33 2 27 19 33 15 46
with people (28) (11) (61) (4) (56) (40) (35) (16) (49)
who speak non-
standard
English.
Avoiding 4 11 39 16 10 22 10 45 39
communication (7) (20) (72) (33) (21) (46) (11) (48) (41)
with parents
through phone
calls, e-mails,
text messages
etc.
Only English 4 14 36 7 11 31 14 35 45
Language (7) (26) (67) (15) (23) (65) (15) (37) (48)

13
should be
thought to
multiethnic
groups
Non-standard 4 11 39 11 17 20 26 33 35
English should (7) (20) (72) (23) (35) (42) (28) (35) (37)
be ignored.
Avoiding 18 10 26 15 17 16 21 28 45
meeting (33) (19) (48) (31) (35) (33) (22) (30) (48)
parents in
public places.
Amalgamated (17) (19) (64) (21) (34) (45) (22) (33) (45)
Score
SA/A= Strongly Agree/Agree, S&S=So and So, D/SD=Disagree/Strongly
Disagree
Table 4: Culturally Diverse Families
Area /School School 1 School 2 School 3

Number (n = 54) (n=48) (n=94)
North America Southern Europe Central Australia
SA/ N D/ SA N D/ SA N D/
Culturally A SD /A SD /A SD
Diverse Families (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Parents should 21 32 1 10 31 7 44 20 30
have a say in the (39) (59) (2) (21) (65)* (15) (47) (21) (32)
schools academic
program.
Frustration when 26 16 12 11 19 18 40 18 36
I meet parents on (48) (30) (22) (23) (40) (38) (43) (19 (38 )
parents day. )
Children are 2 1 51 4 2 42 2 1 91
responsible for (4) (2) (94) (8) (4) (88) (2) (1) (97)
communication
problems
between parents
and teachers.
Teacher should 41 11 1 12 18 18 78 8 8
make program (76) (20) (2) (25) (38) (38) (83) (9) (9)
adaptation to
accommodate
diversity.
Parents know 20 25 9 21 12 15 43 32 19
little about (37) (46) (17) (44) (25) (31) (46) (34) (20)
assessing their
children.
When scheduling 22 28 4 12 14 24 34 33 27
a meeting with a (41) (52) (7)* (25) (29) (50)* (36) (35) (29)*

14
parent I take into

account cultural
differences.
Amalgamated (41) (35) (24) (24) (33) (43) (43) (20) (37)
Score
SA/A= Strongly Agree/ Agree, N=Neither Agree nor Disagree, D/SD =
Disagree/Strongly Disagree
Table 5: Multicultural Learning Environment
Area /School School 1 School 2 School 3

Number (n = 54) (n=48) (n=94)
North America Southern Central
Europe Australia
Multicultural SA/ N D/ SA N D/ SA/ N D/
Learning A SD /A SD A SD
Environment
Displays reflecting 28 20 6 11 29 8 78 10 6
the cultural (52) (37) (11) (23) (60) (17) (83) (11) (6)
composition in the
classroom.
Rotation of 40 12 2 39 2 7 23 42 29
classroom jobs in (74) (22) (4) (81) (4) (15) (25) (45) (32)
the classroom.
Accepting the use of 1 8 45 3 2 43 6 9 79
racist joke. (2) (15) (83) (6) (4) (90) (6) (10) (84)
Expecting the use of 33 14 7 21 13 14 41 29 24

racist jokes. (61) (26) (13) (44) (27) (29) (44) (31) (26)
Teaching of ethnic 21 23 9 23 16 9 13 17 64
customs and (39) (43) (17) (48) (34) (19) (14) (18) (68)
traditions is not the
schools
responsibility.
Responsibility to 31 17 5 13 19 16 49 24 21
provide (57) (32) (9) (27) (40) (33) (52) (26) (22)
opportunities for
children to share
cultural differences

15
Curricular 29 11 14 11 19 18 41 33 20
adaptations to (54) (20) (26) (23) (40) (38) (44) (35) (21)
accommodate
cultural differences.
Amalgamated score (48) (28) (23) (36) (30) (34) (38) (25) (37)
SA/A= Strongly Agree/ Agree, N=Neither Agree nor Disagree, D/SD =
Disagree/Strongly Disagree
Table 6: Assessment Criteria
Area/School Number School 1 School 2 School 3

(n = 54) (n=48) (n=94)
Northern America Southern Europe Central Australia
SA/ N D/ SA N D/ SA/ N D/
Assessment Criteria A SD /A SD A SD
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
Knowledge of 15 16 23 12 18 18 11 9 74
particular culture (28) (30) (43) (25) (38) (38) (12) (10) (79)
affecting ones
expectations of
childrens
performance.
Referring for testing if 3 1 50 4 5 39 13 12 69
learning difficulties (6) (2) (93) (8) (10) (81) (14) (13) (73)
appear to be due to
cultural differences.
Referring for testing if 5 8 41 2 15 31 10 14 70
learning difficulties (9 ) (15) (76) (4) (31) (65) (11) (15) (75)
appear to be due to
linguistic differences.
Adaptations in 22 12 20 28 25 5 41 34 19
standardized (41) (22) (37) (58) (52) (10) (44) (36) (20)
assessments should
be carried out to
accommodate cultural
differences.
Translating an IQ test 9 16 29 12 7 29 15 12 67
in the childs natural (17) (30) (54) (25) (15) (60) (16 ) (13) (71)
language gives the
child an added
advantage over his
peers.
Amalgamated Score (20) (20) (60) (19) (29) (51) (19) (17) (64)

16
Appendix
Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory (CDAI)
Dear teachers,
As part of a transnational study which I am conducting across various schools

around the world I am inviting you to take part in questionnaire aimed at
analysing teachers awareness of cultural diversity. The questionnaire was
adapted from the Cultural Diversity Awareness Questionnaire (Henry, 1986).
This research is anonymous and conducted to the highest of ethical standards.
The data collected from the questionnaire will be used exclusively for research
which the author intends to publish.
You are kindly asked to read the following definitions and then answer the
questionnaire below.
Definition of culture
Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values,

attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations,
concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of
people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.
(http://www.cssforum.com.pk/css-optional-subjects/group-b/sociology/8613-various-
definitions-culture.html, retrieved on 20th March 2013)
Definition of Cultural Diversity
Cultural diversity may be defined as the multiplicity and interaction of cultural

expressions that co-exist in the world and thus enrich the common heritage of humanity"
(International Convention on cultural diversity, adopted by the UNESCO General
Assembly in 2005). Cultural diversity is expressed in the co-existence and exchange of
culturally different practices and in the provision and consumption of culturally
different services and products.
Part 1
Gender (M or F)
Years of Teaching Experience: 0-5 years 6-10 years 11+ years

17
Number of Inset courses on

cultural diversity awareness 0-1 course 2-3 courses 4+
courses
You are now kindly asked to answer these statements as faithfully as possible
keeping in mind the definitions above. Since this is an online form you are
kindly asked to underline your preference ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to
5 (Strongly Agree).
Part 2
1) My culture is different from some of the pupils I teach.
1 2 3 4 5
2) It is important to identify immediately the ethnic composition of the

pupils I teach.
1 2 3 4 5
3) I prefer to work with children whose culture is similar to mine.
1 2 3 4 5
4) I prefer to work with parents whose culture is similar to mine.
1 2 3 4 5
5) I feel uncomfortable in settings with people who speak non-standard

English.
1 2 3 4 5
6) I avoid communication with parents (whose culture is different from

mine) through mobile calls, e-mails, text messages etc.
1 2 3 4 5
7) Only English Language should be thought to multiethnic groups.
1 2 3 4 5
8) Non-standard English should be ignored.
1 2 3 4 5
9) I avoid meeting parents (whose culture is different from mine) in public

places.
1 2 3 4 5
10) Parents (whose culture is different from mine) should have a say in the
schools academic program.
18
1 2 3 4 5
11) I experience frustration when I meet parents (whose culture is

different from mine)
1 2 3 4 5
12) Children are responsible for communication problems between parents

and teachers.
1 2 3 4 5
13) Teacher should make program adaptation to accommodate diversity.
1 2 3 4 5
14) Parents (whose culture is different from mine) know little about
assessing their children.
1 2 3 4 5
15) When scheduling a meeting with a parent (whose culture is different

from mine), I take into account cultural differences.
1 2 3 4 5
16) Classroom displays should be inclusive of all cultures.
1 2 3 4 5
17) A scheduled routine should be carefully constructed to include all

children in classroom jobs.
1 2 3 4 5
18) In a class different ethnic composition I would accept the use of racist
jokes.
1 2 3 4 5
19) In a class of different ethnic composition I would expect the use of racist
jokes.
1 2 3 4 5
20) The teaching of ethnic customs and traditions is not the schools

19
responsibility.
1 2 3 4 5
21) It is my responsibility to provide opportunities for children to share

cultural differences in foods, dress, family life and/or beliefs.
1 2 3 4 5
22) Curricular adaptations should be made to accommodate cultural

differences.
1 2 3 4 5
23) Ones knowledge of particular culture should affect ones expectations

of the childrens performance.
1 2 3 4 5
24) A child should be referred for testing if learning difficulties appear

to be due to cultural differences.
1 2 3 4 5
25) A child should be referred for testing if learning difficulties appear

to be due to linguistic differences.
1 2 3 4 5
26) Adaptations in standardized assessments should be carried out to

accomodate cultural differences.
1 2 3 4 5
27) Translating an IQ test in the childs natural language gives the child
an added advantage over his peers.
1 2 3 4 5

20
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23

Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 23-43, August 2014
A Multicultural view of Mathematics

Male-teachers at Israeli Primary Schools
Eti Gilad and Shosh Millet

Achva Academic College
POB Shikmim 79800, Israel
Abstract. This study explores motives and role perception of primary school
male-teachers who are Israeli-born, Ethiopians, immigrants from the former
Soviet Union and Bedouins and are teaching mathematics at the south of
Israel. The research method is based on qualitative-interpretive approach of
case study type. The results illustrate common features of all teachers and at
the same time differences between the cultural groups. The contribution of
this study to mathematics teacher education resides in understanding
motives and role perception of primary school male-teachers. It is
recommended building teacher education programs which highlight the
valued-social aspect, mathematics content knowledge and pedagogical
knowledge.
Key words: men as teachers; multiculturalism; choice to teach; mathematics

teaching in primary school.
1. Introduction
Feminization of the education system is increasingly growing both in Israel and
abroad. In Israel the average percentage of male-teachers at schools in the Jewish
sector is 19%. The highest percentage of male-teachers work at secondary school
(30%) and the lowest at primary school (9%). In the Arab sector, the percentage of
male-teachers amounts to 48% on average, 63% at secondary school and 43% at
primary school. In teacher education institutions, 18% of the pre-service teachers
[hereinafter: students] are men and these rates have been maintained on a similar
level along the years (Ministry of Education, 2012).
The small number of male-teachers is an issue of concern among policy makers and
education researchers around the world. Many researchers (Gilad & Millet, 2010)
argue that men should fulfill a more significant role in education in general and in
primary education in particular. This will provide a balanced response to the
feminine environment and eliminate the gender stereotype through alternate

24
models of role models among male learners. Men should function as educational
role models with the purpose of reducing disciplinary events and improving boys'
academic attainments (Connell, 2001). The need for male role models at school is
particularly prominent at primary school ages and it becomes even greater with the
increase in the number of single parent households. Furthermore, male teachers are
necessary in order to promote gender equality in the education system. The
requirement to narrow the gender gap between male and female teachers in the
education system is in line with the need for multicultural education, designed to
offer equal educational opportunities to learners from a different ethnic, racial,
cultural and social origin. Schools should reflect the communities in which they
operate (Lameiras et al., 2006; Banks, & Banks, 2009; Gilad & Millet 2010; Ministry of
Education, 2012). This study aims to explore the characteristics of the motives of
choice and the teaching perception of men from different cultures in Israel who
have opted to engage in primary school mathematics teaching.
2. Theoretical background
2.1 Motives for choosing the teaching profession
Numerous studies explored students' motives for choosing the teaching profession
as a career. Generally speaking, researchers tend to divide these motives into
extrinsic (wages, stable occupation, status and prestige, convenient working hours
and holidays, influence of family members and teachers); intrinsic(natural aptitude
for teaching, academic capability, love for children, pleasure derived from
teaching); altruistic (wish to contribute to society, help children/adolescents, wish
to be social change agents in the community) (DeCorse & Vogtle, 1997;
Papanastasiou & Papanastasiou, 1997;Seng Yong, 1995; Su, 1996; Zembylas &
Papanastasiou, 2005).
The social and cultural context can considerably impact students' motives for
choosing the teaching profession as a career. For example, factors associated with
wages were the most influential in choosing teaching as a profession in Zimbabwe
(Chivore, 1988). Similarly, Seng Yong (1995) investigated the motives for choosing
the teaching profession as a career in Brunei Darussalam. The students he
interviewed attributed the greatest importance to external factors (e.g. lack of other
options of learning subjects, influence of others, wages, stable occupation and
convenient hours).Moreover, Seng Yong (1995) points out that,
the motives for choosing the teaching profession are greatly affected
by the status of this profession in industrial or developed countries
teachers no longer have the status they enjoyed in the past and teaching
is not perceived as a distinguished career or a means for social mobility
(p. 278).
@2014 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved

25
A study conducted by a Cypriot couple of researchers (Papanastasiou &

Papanastasiou, 1997( investigated the motives of American versus Cypriot students
for choosing the teaching profession. The study found that the American students
considered the internal motives as the most important whereas external motives
such as benefits and professional prestige were deemed most important by their
Cypriot counterparts. Differences in motives for choosing the teaching profession,
stemming from a different cultural-occupational context, are also prevalent among
students in the same country who belong to different ethnic groups (Ford
&Grantham, 2003). For example, Su (1996) interviewed Caucasian and minority
group students in California. About one third of the minority group students (as
compared to none of the Caucasian students) viewed themselves as social change
agents.
2.2 The education system from a multicultural point of view

Various cultures are encompassed in the Israeli society. This demographic
differentiation requires a flexible system which complies with the cultural mosaics
and the Ministry of Education policy (Millet, Golan & Dikman, 2012).
The Arab and Bedouin education in Israel
Education in the Arab sector has undergone changes since the establishment of the
State of Israel. During the first years of statehood, there were only a very few
schools in the entire Arab sector and only a small number of people studied in
higher education institutions. Gradually, more and more kindergartens and schools
were established, catering to learners from the 1st 12th grades and offering varied
options on the secondary school levels agricultural, technological-vocational and
theoretical pathways. Moreover, higher education in Jewish and Arab institutions
became available to the Arab population in Israel. The place of girls in the Arab
education system has been expanding since the establishment of the state. However,
only in the last decade women enrolled in higher education institutions (Abu-Saad,
2005; Pessate-Schubert, 2003; Zeydan, Alian & Thorn, 2007).
Compared to the entire Arab sector, the Bedouin are viewed as a group which has
adhered to customs and traditions of the Arab-Muslim culture for the longest
period of time. The Statistical Yearbook of the Negev Bedouin (Center of Bedouin
Studies &Development of the Negev,2010) illustrates that, in the past, due to the
nomadic way of life hardly any schools developed within the Bedouin community.
During the period of the British Mandate (1921-1948), the first schools were set up
among the major tribes and only sons of rich sheiks studied there. With the
establishment of the State of Israel, only 150 Bedouin children went to school and
the number of educated people in the Bedouin sector was extremely small. In 1981,
the Minister of Education and Culture appointed an "Education Authority for the
Negev Bedouin". It was in charge of municipal management of those schools which
operated outside the jurisdiction of any local and regional authority. The objective

26
was to narrow the gaps between the Bedouin education system in permanent
settlements and in concentrations of nomad Bedouin population constituting over
one third of the entire Bedouin population in the Negev. Out of the teachers
working in the Negev Bedouin sector, about 30% are not local. In the past, Arab
teachers used to come to the south without any experience and after acquiring
minimal competences they would go back to their place of residence in the north,
entailing a very high teacher mobility. However, in recent years, this trend has been
undergoing a change due to the fact that Bedouin women have been joining the
teaching profession (Ministry of Education, 2012).
Education and Ethiopian immigrants in Israel
The process of absorbing Ethiopian immigrants in the various educational

frameworks met with many difficulties. Studies mainly conducted by Szold
Institute and the Institute for the Nurturing of Education, Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, point out the following complications: reading comprehension, social
problems between Ethiopian children and children who have lived in Israel for
many years; problems in the learning process, e.g. independent work, initiative,
imagination, concentration, request for help, teachers' attitude. Moreover, there is a
rather high percentage of 1st graders who have problems of learning and acquiring
a language, thinking, learning and communication skills as well as attitude towards
time, environment and authority (Ben-Ezer, 2002).The entirety of changes and
processes of the information revolution and technological development have
obliged the education system to apply renewed and creative thinking relating to the
place and role of teacher education programs. These programs are designed to
prepare the heterogeneous learner population for professional training and
integration in an educated and advanced society (Cochran-Smith, 2000).
The concept of pluralism and education for multiculturalism embodied in the

training formats is manifested by the development of unique education programs
for Ethiopians. The fundamental assumption underlying the need to initiate an
Ethiopian teacher education pathway is offering a population from a difference
background, culture and socio-economic status an equal opportunity for studying,
acquiring a profession and joining the labor market (Millet & Gilad, 2004).
Furthermore, in recent years, we have witnessed a high demand for educating
Ethiopian pre-service teachers. Out of approximately 130 000 teachers working in
the education system from kindergarten to secondary school, only about 150
Ethiopian teachers were integrated, 62 of them in kindergartens (Ministry of
Education, 2012).
Education of immigrants from the former Soviet Union
Since the beginning of the 1990s, with the renewed immigration waves from the
former Soviet Union, immigrants' absorption has been defined as a national
challenge and normative value in the Israeli society. This placed the education

27
system as a framework committed by its very essence to play a major role in making
this process succeed. Recently, both primary and secondary schools have
successfully absorbed teachers from the former Soviet Union who have a high self-
image as mathematics teachers. In order to help these teachers to join the labor
market, the Ministry of Education initiated courses for immigrant-teachers. In these
courses the teachers study the culture and history of the People of Israel and the
State of Israel. In addition, they acquire teaching methods as well as pedagogy
associated with their subject of specialization in the former Soviet Union,
mathematics in our case (Patkin & Gesser, 2002).
Immigrant teachers from the former Soviet Union attest that mathematics teaching
in Israel differs from mathematics teaching in their country of origin. They
emphasized that discipline in class was different and they believed it was a
prerequisite for promoting learners' attainments and managing lessons in the best
way (Levenberg & Patkin, 2001). Michael & Shimoni (1994) characterized the
immigrant-teachers from the former Soviet Union by the following features: a.
personal details indicating high academic education and previous experience in
teaching; b. pedagogical approaches which highlight frontal teaching,
memorization, strict discipline as well as mainly enhancing the achievements of the
prominent learners in the class; c. difficulty to be integrated in free and open
frameworks in the educational space. Recently, after a 2-decade absorption process,
the emerging picture is of a reality whereby teachers from the former Soviet Union
succeed in mathematics teaching and functions at school, creating a highly positive
image among their Israeli-born colleagues, the children and the parents
(Rosenbaum-Tamari, 2004).
2.3 Mathematics education at primary school
Mathematics is a complex subject and stereotypically perceived as difficult and

challenging. Mathematics teachers are required already at primary school to be
versed not only in mathematical but also to have pedagogical-content knowledge
and be acquainted with learners' ways of thinking (Casas, Verissimo et al.,2012;
NCTM, 1989, 1991). Mathematical foundations are necessary for everyone in
modern society, even if they do not become mathematicians or scientists (Harari,
1992). Hence, children should learn and understand mathematics already at
primary school. The teachers who are responsible for the way the pupils'
mathematical knowledge is built at the beginning of their way, should be
specialized in teaching the subject of mathematics. Furthermore, making
mathematics lessons at primary school attractive and creative, combined with
games and humor, is essential to a successful lesson and promotion of attainments.
This contradicts the common and perceived opinion of mathematics teachers who
find themselves in a race to meet the standards of the School Effectiveness and
Growth Indices(Ministry of Education, 2009). In Israel, mathematics has recently
become one of the central issues on the public agenda. This is mainly due to the fact
that scores of international tests show that Israeli pupils are not ranked high among
28
the countries who take these tests. Teachers undoubtedly have strong influence on
the way pupils learn mathematics and teacher education has definitely an essential
role in the pupils' ability to learn (Casas, Verissimo et al., 2012; NCTM, 1991).
The Ministry of Education (2009) maintains that the key to promoting mathematics
education resides in the quality of teachers. Consequently and based on the Harari
Report ("Tomorrow 98"), a mathematics professionalization program for primary
school was implemented in 2002 all over the country. The program aimed to enrich
mathematical knowledge, introduce innovative mathematics teaching methods and
thus improving academic achievements of the education system learners. Nesher &
Hershkovitz (2004) present three main dilemmas in the professional education of
mathematics teachers at school: a. gap between pedagogical and content knowledge
the content knowledge of mathematics teachers at primary school level is limited
to what they have learnt in the past and to a small amount of knowledge acquired
during the teacher education program. They are more specialized in primary school
pedagogy; b. the gap between teaching objectives and teacher's feelings teachers
who attend in-service mathematics training courses engage more in mathematical
knowledge rather than being involved in an experiential and successful
mathematical learning; c. the gap between mathematics and the elitist perceptions
of the subject mathematics is perceived as a subject destined for few people and
only the gifted and good pupils are successful in mathematics teaching. Based on
these beliefs, teachers encounter difficulties in promoting all children in class
(Nesher, 2012). Another study (Jasmine & Marcy, 2011) illustrates that the entry of
primary school mathematics teachers into a pedagogical world re-shaped according
to the reform in mathematics, is associated with building their professional identity.
The study presents three cases out of a class of primary school mathematics teacher
education. In the described cases which occurred in the United States, the tutors
offer new definitions to the role of "teacher" and "child". The students discuss the
new models of identity and mathematical terms and implement the role definition
in various ways (Jasmine & Marcy, 2011).
In addition to the above dilemmas and in order to comprehend the complex state of
mathematics education, we should understand the different approaches to
mathematics education at primary school since it is the basis for the degree of
success further on in the learning process. According to Yona (2011), the approaches
to mathematics education are: the West-European approach, inquiry approach,
discrete values approach and mediating approach. The West-European approach -
underscores the principles of systematics, practice and memorization. The inquiry
approach highlights the principle of thinking and finding multiple ways for
solving problems and mathematical exercises by learning out of pleasure. The
discrete values approach underscores the principle of finding structured models
not in the natural environment of solutions, instead of a direct and simple learning.
The mediating approach emphasizes the principle of mediation whereby an
interactive process takes place between pupils and teachers. The objectives

29
according to this approach are: building thinking constructs, learning habits and
developing the learners' potential capabilities, developing mathematical literacy,
consistency, awareness of processes, flexibility according to pupils' needs and
involving the children in the learning process.
Research question
What are the characteristics of the motives for choice and teaching perceptions of
men from various cultures in Israel who have opted to engage in mathematics
teaching at primary school?
3. Methodology
3.1 Research method
The research method of this study is qualitative-interpretive of the case study type.
A case study is used in teaching and learning research. One of the important
advantages of a case study is its ability to provide insights about incidents in the
contexts and physical sites where they transpire. Cultural and social incidents can
be fully understood only if they are studied from the participants' point of view and
from the way those actively involved see them. Data collected from the participants
can in fact be depicted as insufficient. However, they definitely facilitate
comprehension and understanding of the thoughts and feelings of a small group as
well as of their attitude and approach (Shkedi, 2005; Smolicz & Secombe, 1990).
3.2 Research population
The research population consists of eight male-teachers who teach mathematics at

primary school. The teachers represent different cultures, two teachers from each
culture: Israeli-born, Ethiopians, immigrants from the former Soviet Union and
Bedouins.
Our decision to focus on in-service teachers is based on the assumption that they
have experienced teaching for at least two years. They are capable of relating to the
teaching and multicultural perception of themselves as being shaped out of the
point of view of personal experience. The participants were between 28-62 years old
and their seniority ranged between 2-19 years. Two teachers, one from the former
Soviet Union and the other a Bedouin, have made a career change to teaching. One
of the Israeli-born teachers is religious, defining himself as a teacher in a religious
school. All the teachers work at the south of Israel and have been randomly chosen.
3.3 Research tools

30
In order to identify the motives for choice and the professional perception of
mathematics teaching at primary school we used a semi-structured in-depth
interview. The interview questions focused on: a. the teachers' personal
background, the motives for choosing their profession and their attitude towards
the different motives leading them to make the decision to study teaching and
education; b. the teachers' teaching perceptions and mainly what does 'being a
mathematics male-teacher at primary school' mean for them; c. the teachers'
perception of mathematics teaching seen from the perspective of the culture from
which they come.
3.4 Research procedure
Collecting the data about the motives for choice and professional perception of the
male-teachers was performed through personal interviews. The interviews were
conducted by the researchers, after randomly dividing the participants between
them. This procedure was done in order to prevent bias. The interviews were in
Hebrew and took place at an Academic College of Education. Each interview lasted
about an hour. The interview built for the purpose of this study is based on the
study of Millet (2001).
3.5 Data processing
The interviews were content analyzed as is customary in qualitative research

(Shkedi, 2005). The categories were defined on the basis of previous studies which
investigated the motives for choosing the teaching profession and perceptions of
mathematics teaching at primary school (Gilad & Millet, 2010). A qualitative-
interpretive content analysis was performed on the open-ended interview
questions. The categories were obtained after the researchers concurred about them
at a level of agreement of no less than 67%. The analysis was performed on the
following levels: the single interview level, the ethnic group level and the entire
participant group level (Shkedi, 2005).
4. Results
4.1 Perception of mathematics teaching and motives for choice of mathematics
male-teachers at primary school
The interviews analysis illustrated features which were common to all the male-
teachers investigated in this study. Moreover, the interviews showed differences
between the cultural groups with regard to the teachers' motives for choice and
their perception of being mathematics teachers at primary school.
Results common to all the investigated male-teachers

31
All the investigated mathematics male-teachers indicated more than one motive for
choosing to teach mathematics at primary school. They also specified varied
perceptions. The entirety of the mentioned motives and perceptions can be divided
into three categories:
a. Extrinsic perceptions and motives: wages, stable occupation, occupational

status, professional prestige as it is perceived in the Israeli society, influence of
family members and teachers.
b. Intrinsic perceptions and motives: love for mathematics, high academic
competence in mathematics, natural gift for mathematics teaching, love for the
children, pleasure derived from mathematics teaching.
c. Ideological-altruistic perceptions and motives: wish to contribute to society,
wish to help learners to cope with mathematics learning, reducing fear of this
subject, wish to be valued-social change agents in the community by
demonstrating the beauty embodied in mathematics.
Reference to the teaching method was also common to all the investigated teachers.
They believed that different teaching approaches should be adopted according to
different pupil populations in order to obtain high attainments, in spite of the
obstacle of the School Effectiveness and Growth Indices and the standards. That is,
individual, group and whole class work as well as combination of various
approaches prevalent in mathematics education, such as memorization and practice,
inquiry and mediating approaches.
Results according to cultures
Below is a description of the perception of mathematics teaching and motives for

choice among Bedouins, Ethiopians, immigrants from the former Soviet Union and
Israeli-born teachers.
4.2 Bedouin teachers' perception of mathematics teaching at primary school

and motives for choosing the teaching profession
Among the Bedouin teachers, the role perception and motives for choosing the
profession were both extrinsic and intrinsic.
Stable occupation
The perception and motives found in the Bedouin sector were the need for finding a
stable occupation as well as limited career options for male high school graduates.
For example, one of the teachers said: "I chose to become a mathematics teacher
because I had no other option. I could not actualize my dream to study
pharmacology abroad and if I have decided to teach, then teaching mathematics
is very distinguished".

32
Or a second teacher told: "I studied construction engineering and did not find
myself and I switched to teaching and then the career change is the nearest to the
subject of mathematics".
Natural inclinations and wish to help others
The two teachers pointed out that for them being a mathematics teachers implies
being meaningful to the learners. One teacher said: "I view myself as someone who
delivers a very valuable material to the pupils there is an important part in
consolidating a better future for my pupils so that they can cope with life
mathematics is a unique and special language I like mathematics and I love
teaching mathematics. Working as a teacher gives me great satisfaction, pleasure
and motivation".
The second teacher explained: "For me, being a mathematics teacher means
promoting the pupils and preparing them for academic studies Mathematics
constitutes an 'entrance ticket' to university I teach them techniques for solving
problems and exercises, we practice logical thinking and building a connection
between comprehending mathematical text and the solution technique".
The words of the two Bedouin teachers attest to the wish to be a social leader and
help others. The wish to be a socialization agent is illustrated much more
emphatically by the second teacher: " first of all I have the inclination to teach
and, thus, to introduce changes for the better within society. I see that our society,
the sector in which I live, needs good teachers and particularly teachers of
mathematics since mathematics is the basis for everything Moreover, it is highly
considered in the Bedouin society".
4.3 Ethiopian teachers' perception of mathematics teaching at primary school

and motives for choosing the teaching profession as a career
Among the Ethiopian men the extrinsic perceptions and motives were prominent.
Past teachers and home-class teachers as a role model
The Ethiopian teachers indicated that when they chose the teaching profession they
were influenced by the figure of their past teachers. One teacher told that: "As a new
immigrant I had a mathematics teacher who was interesting and the subject was
exciting. I asked myself if I could be like her. She made me fall in love with
mathematics I have a challenge to become a mathematics teacher to influence
my learners at primary school".
A second teacher said that he was influenced by his father who encouraged him to
become a teacher: "Father is a dominant figure at home and he inspired me to
become a mathematics teacher. Father who worked in the municipality in Ethiopia

33
understood the importance of education and the importance of being a mathematics

teacher at primary school which is the basis for success in life".
Pride for the Ethiopian ethnic group
The Ethiopian teachers who participated in this study maintained that it was
important to be mathematics teachers and, especially, at primary school. One of
teachers claimed: "I am going to be a role model for the young generation, for the
community. They can be proud of themselves when they see Ethiopian teachers,
mainly mathematics teachers the children have something to strive for they will
also want to become mathematics teachers and it is important both for the Ethiopian
society and the Israeli society".
The second teacher expressed himself in similar words: "I set a challenge to my
pupils at school, a challenge to be like me, a mathematics teacher, a challenge which
is feasible. If I succeeded so could they. You don't have to be afraid of mathematics".
Being a mathematics teacher wins a lot of respect
The Ethiopian mathematics teachers indicated that one of the motives for choosing
teaching as a profession is respect, particularly for mathematics teaching. Among
Ethiopian immigrants, both in Ethiopia and Israel, teaching has been perceived as a
respectable profession and teachers have always been appreciated. Along these
lines, one of the teachers said: "In Ethiopia I studied until the age of 15 and there
teachers were very respected. I always thought that I would like to be teacher
because teachers were respected by everyone. Teachers are highly respected, even
more than the parents Teachers are something special and mathematics teachers
even more so".
Role perception by male-teachers
Based on the experience they have accumulated during the teacher education
program and in public and communal work, the Ethiopian teachers are quite
confident of their success as teachers and home-class teachers in future.
One of the teachers reiterated: "I have something to sell, I know my value. I see
myself at the center of matters at school and am confident that I will succeed". He
added that: "In Ethiopia I was not acquainted with many Ethiopian female-teachers
and most of the teachers were men. Also here in Israel I believe that a home-class
teacher should be a man. When you teach mathematical contents the gender of the
teacher is not important. But home-class teachers should be men.
4.4 Perception of mathematics teaching at primary school and motives for

choosing the teaching profession as a career among teachers from the
former Soviet Union

34
Among the men from the former Soviet Union the intrinsic perceptions and motives
were prominent.
Mathematical excellence
The teachers indicated the relation between being immigrants from the former
Soviet Union and being mathematics teachers at primary school.
One of the teachers said: "After working as an engineer with a 30-year background
in the electronics industry, I decided to make a career change and chose
mathematics, a subject in which I can be integrated without having to acquire the
lacking knowledge my skills and learning habits allowed me to come to school
with an authority of knowledge and ambition to encourage my pupils to grow
higher and farther".
The second teacher underscored the importance mathematics has for life and the
importance of mathematics education: "I have the will to educate for excellence in
mathematics and influence the future generation understanding that mathematics
is a main and essential tool for pupils in order to be integrated into society.
Mathematics enables logical thinking and creative thinking and persevering in
mathematics studies is a key to entering the world of higher education".
Self-discipline in learning
The teachers told that, for them, being mathematics teachers means navigating
towards areas in which the pupils would probably develop throughout their adult
lives.
One of the teachers stated that: "In the course of my work I could contribute to my
pupils from the vast experience which I had accumulated while working as an
engineer and now as a mathematics teacher As a learner who studied and was
educated in the Soviet Union I highly consider practice in teaching processes I
require discipline from all the pupils and think that this will help them to study and
make progress".
The second teacher too emphasized that the methods to which he had been exposed
as a learner in the Soviet Union have a record of success: "In my opinion, the way to
success is based on intensive and systematic work with a lot of self-discipline and
responsibility for self-improvement Pupils must understand that they come to
school in order to study and not in order to disturb to study and advance".
Self-image
The results illustrate that teachers from the former Soviet Union maintain they are
specialized in mathematics as far as area of knowledge and teaching methods are
35
concerned. One teacher specified: "Being a mathematics teacher at primary school is

also a symbol of academic prestige because mathematics is the mother of all the
learning and research subjects mathematics is indefinite and unfathomable".
As male-teachers at primary school and in the staff room they feel very 'masculine':
"I know and am aware of my place at school the female-teachers always ask my
advice in the fields of mathematics and pedagogy". The other teacher also relates to
the issue of professional and gender prominence. In his opinion: "I feel like a king in
the chicken coop".
4.5 Israeli-born teachers' perception of mathematics teaching at primary school

and motives for choosing the teaching profession as a career
The Israeli-born teachers emphasized ideology as the main motive for choosing
mathematics teaching as a profession, combined with their wish to influence society
and be change agents in the community.
Ideological motives
The results indicate that all the Israeli-born teachers highlight the ideological motive
in their perception and choice of the teaching profession. They argue that the
teaching profession in general and mathematics teaching at primary school in
particular will allow them to influence and change.
According to one of the teachers: "First and foremost comes the need to change and
influence and this should already start at primary school I don't know if it is
associated with my character or the society in which I grew up or the environment
where I have lived all the years. But I am deeply concerned with what is transpiring
in the western Israeli society of the years 2000 I think that education and the
subject of mathematics carry a great weight in changing and improving our society.
As a future father I want my children to grow up in a better place". This teacher told
that when he was at school he had the opportunity to enjoy good education: "I chose
mathematics teaching at primary school mainly due to ideological reasons. I like
working with children. I am not interested in money although I know that I will
make money in another way (giving private lessons of mathematics and
computers)".
Self-image
The results show that the Israeli-born teachers do not settle for teaching but aspire
to promote themselves to management level. They see teaching as a jumping-board
for management positions in formal and informal frameworks. In light of the
experience they have acquired during the military service and their civilian life,
they feel rather confident of their success as mathematics teachers and home-class
teachers.

36
One of the teachers restated that: "As a man I have advantages over female-teachers.
In the staff room at school I am a single male-teacher, not just a teacher but a
mathematics teacher, so I am highly appreciated and have no competition. I am
more confident in the company of women".
Another teacher expressed himself in a different way: "As a mathematics teacher, I

feel that I am strong, authoritative, dominant I think that a male-teacher is
suitable to primary school I can better control".
A religious teacher describes the relation between mathematics teaching and the
Jewish bookcase. He maintains that: "Mathematics is connected to my spiritual
religious world learning the Gemara (literally 'completion', the second and
supplementary part of the Talmud) which is a highly important layer in the Jewish
bookcase, is entirely based on mathematical-logical thinking study inquiry in the
Gemara is similar in its ways of thinking to the inquiry of a mathematical problem.
Moreover, the Gemara examines all the options for solving the issue while rejecting
some of them based on logical thinking I present Gemara issues in mathematics
lessons, showing the pupils the features which are parallel to mathematical
thinking".
Summary of the results is presented in Table 1.
Table No. 1: Prominent perceptions and motives of primary school mathematics teachers
from a multicultural perspective
Israeli-born Bedouin Ethiopian Immigrants

from the former
Soviet Union
Intrinsic Ideology Love for the Respect for Education for

Change agents subject teachers excellence
motives Change agents Knowledge and
Natural aptitude
for teaching mastery of the
Love for the subject
children
Extrinsic Wages Role model
motives Stability Pride for the
ethnic group
5. Discussion and conclusions
The present study focused on comprehending the educational, familial and

social reality to which the men who chose primary school mathematics
teaching as their occupation were exposed. Moreover, the study
37
demonstrated their perceptions and role. The research assumption was that
the results were significant and beneficial to those educating pre-service
teachers for primary school mathematics teaching and to the professional
development of the latter during their practice as male-teachers.
This study is a case study investigating eight male-teachers from different

cultures. The interviews analysis illustrated common features of all the
research participants. It also showed the differences between the various
cultural groups with regard to perception of teaching and the participants'
motives for choosing to teach mathematics at primary school.
Common features of all the investigated male-teachers
More than one motive for choosing to teach was demonstrated by all the
investigated male-teachers. This result is in line with the professional
literature dealing with male-teachers' perception of teaching and the motives
for choosing this profession (Papanastasiou & Papanastasiou, 1997; Su, 1996).
Most of the male-teachers indicated that figures of male and female teachers
from their past were some of the motives influencing their choice of the
teaching profession. This result is corroborated by a study of novice teachers
(Millet, 2001). All the investigated teachers stated the importance and
prestige of teaching mathematics at primary school. Furthermore, they
pointed out the perception that various teaching methods should be adopted
in accordance with various pupil populations in order to obtain high
attainments (Yona, 2011).
Unique results obtained from the different men groups from a cultural point of view
The social and cultural context can strongly influence teachers' motives for
choosing teaching as a profession and career as well as the role perception of
mathematics teaching.
Bedouin male-teachers the role perception and motives specified by this

group were both extrinsic and intrinsic. As the main motive, they mentioned
the need for stable occupation and the love for mathematics. They added that
teaching mathematics at primary school was their vocation in the Bedouin
society. These results concur with the professional literature about minority
groups and their options for choosing and finding an occupation (Zeydan,
Alian & Thorn, 2007).
Ethiopian male-teachers the Ethiopian teachers also indicated both extrinsic

and intrinsic motives: influence of teachers from their past, perceiving
mathematics teaching as a respectable profession, wish to serve as a role
38
model in the ethnic group and be social change agents in the community.
These results concur with a study conducted among Ethiopian pre-service
teachers (Millet & Gilad, 2004).
Male-teachers from the former Soviet Union these teachers underscored the
intrinsic perceptions and motives. The results corroborate studies of teachers
from the former Soviet Union in general and mathematics teachers in
particular (Levenberg & Patkin, 2001; Michael & Shimoni, 1994).
Israeli-born male teachers these teachers emphasized ideology as the main

motive for choosing to teach mathematics at primary school. These results
are in line with a study conducted among Israeli-born, Bedouin and
Ethiopian students (Gilad & Millet, 2010).
This study has implications from several points of view: mathematics

teaching from the cultural aspect, mathematics teaching from the gender
aspect and mathematics teaching in teacher education, in-service training
courses and in the field of education.
The main research conclusions of this study are that the motives and
perceptions of male-teachers choosing to teach mathematics at primary
school are varied, comprising extrinsic, intrinsic and ideological-altruistic
motives and perceptions. Moreover, mathematics male-teachers from
different cultures perceive the subject of mathematics in a different way. The
Israeli society, which constitutes a meeting point of demographic and
cultural differentiation, requires a flexible system in compliance with the
fabric of cultures and the Ministry of Education policy.
Based on the research findings, it is recommended planning teacher

education and professional-mathematical development programs which
highlight the valued-social aspect of the mathematics teaching profession.
Such programs may convince men to choose this profession. As mentioned
before, an increase in the number of male-teachers in the education system
will bring about an educational and social balance in the class and at school,
increasing teachers' prestige in the Israeli society. Moreover, the researchers
recommend investigating further the teaching-learning of primary school
mathematics male-teachers from various cultures. This may constitute a key
to a change in the subject perception and its teaching as well as promote
primary school learners' attainments.

39
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Institute. Retrieved on10.6.12 from
http://portal.macam.ac.il/ArticlePage.aspx?id=4628 [Hebrew]
Zembylas, M., & Papanastasiou, E. C. (2005). Modeling teacher empowerment: The

role of job satisfaction. Educational Research and Evaluation, 11(5), 433-459.
Zeydan, R., Alian, S., & Thorn, Z. (2007). Motives for choosing the teaching
profession among pre-service teachers in the Arab sector. Dapim, 44, 123-143.
[Hebrew]

42
Dr. Eti Gilad Biography
Head of the Research Unit and Head of Education Department at Hemdat

Hadarom Academic College; lecturer in the Department of Education and
Department of Educational Systems Management at Achva Academic
College; lecturer at the School of Education, Bar-Ilan University. Research
fields: gender and feminism, change processes, educational initiatives,
leadership, multicultural education, teacher education, teacher professional
development.
Dr. Shosh Millet Biography
Head of teacher educators' specialization pathway 'A Developing

Dialogue', MOFET Institute; Lecturer in the M.Ed. programs at Achva
Education College; former head of Achva Education College. Research fields:
teacher education, mathematics teaching, multiculturalism, gender,
qualitative research, pedagogical tutoring and instruction at colleges of
education, Professional Development Schools college-school partnerships.

44

Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 44-57, August 2014
Discovery Learning with the Help

of the GeoGebra Dynamic Geometry Software
Trung Tran
Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, Ha Noi, Vietnam
Ngoc-Giang Nguyen
The Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences, Ha Noi, Vietnam
Minh-Duc Bui
Hanoi National University of Education, Ha Noi, Vietnam
Anh-Hung Phan
Vinh University, Nghe An, Vietnam
Abstract. This article gives points of view of discovery learning, the role
of discovery learning and the types of the one in mathematics. Teacher
will give questions so that students themselves form knowledge what
teacher wants to teach through discovery acts. With the help of the
GeoGebra dynamic geometry software, the process of teaching and
learning becomes more effectively. Because the GeoGebra software is
dynamic, it helps discovery learning a lot. This software can allow
teacher and students to find out solutions of geometric problems. It also
can create a lot of new problems. Especially, the GeoGebra software is
free. Thats reason why teacher and students should use the one. In
addition, students will develop technology skills and get mathematical
knowledge easily.
Keywords: Discovery learning; the GeoGebra software; problem-based

learning; technology skills.
1. Introduction
In the 21st century, the creation is one of crucial factors of the process of teaching
and learning. In order to create in the process of teaching and learning, teacher
usually uses a familiar method being discovery learning. This method proves the
activity of students. Nowadays, with the help of technology, the methods of
teaching and learning are changing. With the help of technology, students have
more good and effective leaning methods than traditional ones.
There are authors to research and apply technology to teaching and learning in
Vietnam. For example, T.H. Trinh, he applies the Carbi software to aid
2014 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

45
mathematical teaching and learning (Trinh, 2006). We have applied e-learning to

aid mathematical teaching and learning. This article will refer to an aspect of
active leaning method being discovery learning with the help of the GeoGebra
software.
2. Discovery learning
J. Bruner supposes that the process of learning is a subjective process (Bruner,
1961). Learners form new ideas or new concepts based on knowledge through
this process themselves. Learners select and convert information, form
hypotheses and give their decisions based on the structure of the process of
awareness. He asserts that when learners begin to go to school, learners should
know basic structures of knowledge than know data, information which are
boring and these data and information force learners to memorize a lot. Students
should be motivated and be discovered information freely.
By Bruner, discovery learning occurs when individuals have to use the process
of thought to find out the meaningfulness of something themselves (Bruner,
1961). He gives four reasons for using discovery learning as follow: (i) To make
an impulse of thought, (ii) to develop inner motivation than outer motivation,
(iii) to learn the way of discovery and (iv) to develop thought (Bruner, 1961).
For the first reason: Bruner suppose that, an individual himself only can learn and
develop his mind by using this method (Bruner, 1961).
For the second reason: He believes that, if teacher is successful with this method,
learners feel satisfied with what they did. Students get the stimulations of
intellectualness satisfactorily. Inner award is inner motivation. Teacher usually
acts on outside through compliments, outer award. If teacher wants learners to
find motivation or real amenities in learning, he must build methods or systems,
that make learners themselves satisfactorily, than outer motivation. Internal
force has the crucial role of the successfulness or unsuccessfulness of an
individual learning.
For the third reason: He emphasizes that, the only way, which learners learn
discovery techniques, is what they must have opportunities to discover.
Learners will learn the organization and performing of their researches
gradually through the discovery.
For the fourth reason: He suppose that, one of the best results of the discovery
method is to aid learners mind better, learners maintain their mind enduringly.
If learners think about something which they thought and compare with given
information then what learners thought is still in their mind although they
learned long ago while the concepts, which learners are provided, disappeared.
The documents, which are used for analyzing and going to the result, are still
fresh in learners mind, moreover, these documents make learners remember
their forgotten concepts.
By G. Petty, there are two approaches in teaching which are : Teaching by

explaining and teaching by asking questions (Petty, 2000).

46
In teaching by explaining, students are learned new knowledge. Students must use
and memorize these new knowledge. In teaching by asking questions, teacher gives
questions or gives exercises so that students themselves find out new knowledge
(Although, there are still special guides and preparations). This new knowledge
is corrected and stated by teacher. Discovery with guides is an example of this
approach. Discovery learning is only used if learners can follow the new lesson
from the knowledge and experiences themselves.
The author notes that, to find information in books is not a discovery learning
and he emphasizes: Discovery acts are usually progressed by groups. They
require learners to have high thought techniques in order to find out new things.
Because learners themselves find problems, the learning has a high quality. Each
of members of this group can provide a piece of puzzle of his understanding
on the researching topic.
G. Petty also refers to the strength of the discovery method (if we use rightly)
being (Petty, 2000):
It is active and it motivates students to join in the process of learning. It is high

encouraged and funny. The questions make students increase their
understanding and amenities for the subject. Students themselves must find
out about, i.e, students themselves catch the problem which they are learning.
As a result, learners will understand the problem, the relation between it and the
pre-lesson and learners remember the lesson for a long time. This method makes
students have good thought: evaluation, judgment thought, problem solving,
analysis, synthesis, etc. Conversely, teacher-centered methods usually direct
students to skills which rarely think such as listening-lecturing and trying to
understand this lecture. By this method, students are encouraged to consider
that learning is their works than experts works doing for them. This method
allows students to learn funnily, to find out the answers for themselves, and a
controversial thing is the method to develop inner motivation than outer
motivation.
However, the author gives some restricts of the discovery method : slow velocity
and we can not apply this method to topics such as simple topics based on real
facts, or topics that students do not require to discover, etc. (Le, 2007).
3. The role of discovery learning

J. Bruner gives the advantages of using discovery learning: it motivates the
innovation of thought, develops inner motivation than outer act, learners can
learn discovery way and develop memories themselves (Bruner, 1961).
The process of discovery requires students to evaluate, consider, analyze,

synthesize, and by Bruner, an individual only learns and develops his mind if he
uses it (Bruner, 1961). On the other hand, when he achieves some results in the
process of learning, the learner feels satisfied what he did and he will have a
desire to tend to difficult works, this is inner motivation.

47
G. Polya, who is a famous mathematician and educator, supposes that, The major
task of teaching mathematics at school is to teach students thinking (Polya, 1979).
By him, in order to get the best effective learning, students themselves need to
discover in moderation with a large of number of their documents. By Lictenbe
(The German physician): what he force to discover himself leaves in his
unconscious a small path that he can use it if he needs (Polya, 1979).
D. Ausubel considers discovery learning is an excellent one to create the way of
the synthetic learning (Petty, 2000). In addition, educators suppose that,
discovery learning shows the strong-points as follow:
+ It is student-centered method.
One of principles of learning shows that, if the more learners participate in the
process of learning a lot, the more they learn a lot. When teacher thinks about
learning concept, they usually suppose that learners are only people getting
knowledge than people processing information. This is a restricted view on
learners. Actually, learning must include all of aspects in order to make learners
have all abilities.
For example, in discovery situations, learners do not only comprehend concepts,
rules but also learn the way of the build of their directions, responsibilities and
communication in the social. In teacher-centered method, a lot of the above
abilities are not for students. If we find out a guide that make students have all
of the above abilities, the learning environment is not a total of teacher-centered
method.
+ It is a method to make each of learners developing his aware competence

All of us have aware competence ourselves. If these competences] are good, we
feel safe on psychology (confidence). We easily get new knowledge, readily get
chances, find out about and accept everything even the unsuccessfulness, we
become more creatively, have a good thought competence and become the men
who work effectively. A part of task becoming effective men is to build aware
abilities of ourselves. We only do this thing by attending discovery acts and
finding out about these acts. Because of attending these acts, we have a deep
view on our competence. Discovery method makes learners have a lot of big
opportunities attending learning acts, from that point, learners have a deep view
on competence, build aware competence themselves.
4. The way of becoming a man-owned

To own acts in the life
To develop aware competence
To recognize a potential awareness
To join in discovery acts
Figure 1. The way of becoming a man-owned

48
+ The required level is increasing

One other aspect of self of a man is his required level. For example, will a child
know his competence of how he completes a work? Many children accept a low
required level being what teacher usually listen either I can not learn
mathematics or I have never been good at science subjects, etc. However, if
children join in discovery acts, they will learn the way of independent thought.
In other words, by having successful experiences of competence themselves,
they will see that they themselves can solve this problem without any help
from teacher, parents or anyone. This thing follows "I can do everything". From
that point, the required levels of their competence are themselves improved.
+ The method develops talents
The talent on learning concerns with one of talents of everybody. The more we
are free, the more we have opportunities to develop that talent. For example,
when children work together to find out about something, it means that they
join in the process of talent development each other such as : to make a plan, to
organize, to communicate, to think creatively, to make the competence of
learning.
+ The method allows learners to get and update information
Teacher is usually in a hurry of his teaching while learners need time to think
and use their mind to reason and to find out about concepts, rules deeply. If
information becomes a part of learners mind with a particular meaning, learners
need time to do that. Jean Piaget asserts that : There is not a precise learnings
concept unless learners have time to reason about achieved information and
through the process of that thought, learners acquire and update what learners
met in particular situations.
5. Some tools in the GeoGebra software

5_1. Point
Use the tool Point to draw a point A .
5_2. Line
Use the tool Line to draw a line a .

49
5_3. Segment
Use the tool Segment to draw a segment AB.
5_4. Ray
Use the tool Ray to draw a ray from A to B .
5_5. Vector
Use the tool Vector to draw a vector from A to B.
5_6. Perpendicular Line
Use the tool Perpendicular Line to draw a perpendicular line d to a .

50
5_7. Parallel Line
Given a line AB . Draw a line b passing through a given point C , which is

parallel to AB : Parallel Line C AB.
5_8. Circle with Center Through Point
Use the tool Circle with Center Through Point to draw a circle with center O
and radius r.
5_9. Locus
Use the tool Locus to find the locus of a movable object.
For example, let (O) be a circumcircle of a given triangle ABC . Suppose B, C

are fixed points and A is movable point on this circle. Let H be the orthocenter
of the triangle. Find the locus of the point H .
We find the locus of the point H as follow:

51
+) Construct the circle (O) .
+) Construct three points A, B, C.
+) Construct the triangle ABC and its orthocenter H .
+) Locus H A , we get the locus of the point H being a circle as the above
figure.
6. Some main characteristics of the GeoGebra software

+) The GeoGebra software helps the users to find the locus of an object. (See
5_9).
+) It helps the users to predict the results of some extremum geometric

problems.
+) It is very effective in solving, teaching and learning the analytic geometry.
+) Since the GeoGebra is a dynamic software, it is very useful in verifying

geometric problems.
+) It helps teacher a lot in teaching definition, theorem, solving problems.
7. Forms (levels) of discovery learning

Depending on whether teacher intervenes the process of discovery of students
or not, we divide discovery acts into two types: Guided discovery and free
discovery.
In guided discovery, teacher gives problem, provides context, necessary tools

and students have opportunities to discover, solve problem. Teacher here plays
a role as an encouraging, assistant man to ensure that students do not get
troubles or do not perform their surveys, experiments. However, teachers help

52
should be formed in questions to help students to think about the process of

discovery but is not showing student what they need to do.
Guided discovery has two levels : total guide or partial guide.
After students join in discovery acts with guides, they are ready for free
discovery acts. In these discovery acts, students themselves must define what
they want to research, must select their way, solution and must research until
they find the result.
Table 1. The levels of problem-based learning and discovery learning
Level Teachers Students acts Problem-based Discovery

acts learning learning
1 To give acts To do To give a lecture To discover with
so that according to in order to find total guide
students do teachers out and solve the
these acts instructions in problem
order to
achieve goals
To give a To find out To make oral To discover with

2 problem, the solution questions in order partial guide
not to give themselves to find out and
its solution solve the problem
To choose To define To perform a self- To discover freely

the start problem in research
situation or the situation,
3
accept to find out the on the problem
students solution
choices themselves
(Le, 2007).
8. Example
A river has straight parallel sides and villages A and B lie on opposite sides of the river
(see Fig 2). Where should we build a bridge MN in order to minimize the travelling
distance between A to M and B to N (a bridge, of course, must be perpendicular to
the sides of the rivers) ?
Figure 2. A river having straight parallel sides

53
Teacher gives discovery acts being guided questions for students with the help
of the GeoGebra software.
Teacher uses the GeoGebra software in order to help students to find out the
solution. Teacher constructs and finds out the position of the bridge MN such
that AM BN is minimal on the GeoGebra software as follow:
Step 1. Construction
. Draw a ray Dx ' .
. Take a point F on the ray Dx ' .
. Draw two parallel lines a and b such that the distance of a and b is equal to
DF.
. Draw movable point M on a .
. Draw a straight line passing through point M and perpendicular to the

straight line a , cut the straight line b at a point N .
. Draw the Cartesian coordinate system Oxy such that MN is perpendicular to

Ox .
. Take point T on Oy such that OT AM NB .
. Draw a straight line passing through point T and perpendicular to Oy , cut the
straight line passing through point M and perpendicular to Ox at a point E .
. Hide unnecessary objects.
Step 2. Making trace
. Making trace to point E , moving point M , we obtain the trace of point E .
Moving point M to the position such that the ordinate of point E is minimal,
we determine positions M, N that need to be found (see Fig 3).
Figure 3. Finding out the position of the bridge MN on GeoGebra

54
Teacher : The directions of d are the lines being parallel or coincident with d .
Hence, which directions of line are invariant?
Students : Directions of line MN are invariant (because MN is always

perpendicular to river shores a and b ).
Teacher : Because directions of line MN are invariant, we will use a translation

of directions MN . Because MN is constant, vector MN is constant. Using the
translation T
MN
, we have A A ' . Then, what is the image of point M ? Which
segment is equal to AM ?
Students : M N and AM A ' N .
Teacher : Hence AM BN A ' N BN A ' B . The equality occurs when and

only when N is the point of intersection of A ' B and b (by triangle inequality).
Do you draw points M, N ?
Students : We have the constructions of points M, N as follow :

Using the translation TCD
( CD is a vector which its directions are perpendicular
to river shores, the length of CD is equal to the width of the river, C a, D b ),

we have A A ' . A ' N meets b at N . Using the translation TDC , we have
N M . Then MN is the bridge that needs to be constructed (see Fig 4).
Figure 4. The drawing of points M and N
Teacher gives remarks : The result, which we find out on the GeoGebra
software, is absolutely suitable with the mathematical result.
Teacher allows students themselves to discover knowledge on the GeoGebra

software by moving, drawing additional lines. These acts are controlled by
teacher.
9. Results and Discussion

We delivered survey forms to 37 teachers of upper secondary schools in Ho Chi
Minh city, Viet Nam in order to check the suitability of discovery learning with
the help of GeoGebra :

55
Table 2. The ideas of teachers on discovery learning
with the help of the GeoGebra software
A total Ideas of teachers

Survey contents of
teachers Agree Disagree
To help teacher to teach mathematics 37 34 03
To help students themselves to learn 37 34 03

mathematics
To improve the interaction between 37 35 02

teacher and students
Teacher interests in technology 37 23 14
Through the surveys of the ideas of teachers shown at the table 2, we first assert
that discovery learning with the help of GeoGebra is suitable with the self-
learning of students and it improves the effectiveness of teaching and learning
basically.
We also delivered survey forms to 282 students of upper secondary schools in

Ho Chi Minh city, Viet Nam on the exploitation and uses of the GeoGebra
software for the help of discovery learning. We obtain good results as follow :
Table 3. The ideas of students on discovery learning
with the help of the GeoGebra software
Survey content Ideas of students

A total of
students
Frequently Sometimes Never
To perform a self-
research on the 282 199 61 22
GeoGebra software
To use GeoGebra in
self-learning
282 243 29 10
according to
teachers requests
To use GeoGebra to
282 220 43 19
do exercises

56
To use GeoGebra in 282 223 44 15

self-check of
students knowledge
To use GeoGebra
282 237 24 21
familiarly
Table 3 shows that most students joined in the learning according to discovery
learning with the help of the GeoGebra usually interest and exploit the features
of this software in the process of their learning in order to improve their
understanding of lesson and exercises. The figures shown in the table 3 showed
that the rate of the self-learning of students with the help of the GeoGebra
software is high. We can assert that discovery learning with the help of
GeoGebra acts on students well. This thing proves that this method makes
students pleasant and interested in learning mathematics. This method is more
effectively than traditional learning methods.
Table 3 also shows that the GeoGebra software helps teacher to teach
mathematics. Teacher can use this one for finding out the results of problems, for
verifying problems. In addition, it also gives teacher to create new problems that
their results are known immediately. This software is effective in teaching
geometric concepts, theorems and definitions. The processing of teaching and
learning is improved. The interaction between teacher and students becomes
well. Finally, the level of informatics of teacher improves gradually. Teacher
likes to find about the applying informatics in mathematics.
We and students discuss on the usefulness of the GeoGebra software. These

students show themselves to like this one. With multiple tools and the accurate
numbers of the software being very high, the students suppose that they can
solve problems with the help of the software easily. Since the help of the one,
they even do not need the help from teacher. When they use this software, they
become more creatively. They can create new problems and prove these
problems.
10. Conclusion
After students learned according to discovery learning, we realize that: Students
write well, briefly. They also express mathematical languages coherently and
fluently. This thing proves that the competence of the self-learning of students
develops clearly. Students are interested in mathematical learning. They develop
mathematical thought specially to develop the creative thought. Students also
improve technology skills clearly and like to research the knowledge of the
GeoGebra software. The effectiveness of the new method is better than
traditional methods

57
References
Bruner, J. S. (1961). The Act of Discovery. Harvard Educational Review, 31: 21-32.
Dang, H. T. (2012). Using the GeoGebra software as visual medium in teaching and learning
topics about transformations for grade 11 at upper secondary school. A
Dissertation for the Degree of Master of Education, Vinh University
(Dissertation written in Vietnamese), 27-31.
Hoang, C. (1991). Exercising mathematical creative abilities at secondary school and upper
secondary school. Ho Chi Minh city Publishing House (Book written in
Vietnamese), 32-42.
Hoang, D. C. (2012). Organizing discovery acts to students in teaching and learning solid
geometry at upper secondary school with the help of technology. A Dissertation for
the Degree of Master of Education, Thai Nguyen University (Dissertation
written in Vietnamese), 21-23.
Le, V. B. (2007). Teaching geometry for the last grades of the secondary school oriented discovery
learning. A Dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Education, Vinh
University (Dissertation written in Vietnamese), 24-33.
Nguyen, C. T., Nguyen, K., Le, K. B., & Vu, V. T. (2004). Self-Learning and teaching the way
of learning. Pedagogy University Publishing House (Book written in
Vietnamese) 31-51.
Nguyen, B. K. (2002). The methods of teaching mathematics. Pedagogy University
Publishing House (Book written in Vietnamese), 135-139.
Nguyen, B. K., & Vu, D. T. (1992). The methods of teaching mathematics. Education
Publishing House (Book written in Vietnamese), 115-119.
Piaget, J. (2001). Psychology and pedagogy. Education Publishing House (Book written in
Vietnamese), 120 -134.
Petty, G. (2000). Teaching and learning today. Vietnamese-Belgian project (Book written in
Vietnamese), 99-113.
Polya, G. (1979). Creation to mathematics. Education Publishing House (Book written in
Vietnamese), 161-187.
Pham, T. P. (2006). Teaching and learning mathematics with the Cabri software. Volume 1
Plane Geometry. Education Publishing House (Book written in Vietnamese),
146-171.
Tran, D. C., & Dang, T. T. T. (2011). Designing the mind map of teaching and learning
mathematics. Vietnam Education Publishing House (Book written in
Vietnamese), 16-20.
Trinh, T. H. (2006). Applying technology in teaching the grade 7 th oriented to the active acts of
learnings students. A Dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Education, Ha
Noi University of Education.

58

Vol. 1, No.1, pp. 58-77, August 2014
Impact of Culture on Communication

Interactions: Case of Mixed Ethnic Secondary
Schools in Botswana
James G. Chisambi
Limkokwing University of Creative Technology
Gaborone Botswana
Abstract
Culture can be defined as a complex concept that is central to our own
communication interactions. In this study I examined circumstances under
which differences in cultures among students at Community Junior
Secondary School level in Botswana impact or do not impact
communication in all aspects of their everyday life. The advent of
globalization coupled with an increase in inter-tribal marriages has turned
our classrooms into potential melting pots for multiculturalism and
multilingualism. On the other hand, very little research has been conducted
on intercultural communication between culturally diverse students
populations in the country. In order to assess this hypothesis, this research
relied on theoretical and empirical data from a survey conducted among 26
participants in schools in the North and North West Districts of Botswana. I
used part of multiple case studies, interviews and questionnaires to collect
data and obtain multiple views from participants. Summative evaluation
results based on 26 secondary school going students, revealed that 96.2% of
the participants maintained social interactions and communication with
schoolmates of cultural background other than their own despite instances
where the intercultural experiences were unpleasant due to lack of respect,
feelings of inequality, and non acceptance.
Keywords: Culture; impact; communication interactions; mixed ethnic;

Botswana
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Overview
The government of Botswana provides free educational opportunities for all, no

matter their nationality, gender, political and religious affiliation. The education
policy is inclusive of the under-represented groups (minorities and people with
disabilities). However, problems which pertain to differences in language and
2014 The author and IJLTER.ORG All rights reserved

59
culture have received little attention from the government in the past decades;
resulting in the practice where minority groups have been absorbed or incorporated
into a dominant culture (Molosiwa, 2009).
There are many languages spoken in Botswana. The diversity in languages creates a
distinction between major and minority tribes. Whereas the major tribes speak
Setswana which is a dominant mother tongue language, minority tribes speak a
variety of dialects (Jotia & Pansiri, 2013). Both ethnic groups speak English for
communication purposes with foreigners. However, the issue of language
distinction is complicated because dialects are often blurred, but reflective of the
variations found within Botswana languages and culture. Setswana is widely
spoken in the country and students are often taught in Setswana the very first time
they are admitted into school. Setswana is a compulsory subject for Batswana
children who sit for final examinations at Form III and Form V levels. As Molosiwa
(2009) claims, English is not merely a dominant medium of instruction at
secondary school levels in public schools but a subject that is examined as well, and
therefore, students are encouraged to speak in English at all times.
While classrooms remain multicultural and multilingual hosting many students and
teachers who are culturally and linguistically diverse, Molosiwa (2009), Jotia &
Pansiri (2013) argue that government has been for a long time reluctant to establish
multicultural and intercultural system of education in public schools for peaceful
co-existence. In steady this has resulted in the marginalisation of minority tribes.
Therefore, this study looked into the communication interactional differences
among Non-Batswana speakers in Community Junior Schools in Botswana to
uncover how these minority ethnic groups interact among themselves. The non-
Setswana groups were chosen for study because of their unique diversity in
language, culture and tradition, the question then becomes:
What are the circumstances under which differences in cultures among students at lower
secondary school influence (or do not influence) patterns in their communication in social
interactions?
2. The Education System in Botswana
Education in Botswana spans three broad levels: Primary level, secondary level, and
tertiary level. The system, particularly below the tertiary level, is government
controlled. The education system does not cover pre-school but the significance of
kindergarten schooling has been recognised at political level. This means, for
children between the age of three and the start of basic education, attendance is
optional before the age of 5 years. However, students take 7 years to complete
primary education, and they can be placed at any schools in the country. Education
at the primary level flows into the secondary phase, where the first three years is
viewed as junior secondary education, and the remaining two years viewed as

60
senior secondary education. Each grade year at the primary level is regarded as a
Standard, whereas each Grade at the secondary level is a Form (Botswana, 2012).
In this arrangement, compulsory education includes the entire primary (Standard I-
VII) up to the junior secondary (Form I- III) level.
Admission to the senior secondary school (Form IV-V) programme depends on

successful performance in the Junior Certificate programme. Thus, transmission
from junior secondary to senior secondary is not automatic. Only those students
whom academic grades fall at average or above on the Junior Certificate
Examination are admitted to the senior secondary programme (Botswana, 2012). The
admission rate to senior secondary schools has been increased since 2003
(stabilizing at about 98.5% currently), as a result of not just improved performance
but also additional senior secondary schools being built nationwide. Furthermore,
Botswana is currently building unified secondary schools, especially in most
regions.
Entry to tertiary is selective, depending on academic achievement in the senior

secondary programme. There is a prevocational preparation in not just the junior
secondary but also the senior secondary education programme, which acts as a
buffer for students who do not qualify to transmit to the university level. In any
case, regardless of the level of education, inter-tribal and inter-ethnic interaction is
an ongoing social factor in the communication and interaction among students and
teachers in the education system.
One key objective of primary schooling is for students to be literate, first in

Setswana and then in English (Botswana, 2012). Thus bilingual communication is an
emphasis. At the same time, focusing on two languages, without regard for the
mother tongue of children from other tribes, where these languages are foreign,
has been an area of contention among minority groups (Durham, 2001).
2.1 Early signs of inter-tribal group communication challenges
The communication challenges for minority groups at school begin as early as the
primary and junior secondary school levels. In government primary schools,
medium of teaching in the first four years is Setswana. Non-Setswana speaking
students in government primary schools are obliged to communicate and learn in
Setswana for the first four years of schooling. In other words, these students are
required to interact with peers and teachings in a language and school environment
with which they are unfamiliar. The importance of language in inter-ethnic groups
or inter-tribal group communication is clear. Irresponsible language use (i.e., terms
and labels) leads to stereotyping and can be viewed as offensive (Gudykunst & Kim,
1992).
In addition, message-coding and message-decoding patterns in interethnic

exchanges have shown to have multiple impacts on social interactions (Gudykunst

61
& Kim, 1992; Molosiwa, 2009) but these have not been explored among inter-tribal
student groups at schools in Botswana. Nyati-Ramahobo and Chebanne (2003)
highlighted the pain many minority teenagers felt after being ridiculed about the
tone and accent in their voice when they participate orally in the official language
of instruction at school.
Furthermore, the communication challenges for minority groups in primary schools

begin with challenges in achievements in the teaching and learning situation. In a
comparative study to assess the literacy skills of Setswana and non-Setswana
speaking students in primary schools in Botswana, Nyati-Ramahobo (2006) found
that Setswana speaking students performed satisfactorily at standard 5 in Setswana,
and continue improving their English Language proficiency in terms of ability in
comprehension, speaking, reading and writing throughout primary school.
However, she reported, by contrast, that for students of non-Setswana speaking
background comprehension (when the teacher speaks in class) in Setswana and
writing skills in Setswana were quite low at standard 5. As these students progress
from standard 5 to upper standard levels, their comprehension and writing skills in
Setswana improve but their reading and speaking ability in the language stagnate.
Achievement in English Language starts much later, merely picking up when the
students are about to exit primary school.
The differential in Setswana and English Language ability for non-Setswana

speakers at primary school is quite evident in achievements in class. Records of
students achievements at primary school level for 2005 and following years
continues to indicate that regions or districts in Botswana where Setswana is not
often spoken by citizens always have a lot of students withdrawing from schools
and repeating a certain standard. The problem is exacerbated by large numbers of
untrained teachers (RETENG, 2007).
Moreover, the inability of non-Setswana speaking children to articulate their ideas

in Setswana or English when they enroll at school is a barrier to social interaction
and inter-tribal or intercultural communication at school. Interethnic (or cultural)
communication involves a process in which there is "sending, receiving and
interpreting of verbal and non-verbal messages between members of different
ethnic groups within societal boundaries" (Gudykunst & Kim, 1992). In this
communicational exchange, in-group and out-group sentiments have shown to
develop. For instance, Kim (1986) reported that in a study by Stephen McNabb
entitled "Stereotypes and Interaction Conventions of Eskimos and non-Eskimos",
which identifies and analyzes variables of interaction and communication among
Alaskan, it emerged that non-native stereotypes and judgment of the character of
the Inuit people were the result of "faulty inferences about the meanings of
communication conventions." In other words, the assessment of one group of
another resulted limited understanding of their communication conventions. While
a study of this nature has not been done among ethnic groups in Botswana, it

62
suggests misunderstanding may influence how minority groups may be judged as

they communicate and interact with other tribal groups in school.
2.1.1 Omissions in previous research work
Brown (2004) and Martin (2002) argue that since cross-cultural studies in the school
contexts are either based on the idea that ethnic diversity determines the way
students communicate in a school environment, therefore, ethnic diversity becomes
responsible for moulding the behaviour of an individual to realise his or her sense
of national identity (Hofstede, 1997 & Kim, 2005). Previous research has also
emphasized intercultural communication as specifically dealing with situations in
which people of different cultures (e.g., tribes within a nation) communicate. Past
studies have also distinguished between intercultural and interethnic
communication, with the latter sometimes used interchangeably with inter-tribal
communication, to refer to communication between two people from different
ethnic (tribal) groups (Orbe, 2007).
By contrast, Nyati-Ramahobo (2006); Jeremiah (2008) and Adeyemi (2008) postulate

that there is no clear distinction how cross-cultural differences in mixed ethnic
primary and junior secondary school change communication patterns of students.
The conditions at school level that influence whether or not students and staff
experience pleasant or unpleasant intercultural communication encounters on
issues of use of mother-tongue remains problematic. On the other hand, differences
concerning contexts of communication between students from different cultures at
school level must be explored further because people from different cultures have a
different view of the world.
2.1.3 Importance of inter-tribal and cultural communication
The effort to embrace multicultural and intercultural education in a multilingual

country like Botswana has not yielded the desired results. The increasing awareness
of the importance of multicultural and intercultural education has raised a lot of
debate among scholars in Botswana. According to Jotia and Pansiri (2013),
marginalised minority tribes want the government of Botswana to respond to their
request of peaceful co-existence by introducing mother tongue education in public
or government aided schools. Similarly, instruction in mother tongue with an
addition of English at a later stage, improves childrens ability to cope with more
difficult work at universities (Pinnock, 2012). Molosiwa (2009) cited in Hays (2002)
reported that Basarwa students including many other minority students who attend
primary schools in remote areas of the country did not progress in their studies due
to schools lack of trained educators who are responsive and sensitive to cultural
diversity in the classroom and unwillingness of educational institutions to deliver
quality education to students in rural areas. Similarly, Pinnock (2012) agrees with
Hays that when schoolwork lacks quality and proper guidance, it poses difficulties

63
and challenges to a student who cannot cope with the vocabulary and concepts
from course work if instruction is in a second language. In this view, many students
become frustrated and end up leaving school. However, for many who remain, they
struggle to improve their performance as the majority of subjects are taught in a
second language, a condition rare to achieve by most students. By the contrary,
teaching students in their first language has a positive result in that it improves
quality of learning and teaching and propels a learners ability for success in higher
education. Molosiwa (2009) contends that there are reasons why students leave
school or are unsuccessful at school. She cites unfamiliar language, ethnocentrism,
and unfriendly behaviour between students, teachers and their peers. Dropouts
contribute to a larger percentage of failures in National Examinations in the
country. This means that, a multicultural educator must be not able to embrace
students and others cultural diversity only but also be able to nurture each
individuals academic growth.
The research of inter-tribal/cultural communication among students of minority

(non-Tswana) and other (Tswana) cultural groups is important not only because of
the potential at the school level to begin addressing what is a national problem, but
also because of the importance of classroom climate in promoting effective inter-
tribal communication. Tribal issues are and can be an emotional and personal topic
for both teachers and students not just at school but outside school. For instance,
Pettigrew and Tropp (2000) cautioned, in a study by Singh and Rampersal (2010)
that merely asking diverse races and cultural groups to come together and engage
in spontaneous conversation can evoke intractable differences because their values
and beliefs are different. This is especially noticeable for non-Tswana Botswana
citizen students who feel that their self-esteem is lowered by the social
construction of their position in society. However, the reality in schools in the
country is that whereas the English Language is a foreign language, Setswana is the
only official indigenous language. In other words, of the two official languages, one
is indigenous and the other is foreign. Although Setswana is the official indigenous
language, and although some 90% of the citizens speak Setswana as their mother-
tongue, or as a second language Nyati-Ramahobo & Chebanne (2003), argue that
there are many citizens (and non-citizens) at school who do not speak this language
at home. Furthermore, because they are of non-Tswana tribe backgrounds, they
have to learn it, and thereafter be taught using it as a medium of teaching. This
means, minority children and teachers at school have to, in addition to their mother-
tongue, acquire two more languages in order to fit-in, participate, or communicate
with others in certain activities, including education in society.
3. Literature Review
In 2005, the Minister of Education at the Regional Mother Tongue Conference

(RMTC, 2005), expressed interest in ensuring that minority languages were taught
at schools in Botswana. The Minister recognised mother tongue education as an
important element in the childs intellectual development, the means by which the

64
child can realise his or her sense of belonging and grow into a productive citizen.
The Minister stated that:
Mother tongue is a language a child learns from parents, it helps the child to think, behave
and develop positive attitudes towards his community. It is also true that culture and
language are very important because they are the unifying elements that allow different
groups to communicate and live in harmony. Through culture and language an individual
can be proud of showing his or her national identity in the globalised world. However,
researchers have articulated that when children are taught in their mother tongue when they
are first admitted into school they can produce positive results.
The Minister of Education acknowledged the fact that the idea to provide education
in local languages was farfetched because of lack of enough resources. In this view,
the Commission on Revised National Policy on Education was mandated to review
the entire education system and come up with an Education Policy that would
move the country into the 21st century (Republic of Botswana, 1994). The report has
frustrated the efforts of many scholars who want multicultural education in the
country. Furthermore, the official minority languages act has up to now not been
promulgated by the government of Botswana. Instead RNPE instructed schools to
make appropriate arrangements with parents who wanted their languages to be
taught so that schools would teach them as co-curricular activities. This study has
shown that governments failure to promote instruction even in minority languages,
immediately after independence, was because teaching such languages would have
caused disagreements or hostilities between citizens. Such a move would not have
been a remedy for people who were aspiring for national unity. The government felt
that instruction in minority languages would leave the country fragmented into
tribal regions, promote local and regional identity, instead of national unity. In this
view, local and regional identity would promote an enclosed society that would
neither be exposed nor compete favourably in a globalised economy (Republic of
Botswana, 2005).
Pinnock (2012) postulates that mother-tongue education is most important because

it develops the childs learning skills, motivates the learner and eventually restrains
the number of dropouts. However, in a situation where children receive instruction
at school in a language that is not spoken at home contributes to low pass rate.
Furthermore, issues of language exclusion can cause violent conflicts between
different cultural groups as exemplified in Bangledash in the 1950s. However, in the
Botswana context, governments nondisclosure of the reasons for not implementing
mother tongue education reduces the risk of inflaming a sensitive issue from public
debate. Pinnock (2012) argues that children who receive instruction in a second
language have the largest chance of obtaining lower scores than those children
taught in their mother tongue. The study exemplifies students from Guatemala and
Zambia who participated in bilingual programs that they performed better than
students in monolingual programs who even received instruction in their mother

65
tongue. This shows that students who receive instruction in their mother tongues
first become more successful second language learners.
In reviewing research on mother-tongue education, Nyati-Ramahobo (2005) in a

study by Jotia and Pansiri (2013) points out that mother-tongue education (MTE) is
a major part of multicultural education because it is through language and culture
that children and teachers can express their world view in classrooms. This means
that language is a channel through which different cultures can express their world
view. Similarly, language influences the way we think and our thinking is also
influenced by the language we use, and both are influenced by culture (Singh &
Rampersad, 2010).
4. METHODS
4.1 The participants

Subjects for this study were participants at three Community Junior Secondary
Schools (CJSS) in the North and North-West of Botswana. I used multiple case
studies with Ba Sarwa, Ba Kalanga, Ba kalagadi, Ba Yei, Ba Herero and Ba
Mbukushu student groups, because there is no other study to date which has
actually based research on cross-cultural/cross-ethnicity communications of real
students in real classroom situations in Africa. I used interviews and questionnaire
because I needed multiple views from participants. Interviews and questionnaires
were conducted in English which is a third language for participants. I distributed
ten questionnaires first to participants who volunteered to take part in the study at
each of the schools visited and conducted informal interviews on the presented
questionnaires. Out of thirty students I chose only twenty-six for the semi-
structured interviews as some participants failed to complete the questionnaire
properly. The interviews lasted thirty minutes for each student because participants
speak English on different levels of fluency. Some switched from English to
Setswana and vice versa. I recorded interviews on tape-recorder and transcribed
verbatim. Then, I coded the transcriptions using the exact language of the
participants and manually compared data from recordings and questionnaires for
each of the participants into specific themes and sub-themes. Letters: A, B, C.....were
used together with tribe names to ensure confidentiality of participants and to
minimize researcher bias.
5. PRESENTATION OF RESEARCH FINDINGS
The data from the questionnaire was analyzed using the descriptive statistical
methods. Thus, where closed type questions were used, frequency, percentages and
means make up that section of the analysis. The analysis of the data is presented in
the study. In terms of the qualitative (text) data from the interviews and from the
open ended items on the questionnaires, a comparative method of content analysis

66
was used in the study. The technique involved playing and listening to the tapes
then categorising information heard. The questionnaires were read twice and
compared with the information heard from the tapes in order to obtain a clear
picture of what was said. The reason is that students cannot write and express
themselves in English. When the scripts were complete, the information was coded
and then categorised into themes.
Two data analysis approaches were used. First, descriptive statistical techniques
were used to analyse data from parts of the questionnaire where closed ended
questions were asked. In this part of the analysis, summary statistics such as
frequency, percentages, and means were used. The data from these analyses are
presented in tables. Whereas frequency is represented as Freq; and percentages
represented as (%); mean is indicated as bar X.
The second analysis technique used was Glassier and Strausss (1982) Constant
Comparative method. This technique was applied to the qualitative (text) data from
the interviews and from the open ended items on the questionnaires. The process
involved reading the verbatim, isolating units of meanings, coding and categorising
these units, and constantly comparing and contrasting units for overlaps. The
themes indicated in the findings section below emerged from this process of
analysis.
5.1 Profile of participants
The profile of the participants in this study is described in Table 5.1 below. A total
of 26 students participated. The table shows information on five demographic
variables: ethnic groups of participants, their gender, age groups, grade level at
school, and whether or not the participants had friends at school of different ethnic
groups and languages.
Table 5.1: Profile of participants
Description of
No. Variables Freq %
Variables
Basarwa 3 11.5
Bakgalagadi 2 7.7
Mbukushu 3 11.5
Kalanga 3 11.5
1 Ethnic Groups Babirwa 1 3.8
Basubia 3 11.5
Yei 3 11.5
Herero 4 15.4
Bakgatla 4 15.4

67
Female 7 26.9
2 Gender
Male 19 73.1
13 Yrs or less 1 3.8
3 Age Group 14 to 15 Yrs 9 34.6
16 Yrs or above 16 61.5
Form 1 4 15.4
4 Grade Level Form 2 4 15.4
Form 3 18 69.2
Friends at school of different Yes 25 96.2
5
ethnic groups and language No 1 3.8
Table 5.1 shows that students from nine (9) different ethnic or tribal groups
participated in the study. On average, three (3) individuals from the different
groups participated. Although unintentional, boys made up the majority (73.1%) of
the participants. They were the more willing to participate which may be a
reflection of the patriarchal nature of the society.
Majority of the participants (61.5%) aged 16 years or above, and majority (69.2%)
were in the Form 3 grade level. All but one of participants had friends at school of
different ethnic groups and languages. All the districts and the respective schools
where participants were sampled were multi-tribal / multiethnic.
Table 5.2 shows the languages spoken by the different ethnic or tribal groups who
participated in the study.
Table 5.2: Languages spoken by different ethnic / tribal groups
Other languages Spoken

Sekgalagadi,
Sekgalagadi
Sekalanga
Setswana,
Setswana
language
Seherero
Multiple
No other
Sesarwa)
(English,
Ndebele
Sesarwa
English
N Ethnic
o. Groups Mother tongue N
Sesarwa 2 - - - - - - - 1 1
1 Basarwa
Setswana 1 - 1 - - - - - - -
2 Bakgalagadi Sekgalagadi 2 2 - - - - - - - -
Sembukushu 2 - - - 1 1 - - - -
3 Mbukushu
Setswana 1 - 1 - - - - - - -
4 Kalanga Setswana 3 - - 1 - - 1 - - 1
5 Babirwa Sebirwa 1 - - - - 1 - - - -

68
6 Basubia Sesubia 3 - - - - 1 1 - 1 -
7 Yei Setswana 3 - - - - - 1 1 - 1
8 Herero Seherero 4 - - - - 2 - - 2 -
9 Bakgatla Setswana 4 - - 1 - - 1 - - 2
The data in Table 5.2 indicates that for most of the ethnic groups, the mother tongue
is consistent with their tribal or ethnic cultural groups. In other words, majority of
the students from the different tribal groups speak their mother tongue at home.
The exception in this sample was students of the Yei and Kalanga tribe respectively
(and few from the Mbukushu and Basarwa tribe), who speak Setswana as mother
tongue, instead of their respective indigenous tribal language. For instance, the
indigenous language of the Yei tribe is Seyei; for the Kalanga it is Sekalanga, and for
the Mbukushu it is Sembukushu. None of these were given as mother tongue
languages spoken.
Furthermore, among the students who speak non-indigenous tribal language as

home language, attachment to the language of their tribe appeared implicit. The
student of the Kalanga ethnic group for example gave his/her tribal language as
other language. And those from the Yei tribe did not even mention Seyei as other
language(s) that they know or speak. The identification with other languages holds
significant implications for the long term survival and ethnic identity of minority
groups.
Quite the contrary, the Tswana and non-Tswana mother tongue speaker sampled
valued intercultural communication. On average, the sample agreed that they
engaged in intercultural communication for altruistic and extrinsic motives (see
Table 5.3). For instance, the motivation to communication and get along with other
Batswana (citizens of Botswana) of cultures other than their own is to support
national unity at all levels of society. At the micro or school level, the groups agreed
they interact with other cultures not just to find friends to study with (mean=4) but
also to build trust with others (mean=4). On the basis of these sentiments,
intercultural communication was highly valued by the participants.
Table 5.3: Reasons for engaging in intercultural communication
Std.
Variables Description of variables N Min Max Mean*
Error
I interact with other cultures to

get along with them at all levels 26 1 5 4 .215
Motivation of society
26 1 5 4 .215
find friends to study with

69

26 1 5 4 .220
build trust with others
26 1 5 3 .274
satisfy my peer's needs
26 1 5 3 .228
satisfy my own needs/ desires
develop intercultural 26 1 5 4 .237
communication competence
learn to respect and tolerate
26 3 5 4 .123
cultural differences with school
Cultural mates
competence I interact with other cultures in
order to have the ability to
26 3 5 4 .141
negotiate and interact well
across cultures
increase my level of discourse in 26 1 5 4 .214
the classroom
I interact with other cultures for
cultural awareness: i.e., to
26 1 5 4 .183
understand similarities and
differences
be aware of the prejudices my 26 1 5 3 .254
cultural peers may be harboring
awareness I interact with other cultures to
learn the behaviour of others
26 1 5 3 .209
who may believe their culture is
superior
learn the behaviour of other 26 2 5 4 .160
cultures
I am critical of other cultures 26 1 5 3 .237
I am critical of other cultures
because of the influence from 26 1 5 3 .204
peers
Attitudes I have difficulties to study with
26 1 5 2 .240
peers of my culture
abuse students from other 26 1 4 2 .149
cultures
* Table 5.3: Shows A 5 Point Likert Scale in which 1=SD, 2=D, 3=N, 4=A and 5=SA

70
Case study: A
The following case studies highlight the cultural and communication problems
students and their peers who are linguistically and culturally diverse often
encounter in a multicultural learning environment. During school visits I was able
to see very diverse schools in terms of students population. I had the chance to
interact with students from non-Setswana speaking backgrounds and talk about
issues related to research. This means the research was not inclusive of Setswana
speaking students. Interactions with students at schools gave me some insights on
the problems of cross-cultural/intercultural communication in a multicultural
learning environment. The interview data supports the sentiments expressed
through the questionnaire survey. Across the tribal groups interviewed, members
spoke of reasons why communicating with other nationals of different ethnic
origins or language groups is significant. For example, one member of the
Mbukushu tribe stated:
My experience interacting with members of other tribes has been good and
friendship relation has been well because when I am with others [other tribe
members] I am able to learn their way of life even if there is a little
misunderstanding [difference] between my way of life and theirs (Person
A, Mbukushu).
Member of the Yei tribe expressed similar sentiments, noting that intercultural
communication is useful for nationalism:
Without understanding properly, you may think that maybe he or she

[member of other cultures] is insulting you in his or her language (Person
C, Yei).
I experienced that many people are willing to learn our language (Seyei) so
they ask me questions or words in Setswana and I will translate them in
Yei, we have good conversations, we laugh and all that stuff (Person A,
Yei).
Intercultural communication across tribal groups then is valued for various reasons,
some altruistic, others extrinsic, and still others intrinsic. The reasons intercultural
communication are valued is related to the motives for engaging in it in the first
place. Another point that emerged from the data is that participants perceived that
inter-tribal communication builds cultural awareness. In other words, it raises
awareness of ones own cultural identity and background. The participants were
fully aware of the journey they were on in developing awareness. As Table 5.3
indicates, on average, members of the Basarwa, Bakgalagadi, Mbukushu, Kalanga,
Babirwa, Basubia, Yei, Herero, and Bakgatla tribes all agreed that when they
interact with other cultures they do so to learn, i.e., to understand similarities and
differences of other cultural groups, and to learn the behaviour of other cultures.

71
However, as Table 5.3 shows, on average, the sample was unsure or disagreed that
the reason they interact with members of other cultural group was to learn of any
behaviours by any group who may believe their culture is superior or any
prejudices they may be harbouring.
Case study: B
The building of cultural understanding, awareness and appreciation came out as a

strong theme during interviews as a determinant to establish intercultural
communication and interactions. For many, without understanding, communication
proved difficult. The perception that intercultural communication contributes to
building of cultural understanding and awareness was a common thread that cuts
across members of all the tribal groups:
Interacting with other friends helps me to learn their cultures and also you
end up knowing how they conserve their environment, as we focus on
indigenous knowledge system such as their totem, norms (Person B,
Basarwa tribe).
Another tribe member stated a typical point, indicating: I ask them (other group
members) about their cultural groups and they ask me about our culture so we get
to know and understand each other well (Person B, Kalanga tribe).
Case study: C
The sense of asking or general curiosity about otherness was a persistent and
powerful theme throughout the interviews. The most succinct commentary showing
the enigmatic influence of cultural curiosity was shared by Mbukushu tribe who
described his experience:
I just talk about our traditional way of life, like fishing, dancing and food.
Some of them (other ethnic group members) get interested in our way of life
of Mbambukusho so they start asking me what favourite food Mbumkushu
like... then I tell them, some of them who are different from my tribe become
my friends (Person C, Mbukushu).
Case study: D
Cultural awareness is developed. The knowledge and understanding that develop

contributed to particular kind of experiences during intercultural communication.
For many of the participants, the experience interacting with members of a culture
other than their own has been positive, and those relationships began outside
school. Unlike in some other countries in other parts of Africa, interethnic group
perception of each other among students in this study appears affirmative. But the

72
learning and experience from communicating and interacting with other ethnic
groups was equally transformational for members of other tribal groups. A
Bakgalagadi commented:
When I see other friends speaking their language, I like their language
Then I tell them to teach me their culture and language, and how they share
their knowledge with each other. I speak their language when I am around
with them because I love their language (Person A, Bakgalagadi)
Clearly, at a linguistic level, there seemed to be ongoing informal learning taking

place across ethnic group members, outside the formal curriculum at school. In all
of this learning, and transformation, cultural awareness is being developed and
positive interaction enhanced.
A member of the Mbukushu tribe who has friends who are Herero explained:
Being able to speak in a common language is at the core of the cultural awareness
development trajectory among the student participants, as a Herero remarked:
...We use common language and we usually try to explain for one another
so that we can know each others language. We try to learn each others
language through Setswana; we also try to teach each other our own
languages by using Setswana as a medium of communication (Person B,
Herero).
The role of language in cultural discourse is clearly evident. The language that is
known is used as the basis to build scaffolds towards learning the languages of
others and building cultural understanding. The emphasis on knowing the
language of the other is further indication of the intimacy between language and
culture. The participants evidently recognised that language is a significant marker
of cultural identity, and when in use it allows them to refer to, and access,
phenomena beyond the language itself. In other words, deeper understanding
develops.
A Form 2 student from the Yei tribe noted how students from other cultures
appeared to have been taught to not appreciate the cultural practices of others:
The problems... in languages, dress codes of other tribes, and the food they eat...
(Person A). Herero also spoke of the dialectical interpretations of nonverbal
communication at school. The cultural difference was ...in speaking my friends
language; eating their food; appreciating their attire; [and not knowing why they] always
being in their tribal groups (Person B). Language, behaviour patterns, and values
form the base upon which meaning is exchanged in and across cultures. Thus,
dressing communicates nonverbally as is group cohesion. However, some cultures
prefer to be individualistic, whereas others are more collectivistic in orientation. The

73
cultural differences pertaining to these values impact communication. Managing

differences is necessary for effective intergroup communication.
The student participants of this study managed potential conflict points. One of the
central mechanisms to cope with differences was their increased language ability.
Some participants made attempts to learn the language of other tribes in order to
maintain friends. As the evidence indicated, students from minority tribes, i.e., the
non-Tswana cultural orientations made greater effort to learn. Hereros explained:
...I wanted to know the language he speaks... at first we spoke Setswana

because we know the language; we ended up knowing each others
languages. Example: we became friends because of playing boxing together
(Person D, Herero);
Minority tribes actively learn the language of other groups, but they also actively
teach their languages to others. In other words, they were both active recipient and
provider of the knowledge. Furthermore, by learning and speaking other languages
they develop the competency to interact with different cultural groups. Minority
tribes teach the majority tribe members the language of the minority group.
Bakgatla acknowledged the experience, noting: ...they teach us different language
6. DISCUSSION
In Botswana issues of multicultural societies, national unity and cross-cultural

communications are key links to educational quality and equity. The purpose to
provide inclusive education that would usher the country into the 21st century is
noticeable in the 1994 Revised National Policy on Education (RNPE) and vision 2016
Report (Molosiwa, 2009). The National Development Plan (NDP) speaks to the need
to upgrade the quality of education so that we can be an Educated and Informed
Nation. However, after independence from Britain the government passed a law to
allow Local government (1965) to run primary education while the Ministry of
Education took responsibility for secondary education (Jotia & Pansiri, 2013). The
Botswana government maintained English as an official language, while Setswana
was declared the dominant language that would be spoken by all ethnic groups in
the country. Some minority Languages that were taught in schools, heard on radio
and used for meetings at the tribal court (kgotla) were phased out. Public officers for
example, nurses, teachers and the police who were posted in non-Tswana speaking
parts of the country were expected to uphold the Setswana language and customs.
According to RETENG (2007) this was intended to create peace (Kagisano) and unity
in a country where the minorities are in the majority. However, the problems of
unity and pluralism are noticeable everywhere in the country.
This study has observed that the previous studies emphasized the use of mother-
tongue education (MTE) because of its importance in developing the childs

74
language skills that can deliver high quality outcomes. Arguably, instruction in
mother tongue does not reduce the skills or attained cognitive development by the
child in a second language (English) but it helps the child in learning the second
language much easier. By contrast, learning to read in a second language is more
demanding because the child spends more time learning a new vocabulary.
Furthermore, instruction in an unfamiliar language, possess serious problems to the
child who has not only to build a new vocabulary but adjust to new terminologies
and concepts within a short space of time. The previous studies argue that by
choosing Setswana and English as a medium of instruction in schools meant other
cultural groups and their languages were inferior in education (Jotia &Pansiri,
2013).
Therefore, the present system of education has failed minority school going children
who cannot progress in education because they have been forced to learn Setswana
language and culture (Nyati-Saleshando, 2011). Menchu agrees with Nyati-
Saleshando that: many people who understand what it entails to struggle in school
and unconditionally drop out become more frustrated and disappointed by the
decision to teach in an unfamiliar language. This means that a child who receives
instruction in a language other than his or her own cannot cope with learning.
This study also observes that in a study conducted by Nyati-Ramahobo and

Chebanne (2003) from the 2001 census, people who speak Setswana in their homes
account for only 78% of the population. This percentage is inclusive of Setswana
and non-Setswana speakers. However, Gantsi, Kgalagadi and Ngamiland reported
20%, 53% and 59% respectively for the use of Setswana in the home. While 80% of
the children in Gantsi, 47% in Kgalagadi and 41% in the Ngamiland district, speak
their own ethnic languages at home. Statistics for 2005 reveal that the exclusion of
mother tongue or multicultural education in schools where Setswana is not spoken
at home has impacted national examination results. Similarly, these districts have
the highest number of student drop out, repeaters and untrained teachers.
However, the findings of this study show practical implications in three major
domains: First, intercultural communication in schools in plural societies takes place
even without multicultural education; second, Culture and language in a plural
school and classroom environment are respected to minimize misunderstandings
and maintain unity among diverse student populations and third, social interactions
among students take place with minimum caution because interactions are mostly
confined to friends within the tribe. Therefore, not only did the study observe
mother tongue differences but also observed that students were either defensive of
their language during interactions or offensive as they sought the need for identity
in a learning environment devoid of multicultural education.
I found that individuals of different cultures who share common citizenry, and live
in a national orientation that encourages national unity, can contribute to
multilingualism. For most of the ethnic groups, the mother tongue was consistent

75
with their tribal or ethnic/ cultural groups. Some tribal groups were willing to
communicate in their language, and proud of it. But, there were instances among
minority tribes where, the language they gave as their home language was different
from the tribal language. The tribal language was relegated to other language. This
study has shown that the attitudes that students held towards their own tribal
language impact on language usage. The findings are similar with past research
conducted by Braber (2003) in Germany, following the unification of East and West
Germany which stated that the attitude of the East to learning the language of the
West, concluded that the asymmetrical relationship between the two German
people contributed to how the East felt about their own language and how they felt
about learning the language of the West. Asymmetrical relationship between the
tribal groups in this study may partly account for the willingness of some minority
groups to displace their tribal language as other language. But the finding may also
be due to expediency and pragmatism. Minority tribes face the challenge of learning
the official and national languages of Setswana and English used at school while at
the same time learning their mother-tongue (RETENG, 2007). The willingness to
learn the majority language may be linked to efforts among parents to prepare their
children to cope with the language of instruction at school. The capability of
speaking the official and national languages at an early age prepares minority
children to quickly adapt to the teaching and learning situation at school where
Setswana and English are medium of instruction. Minority languages are not a
medium of instruction.
7. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES
Several important findings can be concluded from the study. First, the study found
various circumstances which influenced different outcomes in intercultural
communication among the tribes. Among these were respect for differences; social
acceptance of otherness; multi-lingualism; different values and beliefs and
opportunities for contact with differences. Where these were absent, inter-tribal
communication among the groups was unproductive, and led to defensiveness. I
also explored the problems non-Tswana speakers encounter in communicating with
other ethnic groups in a learning environment dominated by Setswana.
Non-Tswana mother-tongue students (of Yei, Kalanga, Basarwa, and Herero tribes)
and Tswana mother-tongue students perceive inter-tribal communication with each
other in both pleasant and unpleasant ways, depending on the conditions. Where
the perception was related to the benefits that may accrue from intergroup
communication, intergroup communication was positive - which were that inter-
tribal communication is valuable; inter-tribal communication builds cultural
awareness and respect and cultural competence. Otherwise, the perception was
different, which implies a level of self-interest in the process.
Encounters of cultural differences are handled with apprehension and silence in

inter-tribal communicational interactions. While various cultural differences related

76
to verbal and non-verbal cues in communication existed among the tribes, the
verbal-cues included language and speech patterns, cultural values and
assumptions, customs, and power relations in communication. Interpretation of
nonverbal cues such as waving held different meaning which were not commonly
understood. Increased language ability; use of popular language and in-group
friendship and courtesy were the main mechanisms that were applied to cope. The
major limitation of this research is that only minority ethnic groups from three
schools in three districts of Botswana were used. Thus, sample size and the
contextual nature of the study limit generalisation of findings. Further studies
should be conducted to include Tswana speaking students in order to form a more
balanced view of whether or not there are circumstances under which differences in
cultures among diverse students at lower secondary school influence patterns in
their communication in social interactions.
References
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http://www.leeds.ac.uk/linguistics/WPL/WP2005/Braber.pdf. January 2013.
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preparation in Botswana. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 11(2): 1-13.
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Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 78-92, August 2014
Organizational Justice Influences Foci

Commitment of Teachers via Trust
Shueh-Chin Ting
Department of Education, National University of Tainan, Taiwan
Abstract. Past research on justice and trust tends to probe into their
direct relationships with overall commitment, but neglects foci of
commitment (e.g. organization, supervisor, and colleagues). This study
fills this gap and explores three types of justices effect (i.e., distributive
justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice). This study used
teachers in elementary schools as an empirical target, collected data by
questionnaire survey, and analyzed data by multiple regression to
examine the mediating relationship of justice-trust-commitment. This
study clearly shows that there are complex relationships among three
types of justice, trust, and foci commitment (commitment to school,
commitment to supervisor, and commitment to colleagues). Trust
involves fully, partially, or no mediating effects on the relationships
between three types of justice and foci commitment.
Keywords: commitment; foci; justice; teacher; trust
1. Introduction
Commitment is an important variable in organizational behavior research. It has
three characteristics: intention to maintain membership of the organization,
identification with the organizations goals and values, and willingness to exert
extra effort for the organization (Bentein, Stinglhamber, and Vandenberghe,
2002). Commitment is an influential variable; high commitment would lead to
positive results for individuals, organizations, and society (Mowday, Porter and
Steers, 1982). In terms of teachers, teacher commitment is an important issue for
teachers, but also for schools and students (Collie, Shapka, and perry, 2011). It
relates directly to issues of teaching and learning, school success, and well-being
(Day, 2008; Park, 2005).
Early researchers tended to consider the organization as a whole, and focused on

employee organizational commitment without differentiating different
commitment targets (foci) (Jiang and Cheng, 2003; Jiang, Cheng, Jen and Hsieh,
2005). However, some researchers now have held that employee commitment is
having multiple foci. Foci of commitment are the individuals and groups to
whom an employee is attached (Becker, Billings, Eveleth, and Gilbert, 1996).

79
There are many targets of teacher commitment, such as school, supervisor, and
colleagues, so commitments to different targets could be at different levels. An
individual may experience high commitment to only one of these foci, or all, or
none (Becker and Billings, 1993). In addition, the question of how to produce foci
commitment remains to be not fully explored. This research emphasizes the
antecedent-foci commitment relationship whereas prior research concentrated
on the foci commitment-outcome linkages (e.g., Becker, Billings, Eveleth, and
Gilbert, 1996; Becker and Kernan, 2003; Bentein, Stinglhamber, and
Vandenberghe, 2002; Chan, Tong-Qing, Redman, and Snape, 2006; Hartog and
Belschak, 2007).
Iverson and Roy (1994) suggested that reinforcing an employees perception of

justice can increase attitudinal commitment and then increase behavioral
commitment. Regarding the effect of justice dimensions, Magner and Welker
(1994) indicated that procedural justice can improve commitment, whereas,
distributive justice cannot. However, Mo (2002) thought that procedural justice
and distributive justice are two critical predictors of commitment. These
inconsistent findings may be due to use traditional view of overall commitment
and lack of exploration of mediation. According to the commitment-trust theory
of Morgan and Hunt (1994), trust is a critical antecedent variable of commitment.
This study considers commitment is more related with trust than with justice.
Adding into the variable of trust as a mediating variable, this study believes it
will be better to explain the relationship between justice and commitment.
In addition, most of prior commitment research involves organizational

commitment (e.g., Collie, Shapka, and perry, 2011; Ware and Kitsantas, 2011).
However, this study supposes that the implication of commitment depends on
the commitment target. Accordingly, are the relationships among justice, trust,
and commitment different if the commitment target is different? By using school
teachers as research subjects, this study seeks to extend commitment theory by
probing into the mediating effects of trust on the relationships between justice
and foci commitment (commitment to school, commitment to supervisor, and
commitment to colleagues).
2. Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Development

In this section, this study reviews and describes literature on justice, trust and
commitment, and further proposes the research hypothesis.
2.1 Justice
Justice means giving each person what he or she deserves or, in more traditional
terms, giving each person his or her due. Novelli, Kirkman, and Shapiro (1995)
suggested that creating a climate of justice is a prerequisite for effectively
transforming an organization. In general, justice involves distributive justice,
procedural justice, and interactional justice. The concept of distributive justice,
emphasizing results and contents, was developed first in the academic research
of justice, and it refers to the level of justice of resource distribution and
employees reactions to the distribution results (Folger and Greenberg, 1985).
Procedural justice stresses procedures and processes, and considers employees

80
perceptions of justice regarding decisions procedures and processes (Folger and

Greenberg, 1985). Interactional justice focuses on interpersonal interactions and
communications, and refers to employees perceptions of an organizations
willingness to communicate with employees and consult employees opinions
before decision making (Bies and Moag, 1986).
According to the equity theory of Adams (1965), employees compare their ratio
of inputs to outcomes with others to determine their cognition of justice or
injustice. If they feel injustice, they may react as follows: twist theirs or others
inputs or outcomes, lead others to change their inputs or outcomes by certain
behaviors, change their own inputs or outcomes, select other reference points, or
quit the job. Thus, when teachers perceived injustice, there may be negative
attitudes or behaviors. Organizational justice is not something new but
organizational justice studies in schools and in the field of education
management are ignored and are very few in number (Hoy & Tarter, 2004).
This study defines school justice as teachers subjective cognition of the quality
of being righteous or fair for internal resource distribution, decision making, and
personal interactions in schools. It includes three aspects: distributive justice,
procedural justice, and interactional justice. Distributive justice refers to
teachers perceptions of distribution of school resources, such as work load,
responsibilities, and rewards distribution. Procedural justice refers to teachers
perception of school decision-making processes and procedures. Interactional
justice refers to teachers perception of communication and respect from their
schools.
2.2 Trust
Trust is a kind of psychological state (Rousseau, Sitkin, Burt and Camerer, 1998),
regarding individuals positive expectations toward the intentions and
behaviors of other organizational members (Shockley-Zalabak, Ellis and
Winograd, 2000), and individuals overall perception of the reliability of the
organization (Tan and Tan, 2000).
Blau (1964) noted two types of interpersonal interactions: social exchange and
economic exchange. Social exchange means that employees aim for future
returns rather than immediate profits. Economic exchange refers to equal
immediate exchange relationships. The former is based on trust, the latter on a
calculated basis. Hence, when two parties trust each other, devotion even if no
immediate returns is possible.
Using the concept of social exchange, this study defines trust as the teachers
perception of overall trust in the school. Teachers trust their schools when they
believe their efforts will be mentally and substantially returned.
2.3 Commitment
Most of previous research on commitment addresses employees commitment to
their organization, which is called organizational commitment and is an overall
concept, and in particular, belongs to affective commitment which is defined as
an emotional attachment to, identification with and involvement in the

81
organization (Hartog and Belschak, 2007). In terms of a school, Ware and

Kitsantas (2011) conceptualized teacher commitment as (a) the extent to which
the teachers accept the goals and values of the school, (b) the amount of effort
they are willing to exert for the school, and (c) their desire to remain within the
school.
Studies of commitment have shifted from an overall concept to multiple

dimensions and from one target to multiple targets (Becker and Kernan, 2003;
Bentein, Stinglhamber, and Vandenberghe, 2002; Clugston, Howell, and
Dorfman, 2000; Hartog and Belschak, 2007; Jiang and Cheng, 2003). Moreover,
Becker (1992) viewed 1305 employees in 30 U.S. companies as targets, and found
that compared with multiple dimensions (e.g. affective commitment,
continuance commitment, and normative commitment), multiple targets of
commitment could more effectively explain employees organizational behaviors.
Similarly, the findings of Gregersen (1993) and Becker and Billings (1993) also
supported the importance about commitment of multiple targets.
Recent research showed that individuals form different strengths of attachment

towards multiple foci, such as their organization, supervisor, or work-group
(Clugston, Howell, and Dorfman, 2000). Attachment to a more proximal, lower
order focus (work-group or supervisor) is generally stronger than attachment to
a more distal, higher order one (organization) (Becker, Billings, Eveleth, and
Gilbert, 1996; Hartog and Belschak, 2007; Riketta and Van Dick, 2005).
Commitment to supervisor directly influences job performance while
commitment to organization has an indirect effect on job performance through
commitment to supervisor (Vandenberghe, Bentein, and Stinglhamber, 2004).
Bentein, Stinglhamber, and Vandenberghe (2002) observed that commitment to
the most proximal focus could mediate the effect of commitment to more distal
entities on organizational citizenship behaviors. Hartog and Belschak (2007)
believed that commitment to four distinguishable foci (organization, supervisor,
work-group, and career) can explain unique variance in personal initiative.
Becker and Kernan (2003) indicated that affective commitment to supervisor
influences in-role performance and courtesy, whereas affective commitment to
organization influences loyalty.
Summarizing, foci commitment is deserved to explore because different foci

have different characteristics. If commitment research exclusively focuses on the
organization, it will be too narrow. In addition, there is lack of explorations of
antecedents of foci commitment. Therefore, this study explores the influence of
justice and trust on commitment to organization, supervisor, and colleagues,
and defines commitment as the employees psychological identification with
organizational objectives and values, a willingness to cooperate with supervisors,
and interact with colleagues.
2.4 Hypothesis development

Pearce, Bigley, and Branyiczki (1998) suggested that feelings of justice can
develop trust whereas injustice leads to feelings of unreliability. In addition,
Yilmaz (2010) concluded that positive organizational justice perceptions will
cause employees to consider themselves as a part of the organization, become

82
easier going in their job relationships and establish relationships based on trust.
Thus, trust is based on justice which is a perception of employees from
observing their interactions with the organization. In a research of human
resource, Pearce, Branyiczki, and Bakacsi (1994) indicated that distributive
justice and procedural justice are related to trust. In addition, since commitment
involves potential harm and sacrifice, it is not easily given without trust; thus,
trust is a prior factor to commitment (Garbarino and Johnson, 1999). The social
exchange theory explains the causal relationship of trust and commitment
through a reciprocal principle; without trust, commitment is reduced and
business transactions will be direct and short-term (McDonald, 1981). Therefore,
many scholars suggest that trust determines commitment (Moorman, Zaltman
and Deshpande, 1992; Morgan and Hunt, 1994). From the perspective of social
exchange, after recognizing schools justice, teachers offer overall trust, and then
resulting in commitment.
Some empirical studies show that trust involves mediating effects. For instance,
Aryee, Budhwar, and Chen (2002) observed that trust has partial mediating
effects on the relationships between distributive justice/procedural justice and
work attitudes (including commitment), but full mediating effects between
interactional justice and work attitude. Sharon and Bart (2006) concluded that
trust mediates the relationship between distributive justice and commitment.
Trust also mediates the relationship between procedural justice and staff
turnover. Thus, this study proposes the hypothesis:
Hypothesis: Trust has the mediating effect on the relationship between justice
and commitment.
3. Research Method
3.1 Research sample
The subjects of this study were public elementary school teachers in Tainan,
Taiwan. Totally 500 questionnaires were randomly distributed, of which 458
were returned and 420 were valid; giving a valid return rate of 84%.
Sample composition: Gender- 63.5% female, 36.5% male; Age- 19.4% under 30
years old, 32.8% 30-40 years, 30.5% 40-50 years, 17.3% over 50 years old; Service
years, 18.1% under 5 years, 17.8% 5-10 years, 29.5% 10-20 years, 34.6% over 20
years; School size, 23.7% under 12 classes, 27.5% 13-24 classes, 23.9% 25-48
classes, 24.9% over 49 classes.
Tests of homogeneity between the sample and data in Taiwan, published by the
Department of Statistics, Ministry of Education, revealed no significant
differences in terms of teachers gender, age, service years, and school size, thus
the sample can be representative of public elementary school teachers in Taiwan.
3.2 Measures
This study measures justice and trust using a Likert scale format, and
commitment using a semantic differential format. The measurements of all

83
constructs are six-points. The score of each construct is received by calculating

the average of the items of the construct. Higher score stands for greater justice,
trust, or commitment. Further, these construct scores are used in subsequent
hypothesis testing.
3.2.1 Justice
Justice construct consists of distributive justice, procedural justice, and
interactional justice. The items are from Niehoff and Moorman (1993), Mo (2002),
and Huang (2002). Distributive justice concerns justice of school resource and
teachers loading distribution. Procedural justice refers to the teachers
perceptions of justice during school decision making processes and procedures.
Interactional justice refers to the extent that schools communicate with teachers
and respect teachers opinions before making decisions. Distributive justice is
measured in four items, whereas procedural and interactional justices involve
five items.
3.2.2 Trust
Trust in this study refers to the teachers perceptions of the schools decision
making capability and management reliability. The trust scale is based on the
employees trust in the organization scale developed by Podsakoff, MacKenzie,
Moorman, and Fetter (1990). It includes five items.
3.2.3 Commitment
Commitment comprises commitment to school, commitment to supervisor, and
commitment to colleagues. Commitment to school means teachers
psychological identification with schools objectives and values. Commitment to
supervisor means teachers respect to their supervisors. Commitment to
colleagues means teachers willingness to cooperate with colleagues. This study
adopts the view of multiple foci of Gregersen (1993) and Becker and Billings
(1993) to design the measured items of commitment. We use four, four, and five
items, respectively, to measure thee commitment dimensions (school, supervisor,
and colleagues).
3.3 Measurement reliability

For Cronbachs , distributive, procedural, and interactional justice are 0.89, 0.91,
and 0.94, respectively; trust is 0.93; commitment to school, commitment to
supervisor, and commitment to colleagues are 0.90, 0.91, and 0.89, respectively.
3.4 Measurement validity

First, we used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess convergent validity
together for all latent variables of distributive justice, procedural justice,
interactional justice, trust, commitment to school, commitment to supervisor,
and commitment to colleagues which were totally measured by 32 items. This
tested model constrained each item to load only on one factor. Overall, results of
this analysis indicated that the seven-factor structure was good fit to the data (2
/ df = 2.33, goodness-of-fit index [GFI] = 0.92, confirmed fit index [CFI] = 0.96,

84
and root mean square residual [RMR] = 0.04). Second, regarding discriminant
validity, all latent variables met pairwise chi-square difference test (Bagozzi, Yi,
and Phillips, 1991), in which each pair of latent variables is analyzed by
comparing the chi-square statistics of two models. One model is an
unconstrained model (correlation between the two latent variables is free to
estimate) and the other is a constrained model (correlation between the two
latent variables is set to one). The results of chi-square difference test show that,
for each pair of latent variables, chi-square statistics are significantly lower for
an unconstrained model than a constrained model. Thus, we achieved
discriminant validity among our constructs.
3.5 Common method variance (CMV)

This study relied on self-reported questionnaire data suggesting possible
mono-method bias and percept-percept inflated measures (Crampton and
Wagner, 1994; Donaldson and Grant-Vallone, 2002). However, self-reporting
does not necessarily inflate relationships between variables (Bruk-Lee and
Spector, 2006). To mitigate mono-method bias, this study used several
procedural remedies of Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, and Podsakoff (2003). The
measures of this study used different scale formats including Likert scale format
and semantic differential format. We carefully constructed all survey items, and
used pre-testing to eliminate item ambiguity (e.g., avoid double-barreled
questions, avoid complicated syntax, keep questions simple, specific, and
concise). The scale items were ordered randomly in the survey. Finally, this
study used two unrelated jokes to create a psychological separation for each
pages items.
Harmans one-factor (or single-factor) test is one of the most widely used
techniques to address the issue of mono-method variance (Podsakoff,
MacKenzie, Lee, and Podsakoff, 2003). Following the test, all measured items in
the study were together subjected to an exploratory factor analysis, which
yielded five factorially distinct constructs and a general factor did not account
for the majority of the covariance among measures (only 24.38%). The results
indicated that mono-method bias was not a serious threat.
4. Research Results
We used Baron and Kennys (1986) method to examine the mediating effects.
Baron and Kenny (1986) laid out three conditions that have to be met: (1)
variations in the independent variable significantly account for variations in the
dependent variable; (2) variations in the independent variable significantly
account for variations in the presumed mediator; (3) when the presumed
mediator is associated with the independent variable to predict the dependent
variable, variations in the presumed mediator significantly account for
variations in the dependent variable; in addition, the previously significant
relation between the independent variable and dependent variable is weakened
or no longer significant. Full mediation holds when the independent variable
has no effect on the dependent variable when the mediator is introduced. Partial

85
mediation holds when the independent variable has significantly effect on the
dependent variable when the mediator is introduced.
This study validated the mediating effects of trust on the relationship between
justice and commitment through multiple regression analysis. Because we had
three dependent variables, commitment to school, commitment to supervisor,
and commitment to colleagues, each commitment was separately treated as the
dependent variable to conduct the examination of the mediation of trust. The
results are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Regression analysis.
Dependent variables
Independ Mode Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model5 Model 6 Model 7
ent l1 Commitm Commitm Commitm Commitm Commitm Commitm
variables Trust ent to ent to ent to ent to ent to ent to
school school superviso superviso colleague colleague
r r s s
Distributi 0.04 0.13* 0.12* 0.05 0.04 0.13* 0.12*
ve
justice
Procedur 0.52** 0.43*** 0.17** 0.15* 0.05 0.11 0.09
al *
justice
Interactio 0.37** 0.20** 0.02 0.36*** 0.23** 0.34*** 0.16**
nal *
justice
Trust 0.50*** 0.42*** 0.47***
R2 0.67 0.39 0.43 0.28 0.35 0.24 0.37
F 98.02 43.80*** 50.86*** 21.53*** 28.68*** 19.65*** 30.01***
***
Note:
(1) All regression coefficients are standardized.
(2) *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001
4.1 Commitment to school as the dependent variable

The first step in the analysis here involved regressing commitment to school on
three types of justice. The results presented in Table 1 (Model 2) show that
distributive justice (=0.13, p<0.05), procedural justice (=0.43, p<0.001), and
interactional justice (=0.20, p<0.01) are significantly and positively related to
commitment to school, thus providing support for the direct effect of three types
of justice on commitment to school.
The second step in the mediation analysis involved regressing trust on three
types of justice. The results in Table 1 (Model 1) indicate that distributive justice
does not have a significant relationship with trust (=0.04, n.s.). Therefore, trust
does not have the mediating effect of distributive justice on commitment to
school. At the same time, the effects of procedural justice (=0.52, p<0.001) and
interactional justice (=0.37, p<0.001) on trust are significant, thus offering
support only for the main effects of procedural justice and interactional justice
on trust.
In the third step of the mediation analysis, commitment to school was regressed on

86
three types of justice and trust. The results in Table 1 (Model 3) indicate that the
effect of trust on commitment to school is significant (=0.50, p<0.001). In
addition, when trust is entered into the equation, the significant relationship we
found between procedural justice and commitment to school is weakened from
0.43 to 0.17 but remains significant (p<0.01). At the same time, the effect of
interactional justice on commitment to school becomes nonsignificant (=0.02,
n.s.).
Together, these results suggest that trust partially mediates the relationship
between procedural justice and commitment to school. In addition, trust fully
mediates the relationship between interactional justice and commitment to
school. The path relationship is shown in Figure 1.
Procedural justice
Interactional justice Trust Commitment to school
Figure 1. The mediating effect of trust on the relationship between justice and
commitment to school.
4.2 Commitment to supervisor as the dependent variable

The first step in the analysis here involved regressing commitment to supervisor
on three types of justice. The results presented in Table 1 (Model 4) show that
distributive justice (=0.05, n.s.) is nonsignificantly, but procedural justice
(=0.15, p<0.05) and interactional justice (=0.36, p<0.001) are significantly and
positively, related to commitment to supervisor, thus providing support only for
the direct effect of procedural justice and interactional justice on commitment to
supervisor. At this step, we have known trust does not mediate the relationship
between distributive justice and commitment to supervisor.
The tested relationship and results of the second step is fully same as the content
of using commitment to school as the dependent variable, offering support only
for the main effects of procedural justice and interactional justice on trust.
In the third step of the mediation analysis, commitment to supervisor was

regressed on three types of justice and trust. The results in Table 1 (Model 5)
indicate that the effect of trust on commitment to supervisor is significant
(=0.42, p<0.001). In addition, when trust is entered into the equation, the
significant relationship we found between procedural justice and commitment to
supervisor becomes nonsignificant (=0.05, n.s.). At the same time, the effect of
interactional justice on commitment to supervisor is weakened from 0.36 to 0.23
but remains significant (p<0.01).
Together, these results suggest that trust fully mediates the relationship between
procedural justice and commitment to supervisor. In addition, trust partially
mediates the relationship between interactional justice and commitment to
supervisor. The path relationship is shown in Figure 2.

87
Procedural justice Trust Commitment to supervisor
Interactional justice
commitment to supervisor.
4.3 Commitment to colleagues as the dependent variable

The first step in the analysis here involved regressing commitment to colleagues
on three types of justice. The results presented in Table 1 (Model 6) show that
distributive justice (=0.13, p<0.05) and interactional justice (=0.34, p<0.001) are
significantly and positively related to commitment to colleagues, but procedural
justice (=0.11, n.s.) is nonsignificant, thus providing support only for the direct
effect of distributive justice and interactional justice on commitment to
colleagues. At this step, we have known trust does not mediate the relationship
between procedural justice and commitment to colleagues.
The tested relationship and results of the second step is fully same as the content
of using commitment to school as the dependent variable, offering support only
for the main effects of procedural justice and interactional justice on trust. At this
step, we have known trust does not mediate the relationship between
distributive justice and commitment to colleagues.
In the third step of the mediation analysis, commitment to colleagues was

regressed on three types of justice and trust. The results in Table 1 (Model 7)
indicate that the effect of trust on commitment to colleagues is significant
(=0.47, p<0.001). In addition, when trust is entered into the equation, the
significant relationship we found between interactional justice and commitment
to colleagues is weakened from 0.34 to 0.16 but remains significant (p<0.01).
Together, these results suggest that trust partially mediates the relationship
between interactional justice and commitment to colleagues. The path
relationship is shown in Figure 3.
Trust Commitment to colleagues
Interactional justice
commitment to colleagues.
Thus, this study demonstrates that the mediating effects of trust on the
relationship between justice and commitment are related with the types of
justice and commitment. Thus, the hypothesis of this study is partially
supported. The research results are summarized in Table 2.

88
Table 2. Research results.

Dependent variables (Foci commitment)
Independent Commitment to Commitment to Commitment to
variables school supervisor colleagues
Distributive No mediation No mediation No mediation
justice
Procedural Partial mediation Full mediation No mediation
justice
Interactional Full mediation Partial mediation Partial mediation
justice
5. Conclusions and Suggestions

5.1 Conclusions
Past research regarded commitment as a whole and was lack of exploring the
relationship of justice-trust-commitment from the perspective of dimensions.
This study used teachers of elementary schools as a target to conduct an
empirical research. Based on relationship marketing theory, justice comprises
distributional justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice. In addition,
teachers foci commitment includes commitment to school, commitment to
supervisor, and commitment to colleagues. This study demonstrates that trust
involves fully, partially, or no mediating effects on the relationships between
three types of justice and types of foci commitment. Specifically, trust shows
fully mediating effects on the relationship between interactional justice and
commitment to school, and on the relationship between procedural justice and
commitment to supervisor. Trust reveals partially mediating effects on the
relationship between procedural justice and commitment to school, and on the
relationships between interactional justice and commitment to supervisor and
colleagues. Trust does not show mediating effects on the relationship between
distributive justice and the three types of foci commitment, and on the
relationship between procedural justice and commitment to colleagues.
Although distributive justice cannot lead to commitment through trust, it
directly influences commitment to school and colleagues, so distributive justice
is also important to some of commitment. Thus, to enhance teachers foci
commitment, school management should improve distributive justice,
procedural justice, and interactional justice and understand the mediating
mechanism of trust. Academically, the finding supports trust is a good
mediating variable as past research indicated (Morgan and Hunt, 1994).
Moreover, this study clearly shows a complex relationship among justice, trust,
and foci commitment and this study more clearly elaborates their relationship
than past research.
5.2 Suggestions for practitioners

The findings have implications for principals and supervisors. First of all, the
results show that procedural justice and interactional justice via trust tend to
have positive effects on commitment to school and supervisor. We suggest
principals and supervisors should display procedural justice and interactional

89
justice behaviors in order to elicit teacher perceptions of procedural justice and

interactional justice, then enhance their perceived trust and finally attain
commitment to school and supervisor. Second, the results show that
interactional justice via trust tends to have a positive effect on commitment to
colleagues. We suggest principals and supervisors should display interactional
justice behaviors in order to elicit teacher perceptions of interactional justice,
then enhance their perceived trust and finally attain commitment to colleagues.
Third, the results show that distributive justice cannot win employees trust, but
distributive justice has a help for commitment school and colleagues. So,
distributive justice cannot be neglected by principals and supervisors.
5.3 Suggestions for future research

Although the measurement of this study has good reliability and validity and
the test of the hypothesis is according to proper test procedures, this study still
has some limitations and needs to rely on the further efforts of future research.
Firstly, this study only samples teachers in elementary schools of Tainan,

Taiwan. The test of sample homogeneity reveals the sample is representative of
whole Taiwan; however the sample is only from elementary schools, which
significantly reduces the generalization of the research findings to different
levels of schools. To extend applicability (Churchill, 1979), future research could
expand the scope of the sampling to teachers in junior high schools, senior high
schools, and universities.
We have explored the dimensions of justice and commitment; hence, to avoid

research being too complex, in the aspect of trust, this study only probes into the
teachers trust in schools and defines trust as the reliability of the schools.
However, further research could consider other trust targets like foci
commitment of this study.
The research on mediating effects is important for psychological science. Direct

relationship between external stimulus and individual reaction is few. Most of
relationships often involve the mediation through various transformation
processes which are internal to the organism. Baron and Kenny (1986) suggest
that when an independent variable and a mediator predict the dependent
variable, if the independent variable is still same significant as when the
independent variable alone predicts the dependent variable, there may be other
mediators. Thus, for some mediating relationships which this research has
explored, besides the mediator trust, there are probably other mediators
needed for further exploration such as the influences of procedural justice on
commitment to school, interactional justice on commitment to supervisor, and
interactional justice on commitment to colleagues.
6. Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to National Science Council in Taiwan for the financial
support (NSC 99-2410-H-024-009).

90
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Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 93-104, August 2014
The Contribution of In-Service Training Programs to the

Professional Development of Mathematics Teachers
Ilana Levenberg
Gordon College of Education
Haifa, Israel
Dorit Patkin
Kibbutzim College of Education
Tel Aviv, Israel
Abstract. This paper presents a way of training elementary school

mathematics teachers. The viewpoint taken is that the teaching profession is
a continuous learning process for those who practice it. The first part will
present a model of mathematics teachers in-service training program
conceived by the authors and later tested and researched. The second part
will present examples from the curriculum of the in-service training program.
It will touch upon the manner by which mathematics teachers are instructed
and encouraged to carry out projects in their schools.
Keywords: Mathematics teacher; professional development; mathematics
projects
Model of mathematics teachers in-service training program

In recent years, mathematics teachers educators have emphasized the importance of
implementing a reform in mathematics teaching. In Israel, there are more than 16,000
mathematics teachers, about 9,400 of them teaching mathematics in elemetary
schools. But only 20% of the latter have specialized in teaching mathematics.
Although the majority of elementary school teachers lack formal mathematics
education and their knowledge is limited, in many cases they do teach mathematics.
Hence, in order to change the situation, it is essential to build programs designed to
develop and support the growth of these teachers' professional knowledge.
Teaching is a very complex and demanding profession and at the same time
extremely challenging. As Shulman (1986) said: "The person who presumes to teach a
subject matter to children must demonstrate knowledge of that subject matter as a prerequisite
of teaching". Nevertheless, this is insufficient. Teachers need to possess a wide range
@2014 The authors and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved.

94
of 6 skills and various types of knowledge and abilities (Danielson, 2001; Shulman,
1987) as follows: pedagogical knowledge concerning available teaching materials and
methods; knowledge and abilities for adapting teaching approaches to specific
subjects and the reasons thereof; knowledge and abilities for designing lessons,
asking questions and presenting problems; knowledge and abilities about students:
difficulties, mistakes and misconceptions they have, and the ways students construct
their knowledge; knowledge and abilities of being reflective: ways of analysing what
the teacher did, how and why the teacher did it.; knowledgw and abilities of
communicating and interacting with students.
Ball (2011) dealt with the question of "Knowing mathematics well enough to teach it".
She raised three questions: How much mathematics do teachers need to know? What
mathematics do teachers need to know and why? What mathematical knowledge and
skills are involved in teaching?
Guberman and Gorev (2012) identified teachers' attitudes towards the knowledge
which they need in order to fulfill their role in the best way. They found three
important components: the component of mathematics knowledge, the component of
mathematical pedagogical knowledge and the component of knowledge about the
curricula.
Thus, they attempted to define what should be emphasized in the training of

elementary school mathematics teachers. Among others, this can be done by
participating in the preparation of workshops devoted to professional development
and taking part in life-long learning.
We can summarize what has been said above into a model of "The personal practical
knowledge of the teacher" which comprises a set of six components. Knowledge of
the subject matter - understanding the structure of the field of knowledge, ideas,
principles and key concepts in the disciplines as well as educational content and
knowledge organization. Knowledge of the learner - understanding learning and
development among students, level of difficulty and adjusting the material to the
students' differentiation. Background knowledge of the school environment -
understanding contexts, norms and relationships within the school, community,
parents and authorities. Curricular knowledge - knowledge of existing curricula and
learning materials, alternative materials, exploring connections between content
areas, different subjects and different levels for the same age group. Didactic
knowledge - knowledge of teaching practices, recognizing and using different
teaching strategies, varied classroom management and organization, different
alternatives in teaching. Self-knowledge - personal goals, values, awareness, beliefs
and opinions that affect curriculum planning and teaching.

95
The model
Figure 1. Teachers and their personal knowledge
In order to strengthen teachers' mathematical and pedagogical knowledge

educational authorities in Israel decided at the beginning of the 21st century to
develop professional programs that respond to teachers major needs. The aim of the
new in-service training program was to promote academic achievements in
elementary school mathematics. The program was called "Specialization in
mathematics". It was compulsory for all nonprofessional teachers, namely teachers
who did not have formal mathematics education.
At the same time, the elementary school mathematics curriculum prevalent in the
education system for over 20 years was replaced by a new program.
The in-service training program was designed to last 2 years, 150 hours a year,
totaling 300 hours. The program aimed to strengthen teachers' mathematics
knowledge as well as their acquaintance with the new elementary school curriculum.
The didactic aspects were designed to instruct teachers with several models of
teaching and learning, adjusting them to different age levels. Moreover, the
participant teachers were introduced to students' errors and common misconceptions
in the context of learning mathematical concepts, using them as a means of correcting
or preventing them. In this context, another goal of the program was to empower
teachers who could develop learning environments tailored to a variety of student
types. The program also emphasized providing knowledge for implementing varied
ways for assessing students' performance.
Teamwork skills were also some of the goals of the in-service training program.
According of the program, teachers should learn to cooperate with their team

96
colleagues, design together the work plan, set goals, as well as systemically test and
assess outcomes of learning processes.
The in-service training program was planned to include 10 modules and two external
tests: two base modules (geometry and fractions), five advanced modules (geometry,
fractions, integers, ratio, percentage and exploratory data analysis) and two modules
of empowerment of school staffs and teamwork skills.
First year
Semester I: Basic geometry, basic fractions.
Between the semesters: empowerment of school staffs and teamwork skills by
creating an intervention project in geometry (like geometry around us).
Semester II: integers, advanced geometry.
At the end of the first year, the teachers had to pass an exam written by the inspector
of mathematics.
Second year
Semester I: advanced fractions, exploratory data analysis.
Between the semesters: empowerment of school staffs and teamwork skills by
creating an intervention project in mathematics and language (e.g. mathematics in
stories and fairy tales).
Semester II: ratio and percentage, dealing with learning disabilities and gifted
children.
At the end of the second year the teachers had to pass a certification test which
included all the topics of the 10 modules.
This in-service training program continued for 9 years, till 2010. The results brought
only limited success. The National Authority for Measurement and Assessment in
Education published a report in 2011. The report illustrated that the rate of teachers
who had successfully completed the professionalization program during the years
2004-2010 (as measured by the final exams which included contents from the learning
materials the teachers were supposed to teach), ranged between 63% and 85%.
Moreover, only about half of the teachers who taught mathematics in elementary
school participated in the program and many schools sent only individual
representatives and not teams of teachers.
Shriki and Patkin (2012) found that most of the teachers who attended the in-service
training program in mathematics stated that the program didnt have real impact on
their teaching. Teachers were mainly concerned about their difficulties in dealing
with mathematically heterogeneous classes and their insufficient knowledge about

97
appropriate learning materials and the ways to adapt them to students various
abilities. The teachers also pointed out that they needed to be able to deal with
affective aspects of learning mathematics - how to motivate students to learn
mathematics, how to reduce fears of mathematics and more. Despite most teachers
insufficient mathematical background, they did not perceive this issue as central to
their needs.
The 'New Horizon' educational reform

Four years ago, within the framework of the educational reform 'New Horizon', a
setup of teachers' professional development was conceived in Israel (Ministry of
Education, 2013).
In mathematics, three new programs were developed: Two pathways of a 3-year long
in-service training courses were planned for multiple subject teachers who had not
specialized in mathematics and yet teach it at school. The total number of hours in
each pathway was 90 hours. The pathways were built according to age groups: a
pathway for teachers of 1st -2nd grades and a pathway for teachers of 3rd-6th grades.
The objectives of the in-service training program were: building mathematics
knowledge; comprehension of and distinction between curricula and learning
materials; and development of thinking principles of mathematics. Teachers were
required to attend every year two courses, each 30 hours long. One course dealt with
the Subject Matter Knowledge (SMK) (e.g. mathematics) and the other was designed
according to the needs of the school or the district (e.g. IT, 'caution on the road' rules
and so on). Head teachers recommended and authorized the in-service training
program as well as chose the teachers who were to attend these courses. It is
important to mention that teachers who wish to train in mathematics are allowed to
learn without any tests.
Patkin & Mishal (2014) conducted a study which aimed to explore the contribution of
mathematics in-service training courses to elementary school teachers (1st 6th
grades). The participants were 449 teachers who were required to respond to
background questions. Moreover, they were asked to indicate their expectations from
the in-service training course and at its end point out to what extent they benefitted
from that course. The research findings illustrated that teachers teaching mathematics
at elementary school and who attended the course were generally women. They were
in their 40s, holding a B.Ed. degree and a teaching certificate not in mathematics, with
an average of 13-year seniority. The participating teachers indicated their wish to
enrich their didactic knowledge in order to acquire varied tools for teaching
mathematics to the entire pupil population, gifted pupils and pupils with learning
difficulties. Nevertheless, their demand to expand their mathematics knowledge was
very limited. Based on the fact that most teachers have no mathematics education,
this is a surprising finding as, in order to be a good teacher, one must be versed not
only in the Pedagogical Content Knowledge but also in the Subject Matter
Knowledge.

98
The third new program was "Teachers initiating and implementing educational
programs". The teachers who attended this program had to be experienced and well-
educated and should have attended in the past various in-service training programs
of mathematics teaching. The program advocated taking into consideration the
features of teachers' professional background, including the knowledge, beliefs,
needs and expectations which they have brought with them to the in-service training
course. It was designed to develop elementary and junior high school mathematics
teachers' ability to generate changes in their teaching methods and implement them
in class and at school. The program consisted of a total of 150 hours spread over two
years. The first year included 45 hours of theoretical studies as well as 30 hours of
support and tutoring in the implementation of an applied project (developing
initiatives in the field of mathematics teaching). The program comprised 11
encounters of four hours each. Three of them were devoted to the generic part of the
program. The other encounters engaged in the content area of the program. At the
end of the first year of the program, the attending teachers were required to submit a
final assignment. Similarly, the second year of the program included encounters
devoted to the inculcation of varied tools for documenting initiatives and
teaching/learning processes. In parallel, the encounters focused on theoretical and
applied aspects stemming from the development of mathematics teaching units and
their implementation as well as tutoring of the applied project.
A study conducted by Levy-Keren (2014) aimed to assess the 2-year in-service
training program. The research design was in the 'pre-post' format without a control
group. The research population consisted of 19 teachers and the research tools were
close-ended questionnaires and a set of open-ended questions. The approach used for
analyzing the data was both quantitative and qualitative.
The research findings of this study illustrated that at the end of the first year of the
in-service training program the participants demonstrated a slight and insignificant
improvement in perceiving their capabilities of understanding mathematics and
teaching it. Nevertheless, there was a significant decrease in their level of expectations
at the beginning of the in-service training program regarding the contribution of the
program related to the inculcation of mathematical knowledge and pedagogical
content knowledge. In addition, the teachers were highly satisfied with the whole
program. It was evident that the teachers greatly benefited from the teamwork they
had experienced for the purpose of planning and implementing the initiative;
application of skills for writing the initiative proposal as well as the knowledge they
acquired in mathematics and the teaching thereof. Future expectations of most
teachers were focused on implementing the initiative and its operation at school
during the second year of training. These findings were interpreted through a model
for developing teachers' concern about and interest in the change. At the end of the
second year, at the end of the in-service training program, the attending teachers
responded to a questionnaire which checked the perception of the change in their
pedagogical skills following the initiative implementation. Moreover, their attitudes
towards the extent to which several elements associated with the processes

99
functioned. The objective was to identify the aspects which preoccupied and
concerned the teachers during the change process which they were undergoing.
The findings were analyzed according to the Concerns Based Adoption Model
(CBAM) conceived by Hall & Hord (2011).
Table 1 presents the various elements which facilitated or inhibited the process of
implementing the initiative as a process of change in the participants' way of teaching.
This was done by means and standard deviation obtained for each element. The
answer options ranged between 1 (the element did not help at all) and 6 (the element
which helped the most).
Table 1: The facilitating and inhibiting elements which function during the initiative
process (means and standard deviation)
The functioning element N=19 Mean S.D.
Collaboration between subject colleagues at 15 5.20 1.01
school
Lack of budget at school 11 2.91 1.97
Counselling you received during the in- 15 5.40 1.06
service training course by the lecturer team
The time you had to dedicate to 15 5.27 1.10
implementing the initiative
Supportive school climate 15 5.13 0.74
Ambiguity regarding the nature of the 5 2.40 1.14
proposed initiative
The efforts you have to exert for 15 4.47 1.36
implementing the initiative
The findings show that elements which were the most facilitating for implementing
the initiative are the tutoring the teachers received within the framework of the in-
service training program (5.40), the collaboration between colleagues (5.20) and the
supportive school climate (5.13). The other two elements the managerial-
organizational element of the lack of budget at school (2.91) and the ambiguity
regarding the success of the change (2.40) were perceived as non-facilitating. The
summary of the findings analysis illustrated the end of the first year of the in-service
training course a slight and insignificant improvement in the way all the teachers
perceived their abilities to teach mathematics (Pedagogical Content Knowledge).
Conversely, at the end of the second year, after completion of the project, there was
clear evidence of improvement in the teachers' pedagogical knowledge following the
implementation of the educational initiative at school (Levy-Keren, 2014).

100
The second part of this paper presents examples from the curriculum of the in-service
training programs. This approach encourages schools to introduce projects which are
suitable to classes with a large number of students and heterogeneous classes.
Project no 1:
A mathematical journey in the Footsteps of Jules Verne
Adding creativity to daily teaching practices will ensure that students are given
opportunities to develop all of their potential. (Burke Adams 2007).
As part of mathematics education, the project combines the stories of Jules Verne and
mathematical studies, in order to develop skills of connectivity between mathematics
and other disciplines. The fascinating journey to the beauty of mathematics is
performed through the book of Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days.
We based ourselves on the standards of the NCTM (NCTM, 2000) which emphasize
this aspect, asserting that this type of relation between mathematics and other areas
shows the applicability of mathematics as well as develops comprehension. In the
preparation of the learning environment, we grounded ourselves in the arguments
that the learning environment was a system of interrelated components that
attributes a meaning to one another.
The characteristics of the learning environment in the spirit of Jules Vernes stories
were based on four following principles. The first principle is that an environment
embodies flexibility of time dedicated to a given learning activity, in the place where
the activity occurs, in the modes of possible learning (methods and learning ways),
and in the learned contents. The second principle is that teachers' role is to provide
opportunities for learning with the world, given learners' curiosity and interest. The
teacher helps, catalyzes, directs, and adjusts the learning activity by providing
stimuli, offering help, and creating appropriate learning opportunities. The third
principles is that the learning environment enables learning situations that rely on
the learners curiosity which evokes inner motivation. The fourth is that the learning
environment offers students stimulation and discussions on mathematical topics. It
encourages a thinking culture and complex tasks of collecting relevant information.
In the method of activity using Jules Verne's story Around the World in Eighty Days,
learners wander around a map of the world. Thus they are exposed to the world of
numbers, calculations, the history of mathematics, interesting discoveries in
mathematics and the tremendous innovation and creativity in the stories of Jules
Verne.
For example, while visiting Egypt we can teach Ancient Egyptian Numeration system
(one of the stations in the book Around the World in Eighty Days) .
How can we write the following numbers using the ancient Egyptian symbols? 431; 1,374 ;
62,589? Did we all use the same symbols? We should check this! If we write the same symbol
3 times in a row (e.g. 3 birds) what could we say about the numbers we get? When writing
the same digit 3 times in a row with our symbols (555 or 888) what can we say about the
numbers we get?

101
Project no 2:
The Mathematical Field Trip
Most studies of mathematics education deal with the difficulties encountered by
students in learning mathematics. One of the main reasons for these difficulties is the
gap between the level of teaching and students' capabilities and understanding of
mathematical concepts (Patkin & Levenberg, 2012). Consequently, it is recommended
integrating multi-disciplinary activities into the mathematical teaching using
examples which activate the imagination while acquiring mathematical knowledge.
In this manner, students will have a more substantial and better understanding of
mathematical concepts.
In the Standards for School Mathematics published over the years by the National
Council of Mathematical Teachers (NCTM, 2000) many suggestions have been made
to improve mathematical teaching in school and to adjust it to the technological needs
of the 21st century. These suggestions are based on the assumption that the field of
mathematics includes content matter from a wide variety of subjects that are essential
for students learning in a technological society. The Standards recommend using
auxiliary materials in mathematical teaching which aid the students by emphasizing
inculcation and development of cognitive skills as well as understanding
mathematical concepts. The ultimate goal is to develop mathematical literacy:
reading, speaking and writing mathematics. These recommendations provide the
foundation for the mathematical field trip (Shaham & Levenberg , 2013).
The trip in the schools neighborhood covered a number of sites and combined
historical and geographical perspectives along with mathematics. Several goals were
accomplished during the mathematical tour. These were: acquiring knowledge
through experience and inquisitiveness; changing the learning environment into an
open and inviting dynamic environment outside the school classroom; developing
the students ability to cope with relevant problems, applying tools from diverse
fields; demonstrating the relation between mathematics and disciplines such as:
history, geography, physics and others; and reducing the anxiety of learning
mathematics.
The preparations of the mathematical field trip required Providing a source for
mathematical activity, choosing photographed sites, researching historical and
geographical backgrounds of the chosen sites, adapting the level the activities to the
level of mathematics taught at the school, preparing a wide variety of mathematical
activities and assessing all the activities at the end the field trip.
The mathematical field trip was unique because it integrated mathematical principles
taught in elementary school and applied them to the immediate environment. The
subjects involved in the trip included measurements, the world of whole and rational
numbers, geometric shapes, symmetry, percentage, fractions and so on.
The field trip suggested a wide variety of mathematical activities and exposure to
subject matter outside the classroom. It enabled interesting and non-conventional
mathematical activities to pupils at elementary school level. The children learnt

102
mathematics through experience and inquisitiveness and developed the ability to

cope with relevant problems. In addition, they learnt more about the relations
between mathematics and other fields of learning such as: biology, history,
geography, physics, economics and other disciplines. Moreover, the mathematical
field trip developed mathematical activity in a different and challenging learning
atmosphere.
Below are some vignettes of students feedback associated with the mathematical field
trip:
We had a chance to see math outside the classroom; We learned math together with biology,
history, geography, economics, we didnt have it before; The activities were interesting and
challenging; We would like to have more activities like this.
Discussion and recommendations
Based on the teachers' satisfaction with the three new developed programs, it is
recommended implementing them also in the next years. This should be done by
paying attention to teachers' professional background characteristics, including their
knowledge, beliefs, needs and expectations they bring with them to the in-service
training courses.
Nevertheless, one should bear in mind that different studies illustrate that the very
attendance of teachers in programs designed to support their professional
development is insufficient and as such cannot guarantee the anticipated change in
their professional practice (Guskey, 2000). Consequently, it is essential that teachers
continuously explore the initiatives they have developed and the impact thereof on
their pupils' learning and learning outcomes.
Moreover it is recommended setting up in future a professional development
community (CDP). This concerns a group of professional that critically and jointly
examine their knowledge and practices, discussing them with the purpose of
improving from a professional aspect. Such a group could facilitate teachers in coping
with the elements which they believe inhibit the internalization of the initiative, e.g.
feelings of apprehension, lack of confidence and available time resources. They
should be allowed to implement the initiative also in the next years in the scopes they
wish. Within the professional development community the teachers would be able to
share with others the processes of data collection and analysis, examine evidence
regarding the relation between the initiative implementation and their pupils'
learning outcomes, analyze teaching and learning processes, draw conclusions and
generate changes designed to improve their teaching and the learning of their class
pupils (Levy-Keren, 2014; Louis, Marks & Kruse, 1996). This activity, according to the
various studies, enhances teachers' sense of self-efficacy and their personal
commitment to teaching and improving the pupils' attainments (Levy-Keren, 2014;
Louis, Marks & Kruse, 1996).
Implementation of these recommendations might lead to teachers' continuous
learning throughout their career, promote them and turn them into experts in their

103
field. Thus they will acquire pedagogical knowledge and updated education,
improve their practice and upgrade the pupils' attainments.
To sum up: Every country copes with varied problems associated with teacher
training and professional development throughout the years, as a way of life. In light
of the numerous and rapid changes which transpire in the 21st century, mathematics
teacher in-service training programs, like other professions such as engineering and
medicine, have become more difficult and complicated. Consequently, international
collaboration and mutual feedback are the most important and beneficial factors in
promoting this issue.
References
Ball, D. (2011). Knowing mathematics well enough to teach it - mathematical knowledge for teaching.
Apaper presented in the presentation for the Initiative for Applied Research in
Education expert committee at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities,
Jerusalem, Israel, January 30, 2011.
Danielson, C. (2001). New trends in teacher evaluation. Educational Leadership, 58(5), 12-15.
Guberman, R., & Gorev, D. (2012). What elementary school mathematics teachers should know and
be able to do From the point of view of the teachers of mathematics in elementary schools.
Achva Academic college of Education, Israel. [Hebrew]
Guskey, T. R. (2002). Does it make a Difference? Evaluating Professional Development.
Educational Leadership, 59(6), 45-51. [Hebrew]
Hall, G. E., & Hord, S. M. (2011). Implementing change, patterns, principles, and potholes. (3rd ed.).
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.
Levy-Keren, M. (2014). Assessment of the program: "Teachers initiating and implementing
educational programs" for mathematics teachers at elementary and junior high schools within
the framework of professional development for educational practitioners Final Report. Tel
Aviv: Kibbutzim College of Education, Research and Assessment Unit. [Hebrew]
Louis, K.S., Marks, H. M., & Kruse, S. (1996). Teachers' professional community in restricting
schools. American Educational Research Journal, 33, 757-798.
Ministry of Education (2013). Policy of professional development for ranks 7-9: An overall document.
Jerusalem: Ministry of Education, Administration of training, in-service courses and
promotion of educational-social equality. Retrieved from:
http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PituachMiktzoie/meyda/Pitoach
Mikzoei7-9/mediniut7-9.htm. [Hebrew]
NCTM (2000). Principles and standards for school mathematics. National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics. Reston, VA: NCTM.
Patkin D., & Levenberg, I. (2012). Geometry from the world around us. Learning and Teaching
Mathematics. A Journal of AMESA, 13, 14-18.
Patkin, D., & Millet, S. (1999). Personal Knowledge among Mathematics Teachers In Primary
Schools Teaching Solid Geometry. The eighth International Conference on Geometry,
Nachsholim, Israel.
Patkin, D., & Mishal, A. (2014). The contribution of mathematics in-service training course to
professional development of elementary school teachers. In D. Patkin & A. Gazit (Eds.),

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Who are you - the elementary school mathematics teacher? (pp. 231-259). Tel Aviv, Israel:
Moffet Institute. [Hebrew]
Shaham, H., & Levenberg, I. (2013). The Mathematical Field Trip. .International Journal of
Learning & Development, 3(5), 53-55.
Shriki, A., & Patkin, D. (2014). Elementary school mathematics teachers'perception on their
professional needs. In D. Patkin & A. Gazit (Eds.), Who are you - the elementary school
mathematics teacher? (pp. 187-230). Tel Aviv, Israel: Moffet Institute. [Hebrew]
Shulman. L. S. (1986). Those who Understand: Knowledge Growth in Teacing. Educational
Researcher, 15 (2), 4-14.
Shulman. L. S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard
Educational Review, 56,1-22.

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Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 105-118, August 2014
The Coach-Athlete Relationship

and Self-Determination:
Assessing an Athlete Centered Scale in Sport
Frode Moen and Roger A. Federici

Norwegian University of Science and Technology
N-7491 Trondheim, Norway
Abstract. One purpose of the present study was to develop and test the
factor structure of a multidimensional and hierarchical instrument for
measuring athlete-centered coaching called the Athlete-Centered
Coaching Scale (ACS). Another purpose of the study was to validate the
ACS through an inspection of the relation with the three psychological
needs proposed by self-determination theory (SDT). The ACS was
measured by a 16-item scale and was developed to capture important
relational elements based on the theoretical framework developed by
Carl Rogers. Need satisfaction was measured by a modified version of
the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction at Work Scale (BPNSWS) that
we named the Reduced Need Satisfaction Scale (RNSS). Participants in
the study were 382 junior athletes in different sports such as cross
country skiing, nordic combined, ski jumping, volleyball, handball,
track and field, ice hockey, biathlon, cycling and orienteering. Both the
ACS and the SDT were investigated by means of confirmatory factor
analyses (CFA) before a structural model was tested. The confirmatory
factor analyses supported both a first and second order model of the
ACS constituting the four dimensions of the ACS; (1) Congruence, 2)
Empathy, 3) Positive regard, and 4) Commonness. The structural model
had acceptable fit to data and revealed that the ACS was positively
related to SDT. The present study extends the literature on athlete-
centered coaching and its relation to other concepts. The results of the
study are discussed together with limitations and suggestions for
further research.
Keywords: athlete-centered; coaching; self-determination; sport
Introduction
Questions concerning what coaching behaviours that are favourable in order to
develop effective coach-athlete relationships in sport has occupied researchers
and practitioners for several decades (Blom, Watson II, & Spadaro, 2010;
Chelladurai, 2007; Ct & Gilbert, 2009; Horn, 2002; Jowett & Cockerill, 2003).
Research claims that the coach has an essential role in developing the athlete in
sport (Jowett & Cockerill, 2002; Lyle, 1999, 2002; Mageau & Vallerand, 2003).

106
Also, instructions and prescriptions from the coach have traditionally been
found to dominate the interactions between coaches and their athletes (Cushion
& Jones, 2006; Potrac, Jones & Cushion, 2007). Consequently, athletes have been
found to play a passive and docile role in the coaching process (Cushion &
Jones, 2012). Recently, a number of elite coaches have highlighted the use of
seemingly athlete-centered approaches within their coaching practices (Jones,
Armour & Potrac, 2004). Thus, athlete-centered coaching has gained increased
popularity in the field of coaching science in sport (Nelson, Cushion, Potrac &
Groom, 2012). However, the field of coaching lacks an in-depth examination of
the practical and theoretical implications of such an approach (Jones, 2006).
Discussions regarding athlete-centered coaching and empowerment are starting

to occupy the field of coaching (Kidman, 2001, 2005). An empowered athlete is
actively encouraged to engage in directing and shaping their sporting life,
including tactical strategizing and the content and delivery of training sessions
(Cassidy Jones & Potrac, 2009). Thus, athlete-centered coaching shares important
similarities with self-determinate behaviour and self-determination theory (Deci
& Ryan, 2002). The importance of being the origin of actions and strategies
(autonomy), being able to utilize and display own capacity (competence), and
being attached to other people (relatedness) are highlighted as important in
order to influence intrinsic motivation in self-determination theory (Deci &
Ryan, 2002).
The first purpose of this study was to test the factor structure of a newly
developed multidimensional and hierarchical Athlete-Centered Scale (ACS), to
meet the claim for empirical studies that investigate the coach-athlete
relationship and athlete centered coaching. The scale is intended to measure
athletes perceptions of a coachs approach in the coach-athlete relationship. A
second purpose was to validate the ACS through an inspection of its relation to
the three psychological needs proposed by self-determination theory.
Theoretical framework
The coach-athlete relationship is found to be particularly crucial in terms of
creating a positive outcome or not for the athlete (Jowett & Cockerill, 2002; Lyle,
1999). Therefore, questions concerning how to facilitate effective coach-athlete
relationships have received increasing attention within research (Cassidy et al.,
2009; Jones, et al., 2011). The discussions in sport include the teaching of pre-
defined knowledge and skills versus facilitating learning to meet the needs of
the individual athlete (Penney & Chandler, 2000; Penney, 2006). In coaching, this
question is brought into stark relief with the introduction and advocacy of
athlete-centered coaching as an alternative to the traditional practices, which
are highly directive, autocratic and prescriptive (Kidman, 2001, 2005; Potrac &
Cassidy, 2006).
The athlete centered approach has its origin in humanistic psychology, which
emphasizes a positive attitude towards the learner as a pedagogical framework
in order to achieve growth and development (Hill, 2001). The athlete-centered
approach has largely been detached from the work of Carl Rogers (1969). Rogers

107
was primarily focused on the development of human potential and developed

his theoretical foundation mainly within the framework of therapy. However,
Rogers also claimed that his theories had implications in other domains who
aimed to promote human potential, such as the field of education. Thus,
Rogerss contributions in the field of education are underpinned by his broader
theoretical framework from therapy (Nelson et al., 2012).
The basic elements of Carl Rogerss theoretical framework were to have a more
personal relationship with the learner, to help him or her to reach a state of
realization so that they could help themselves (1959). Thus, Rogers was
primarily focused on understanding the fundamental characteristics of effective
communication and how communication affected the development of human
potential (Hill, 2001). Rogers (1969) work provides an opportunity for domains
within education, such as coaching in sport, to clearly focus on certain qualities
that exist in the relationship between the coach and the athlete. Rogers (1959)
especially emphasizes the importance of the relationship between the educator
and the learner. The basic elements in the relationship are as follows; a)
congruence (genuineness), b) empathy, and c) unconditional positive regard
towards a learner. Perhaps the most fundamental element in Rogerss theoretical
framework is what Rogers referred to as congruence (1959). This means that the
educator allows the learner to experience them as they really are and that the
educator does not have a faade. Empathy is the ability to understand what the
learner is feeling. This refers to the educators ability to understand sensitively
and accurately the learners experience and feelings in the communication
process. Research has indicated that speakers feel a need for clear responses
from listeners and it is important to follow precisely what the learner is feeling
and to communicate to them that the educator understands what they are
feeling (Hargie & Dickson, 2004).
The importance of empathetic understanding is identified as the ability to stand

in their learners shoes and view the world through their eyes in an attempt to be
sensitive to how the process appears to them. The third important element in
Rogerss theoretical framework is that the educator is careful to always maintain
a positive attitude towards the learner, even when he or she might be disgusted
by the learners actions. Unconditional positive regard towards a learner refers
to the educators deep and genuine caring for the learner. It might be so that
some of the learners actions are not approved by the educator, but the educator
does approve of the learner. The educator therefore needs an attitude of I'll
accept you as you are. Based on these basic elements the educator creates a
supportive, non-judgmental environment, where the educator and the learner
establish a common understanding about the focused case, in which the learners
are encouraged to reach their fully potential. The presence of these attitudinal
qualities in the interpersonal relationship between the educator and learner is
likely to induce a much more productive learning environment. These basic
elements are important in order to achieve changes in all areas according to
Rogers (1959). Thus, it should be of great interest to examine if domains within
education, such as coaching in sport, benefits from these relational conditions.

108
Interestingly, in coaching in sport, athlete-centered coaching has been largely

uncritically advocated as the best and often the only way to do it in recent
years (Jones & Standage, 2006). Indeed, understanding has rarely gone beyond
assuming a functional link between nurturing, supportive, nice and inclusive
behaviors and positive sporting and developmental outcomes (Jones &
Standage, 2006; Cassidy et al., 2009; Potrac & Marshall, 2010). That is, whilst
generic statements about the benefits of a more athlete-centered approach to
sports coaching have been made, an in-depth examination of the theoretical
implications of such an approach remains elusive (Jones, 2001). While the
relationship between learner-centered approaches and humanistic psychology is
not new, in contrast, discussions in coaching about the application of principles
taken from humanistic psychology remain limited and largely superficial (Nelson et
al., 2010, p. 468). This shift should not be underestimated. Indeed, it represents a
step change whereby the role of the coach (sic coach educator) is on the cusp of
a fundamental re-think (Jones & Standage, 2006, p. 65), and, as such, presents a
significant moment for critical consideration and debate. Many coaches are also
found to actually only present an illusion of empowerment, so that the athletes
buy into their coaches agenda (Potrac & Jones, 2009).
Central to Rogerss writing is the notion that learners actively engage in the
process of learning and that education should be relevant to their needs and
desires. Therefore, Rogerss educational philosophy was underpinned by an
unshakable belief in the tendency towards self-actualization. Interestingly, self-
determination is both an educational ideal as well as a natural end point of
psychological development according to Rogers (Brookfield, 2009).
Self-determination theory
Deci and Ryan (1985, p. 8) define intrinsic motivation as the life force or energy
for the activity and for the inward pursuit to feel competent, self-determining
and to enjoy the activity. Deci and Ryan (2002) argue for the existence of basic
psychological needs which must be satisfied in the individuals environment in
order to achieve personally growth and development (Deci & Ryan, 2002). These
psychological needs are: (a) the need for competence, (b) the need for autonomy
and (c) the need for relatedness. The need for competence refers to the general
feeling of functioning effectively in ones social and achievement environment, it
highlights the importance of experiences, or the lack of experiences, where the
individual has the opportunity to optimally utilize and display their strengths
and capacity (Deci, 1975; Harter, 1983; White, 1959). The need for self-
determination, or autonomy, refers to the individuals perception or
understanding of being the source to, or origin of the achievement behaviour (de
Charms, 1968; Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Connell, 1989). Self-determination
implies that actions originate from one's own interests and values and emanate
from personal initiative. The need for relatedness highlights the feeling of
connectedness and attachment to other people. It carries a dual view that the
individual is taking care of others and that others are caring for the individual
(Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Bowlby, 1979; Ryan, 1995). Thus, in order for
individuals to proactively engage in their own learning and development,

109
intrinsic motivation is a requisite and desirable component of achievement

pursuits.
Advocates argue that sharing decision-making with the athletes result in the
development of athletes that take greater responsibility and ownership of their
performances. This is believed to aid athletes retention of tactical and technical
aspects of performance and commitment to ongoing learning and development
(Cassidy et al., 2009). Empowering learners in this way through athlete-centered
coaching undeniably resonates with Rogerss underlying beliefs.
It is important for the field of sport coaching to address the fact that the athlete-
centered approach has received increased attention both by practicians and
researchers, to ensure that the relationships between practical coaching and
underpinning principles and ideas is more clearly articulated and critically
considered. Otherwise, coaching will do little more than blindly undertake
convenient educational concepts and ideas from humanistic psychology (Jones
et al., 2011). The consequence of such activity is the development of a loose
patchwork of assumed related notions on this topic, where theory serves no
purpose beyond decoration (Turner, 2000; Everett, 2002). In this respect, a-
theoretical or superficial approaches to coaching do little to deepen its
conceptual underpinnings or support recommendations for practice.
The present study

One purpose of this study was to develop a scale for measuring the important
elements in an athlete-centered approach to coaching and validate the
instrument, so that it can be used in future studies on athlete-centered coaching.
Because of the self-determinate nature of athlete-centered coaching we expect
that the ACS will relate to need satisfaction. A relation between these concepts
may contribute to the validation of the ACS.
Method
Participants and procedure. Four hundred and eighty three junior athletes from
seven different Norwegian high schools for elite sports were invited to
voluntarily participate in an online questionnaire measuring elements of the
coach-athlete relationship and need satisfaction. The athletes were participants
in different sports such as cross country skiing, biathlon, Nordic combined,
shooting, ice-hockey, ski jumping, alpine skiing, cycling, track and field, football,
orienteering, handball and volleyball. From these 483 participants, 382 (216
males and 166 females) completed the data collection, which gives a response
rate of 79%. The sample had a mean age of 18 years, ranging from 17 to 20
years.
The general variables. The variables examined here include items and
inventories such as age, gender, type of sport, performance level, type of school,
need-satisfaction and degree of athlete-centered coaching. All measurements

110
used in this study were based on previously developed scales proven to hold
both satisfactory validity and reliability. The measurements were originally in
English. The measurements were translated into Norwegian and slightly
adjusted for the purpose of this study by the authors.
The Athlete-centred Coaching Scale (ACS). Based on the theoretical review of

the theoretical framework of Carl Rogers and the needed skills to develop an
athlete-centred relation (Rogers, 1959), we developed the Athlete-centred
Coaching Scale (ACS). The ACS consists of four dimensions with different
numbers of items on each subscale. The dimensions are: (1) Congruence, (2)
Empathy, (3) Positive regard, and 4) Commonness. It is important to note that
the instrument was designed to measure the athletes perception of the coach
based on his or her experiences from a coaching relationship. Responses were
given on a 7-point scale ranging from Not at all (1) to Absolutely (7).
Congruence consisted of four items with a Cronbachs alpha of .92. An example

of an item is: My coach expresses a real and genuine interest in me. The second
dimension focused on a coachs emphatic skills. This dimensions consisted of
four items with a Cronbachs alpha of .91. An example of item is: My coach
seems to understand me well when we speak together. Positive regards consisted of
four items. An example of item is: My coach normally expresses an unconditional
positive attitude in me as a person. The Cronbachs alpha for this dimension was
.90. The last dimension is the most obvious element in an athlete-centred
approach, the importance of establishing a common and mutual understanding
with an athlete. An example of item is: My coach normally approaches me with
dialogue, so that we understand each other. The Cronbachs alpha for this
dimension was .93.
Self-determination. Since the concept of the basic psychological needs is central

to self-determination theory, we developed an instrument based on the most
often implemented tool used for this study, namely the Basic Psychological
Need Satisfaction at Work Scale (BPNSWS) (Baard, Deci, & Ryan, 2004). The
instrument is originally a 21 item questionnaire measuring three need
satisfaction dimensions. The authors translated the instrument, but reduced it
into a 12 item questionnaire, consisting of autonomy (4 items), competence (3
items) and relatedness (4 items). For the sake of clarity, we named it the
Reduced Need Satisfaction Scale (RNSS). The participants were asked to
consider their feelings about their situation as athletes in their training
environment in their sports during the last year, and to indicate how true the 12
statements were on a seven point scale. Examples of items are: I feel like I can
make a lot of input in deciding how my training gets done (autonomy), People in my
training environment tell me I am good at what I do (competence) and I really like
the people in my training environment (relatedness). The reliability for each
dimension were .61, .73 and .85 respectively.
Data analysis. The data was analyzed by means of confirmatory factor analysis
(CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) using the AMOS 21 software.
SEM is a statistical methodology that takes a confirmatory approach to the
analysis (Byrne, 2001). In this approach, a hypothesized model of the relations

111
between the constructs is tested statistically to determine the extent to which it is

consistent with the data, which is referred to as the goodness of fit. If the
goodness of fit is adequate, the plausibility of the proposed relations among the
constructs is supported. To assess the model fit, we used well-established
indices, such as CFI, IFI, TLI, and RMSEA, as well as the chi-square test. For the
CFI, IFI, and TLI indices, values greater than .90 are typically considered
acceptable, and values greater than .95 indicate a good fit of the data (Byrne,
2010; Hu & Bentler, 1999). For well-specified models, an RMSEA of .06 or less
reflects a good fit (Hu & Bentler, 1999; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007).
In the present study we first conducted confirmatory factor analyses to

investigate the measurement models of the SDT and the ACS, respectively. We
then used structural equation modelling to investigate a theoretical model of the
relation between the concepts.
Results
Measurement model ACS. Three theoretical models of the ACS were tested.
Model 1 defined ACS as a single, first order factor with loading on the 16
observed items. This model was tested to ascertain whether the scale could be
treated as a one-dimensional construct. Model 2 defined four correlated primary
factors corresponding to the four theoretical dimensions. Model 3 defined four
primary factors and one second order factor underlying the primary factors. The
three theoretical models are presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Three theoretical models of the ACS.
Model 1 did fit the data (2 (104, N = 382) = 414.960, p < .001, CMIN/DF = 3.990,
RMSEA = 0.089, IFI = 0.959, TLI = 0.949 and CFI = 0.956). Model 2 and 3 had also
good fit to data with goodness of fit indices of respectively (2 (98, N = 382)
394.675, p < .001, CMIN/DF = 4.027, RMSEA = 0.089, IFI = 0.958, TLI = 0.949,

112
and CFI = 0.958) for Model 2 and (2 (100, N = 382) 399.920, p < .001, CMIN/DF
= 3.999, RMSEA = 0.089, IFI = 0.958, TLI = 0.949, and CFI = 0.958) for Model 3.
None of the error variances was allowed to be correlated. All regression weights
in the models were significant at p < .001. The correlations between the primary
factors in Model 2 are presented in Table 1.
Table 1
Correlations between the latent variables in Model 2 (ACS)
Variable 1 2 3
1. Congruence -
2. Empathy .997*** -
3. Positive .991*** .997*** -
4. Commonness .972*** .999*** .988***
Note. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001
Results from the confirmatory factor analyses partly support that ACS is a
multidimensional construct. In the present study, ACS consisted of four highly
correlated primary factors with 16 corresponding items. The correlations are
strong. Based on these strong correlations the ACS should be regarded as a one-
dimensional construct constituted by four highly correlated dimensions of
communication.
Measurement model SDT. Three theoretical models of the SDT were tested.
Model 1 defined SDT as a single, first order factor with loading on the 12
observed items. Model 2 defined three correlated primary factors corresponding
to the three theoretical dimensions. Model 3 defined three primary factors and
one second order factor underlying the primary factors. The three theoretical
models are presented in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Three theoretical models of the SDT.
Model 1 did not fit the data (2 (54, N = 382) = 290.592, p < .001, CMIN/DF =
5.381, RMSEA = 0.107, IFI = 0.898, TLI = 0.874, and CFI = 0.897). Model 2 and 3
had acceptable fit to the data with goodness of fit indices of respectively (2 (51,

113
N = 382) 208.473, p < .001, CMIN/DF = 4.088, RMSEA = 0.090, IFI = 0.932, TLI =
0.911, and CFI = 0.932) for Model 2 and (2 (51, N = 382) 208.473, p < .001,
CMIN/DF = 4.088, RMSEA = 0.090, IFI = 0.932, TLI = 0.911, and CFI = 0.932) for
Model 3. None of the error variances was allowed to be correlated. All
regression weights in Model 2 and 3 were significant at p < .001. The correlations
between the primary factors in Model 2 are presented in Table 2.
Table 2
Correlations between the latent variables in Model 2 (SDT)
Variable 1 2 3
1. Autonomy -
2. Competence .868*** -
3. Relatedness .778*** .894*** -
Note. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001
Results from the confirmatory factor analyses support that SDT is a

multidimensional construct. In the present study, SDT consisted of three
correlated primary factors with 12 corresponding items. The correlations are
strong. SDT can be regarded as both domain-specific and multidimensional, and
the second order analysis also indicates that the concept may be experienced as a
more general experience SDT.
Structural model. A second purpose of the present study was to validate the
ACS through an inspection of its relation to SDT. We therefore tested a
theoretical model by means of SEM. Based on the results from the CFA and for
validation purposes the theoretical model specifies the SDT as second order
model. In the model we let the ACS predict SDT. The theoretical model is shown
in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Theoretical model of the relation between ACS and SDT.
The model had acceptable fit to data (2 (347, N = 382) = 932.207, p < .001,
CMIN/DF = 2.686, RMSEA = 0.067, IFI = 0.939, TLI = 0.933, and CFI = 0.939).

114
None of the error variances was allowed to be correlated. All regression weights
in the model were significant at p < .001. In this model the ACS predicted the
SDT with a standardized regression weight of = .50 p < .001 explaining 25% of
the variance of SDT.
Discussion
Athlete-centered coaching is lately claimed to be largely uncritically advocated
as the best and often the only way in sport coaching (Jones & Standage,
2006). In spite of such a claim little attention has been given to address this issue
by measuring coaches competencies based on athlete-centered values and
related variables that are relevant to discuss the effectiveness of such coach
behaviour. The first purpose of the present study was therefore to develop and
test the factor structure of a multidimensional and hierarchical Athlete-Centered
Scale (ACS) in coaching. A second purpose was to validate the ACS through an
inspection of its relation to need satisfaction.
The ACS was developed by the authors based on the core elements in learner-
centered approaches within humanistic psychology and the theoretical
framework developed by Carl Rogers (1969). We first investigated a CFA model
defining ACS as single primary factor to ascertain whether the ACS could be
treated as a one-dimensional construct (Figure 1, Model 1). This model had
acceptable fit to data. However, a model defining four primary factors, and a
model defining four primary factors and one second order factor underlying the
primary factors, had also good fit to data (Figure 1, Model 2 and 3). This analysis
supports that the conceptualization of the ACS can be regarded as a one-
dimensional construct constituted by four highly correlated dimensions of coach
values.
The finding in this study makes the instrument particularly useful for research
purposes analyzing athlete-centered coach values as a latent trait (Figure 1,
Model 3). The analyses support that athlete-centered coach values can be
regarded as a general domain-specific experience of athlete-centered coach
values, but that the construct also can be regarded as a second order factor
underlying the four primary factors; congruence, empathy, positive regard and
commonness. These findings make the instrument suitable to examine how a
second order factor relates to other concepts, but it can also be used to explore
whether or not the separate dimensions relate differently to other constructs.
Need satisfaction (SDT) was measured by the Reduced Need Satisfaction Scale
(RNSS) consisting of 12 items constituting three dimensions, autonomy,
competence and relatedness respectively. We initially tested a single primary
factor to ascertain whether the RNSS could be treated as a one-dimensional
construct (Figure 2, Model 1). This model did not fit the data. However, we
found strong support for both a model consisting of three correlated primary
factors and a second order model underlying the three dimensions (Figure 2,
Model 2 & 3). The analyses clearly support that need satisfaction should be
regarded as multidimensional and hierarchical as in accordance with self-
determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2002; Moen & Federici, 2011).

115
One theoretical model was tested by means of structural equation modelling to

investigate the relation between the ACS and the SDT (Figure 3). In the model
we let the one-dimensional ACS factor predict the second order SDT factor. The
result from this analysis revealed a positive relation between perceptions of
athlete-centered coach values and need satisfaction. In the model ACS predicted
SDT with a standardized estimate of .50 explaining 25% of the variance of SDT.
This estimate can be interpreted as a medium to strong relation. Thus, these
results indicate a satisfactory validation of the ACS.
Our theoretical model showed a medium to strong relation between ACS and
SDT. This should be an important finding in order to validate the ACS and use it
as a measurement to investigate athlete-centered coaching in future research.
The true nature of athlete-centered coaching is based on the empowerment of
the athlete, so that he or she can make important decisions for him or herself
without being directly influenced by others. Thus, the coach is stimulating the
athlete to be responsible in his or her learning in athlete-centered coaching. This
should stimulate the need for autonomy positively. Research that has
investigated learner-oriented approaches, such as coaching interventions in
business, has shown that coaching has a positive significant effect on autonomy
(Moen & Skaalvik, 2009). Another important principle in athlete-centered
coaching is the coachs facilitation of athlete generated strategies and solutions
regarding the coaching issue(s). This should stimulate the need for competence,
since it is the athletes competence which is the origin for the decided solutions
and strategies. The same study discussed above showed a positive effect from
coaching on the need competence as well. Another study shows that business
coaching had positive significant effect on competence (Moen & Skaalvik, 2008).
The conversation is central in the athlete-centered coaching process and the
establishment of trust and mutuality through the active use of attending skills is
in focus (Jones et al., 2004). Thus, the athlete is given attention from the coach
throughout the conversation which should stimulate the need for relatedness.
Interestingly, the effect from coaching has been found to be very large and
significant on relatedness (Moen & Skaalvik, 2009). Our finding confirms the
relationship between the needs that are central in self-determination theory and
athlete-centered coaching values.
It seems that researchers, practicing coaches and athletes are lacking a well-
established, reliable and valid instrument for measuring athletes perceptions of
their coaches athlete-centered values. The development of the ACS may
contribute to this field. Also, the ACS could easily be adjusted to measure the
coaches own perceived athlete-centered values as well, which could be an
important contribution with regards to measure the effect from coaching
educational programs or potential coherence between athletes and coaches
perceptions of coaches values as an example. The CFA and SEM analyses
conducted in the present study contribute to the validity of the ACS and the
instrument has several advantages. First of all, the instrument allows SEM
analyses both of the one-dimensional factor and of the second order factor
underlying the four primary factors. Analysis of primary factors allows the

116
examination of how the different dimensions of athlete-centered coach

competencies may be related to other relevant concepts such as for example self-
efficacy and attribution. Analysis of a second order factor is particularly useful
in more complex models where several concepts are included.
The results from the present study should be an important contribution to the
field of sport coaching. However, this study has several limitations and further
studies need to be conducted before clear conclusions are made. One limitation
is the probability that sample size has influenced the results. Both the factor
structure of the ACS and SDT should be verified with larger samples. Another
limitation is that the principles from the work of Carl Rogers have not been
tested extensively in the educational domain, and in sport coaching especially.
More studies are needed before clear conclusions can be made. A third
limitation is that the ACS is yet not tested in other cultures than Norwegian.
Also, the ACS should be considered as a preliminary scale measuring coaching
competence. We consider that the four dimensions constituting the ACS may
apply to all coaches but other possible dimensions of coach competencies should
also be explored in future research.
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Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 119-130, August 2014
A Close Study of the Effects of ESP Learners

Beliefs on the Choice of Language Learning
Strategies
Abbas Zare-ee and Malihe Salami

English Department, Faculty of Arts and Humanities
University of Kashan, Iran
Abstract. This study investigated the use of language learning strategies by

175 Iranian learners majoring in non-English fields (Engineering,
Humanities, and Sciences). The study attempted to test the relationships
among learners beliefs about English language learning, English
proficiency, and the use of language learning strategies. Data were collected
through known questionnaires and learners institutional records. Results of
Friedman test showed that metacognitive strategy use was at the highest
rank while affective strategy use was at the lowest. KruskalWallis test
results revealed that metacognitive strategies were most frequently used by
Engineering and Science students whereas compensatory strategies were
mostly preferred by students in the humanities. Affective strategies ranked
lowest on the three groups of students' preference scale. Furthermore, more
proficient learners utilized cognitive, memory and compensatory strategies
whereas students with poor language proficiency resorted to compensatory
strategies. Moderate positive correlation between students beliefs about
English language learning and their use of learning strategies were found.
Analysis of linear regression showed that use of strategies was predicted
from language proficiency and learners beliefs about language learning.
The present study suggests that not only do students beliefs about
language learning influence their use of learning strategies, but also their
level of English proficiency affects the frequency of use and choices of
learning strategies.
Keywords: language learning strategies; beliefs about language; language

proficiency; ESP; TEFL
Introduction
With the emergence of communicative approach in the 19th century, traditional
curriculum encountered a shift from teacher-centered approach to student-centered
approach. This framework focuses on student needs, abilities, styles, and strategies.
In non-English speaking countries including Iran, there are some English for

120
specific purpose courses on the universities curricula to meet students needs to

read field-specific texts in English as they are necessary for academic and
professional purposes. This can sometimes become very troublesome for students
with low language proficiency. Such courses assist learners to develop their target
reading skills. Successful language learners in English as a foreign language (EFL)
context are able to use a variety of language learning strategies (LLSs) to facilitate
their learning (OMalley, 1987; Cohen, 1998). LLSs refer to those techniques,
principles or rules that learners utilize to learn, solve problem, and complete a task
independently (Mercer & Mercer, 1998). A host of studies on the use of learning
strategies (e.g., Dreyer & Oxford, 1996; Park, 1997; Grenfell & Harris, 1999; Harris,
2003; Wharton, 2000) demonstrate that learners consciously or unconsciously
employ a variety of learning strategies.
Although research on investigating factors affecting strategy choice has highlighted

gender (e.g., Ehrman & Oxford, 1989; Oxford & Nyikos, 1989), motivation (e.g.,
Oxford & Nyikos, 1989), nationality (e.g., Politzer & McGroanty 1985; OMalley,
1987; Willing, 1988; Griffiths & Parr, 2001) and language proficiency (e.g., Green &
Oxford, 1995; Khaldieh, 2000; Wharton, 2000) to be related to LLS use, there is a
paucity of research exploring the relationship among the use of LLSs and learners
beliefs and language proficiency in ESP contexts which is the interest of this study.
Theoretical background
Language learning strategies

The origin of strategy term refers to the ancient Greek "strategia" meaning a high
level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty Language
learning strategies have been defined by different scholars. Oxford (1990) defined
LLSs as operations employed by the learner to aid the acquisition, storage,
retrieval, and use of information (p. 8). She also believed that learners make use of
LLSs to make learning more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective and more
transferable to new situations (p.8). Chamot (2004) claimed that LLSs are the
conscious thoughts and actions that learners take in order to achieve a learning
goal (p. 14).
Talking about the historical background of LLSs, OMalley and Chamot (1995)
argued that there was a shift in 60s and early 70s from the teacher-centered
pedagogy to teaching practices that laid greater emphasis on learners and learning.
This pedagogical shift helps learners to become cognitively active even in the
absence of formal teaching (Littlewood, 1999). Corder (1981) claimed that learners
who develop cognitive view of learning are more successful in utilizing appropriate
strategies than those who do not do that.
Oxford (1990) classified language learning strategies into six sub categories: a)
Cognitive strategies: used to manipulate language for identification, storage and
retrieval of information, b) Metacognitive strategies: used for pre assessment,

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preplanning, evaluation and post evaluation of language learning activities, c)

Memory strategies: used to help learners to recall information like word association
or semantic mapping, d) Compensation strategies: used to make up for a deficiency
in learning, e) Affective strategies: used to mitigate leaners anxiety, and f) Social
strategies: used to facilitate learning by interaction with others.
Language learning strategies are thought to be linked to learners beliefs about

language learning. According to Richardson (1996) learners beliefs are
psychologically held understandings, premises or propositions about the world
that are felt to be true (p. 103). The relationship between L2 learners beliefs and
learning strategies showed that L2 learner beliefs may influence and even limit the
range of language strategies (Yang, 1999). Learners beliefs are of paramount
importance for their experience and success in language learning. Horwitz (1988)
argued that when teachers are aware of learners beliefs about language learning,
they can properly recognize their expectations of, commitment to, success in and
satisfaction with their English classes.
Language proficiency and language strategy use

OMalley and Chamot (1990) pointed out successful language learners use strategies
as means of active involvement to develop the target language communicative
abilities. Some studies (e.g., Rubin, 1975; Stern, 1975; Oxford & Cohen, 1992;
Chamot, 2004; Radwan, 2011) showed that successful language learners usually use
LLSs in order to guarantee effective learning. Therefore, if less successful language
learners are instructed appropriate LLSs, they can autonomously ensure their
effective learning.
On the other hand, the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis implies that when
reading proficiency is attained in one language, it can be transferred across any
language (Cummins, 1979). However, Cummins (1981) claimed that in a real world
educational setting L1 literary transfer does not occur in any case since based on
Threshold Hypothesis, L1 transfer is possible once a threshold level of L2
proficiency has been attained. In other words, if learners tend to maintain their
competence while reading in L2, they require attaining some threshold of L2
proficiency (Stock, 2012). She claimed that low proficient level learners in L2 may
suffer from negative effects while learners with a high proficiency level in L2
develop positive cognitive effects.
Language proficiency affects strategy choice ( Green & Oxford, 1995; Khaldieh,
2000; Wharton, 2000) but the relationship is more complex than a simple liner
relationship between using language strategy and improving language proficiency
while it is upon the type of strategy used (Suwanarak, 2012). For instance, Chen
(1990) demonstrated that although Chinese EFL learners with high proficiency
utilized LLSs more effectively than lower proficient learners, they employed fewer
communicative strategies. However, no empirical study has been conducted to
investigate there is a casual relationship between high proficiency level and LLSs

122
use. Therefore, it is not easy to determine whether strategy use enhances language
proficiency or the opposite is true (MacIntyre, 2000). Ehraman and Oxford (1989)
investigated the effects of cognitive strategies including looking for patterns and
reading for pleasure in the target language that are more common for high
proficient learners.
Furthermore, some scholars believed that learners beliefs about language learning
can contribute greatly to the language proficiency (e.g., Schommer, 1990; Wen &
Johnson, 1997; Horwitz, 1999; Sakui & Gaies, 1999). The findings of an empirical
study conducted in China supported this idea by revealing how learners beliefs
influence strategy use and language proficiency (Wen & Johnson, 1997).
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship among
language learning strategy use, learners beliefs and learners command of foreign
language in an ESP context with non-English students of Engineering, Humanities
and Sciences.
Methodology
Research questions
This study was basically a survey of learner-reported strategies of and beliefs about
English language learning and it attempted to answer the following four questions
developed based on the objectives of the study:
1. What is the relationship between beliefs, strategy use and language
proficiency for the sampled Iranian ESP students?
2. Is there any relationship between their beliefs about English language
learning and their use of LLSs?
3. Is there any relationship between their language proficiency and the choice
of LLSs?
4. What are the most frequent language learning strategies used by these
Iranian ESP learners?
Participants
The participants of the study were 175 Iranian university ESP learners (sampled
from Tabriz University and Kashan University learners in 2014). This sample
included male (111) and female (64) learners studying Engineering (25.1%), Sciences
(37.7%) and Humanities (37.1 %). All the participants spoke Persian as the mother
tongue. Their age ranged from 25 to 35. They were studying English for Specific
Purpose (ESP) courses, as undergraduate and graduate students. Tables 1
demonstrate the characteristics of the sample. Since it was not possible to
administer a TOEFL test as a standardized English test to all students participating
in the study, the students grade point average (GPA) in English courses was used
as a measure of their level of language proficiency. Then their GPAs scores out of a
total of 20 were divided into three groups: low-proficiency (10-13), mid-proficiency
(13-17) and high-proficiency (17-20).

123
Table1. Demographic description of participants
Frequency Percent
Gender
Male 111 63.4
Female 64 36.6
Total 175 100.0
Education Level
Undergraduate 101 57.7
Graduate 74 42.3
Major
Engineering 44 25.1
Humanities 65 37.1
Sciences 66 37.7
GPA
Low (10-13) 74 42.3
Mid (13-17) 96 54.9
High (17-20) 5 2.9
Instruments
For the current study two questionnaires were utilized with 36 statement items
adapted from Horwitz BALLI which is developed to assess learners and educators
beliefs about different issues relating to language learning (Horwitz, 1987, 1988,
1999). This instrument covers five areas: (i) Foreign Language Aptitude; (ii) The
Difficulty of Language Learning; (iii) The Nature of Language Learning; (iv)
Learning and Communication Strategies; and (v) Motivations and Expectations. 49
statement items adapted from Oxfords (1990) SILL reflecting the frequency of
strategy use on a five point (Likert) scale was the next instrument. The taxonomy of
strategies consists of six broad categories of strategies: (i) Memory Strategies; (ii)
Cognitive Strategies; (iii) Compensatory Strategies; (iv) Metacognitive Strategies; (v)
Affective Strategies; and (vi) Social Strategies.
Both questionnaires were accompanied with a background questionnaire to collect

students demographic information such as gender, field of study, educational level
and GPA in English courses. This study employed the Persian version of SILL and
BALLI since students low command of English could negatively affect data
collection. It is suggested to use a translated version of the questionnaire in order to
avoid any problems participants could encounter in understanding the items and
response scale due to limited English proficiency (Khalil, 2005, p. 110). Cronbach's
alphas for the 36 BALLI and 49 SILL items were .688 and .816 respectively. The two
instruments were therefore reliable for the study.

124
Results
To determine the relationship among beliefs, strategy use and language proficiency,
One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test was conducted to evaluate the normality
assumption of data from two questionnaires: SILL and BALLI. Kolmogorov-
Smirnov test (KS test) is a nonparametric test for the equality of continuous, one-
dimensional probability distributions that can be used to compare a sample with a
reference probability distribution (one-sample KS test). Table 2 shows the sample
size (N= 175) and a Mean of 3.69. (H0: the distribution of BALLI data is normal; H1:
the distribution of BALLI data is not normal). Since the P value is less than .05, the
normality assumption (H0) is rejected. In other words, there is no doubt that the
data obtained by BALLI questionnaire was not normally distributed.
Table 2. One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for beliefs and strategies

BELIEF STRATEGIES
N 175 175
Mean 3.6895 2.7472
Std. Deviation .24953 .39882
Absolute .169 .187
Positive .136 .177
Negative -.169 -.187
Kolmogorov 2.236 2.476
Asymp. Sig. (2 .000 .000
The results shown in table 2 also indicate that the data from SILL questionnaire was
not normally distributed with the Sig value of .000. Since the variables of interest
(belief and learning strategies) were not normally distributed, nonparametric
correlations were calculated between pairs of samples. Spearman's Rank Correlation
Coefficient is used as a non-parametric measure of association between the rankings
of two variables measured on N individuals since it is not very sensitive to outliers.
As table3 displays, a Spearman's Rank Order correlation was run to determine the
relationship between 175 students' beliefs about language learning and the use of
learning strategies. There was a positive correlation between students' beliefs and
strategy use, which was statistically significant as shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Spearmans correlation between learners beliefs and learning strategies
Spearman's rho STRATEGIES GPAS
Correlation Coefficient .406** .709**

Bbelief Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000
N 175 175

125
Correlation Coefficient 400**

Strategies Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 175
Results from the Spearmans correlation procedure for the relationship between
language proficiency and learning strategies as shown in table 3, indicate that a
relationship of moderate strength was found between the learners language
proficiency (GPAS) and the use of language learning strategies (rs (173) = .400, p
<.01).
And also the results show that there is a statistically significant relationship between
learner belief and GPAS (r= .709, p = .000). In other words, there is a strong
relationship between language proficiency and learners belief.
Furthermore, Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient tests were used to

investigate the relationship between five belief variables: Foreign Language
Aptitude; The Difficulty of Language Learning; The Nature of Language Learning;
Learning and Communication Strategies; and Motivations and Expectations and the
six strategy variables: Memory Strategies; Cognitive Strategies; Compensatory
Strategies; Metacognitive Strategies; Affective Strategies; and Social Strategies . In
other words, some beliefs were found to either constrain or facilitate the use of
particular language learning strategies. Data at the significant level of .01 and .05
indicated that the factors scores of beliefs and strategies were significantly
correlated, with correlation coefficients ranging from .053 to .648. Whereas the
correlation between beliefs about foreign language aptitude and compensatory
strategies was the weakest (r = .053), the strongest correlation was between the
students beliefs about motivation and the use of metaconitive strategies (r = .648).
To answer the second research question, regression analysis was run to predict
students use of LLSs (dependent variable) from the students beliefs about
language learning. The regression procedure revealed that the students beliefs
about English language learning predicted the students use of language learning
strategies, r 2 = .051 (adjusted r 2 = .045). By examining the analysis of variance
(ANOVA) reported in Table 4, the value of F (1, 173) = 9.248 was found statistically
significant (p < .01). It suggests that there is a linear relationship between learners
beliefs and the use of language learning strategies.
Table 4. ANOVA: regression analysis predicts the outcome variable (strategy)

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Regression 1.404 1
1.404
Residual 26.272 173 9.248 .003a
.152
Total 27.676 174

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Regression 1.404 1
1.404
Residual 26.272 173 9.248 .003a
.152
Total 27.676 174
a. Predictors: (Constant), BELIEF

b. Dependent Variable: STRATEGIES
To answer the third question and find out whether learning strategies are
predicated from L2 proficiency as measured by students GPAs, a regression
analysis was performed on students data. The results showed that language
proficiency predicted the students use of language learning strategies, r 2 = .121
(adjusted r 2 = .116). As shown in Table 5, the value of F (1, 173) was 23.776 that was
statistically significant (p < .01). This suggests that there is a linear relationship
between learners GPAs and their use of language learning strategies.
Regression 3.344 1
3.344
Residual 24.332 173 23.776 .000a
.141
Total 27.676 174
a. Predictors: (Constant), Level of Language

b. Dependent Variable: STRATEGIES
Table 6. Friedman Test to show the mean ranks between

strategies
Mean Rank
strategies
Memory
4.00
Cognitive
1.76
Compensatory
3.71
Metacognitive
4.61
Affective
3.77
Social
3.16
Chi-Square 237.913

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df 5
Asymp. Sig. .000
The analysis of Kruskal-Wallis test revealed statistically significant differences

among students whose proficiency in English was rated as high-proficiency,
mid-proficiency and low-proficiency through their GPAs data in the use of
cognitive, metacognitive, compensatory and social strategies. To determine the
differences between strategies used by all participants, Friedman test was used as a
non-parametric test because of the non-normality in the distribution of the data. The
mean rank between the related strategies calculated by Friedman Test indicates how
they differed. metacognitive strategies ranked the highest while cognitive strategies
ranked the lowest. The results show that there was a statistically significant
difference in the use of different strategies (2 = 237.913, p = .000). Metacognitive
strategies ranked maximum (M = 4.61) while the minimum use of strategies was
attributed to cognitive strategies (M = 1.76).
Discussion and conclusion

The learners studied in this work were medium strategy users since the total mean
strategy use was 2.7. This result of the study corroborates that of Noguchi (1991),
Yang (1994), Oh (1992), Park (1997) and Wharton (2000). Results of the study
demonstrated that, as a whole, metacognitive strategies were the most frequently
used learning strategies whereas cognitive strategies were the least preferred
category. Students of Engineering favored the use of metacognitive, cognitive and
compensatory strategies while students of Humanities used more compensatory,
affective and memory strategies.
The most frequent use of metacognitive strategies by Engineering students may be

due to the fact in EFL contexts there is not much exposure for the learners to
acquaint themselves with it subconsciously. Compensation strategies, such as
looking up unfamiliar vocabulary in a dictionary and analyzing the prefixes and
suffixes of new words, were most frequently used by Humanities students. The
reason might have been their lower levels of linguistic capability causing them to
turn to their strategic competence to compensate for any linguistic deficiency.
The regression model used to analyze students data showed a linear relationship
between the use of learning strategies by different proficiency groups which
supports similar findings (e.g. Green and Oxford, 1995; Khalil, 2005; Wharton, 2000).
Oxford and Nyikos (1989) believe that language proficiency can be either the effect
or the cause of strategy use.
In conclusion, this study has demonstrated that ESP learners in the Iranian context
explored here are medium strategy users and that there is a prominent role for
language proficiency to play in the use of strategies. On the whole, the higher the
level of language proficiency, the larger the frequency of learning strategies
reported by learners. The significance of strategy instruction in ESP classrooms,
familiarizing learners with various strategies, and considering the low levels of

128
language ability in this instruction is the main point this study can highlight
through appropriate instruction.
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Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 131-137, August 2014
Do Children Accept Virtual Agents as Foreign

Language Trainers?
Manuela Macedonia1,2, Roland Kern1 and Friedrich Roithmayr1

1Department for Information Systems, University of Linz, Austria
2 Research Group Neural Mechanisms of Human Communication, Max Planck
Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
Abstract. Virtual (animated software) agents can train humans in

vocabulary learning. This has been successfully tested with adults and
more recently also with children. However, the question of how children
perceive a virtual agent training them had not been investigated. Here
we invited 25 children to evaluate their perception of a virtual and a
human trainer who presented written words in a foreign language on
videos; both the human trainer and the virtual agent additionally
performed a semantically related gesture for each word. Subjects rated
the trainers for features related to gestures and for their personalities.
Subjects found human gestures better and gave the human trainer
higher sympathy scores; however, the overall difference between their
perception of virtual and human trainers was not significant.
Keywords: Evaluation; Intelligent Virtual Agent; Enactment; Training;

Learning; Foreign Language
Introduction
Evaluation, Intelligent Virtual Agent, Enactment, TVirtual pedagogical agents
have been developed in the last decade in order to support learning in different
domains (Kim & Baylor, 2006b). Some of them have human looks and can
interact with users to a certain extent by appropriate facial expressions, head
nodding (Cassell, 2000), and gestures (Bergmann, Kahl, & Kopp, 2013). In
different domains, they can successfully support learners (Kim & Baylor, 2006a)
and positively influence their attitudes towards the topic to be learned (Johnson,
Ozogul, Moreno, & Reisslein, 2013). Also, in future, virtual agents in mobile
devices will facilitate multilingualism in remote areas of the world. Agents will
support people who are physically or financially disadvantaged to access to
foreign language instruction at a low cost (Macedonia, Groher, & Roithmayr,
2014).
In recent studies, the virtual agent Billie (Buschmeier & Kopp, 2011) who looks
like a young boy of 11 or 12 years has successfully trained humans on
vocabulary learning in a foreign language. Billie is driven by the Asap Realizer
(Welbergen, Reidsma, & Kopp, 2012), which enables specification of the agents
behavior in the Behavior Markup Language (BML) (Vilhjlmsson et al., 2007).

132
BML coordinates speech and gesture as well as gaze, and head and other body
movements. Billie trains humans by means of enactment. Enactment pairs the
presentation of words (and or phrases) with illustrative gestures (Zimmer, 2001).
For nearly four decades, laboratory research has shown that accompanying
novel verbal information with gestures enhances its memorability. This is the
case for words and phrases in a native language as well as in foreign language
(Macedonia & Von Kriegstein, 2012). In order to use enactment as a learning
strategy, Billie performs gestures himself.
Billie was recently employed as a vocabulary trainer in a study with two groups
of young adults. They were trained by the agent and a human trainer to
memorize 45 single words of Vimmi (Macedonia, Mller, & Friederici, 2011), an
artificial language created for experimental purposes. Participants learned
equally well with both trainers. High performers, however, achieved better
scores with the agent than with the human trainer (Bergmann & Macedonia,
2013). In another study, Billie cued school children (average 11.4 years) to learn
Vimmi vocabulary. The authors pursued two questions: first, whether children
can be trained in an ecologically valid environment, i.e., a classroom, with
enactment; second, in order to enhance their memory for the words in the
foreign language, whether it suffices for these children to watch the agent
enunciating the words and performing the gestures, or whether learners need to
perform the gestures themselves. Forty four school children (average 11.2 years)
were cued to learn 45 single words of Vimmi by only reading and hearing the
words (15 items), by watching the agent making the corresponding gestures (15
items), and by imitating the agent enacting the words he enunciates (15 items).
Memory results from cued translation tests show that Billie successfully trained
the children in the classroom and that imitating the gestures was the better way
to enhance the childrens performance (Macedonia, Bergmann, & Roithmayr,
2014). These two experiments demonstrate that the virtual agent Billie can
successfully replace human trainers and train both adults and children to learn
vocabulary items in a foreign language by means of enactment.
Previous Study on the Acceptance of Billie

Participants of both studies above were trained by Billie. However, until
investigated, it is not clear which attitude humans have towards virtual teachers.
Therefore, Billies acceptance as a language trainer was tested in a recent study
by Macedonia (2014). There the author asked 18 adults to rate the agent for his
gesture quality and personality and compare him with a human trainer in an
online survey. Gesture quality was necessary because enactment plays a major
role in the way Billie trains subjects to words in a foreign language. Materials
used for the evaluation were the same videos as they were used in the
experiment by Bergmann & Macedonia (2013). There adults learned novel words
with both, a human and a virtual trainer. Data showed that the agents gestures,
as expectedly, were rated as less natural than the human gestures. However,
participants did not perceive a significant difference between their personalities,
except for a few traits that were considered better for the human trainer.
Methodologically the study had an Achilles heel: raters compared two trainers
that were not controlled for age and gender. In fact, the human trainer was an

133
adult woman, whereas the virtual agent looks like a boy of 11 to 12.
Furthermore, subjects were adults rating a peer and a child as vocabulary
trainer; differences in acceptance of the virtual trainer might have been biased by
the above factors. Furthermore, the fact that many adults are not digital natives
can have an influence of their perception of the agent as a trainer.
In the present study, we tested the acceptance of a virtual agent and a human as
trainers by controlling for their age and gender. Both trainers were male of
approximately the same age (11 to 13) and they were rated by children of the
same age. Our aim was to grasp the childrens attitude towards a virtual teacher.
Methods
Participants
Twenty five children (16 male, 9 female), mean age 12.5 years (SD 0.65), took
part in the study. They were recruited in an Austrian school and participated for
free. The participants were nave of the studys goal and had never seen Billie
before. Participants were also interviewed about their interaction with media
and the time they spent with them daily. This was done in order to establish
possible relationships between their global attitude towards media (Litt, 2013)
and their perception of the agent as a trainer.
Stimuli
We used 30 videos (MPEG4) with a length of approximately 5s each, subdivided
into two blocks. In one block (15 videos), the agent performed gestures
illustrating the words semantics. In the other block (15 videos), the human
trainer did the same with the same words. Additionally, for each word in the
foreign language, a translation into the native language of the participants
(German) appeared in written form. Note that the human videos were created
by copying exactly the agents videos. Thus both sets of videos were identical for
gestural execution (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Screenshots from videos used for the online survey for the Vimmi word
lamube (English fever). Word enacted a) by the human trainer and b) by the agent.
Sampling procedure
Participants were asked to complete an online survey created with the tool
Google Forms (Fuente Valentn, Pardo, & Delgado Kloos, 2009). During this
task, they were monitored by the experimenter. He controlled for time and
accurate execution of the task. Each child had to complete the survey within 30

134
minutes. Children carefully watched any single video and rated it according to
two subsections of questions. The first regarded gestural features, i.e. iconicity,
naturalness and speed of execution (Bergmann, Kopp, & Eyssel, 2010); the
second subsection concerned personality traits of the trainers, i.e. sympathy,
friendliness and intelligence (Fiske, Cuddy, & Glick, 2007). Furthermore, we
acquired data concerning the subjects gender and their digital nativeness which
is their attitude and time spent daily with mobile devices and other media. We
did this in order to find possible correlations in this population that might
explain preferences for the agent or the human trainer.
Results
Variables were rated on a five-point Likert scale, with 1 standing for the worst
evaluation and 5 for the best. The human execution of the gestures achieved
better scores in iconicity (F(14,336) = 1.91, p < 0.05) and naturalness (F(14,33) =
2.76, p < 0.005), see Figure 2.
We tested the quality of gestures by conducting a repeated measures ANOVA,

3x2 with the factor quality of gestures (iconicity, naturalness and speed of
execution) and the factor trainer (human vs. agent). The results show significant
effects for both experimental factors, i.e., quality of gestures (F(2,48)=24,32, p
<0.001, Figure 2) and trainer (F(2,48)=1.57, p=<0.217, Figure 3). These two results
are not surprising, as Billies gestures are definitely not as fluent as human
gestures.
Figure 2: Childrens perception of the quality of the gestures.
The factor personality aggregated sympathy, friendliness and intelligence.

The human trainer achieved higher scores only for sympathy (F(1,24) =
10.90, p < 0.005).

135
Figure 3: Childrens perception of trainer personalities.
We also conducted a 2x2 repeated measures ANOVA with the factors agents
features (quality of gestures and trainers personality) and trainer (agent vs.
human). Our aim was to answer the final question of whether altogether
subjects had perceived the two trainers in significantly different way besides
the differences reported above. For this analysis, we yielded no significant
results.
The digital nativeness (Prensky, 2001) of the subjects, i.e., the expertise and
the propensity to use digital media, was computed by acquiring data on the
frequency of interaction with the following media: smartphone, desk or
laptop, tablet, radio, television, interactive television. Children rated how
frequently they used the media on a five-point Likert scale with 1 for the
lowest and 5 for the highest frequency in interaction. All media used were
aggregated and averaged for each child. We found an average interaction of
3.54 (SD .49) out of 5.
We further computed Pearson correlations with the variables score of digital

nativeness and perception of the trainers quality of gestures and trainers
personalities. In both cases we failed to find positive correlations (rs = -.080,
p = .705 and rs = -.050, p = .813, respectively). Interestingly, the correlation
between the gender of the subjects (16 males and 9 females) and their
perception of the gestures and personalities of the trainers yielded
significant results: for the agents quality of gestures rs = -.539**, p = .005
and trainers personality rs = -.579**, p = .002. Gender mattered: girls liked
the agent better than their human peer as a trainer.
Conclusion
We conducted the present study with the aim to investigate childrens
acceptance of the virtual agent Billie as a vocabulary trainer. We designed the

136
study as a comparison between Billie, a virtual agent that looks like a boy of
about 12 and a human boy of 12. Both vocabulary trainers were rated by school
children of the same age. Raters agreed that gestures were better if performed by
the human, particularly regarding naturalness. Speed did not differ for both
trainers. We attribute this result to the fact that when the childs videos were
realized, the young actor was instructed to first watch the virtual trainer and
thereafter to perform the same gestures. Even if not instructed to do so, the boy
did not only imitate the shape of the gesture but also the speed to which the
agent performed it. Hence, raters could not see any differences in the speed of
execution.
The raters had more sympathy for the human trainer, as previously also
reflected in an adult study (Macedonia, 2014). As participants had no interaction
with the trainers, sympathy might simply be related to human appearance. In
fact, preference for species is influenced by similarity. In her study, Batt (2009)
found out that humans like other species on the basis of shared bio-behavioral
traits. In our study, because of his gestures and several other features, the agent
is still not a boy, despite his anthropomorphic looks. This possibly lead
participant to give higher sympathy scores to the child.
For the variable intelligence, subjects detected no difference between the

trainers. This could be related to the trainers task during the experiment. They
simply performed gestures and presented words in an unknown language.
What they did had nothing intelligent per se and it does not surprise that the
raters could not see any difference between both trainers. Also, we speculate that
subjects aged of 12 might not have a clear representation of the concept of
intelligence. Subjects might not have abstracted that the machine must be less
intelligent than the human, as adults did in the study by Macedonia (2014).
Correlations with participants gender show that girls liked the agent better than
the human. It is unclear why girls do. Further research is needed in order to
confirm and / or clarify this result. Altogether, our present study confirms the
acceptance of a virtual agent while controlling for age and gender. We reason
that future improvements in the software behind virtual agents, particularly in
gesture execution, will further increase their acceptance and facilitate the
widespread use of virtual agents in foreign language learning.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Bob Bach for helpful discussion.

138

Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 138-147, August 2014
The Role of Social Appearance Anxiety in

Metacognitive Awareness of Adolescents
Eyp elik and Mehmet Emin Turan

SakaryaUniversity
Sakarya, Turkey
Neslihan Arc
Medipol Hospital
Istanbul, Turkey
Abstract.This study is aim to examine the relationship between social

appearance anxiety of adolescents and metacognitive awareness. Social
appearance anxiety was a negatively correlated with metacognitive
awareness and its sub-constructs. As a result of regression analysis, the
linear combination values of procedural information, of self evaluation
and of explanative information significantly predicted social appearance
anxiety. As it was found that the participants with high metacognitive
awareness level had a low level of social appearance level. And also it
was stated that adolescent participants social anxiety level was varied
significantly according to metacognitive level and gender. However, this
variance was not seen as a result of the common effect of metacognitive
awareness and of gender. Also it was indicated that the mean of male
participants social appearance anxiety level was high. Results were
discussed in the light of literature.
Keywords: Social appearance anxiety; metacognitive awareness;

adolescent
Introduction
Adolescence is described as a period that an individual grows and changes
physically, sexually, socially, emotionally, cognitively, finishes at the end of
bodily growth (Kulakszolu, 2004). Adolescence includes rapid and extensive
changes (Atak, 2011). Adolescents prepare himself/herself to the adult role.
Development of an adolescent may not be simultaneously in all developmental
areas. For example, although a youth physically develops he/she does not
develop enough cognitively and emotionally. Adolescents physical changes
may be continuing irregular way until the early adult period. In parallel to this
adolescents do not like their body, which leads them to distort their perception
of body image. Adolescents social appearance anxiety level might be increased
due to their imaginary audience thoughts and giving so much importance on

139
their body. Thus social appearance anxiety in adolescence might have a negative
and serious effect on adolescents future life.
Moreover, adolescents who are not accepted by others because of their

appearance might have a social anxiety. On the other hand, cognitive awareness
and metacognitive awareness might help adolescents to cope with their social
appearance anxiety. Henceforth, this study is aim to examine factors of social
appearance anxiety of adolescents. Also this paper is aim to examine the
relationship among social appearance anxiety, metacognitive awareness and its
sub-constructs (explanative information, procedural information, planning, self-
control, cognitive strategies, conditioned information, self-evaluation and self-
monitoring).
People with high level of social anxiety disrupt their social, vocational,
educational functions which lessen their life quality (Safren, Heimberg, Brown,
& Holle, 1997; Schneier et al., 1994; Hart, Flora, Palyo, Fresco, Holle, &
Heimberg, 2008). Furthermore, people with social anxiety disorders have social
interaction anxiety; fear of being controlled and fear of evaluated negatively
(Levinson & Rodebaugh, 2011). People with high social anxiety level pay
attention on physical appearance while people with low social anxiety level do
not (Smith, 2007).
Cash, Theriault, & Natasha (2004) found that high level of being evaluated
anxiety correlated significantly with dysfunctional thoughts about physical body
image, dissatisfaction of body image, and appearance. It is also stated that
individuals who are anxious about what other people think concern so much
appearance which is related to their understanding, and their perception (Smith,
2007).
In literature some researchers (ex. Amir, Bower, Briks, & Freshman, 2003; Mogg
& Bradley, 1998; Stopa & Bryant, 2004; Smith, 2007) found that the relationship
among social appearance anxiety, social interaction anxiety, observer anxiety
and exam anxiety. These results indicated that people with self consciousness
have a high level of social appearance. Furthermore, it was stated that there are
correlations among social anxiety, dysfunctional appearance schema, discomfort
of body image in both non-clinical sample and clinical sample of body
dysmorphic and of eating disorder (Cash & Labarge, 1996; Coles et al., 2006;
Hinrichsen, Waller, & Van Gerko, 2004; Pinto & Phillips, 2005; Hart et al., 2008).
In addition to this individuals with having body image problems have increased
level of social comparison (Stormer & Thompson, 1995; Smith, 2007).
People having self consciousness about environment watched out and examined
other peoples clothes (Craik & Tulving, 1975; Fenigstein & Vanable, 1992;
Schlenker & Weigold, 1990; Solomon & Schopler, 1982; Symons & Johnson, 1997;
Smith, 2007). Thus it is expected that people having self consciousness about
environment showed good performances in appearance reality testing.
According to Flavell (1979), metacognition is a cognitive process that includes,

the appraisal, control, and monitoring of thinking (cited in Wells 2000). In other

140
words, it might be described as the knowledge of what people know, the

thought of what people thought and the evaluation of what people cognitively
have (Tosun & Irak, 2008). Metacognition is used for learning, problem solving,
understanding, reasoning, monitoring and controlling cognitive process like a
memory (Karakelle, 2012). And also it indicated that metacognition is a crucial
factor about cognitive self awareness of individuals, conscious learning (zsoy,
2008). Metacognitive awareness is defined as a structure that an individual is
aware of what he/she knows and of learning strategies, controls his/her
cognitive process, taking learning responsibilities, evaluates, plans and monitor
what he/she learns, and uses executive strategies of information (Baeci, D,
& Sarca, 2011). Metacognitive awareness is also an individuals ability that
monitors and controls his/her cognitive process and strategies (Akn, 2006).
Method
Karasar (2003) stated that researcher use relational screening model when the
covariance of two or more than two variables or of their degree is considered.
Therefore relational screening model was used in this study.
Participants
Data were collected from a sample of 276 adolescents (8th grade level) whose age
ranged from 13 to 15 years and from stanbul. Of the participants, 144
adolescents were female; 120 adolescents were male and 12 students were not
indicated their gender. To provide the regression analysis assumptions 63
participants data was excluded and 213 participants data was taken in the
study. The age of the participants was ranged from 13 to 15 years. All
participants were voluntary participated in the study.
Instruments
In this study, Social Appearance Anxiety Scale and Metacognitive Scale for
Students with Primary Education were used to measure social appearance
anxiety level and metacognitive awareness respectively.
Metacognitive Scale for Students with Primary Education: This scale was
developed by Yldz, Akpnar, Tatar and Ergin (2012) to measure students
metacognitive awareness The scale consists of 30- item with 8 subscales and 4-
Likert type (1= none, 5= always . The 8 subscales are explanative information,
procedural information, planning, self-control, cognitive strategies, conditional
information, self-evaluation and self-monitoring. The example of items are I
know which thinking style I will use and when I will use and I think many
solutions and choose the best solution when I face with a problem. The higher
score of the scale demonstrated high level of meta-cognition. The lowest score of
the test is 30 and the highest score of the test is 120.
Social Appearance Anxiety Scale: This scale was developed by Hart, Flora,
Palyo, Fresco, Holle, & Heimberg (2008) and adapted into Turkish by Doan
(2011) to measure social appearance anxiety level of adolescence. The scale
consists of 16- item and with one factor and 5 Likert type (1= Totally Disagree,
5= Totally Agree). The examples of items are I feel nervous when having my

141
picture taken. and I worry people will judge the way I look negatively. The
higher score of the scale demonstrated high level of social appearance anxiety.
The lowest score of the test is 16 and the highest score of the test is 80. And the
first item was scored reversely
Data Analysis
The relationship between social appearance anxiety of adolescents and
metacognitive awareness was examined with Pearson Coefficient Correlation
and Multiple Regression Analysis. In multiple regression analysis stepwise
method was used. Every variable of the study was added into the examined
model and model was assessed. The variable which contributed to the model
was taken, while the variable which did not contribute to the model was
excluded from the model. In parallel to this, the other variables of the study
were tested according to the contribution to the model. Thus model was
explained by a few variables (Kalayc, 2010). The differences among social
appearance anxiety of adolescents, metacognitive awareness, metacognitive
awarenesss sub-dimensions (explanative information, procedural information,
planning, self-control, cognitive strategies, conditional information, self-
evaluation and self-monitoring) in term of gender were analyzed with t-test.
Moreover, the effects of gender and meta-cognitive awareness on social
appearance anxiety were analyzed with two-way ANOVA (All data were tested
0.05 significant level).
Results
The Result of Correlation Analysis
The relationship among social appearance anxiety of adolescents, metacognitive
awareness, meta-cognitive awarenesss sub-dimensions (explanative
information, procedural information, planning, self-control, cognitive strategies,
conditional information, self-evaluation and self-monitoring) was examined
with Pearson Coefficient Correlation. The results seen in Table 1
Table 1. Mean,Standart Deviation, and Correlation Coefficient

Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Social Apperance Anxiety 1
Metacognitive Awareness -.57** 1
Explainative Information -.54** .91** 1
Procedural Information -.54** .79** .70** 1
Planning -.41** .76** .65** .53** 1
Self-Control -.35** .72** .56** .47** .53** 1
Cognitive Strategy -.42** .79** .64** .54** .57** .59** 1
Conditioned Information -.45** .82** .75** .63** .57** .48** .58** 1
Self Evaluation -.54** .82** .66** .62** .67** .65** .65** .57** 1
Self-Monitoring -.29** .64** .52** .40** .47** .41** .56** .44** .47** 1
Mean 36,52 97,54 30,45 13,66 6,31 9,38 9,30 12,65 9,59 6,19
SS 11,50 15,10 4,75 2,23 1,50 2,03 1,99 2,63 2,00 1,49
**p< 0.01

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According to Table 1 social appearance anxiety was negatively correlated with

social meta-cognitive awareness (r= -.57), explanative information (r= -.54),
procedural information (r= -.54), planning (r= -.41), self-control (r= -.35),
cognitive strategies (r= -.42), conditioned information (r= -.45), self-evaluation
(r= -.54) and self monitoring (r= -.29) .
The Results of Multiple Regression Analysis

Multiple regression analysis assumptions were examined before determining to
what extent the metacognitive awareness explain social appearance anxiety in
adolescent. To indicate whether there are extreme values of sample or not,
Mahalanobis distance values were detected for every participant and 63 extreme
values were deleted according to p<.001 level. After excluded 63 participants
data the data was reanalyzed and the graphics built on the residual values were
examined. It was found that scatter diagram composited of standardized
residual values (errors) and standardized predictive values defined the linear
relationship and all points were gathered on an axis. It was seen that the
histogram and normal curve of standardized predictive values are so close
distribution.
Another assumption of the requirement of Multiple Regression analysis is

Variance Inflation Factor (VIF). When VIF is more than 10, there is a skeptic
about the multiple relationships (Sipahi, Yurtkoru, & inko, 2008). As
considered tolerance and variance inflation values multicollinearity problems
were not seen. In parallel to these results multiple regression analysis was done
and the results of it were seen in Table 2.
As a result of multiple regression analysis the linear combinations values of

procedural information, of self-evaluation, and of explanatory information
predicted significantly social anxiety appearance (R= .37, F(3, 209) = 41.87,
p<.05). In terms of values of multiple regression equation procedural
information values (=-.24, t(212)= -2.97, p<.05), self-evaluation values (=-.27,
t(212)= -3.50, p<.01) and explanatory information values (= -.19, t(212)= -2.19,
p<.05) predicted significantly social appearance anxiety. This result showed that
the more procedural information, self-evaluation, and explanatory information
level increased, the more social appearance anxiety decreased.
Table 2.Multiple Regression Analysis Results

Standard
Model Variables B t p R2
Error of B
Meta-cognitive
1 -.43 .04 -.57 -10,11 .000 .32
Awareness
Meta-cognitive
-.30 .07 -.39 -4.31 .000
2 Awareness .34
Procedural Information -1,16 .47 -.23 -2,47 .013
Meta-cognitive
-.30 .09 -.16 -1.32 .189
Awareness
3 .36
Procedural Information -1,16 .46 -.25 -2,75 .006
Self Evaluation -1,46 .56 -.25 -2,59 .010

143
Procedural Information -1,66 .36 -.32 -4.58 .000

4 .35
Self Evaluation -1,98 .40 -.34 -4.89 .000
Procedural Information -1.22 .41 -.24 -2.97 .003
5 Self Evaluation -1.55 .44 -.27 -3.50 .001 .37
Explanatory Information -.45 .20 -.19 -2.19 .029
In this study t test was used. As a result of t test analysis there was a significant
difference between adolescent with high and low metacognitive awareness
level about social appearance anxiety (p<.05). Comparing means of social
appearance anxiety level between high metacognitive awareness level of
adolescents and low metacognitive awareness level of adolescents, adolescents
with low metacognitive awareness level had high level of social appearance
anxiety. (Mean of social appearance anxiety in low metacognitive awareness
level of adolescents = 45,02, mean of social appearance anxiety in high
metacognitive awareness level of adolescents = 34,17).
The Differences in terms of Gender

The differences among social appearance anxiety of adolescents, metacognitive
awareness, metacognitive awarenesss sub-dimensions (explanative information,
procedural information, planning, self-control, cognitive strategies, conditional
information, self-evaluation and self-monitoring) in term of gender were
analyzed with t-test. As a result of the study there was a difference in terms of
gender, between social appearance anxiety level and metacognitive awareness of
adolescents. Results are shown in Table 3.
Table 3. The Differences in terms of Gender

Female(n= 144) Male (n= 120)
Variables SS SS t
Social Appearance Anxiety 39,74 14,97 45,03 17,47 -2,64
Metacognitive Awareness 98,49 13,91 97,01 17,51 0,76
Explanatory Information 31,07 4,18 29,91 5,39 1,97
Procedural Information 13,87 2,05 13,44 2,53 1,51
Planning 6,31 1,41 6,27 1,67 -0,23
Self-Control 9,31 2,01 9,47 2,27 -0,59
Cognitive Strategies 9,37 1,92 9,31 2,07 0,24
Conditioned Information 12,81 2,58 12,63 2,89 0,52
Self-Evaluation 9,54 2,04 9,61 2,11 -0,25
Self-Monitoring 6,16 1,54 6,33 1,51 -0,90
*p<0,05, **p<0.001
When using t test to compare adolescents social appearance anxiety level with
regard to gender adolescents social appearance anxiety level significantly
differentiated with regard to gender (p<.005). The mean of males social
appearance anxiety level was higher than female (Male = 45,03 and Female
= 39,74). Other variables did not differentiate in term of gender.

144
To examine the common effect of gender and meta-cognitive awareness on

social appearance anxiety Two Way ANOVA was used. Considering Levene
homogeneity level (F (3,94)= 1,354, p= .26) two-way ANOVA was carried out
and found that there was not any common effect of gender and metacognitive
awareness on social appearance [F (3,94)= .46, p>.05]. As a result of the study it
is indicated that social appearance anxiety differentiated with regard to gender
and metacognitive awareness although there was not any common effect of
gender and metacognitive awareness on social appearance.
Discussion
In literature it is stated that there are relationships among social anxiety, eating
disorder and self esteem (Obeid, Buchholz, Boerner, Henderson, & Norris, 2013).
The apparent physical changes happen in adolescent period which lead
adolescents to be negatively affected and to get mental health problems. Thus
some of the adolescents negative bodily image might decrease their self-esteem
which might lead to develop social appearance anxiety. Women with high self
schema are less pleased with their appearance and have low self-esteem level.
In parallel to this, some research (Jung & Lee, 2006; Jung &Lennon 2003) show
that positive body image is related to high level of self-esteem and negative
body image is related to low level of self-esteem. It is also found that positive or
negative body image has an effect on eating behaviors, social phobia level,
sexual behaviors, social relationship and emotional life (Cash & Fleming, 2002).
Another study demonstrated that social anxiety level and depression level are
correlated with each other. Moreover this study showed that financial
difficulties increased the social appearance anxiety. And it is also stated that
social anxiety is related to self-esteem (zcan, Suba, Budak, elik, Grel,
&Yldz, 2013).
In literature there is not any study about social appearance anxiety of

adolescents and metacognitive awareness of adolescents. Whereas some of the
studies (Solomon & Schopler, 1982; Dion, Dion, & Keelan, 1990; Smith, 2007;
Craik & Tulving, 1975; Fenigstein & Vanable, 1992; Schlenker & Weigold, 1990;
Solomon & Schopler, 1982; Symons & Johnson, 1997; Smith, 2007) examined the
relationship between self-consciousness and social appearance anxiety .
Henceforth, this study is very important because it is the first study about this
topic social appearance anxiety of adolescents and metacognitive awareness of
adolescents.
In this study social appearance anxiety was negatively correlated with social
metacognitive awareness explanative information, procedural information,
planning, self-control, cognitive strategies conditioned information, self-
evaluation, and self monitoring. As a result of multiple regression analysis the
linear combinations values of procedural information, of self-evaluation, and of
explanatory information predicted significantly social anxiety appearance. When
comparing the predictive values of social appearance anxiety included into
multiple regression analysis the most predictive values was self-evaluation. This
result showed that the more procedural information, self-evaluation, and

145
explanatory information level increased, the more social appearance anxiety

decreased.
Furthermore, in this study it was found that there was a significant difference
between adolescent with high and low metacognitive awareness level about
social appearance anxiety. Adolescents with low metacognitive awareness level
had high level of social appearance anxiety. This result was consistent with
some research (Solomon & Schopler, 1982; Dion, Dion, & Keelan, 1990; Smith,
2007; Craik & Tulving, 1975; Fenigstein & Vanable, 1992; Schlenker & Weigold,
1990; Solomon & Schopler, 1982; Symons & Johnson, 1997; Smith, 2007)
In addition to all results, there was a difference between social appearance

anxiety of adolescents, metacognitive awareness about gender. The mean of
males social appearance anxiety level was higher than females social
appearance anxiety level. This result might be related to the fact that physical
development of female adolescents is earlier than male adolescents. Another
factor of higher level of social appearance anxiety of male adolescents might be
that male adolescents might not adequately provide social roles which their
society expected. Therefore, the common effect of gender and metacognitive
awareness on social appearance anxiety was examined. According to the result,
there was not any common effect of gender and metacognitive awareness on
social appearance. Last but not least it is indicated that social appearance anxiety
differentiated with regard to gender and metacognitive awareness although
there was not any common effect of gender and metacognitive awareness on
social appearance.
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Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 148-179, August 2014
Bridging the Cultural Gap: Strategies for

Multicultural Teaching and Learning in Malta
Brian Vassallo
Abstract. The growing reality of multicultural education in Malta is

critical for Maltese teachers to develop skills necessary to deliver a
culturally sensitive curriculum for the students under their care. Often
teachers feel confused as to the roadmap they should undertake to
ensure that they are equipped enough to face the challenges of
multicultural instruction. This study aims to facilitate this enterprise by
undergoing a literature review on the cultural dimensions of learning
and, through the construction of a cultural framework, establish a
common set of precepts that should serve as guidelines for teachers to
critically examine the relationships with their students and to device
strategies for bridging cross-cultural differences. The Bilateral
Framework for Multicultural Teaching and Learning (BFMTL) based on
the works of Hofstede (1980, 2001, 2005), Hall (1983), Levine (1987),
Lewis (2006) and Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars (1997) was created
and the use of the BFMTL questionnaire is advocated as a tool to help
both teachers and students to critically examine the range of cultural
differences present in their classrooms, the challenges they present and
the range of strategies needed to overcome these challenges.
Keywords: Bilateral Framework; Multicultural Teaching and Learning.
The need for multicultural education

Banks and Banks (2002) argue that multicultural education is a necessary
ingredient for quality education. Such necessity demands culturally adaptive
learning approaches that spurs every individual in the learning situation to
achieve his/her full potential. Students who study in an environment which is
dissonant to their own culture experience significant hindrances and can be a
source of serious conflict (Pincas, 2001). Cultural awareness is a two way
process. Teachers should be critically aware of their own culture and how their
culture is affecting the way their students perceive learning. This also puts
teachers in a position to examine their underlying assumptions as to how should
respond to the learning situations they present, while at the same time keeping
an open mind as to possible unexpected responses. Teachers should then be in a
position to strike a careful balance between helping students to adapt to the
demands of mainstream culture while at the same time embracing the challenges
of the new culture the student is presenting.
@ 2014 The author and IJLTER.ORG. All rights reserved

149
What is culture?
Culture includes those modes of thinking and behaviour which are transmitted
from one generation to another, developed through direct interaction between
groups, family members, friends, work colleagues and community (Hofstede &
Hofstede, 2005). Culture also includes
... how people express themselves (including shows

of emotion), the way they think, how they move,
how problems are solved, how their cities are planned
and laid out, how transportation systems function
and are organized, as well as how economic and
government systems are put together and function.
(Hall, 1981, pp. 16-17)
Cultural preferences are an essential part of our existence because our strong
urge to belong in groups. Parrish and Linder-VanBerschot (2010), in their
research about Cultural dimensions in learning argued that layers of culture
exist within workplaces, family and community structures on a regional,
national and even international level. These are based on traditions, folklore,
shared heritage, language, and others. Notwithstanding the strong ties between
human elements and individual culture, people have demonstrated willful and
creative responses to the world around them, frequently adapting and
modifying their natural and cultural tendencies. Cultural influences are a two
way process. Even though we are products of our cultures, we are also actors
within our own cultures and so we have a profound influence on our own
culture. Hence by interacting within our culture we are influencing those around
us and contributing to a dynamic changing culture. We influence our culture
through our beliefs, our deep rooted assumptions, values, and behaviors
developed through an infinite series of interactions with the acquaintances of
our own culture as well as through a range of both positive and negative
interactions with other cultures.
The respect for and the conservation of students culture is an important precept
for teachers to consider in their daily interaction with their students since they
are in a position of influence on their learners (Schwier, Campbell & Kenny,
2004). Whenever we teach, we are teaching culture. It may be a conscious
deliberate process or it may take place on a subconscious level. Awareness,
knowledge, attitudes, and skills are all manifestations of culture. Culture is not
only embedded in teaching and learning processes but is an agent by which
teaching and learning are transmitted. In multicultural teaching environment
settings, educators must reflect on the balance needed between acculturating
students within the dominant culture but without hindrance to the pedagogical
process and the targets set for learning.
For such a challenging process to take place teachers and school administrators
must infuse theoretical and practical multicultural concepts into the very heart
of school leadership, curriculum instruction, policy making, classroom
environment, student guidance, counselling, assessment schemes, festivities,
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holidays and all other school procedures. Moreover, being culturally adapt to
the needs of the student would mean that teachers feel the urge to infuse
multicultural content into the subject matter. Good practices have been cited in
Mathematics (Joubert & Andrews, 2010), Foreign Language Learning
(Andrawiss, 2004), Science (White, Altschuld & Yi-Fang, 2006) and Engineering
management (Young, 1992). For example teachers could demonstrate
mathematical concepts such as bar graph representation by capitalising on the
ethnic composition present in the classroom. Concepts such as probabilities,
ratios, percentages, statistics, and graphs could be taught in a similar manner.
Also literature in schools could be taught by studying the contributions of
various cultural groups.
There are numerous reasons that advocate for effective multicultural teaching
and learning. The expansion of world trade, industrial globalization, marketing,
technology and many other factors have created a situation where cross-cultural
interaction is inevitable. Increasing specializations, joint programs and internet
communication has brought people closer than ever before. Many
undergraduate and postgraduate studies have a wide range of students coming
from different countries and professionals wishing to guide their students need
to develop a range of specialized skills which aim at reaching all students
irrespective of their cultural origin. According to (Nisbett, 2003), cultural
diversity is of crucial importance to the teaching and learning process, because
of its deeply rooted cultural values and modes of thinking that are difficult to
separate from the learning processes itself.
The compelling need for higher educational and vocational qualifications leads
students to demand culturally responsive learning experiences that would allow
them to full develop their individual potentials (Visser, 2007). Teachers
experiencing difficulty in engaging themselves in this challenging experience
should gear themselves towards developing the skills necessary to deliver
culturally sensitive and responsive instruction (Gunawardena & LaPointe, 2007).
For teaching to be beneficial to students, teachers must be cognizant towards the
cultures of their learners and able to interpret and analyse how those cultures
manifest and impinge themselves in learning processes (Nisbett, 2003).
Teachers and educational stakeholders should be acutely aware of their own

culture because their world views shaped by their own culture, cannot be
separated from the training they develop (Thomas, Mitchell, & Joseph, 2002).
Being aware of how their own cultural perspectives, how they impinge on the
pedagogical decisions they make has an effect how learners respond to the
teaching process. After an extensive literature review, the paper will examine the
cultural differences which exist between teachers and students across a number
of dimensions. These differences are then analysed using quantitative methods
of investigation. Conclusion and recommendations follow, based on findings.
The Bilateral Framework for Multicultural Teaching and Learning
Many authors contributed to literature on cultural differences. Hall (1959, 1976)

studied time-orientations across continents and categorized people as
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monochronic (m-time) and polychronic (p-time). On a similar framework, Lewis

(2006) distinguished between linear time, multi-active time and cyclical time.
Similarly Graham (1981) offers categorization of time orientations as linear-
separable, circular-traditional and procedural traditional, while Levine (1997),
dichotomizes time into clock time and event time. Hofstede (1980, 2001, 2005)
identified a framework for describing cultural differences based on five value
dimensions: High Power Distance versus Low Power Distance, High
Uncertainty Avoidance versus Low Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism
versus Collectivism, Masculinity versus Femininity and Long Term Orientation
versus Short Term Orientation.
The High Power Distance vs Low Power Distance dimension (Hofstede, 1980)
measures the extent to which the members of a particular institution accept that
power is being distributed equally. Hence, in a society with large power
distance, superiors are inaccessible to those inferior in position while a society
with a small power distance, superiors are accessible and there is a feeling of
equal distribution of power. In a classroom situation this dimension is
characterized as follows:
Table 1: Manifestations of Power-Distance Dimension (Hofstede, 1980) in the

classroom.
Low power distance (more equality) High Power Distance (less equality)
Teachers treated on an equal par to Teachers are treated as unchallenged
students. They can be engaged in authorities
argumentation and even challenged.
Students take responsibility for their Teachers are the sole source of
own learning. knowledge and are fully responsible
for what is taught in class.
Dialogue is central to the teaching Communication flows down from
activity teacher to student.
The High Uncertainty Avoidance vs Low Uncertainty Avoidance dimension

(Hofstede, 1980), illustrates the extent to which people feel endangered by
unpredictable situations. They either seek to avoid these by enforcing strict
norms of behaviour and affirming beliefs in absolute truths or else they express
ability to accommodate to new situations by modifying the prevailing rules into
more flexible ones. The hallmarks of strong uncertainty avoidance are higher
anxiety and stress, need for written laws and consequences for non- abidance,
resistance to change and strong desire to reach consensus. A society
characterized by weak uncertainty avoidance will attempt to accommodate new
incumbents and situations of uncertainty. Rules may be broken for practical
reasons and there is less emotional resistance to change and more tolerance for
disagreement and greater willingness to take risks.

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Table 2: Manifestations of High Uncertainty Avoidance vs Low Uncertainty

Avoidance (Hofstede, 1980) in the classroom.
High Uncertainly Avoidance Low Uncertainty Avoidance
Students prefer structured learning Students prefer unstructured learning
situations. situations.
Students prefer questions with a yes Students prefer open answers.
or no.
Learning builds on previous Learning ventures to new routes and
experience. pathways.
Emphasis is on accuracy of answers. Emphasis is on creativity of answers.
The Individualistic vs Collectivistic dimension examines the extent to which

individuals are integrated into groups or not. In an Individualistic culture people
have a restricted family structure, look after themselves and their immediate
family, and adhere to strong norms to maintain self-respect and self esteem. In a
Collectivistic culture people belong to groups. Loyalty is the principal norm of
the group. A collectivistic society values extended families and saving face is of
vital importance. On the same lines, Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars (1997)
expanded this dimension to include whether societies focus their attention on
the collective or on the individual. In the classroom this dimension can be
manifested as follows:
Table 3: Manifestations of Individualistic vs Collectivistic perspectives

(Hofstede, 1980) in the classroom.
Individualistic Perspective Collectivistic Perspective
Students work independently. A collaborative stance is the norm.
Helping others may be viewed as Every students is a team player and
cheating. works for the success of the group.
Discussion, argumentation, and Students sit quietly and attempt to
critical thinking form the basis of internalize what the teacher is
learning. delivering.
Property belongs to individuals. To Property belongs to everybody. No
avail oneself of someone elses permission is needed to avail oneself
property one has to ask formal of someone elses property.
permission.
Students are expected to take control Students assume that the teacher has
of their learning environment. the absolute authority of what goes in
the classroom.
Parents partake and involve Parents accept teachers expertise and
themselves actively in their childs guidance.
education.
Students speak up readily. Students speak up not so readily.
Learning how to learn is very Learning how to do is very important
important.
Students opinions are highly Students are expected to integrate
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valued. their opinions with the prevalent line

of discussion.
Students work towards individual Students work towards communal
gain. gain.
The Masculinity vs Femininity dimension (Hofstede, 2001) refers to the extent to

which a society emphasizes achievement or nurture. Masculinity is perceived to
be the attribute which focuses on acquisition of wealth, ambition and
differentiated gender roles. On the other hand, Femininity is seen to be the trait
which emphasises lasting caring behaviours, promotes sexual equality, and
advocates for more fluidity in gender role acquisition. Striving for consensus,
maintaining healthy relationships, and developing sympathy for people who are
in difficulty are the hallmarks of a feminine culture. In a classroom situation this
dimension is characterized as seen in table 4:
Table 4: Manifestations of Masculinity vs Femmininity dimension (Hofstede,

2001) in the classroom.
Masculine Perspective Feminine Perspective

Students come from a traditional Flexible family structure.
family structure.
Boys dont cry. Girls cry. Both boys and girls cry.
Girls dont fight. Boys do fight. Nobody fights.
Making mistakes is catastrophic. Making mistakes is part of life
Teachers openly admire best students Teachers praise team efforts.
in the class.
Certification is of primary Group accomplishments are most
importance. important.
Students like competitive tasks. Students like cooperative tasks.
Students compare themselvesStudents compare their ethnic group
(academically) to other students. performance (academic) to other ethnic
groups.
Students make themselves visible in Students do not care about their
the classroom. visibility in the classroom.
Hall (1959, 1976) categorises time-orientations into monochronic (m-time) and

polychronic (p-time). M-time people are sequential and tend to perform one thing
at a time, favouring a greater reliability on time-tables, itineraries, diaries, and
schedules while P-time people are distinguished by undertaking a series of
activities simultaneously. People who adhere to monochromic time orientations
have a strong future orientation, whereas people who are polychromic who have
a strong present and past orientations.
Hofstede (2005) dichotomizes time as Long Term versus Short Term orientation.
In his own words: "Long Term Orientation stands for the fostering of virtues
oriented towards future rewards, in particular perseverance and thrift. Its
opposite pole, Short Term Orientation, stands for the fostering of virtues related

154
to the past and present, respect for tradition, preservation of face and fulfilling
social obligations. (p. 33). Societies with a short-term orientation value
traditions with very little regard for the future and have a sharp focus on
achieving quick results (Geert Hofstede, 2001, quoted in
geerthofstede.com/dimensions.html). In societies with a long-term orientation,
people value and adapt traditions according to changed conditions, with a
strong interest in investing for the future and a strong focus on achieving
desired results. According to Levine (1997), different people in different cultures
view time differently. He dichotomizes time into clock time and event time.
While western cultures and the US are dictated by the clock to execute important
functions, other cultures are dictated by events to execute the same functions.
Lewis (2006) distinguishes between linear time, multi-active time and cyclical time.
In linear time cultures such as the USA, time simply flows from past to present to
future. In Lewis (2006) own words, the past is over, but the present you can
seize, parcel and package and make it work for you in the immediate future. A
lot of talk is consumed over spending and saving time. There is simply no place
for lingering or to put it simple- time is money! In Lewiss (2006) model, the past
is to be forgotten and a lot of importance is given to the present and how it (the
present) is going to be profitable in the near future. In multi-active time societies
(Lewis, 2006) such as southern Europeans, people tend to do many things at the
same time. Table 5 below shows an adaptation of the time dimensions described
above with reference to the classroom environment:
Table 5: Time Orientations (Hall, 1959, 1926; Hofstede, 2001, 2005; Levine,
1997; Lewis, 2006) as manifested in the classroom.
Monochronic Polychronic (multiactive)
Students perform one task at a time. Students perform multiple tasks
simultaneously.
Students rely on established Students rely on information they
schedules. get from peers.
Long Term Orientation Short Term Orientation
Students design a long term plan of Students design short term plans of
study. study.
Students are prepared to give long Students are more likely to study on
term sustained efforts in their study. the eve of exams.
Students are likely to give up life Students balance carefully study and
pleasures to study. life pleasures.
Clock Time Event Time
Lessons start on time and finish on Lesson time can be flexible.
time.
Class time is regulated by a time-table. Class time is more fluid and flexible.
Emphasis is on strict procedures. Procedures exist only as guidelines.
Assignments to are meet deadlines. Assignment deadlines are fluid.
Linear Time Cyclical time
Time is not to be wasted. One should Reflection and contemplation are not
be quick if s/he is to get results a waste of time. Rushing through

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activities will not lead anywhere.
Time has to managed Adapting to time is important.

Opportunity knocks once! There will be opportunities in the
future.
Past experiences are not important. It Past experiences are a reflection of
is the present and the future which ones performance(s) now and in
counts. future.
Building on Hofstedes (1980) model, Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars (1997)

expanded the definition of national cultures to include factors such as historical,
political and social dimensions which, in turn, have an effect on business
values. The Universal versus the Particular dimension (Hampden-Turner &
Trompenaars, 1997) represents a cultures view of principles. While the Universal
dimension places emphasis on rules and regulations, the Particular dimension
places more emphasis on relationships within the group. The Neutral versus
Affective dimension (Hampden-Turner & Trompenaars, 1997) emphasizes the
extent of which an individual (or a group) is objective and detached (neutral)
from influences around him/her. Displays of affection indicate that individuals
(or groups) is/ are more inclined towards the affective dimension. The Specific
versus Diffuse dimension (Hampden-Turner & Trompenaars, 1997) represents a
cultures blending of work and personal life. The Specific aspect of this
dimension implies that the person is more inclined to separate work and
personal life. On the other hand, the Diffuse aspect suggests a blend between
work and personal life. The Achievement versus Prescription dimension
(Hampden-Turner &Trompenaars, 1997) describes a societys style of assigning
status. The Achievement aspect of the dimension places emphasis on performance
and flexibility, whilst the prescription aspect emphasizes age, education, gender,
and personal characteristics as other possible agents of success. The Individual
versus Collective dimension (Hampden-Turner & Trompenaars, 1997) is similar
to Hofstedes (1980) dimension of Individualism versus Collectivism where the
collective focus is either on the individual or on the collective The Time as
Sequence (Hampden-Turner & Trompenaars,1997) sees events as consecutive
whereas Time as Synchronization (Hampden-Turner & Trompenaars, 1997) sees
events as occurring in parallel. This is similar to multi-active time societies (Lewis,
2006) and to Halls (1959, 1976) polychromic time societies. The Internal versus
External dimension (Hampden-Turner & Trompenaars, 1997) relates to the
environment dimension and measures the extent of which an individual or
group has over his/ her environment. Inner-directed societies believe that
although complex, nature can be controlled. In an externally oriented society,
members believe that they can harmonize themselves with nature and thus have
little control over it. Members of internal societies inculcate more dominating
attitudes and are uncomfortable with change while members of external
societies apply flexibility and are at ease with change and more willing to
harmonise themselves with nature. In a classroom situation these dimensions
might manifest themselves as follows:

156
Table 6: Historical, political, and social dimensions (Hampden-Turner and

Trompenaars, 1997) as manifested in the classroom.
Universalism Particularism
Emphasis is placed on classroom Emphasis is placed on classroom
regulations. relationships.
Neutral Affective
Students are not affected by what Students are easily affected by
happens around them. what happens around them.
Specific Diffuse
Students do not share their school Students share their school
experiences with family members. experiences with family members.
Achievement Prescription
Students count only upon their To move up the social ladder,

achievements to move up the social students count also upon a
ladder. number of characteristics such as
age, gender and personal
characteristics.
Internal External
Students find it difficult to adapt to Students find it comfortable to adapt

changes (eg: time-table. to changes (eg: time-table).
The literature review provided the researcher with a solid basis on which to
construct a methodology based on the dichotomous nature of the cultural
dimensions.
Methodology
The snowball sampling method was used to engage participants in the study.
Teachers were recruited from five post secondary schools in Malta who were
initially contacted following a call by the researcher for volunteers. The teachers
were then asked to indicate other teachers who had students of multicultural
origin in their classes and who wished to participate in the study. In total, a
cohort of thirty-nine teachers together with their students participated in the
study, of whom 27 were male (69%) and 12 were female (31%). A total of 445
students took part in the study. Based on work of Hofstede (1980, 2001, 2005),
Hall (1983), Levine (1987), Lewis (2006) and Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars
(1997), the Bilateral Framework for Multicultural Teaching and Learning
(BFMTL) was constructed and a questionnaire was designed mirroring the
interpretations given to the dimensions by the researcher.
A meeting was held and the questionnaire and dimensions were clearly
explained both to teachers and students. The teachers and the students were
given the questionnaire simultaneously so as not to leave room for extraneous
variables. Both the teachers and the students questionnaires consisted of 42
statements in which participants were asked to circle their preference on a seven
157
point Likert scale. Statements 1 to 3 were related to the Power-Distance

Dimension (Hofstede, 1980); statements 4 to 7 were related to the High
Uncertainty Avoidance vs Low Uncertainty Avoidance dimension (Hofstede, 1980);
statements 8 to 16 were related to the Individualistic vs Collectivistic perspectives
(Hofstede, 1980); statements 17 to 24 were related to the Masculinity vs Femininity
(Hofstede, 2001); statements 25 to 37 relate to the Time Orientations (Hall, 1959,
1926; Hofstede, 2001, 2005; Levine, 1997; Lewis, 2006) while questions 38 to 42
refer to the Historical, political and social dimensions (Hampden-Turner &
Trompenaars, 1997).
Each question on the teachers questionnaire had a corresponding counterpart

on the students questionnaire. This allowed for easy question by question
comparisons and computations. The average teachers score (depicted in red)
and the average students score (depicted in blue) was computed for each
dimension. Modal scores (depicted as yellow lines) were computed to determine
where the majority of scores are concentrated. These modal scores were
computed for each dimension (i.e. 13) and for each class (i.e. 39) forming a total
of 507 graphical representations. The SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences) was used to conduct t-tests. The null hypothesis (H0) in the study states
that the means between the teachers score and the students mean are not
statistically different from each other. A series of t-tests was conducted to test
this hypothesis and to determine whether it is accepted or rejected. From these, a
few were chosen for illustration purposes. Classes were arbitrarily named from
Class A to Class L. The criteria for the selection of graphical representations
were based on the disparities of dimensional scores, which proved to be ideal
platform for analysis, taking care to include all dimensions. Score number one,
marked in red, represents the teachers score while the other scores represent
student scores. Analysis now follows based on findings.
Analysis and Interpretation of Results

All questionnaires were returned. Analysis now proceeds by highlighting
similarities and disparities between dimensions.
Low Power Distance vs High Power Distance Dimension

Class A represents an interesting situation in which the class exhibits a bimodal
characteristic (mode 1 = 6.25, mode 2 =2.00). It is clear that the majority of
students scored on the lower side of the Low power vs High power Dimension
Graph. On the other hand however, other students scored high indicating that
they expect the teacher to maintain a high power distance in the classroom with
the teacher scoring of 4, thus indicating that the teacher is currently adopting a
flexible approach and is aware of the Power-Distance disparities which exist
among students and is able to gauge how much power s/he is willing to concede
to students (x = 3.077, tobt= 1.54 at tcrit = 2.179, =0.05). A tobt<tcrit indicates that the
teachers score is not statistically different from the two modal scores. However
it must be stated that there is a statistically significant disparity between the
modal scores of the two groups of students.

158
mode 1= 6.25
mode 2 = 2.00
Fig 1: Graphical representation of Class A
The High Uncertainty vs Low Uncertainty Avoidance graph indicated a clear

disparity between teachers and students value scores. While the teacher scored
a 6.75 the modal line for students indicate a score of 2.75, while the average score
of students x was 2.938 (tobt= 8.06 at tcrit = 2.131, =0.05). The result shows a
statistically significant disparity between the teachers score and the students
score, with the teacher scoring high (ie low tolerance) on Uncertainty Avoidance
and students exhibiting an inclination towards low uncertainty avoidance (Fig 2).
This result calls for a plan of action for both teachers and students to examine
critically their own culture and device plans of actions aimed at reducing such
differences.
Teachers score
Fig 2: Graphical representation of Class B

159
Figure 3 shows the graphical result of the Individualistic vs Collectivistic

perspective. The graph shows a somewhat dispersed scatter plot of the
dimension clearly indicating a variety of responses to the questionnaire.
Students in this class came from a wide variety of background characteristic and
hence demonstrated a variability of scores (a shown by the yellow modal line).
This represents a major challenge for the teacher who needs to interact with a
variety of perspectives. It would be helpful if the senior management team of the
school screens the particular cultures existing within this class and provide
opportunities for both teacher and students to interact more effectively. They
would also benefit from using the instrument to clearly examine other
dimensions featuring in the questionnaire. This would shed new light on how
the various dimensions interact and the resultant of these interactions. From the
results of the questionnaires one can construct tailor-made training
opportunities for both teachers and students. The mean score of students (x) =
3.263, (tobt= 1.53 at tcrit = 2.101, =0.05) shows that the students mean is not
statistically different from the teachers score. However, the difference of scores
between students themselves (eg: student numbers 7, 11 and 18 scored a 7 while
students 2, 12 and 19 scored a 1) indicate extreme positions in the Individualistic
vs Collectivistic dimension. Hence it is imperative for all students and teacher to
examine the roots of their cultural background and the reasons behind the
different perceptions.
Fig 3: Graphical representation of Class C
The Masculinity vs Femininity dimension (fig 4) provides a unique opportunity

for teachers and students to examine core values within their cultures. The
figure presents a situation where the teacher adheres mostly to Masculine
dimension of Culture. While a small group of students tend to mirror this culture
by scoring values close to the teachers, a larger group of students revealed
scores near to the 5.75 modal group. This graph shows a large disparity between
the teachers tendency towards the Masculinity dimension as opposed to the
Femininity dimension exhibited by some students (tobt=-8.14 at tcrit= 2.16, =
0.05).
160
While the teacher emphasised strong academic performances where failing is

perceived as catastrophic, some students tended to see failure as an opportunity
to grow. Also, while the teacher orchestrated competitive tasks for his/her
students highlighting individual achievement, most students adhered more to a
culture of cooperation where the achievement of the group is perceived of a
higher value than that of the individual. Students who conformed with the
cultural precepts of the teacher were more visible and hence acquired more
attention from the teacher. The use of the BFMTL can be used productively by
making both teacher and students aware of the disparity existing within this
cultural dimension and to highlight possibilities as to how this can be bridged in
the interest of all concerned.
Fig 4: Graphical representation of Class D
Figure 5 examines Halls (1959, 1976) Monochronic and Polychronic time

orientations. A line of best fit (modal line) was passed through the teachers
score. It is observed that the points are dispersed but balanced. The teacher
preferred the middle score in this dimension. A number of student scores were
close to the teachers score and hence no statistically different result was
obtained (tobt =0 at tcrit=2.179).
Other scores however, were distant from the modal score of 4 at both ends of the
dimensions. In particular three students out of 13 scored a score of 2 and one
student gave a score of 7. These results serve as springboards for researchers,
teachers, managers and other stakeholders within the Maltese Educational
System to identify those elements which pose variations in how practical tasks
within the class are executed and to research mechanisms to establish whether
the monochronic vs polychromic cultural dimension could be the underpinning
responsible for such variations.

161
Fig 5: Graphical representation of Class E
An interesting but complex situation occurred in Class F (fig 6) with the teacher
exhibiting a strong long term orientation and the students showing an
inclination towards short term orientation. This is a situation which can cause
conflict if not tackled appropriately by both teachers and students. The modal
score lines in the graph represents a cluster of scores which show dissimilarity in
the long term vs short term orientation. The scores show that it is vital for both
teachers and students to be aware of these differences, foster a positive attitude
towards each other, seek, and study literature on time orientations and work
towards the embedded skills necessary to bridge these dissimilarities. Though it
is recognized that this is a challenging enterprise, more needs to be done to
provide the necessary fabric which would guide college professionals and
students with the necessary linchpins upon which they can critically examine
the impact of their own culture on the teaching and learning process.
Fig 6: Graphical representation of Class F

162
A similar situation but in rather reverse fashion occurred in the clock time vs event
time dimension in class G (fig 7). While the teacher showed a clear tendency
towards clock time, all his/her students exhibited an event time orientation. T-
scores computed for this dimension showed a tobt = - 8.57 as compared to tcrit =
3.012 (= 0.01) and this suggests dissimilarities that there could be a potential
source of conflict since while the teacher would show strictness in observing
classroom timetables and be strict on assignment deadlines, students could be
expecting more fluid time table arrangements and a margin of flexibility with
regards to assignments and other classroom activities. The results make a case
for the use of BFMTL as a tool for measurement and investigation of cultural
discrepancies within the teaching and learning progression.
Fig 7: Graphical representation of Class G
Figure 8 presents us with a picture of the Linear Time vs Cyclical Time dimension
with the teacher scoring high on Linear Time and all the students scoring more
towards Cyclical Time. The mean score of the students (x) was 2.53 which shows
a statistically significant score when compared with that of the teacher (X= 6).
This shows a clear disparity in Time Values between teacher and students. Most
students showed the inherent need for reflective time, i.e. time to digest
material before it actually makes sense. In this situation, however, the teacher
score (X=6) was distant from students perceptions which scored 1 and 2
respectively (tobt = 15.18 at tcrit = 2.145, a=0.5). These disparities could be bridged
by increasing awareness of different time orientations, stressing their values in
different situations and by fostering an open attitude towards learning situations
which demand different spans of reflection time. Experimenting with various
student groupings, recording data from the BFMTL questionnaire and putting in
practice the knowledge and skills acquired during the process would give both
students and teachers an invaluable experience towards understanding the
impact of culture on the teaching and learning mechanisms.

163
Fig 8: Graphical representation of Class H
The Universalism vs Particularism dimension illustrates the complexity of the

impact of culture on learning. The graphical representation of class I shows a
diversified score, in terms of how students perceive their interrelationship with
their teacher. About half of the students prefer to have a relationship based on
rules and regulations while the other half expect a more dynamic and flowing
relationship based on societal norms rather than an imposed set of in laws. The
teacher score of 4 was close to the modal score of 5. The t-score for this
dimension shows that the students mean score (x=4.706) is not statistically
different from the teacher score (X = 4 at tobt =-1.506 at tcrit = 2.120 at = 0.5).
Fig 9: Graphical representation of Class I
The Neutral vs Affective Dimension (fig 10) shows that some students are affected
by what happens around them while others are not. The middle score of 4 given
by the teacher also illustrates the point that this dimension needs to be further
164
amplified to contain concrete examples upon which both teachers and students
can build their perceptions. Researchers need to delve into deeper analysis as to
what role can the neutral vs affective dimension have on the cultural impact on
teaching and learning.
Fig 10: Graphical representation of Class J
Figure 11 represents the results of a culture which shows an inclination towards

the diffuse aspect of this dimension. In class K, both teacher and students scored
below 4 on the specific vs diffuse dimension. This illustrates a rather healthy
situation where the individual components of the class communicate and share
events and experiences arising from interaction in their work environments. This
situation calls for direct intervention in helping the components of this class
(teacher and students) to establish effective links between the work done in the
classroom and its application in the working environment. Both the teachers
and the students score indicate that a shift in orientation towards the more
specific aspect of this dimension could prove beneficial.
Fig 11: Graphical representation of Class K

165
The graphical result of the Achievement vs Prescription dimension highlights a

situation where both teacher (X=6) and students (x=5.722) believe that
achievements are the building blocks for success in life and not other factors such
as age, gender and other personal characteristics (at tobt = 1.076, tcrit=2.11, =0.5).
However, two particular scores (student numbers 3 and 14) show a significant
shift from the rest of the class.
This indicates that these two students adhere to a culture where personal
characteristics such as age and gender may have a significant influence on life
successes. It would of benefit to both teacher and students to be aware of this
data and to further investigate and appreciate the roots of such differences.
Fig 12: Graphical representation of Class L
The Internal vs External dimension measures the extent of difficulty in

adjustment a person feels when s/he experiences changes in his/her immediate
environment (for example a change in time table). Such change is also cultural
since it tests the very ability of a person to adjust to circumstances. As shown in
figure 13 (below), the scores recorded are on the upper side of the Internal vs
External dimension. Statistical analysis of teacher and student data (X=5, x =
6.143 tobt = -6.69 at tcrit = 2.60, =0.05) show that the whole group within the
teaching and learning situation conforms more with the internal aspect of the
dimension with students exhibiting a stronger tendency than their teacher.

166
Fig 13: Graphical representation of Class L
Discussion
The results of study have shed light on a number of cultural dimensions whose
bilateral nature allowed the author to examine their presence in the classrooms.
The results of this analysis suggest that there are significant differences among
teachers scores in cultural dimensions as opposed to students score within the
same dimensions. These results also suggest that both teachers and students
need to engage in reflective practices aimed at critically examining their own
culture and how this influences their daily interaction. The results advocate for
the use of the BFMTL questionnaire and to use the results as a springboard for
the awareness of cultural dimensions present in the classroom and to
understand the processes which influence the interaction between dimensions.
Student teachers need to be aware of research in cultural dimensions and their

applications within the classroom environment. Field experiences should
provide opportunity for cultural immersion and reflective practices. Teacher
mentors within the Maltese educational system may act as mediators between
NQTs (Newly Qualified Teachers) and students coming from different cultural
backgrounds. The Ministry of Education and Employment in Malta may
contribute by making all stakeholders within the educational system aware of
existing multicultural teaching programs and theoretical frameworks and also
lobby for funds directed towards training teachers in developing new and
existing multicultural competencies.
Implications and Suggestions for Further Research

The study showed significant differences between teachers and students scores
across a number of cultural dimensions. The study implies that there could be
other cultural dimensions which may be incumbent on the teaching and learning

167
process and which have not yet been studied. The establishment of focus groups
consisting of teachers and students aimed at analysing particular aspects of
specific dimensions is suggested. Further research could delve into particular
aspects of cultural dimensions analysing interactive patterns between teachers and
students, between students, between teachers, and also between management
levels. How is our cultural programming conditioning us in acting the way we
do? How is our cultural underpinning influencing our daily classroom and
management decisions? What effect does our cultural upbringing has on the
teaching and learning processes? How are various cultural dimensions
influencing who we interact with?
Some teachers may have attended development sessions over a number of years
where the impact of culture upon the teaching and learning process has been
discussed and hence may have had the opportunity to practice acquired skills in
their classrooms. Future research could capitalise on these experiences and use
them as resources in the construction of multicultural training programs. Further
research into the cultural dimensions for teaching and learning would provide
opportunities for educational directorates to develop tailor made programs to
address the specific needs of particular class groups. These may also include role
play and discussions specifically targeting particular dimensions. Additional
research could be carried out in determining which cultural dimensions have
most influence on the teaching and learning process. Research could also be
extended within the primary, secondary, and university sectors of education.
The author of the study has presented a number of snapshots across a number of
cultural dimensions and expressed them in graphical format. It must be
emphasized, however, that cultural dimensions are in a state of fluidity and can
never be freezed in time. Hence, replication of studies using test-retest
procedures is suggested as good practice in understanding variations in cultural
dimensions. Studies such as this one provide local authorities with the means to
support teachers in their struggle towards inclusion of multicultural students
(Giordmaina, 2000). Future teacher education programs and courses need to
focus on preparing teachers for the challenge of teaching students of
multicultural origin. Students need to be provided with induction courses aimed
at familiarizing themselves with the cultural precepts of their fellow peers and
those of their tutors.
Future research could be carried out linking the cultural dimensions of teaching and
learning to other factors such as student's learning style, academic achievement,
pedagogical styles, teacher cultural competency and others. Besides, during
research, the author encountered cultures within cultures (subcultures) which
could also have influenced teacher- student interactions, but this goes beyond
the scope of this paper. Further research could delve into these subcultures and
models should be reconstructed to include influences from such subcultures.
Also future research could delve into the mechanisms which give rise to change
in teachers and students cultural perceptions over particular periods of career
or study.

168
Limitations of the Study

The study provides information on teachers already employed within the
Maltese educational system and is prone to a number of limitations. The first
limitation is the small sample size involved and the snowball sampling method
used. The current study targeted specific classes which were known to contain
teachers and students of a culture different from mainstream culture. This makes
it difficult to generalize the results for teachers and students outside the sample.
As with all self-reporting studies results are limited by the participants
responses. Participants may have felt the need to provide responses the
researcher was looking for rather than what they perceived to be true. It must be
stated that these dimensions represent extreme snapshots of stereotypical
cultures. In reality cultures are dynamic and the scales presented in this paper
are a continuum of what the author perceives and interprets as existing within
classroom environment. It must be stated that no attempt is made to categorise
cultures according to these dimensions. The literature review, however,
provided a good fabric upon which to study cultural difference and their impact
on teaching and learning. This paper celebrates the spectrums of variability
rather than attempts to generalize differences between cultures. The Bilateral
Framework for Multicultural Teaching and Learning does not purport to
address all possible cultural dimensions. The intricacies and complexities of
cultural dimensions, their evolutionary impact on teaching and learning and
their inherent role in education and cultural transmission makes any attempt at
constructing a framework impractical and elusive.
Conclusion
Multicultural education in Malta is still in its inception. Managers, teachers and

students involved in multicultural settings may find the model useful to study
and prepare themselves for the potential differences that they encounter as
actors in the teaching and learning process. The descriptions of thirteen key
cultural dimensions in the BFMTL are suggested as a tool for culturally based
learning differences so that can be recognized when they manifest themselves in
class situations. The BFMTL questionnaire is a tool for educational stakeholders
to critically examine their own cultural biases and analyse the magnitude of their
impact in the classroom situation. Being cognizant of ones beliefs and
behaviours and where they manifest themselves along a spectrum of differences
can help construct different pedagogical approaches and hence create more
nurturing school and classes.
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Appendix 1
Students Questionnaire
Dear Students,
The aim of the questionnaire is to find ways and means to bridge cultural
disparities which may exist between you and your teachers. Following your
responses, a series of strategies to address these disparities will be suggested,
based on findings. There are no right or wrong answers. Simply circle that best
indicates the statements below. Responses range from 1 to 7. A 1 response
indicates that you fully agree with the statement on the left while a 7 indicates
that you fully agree with statements on the right. Thank you for your answers.
Example I take part in class decision I do not take part in class decision
making. making.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
1) Classroom power is to shared Classroom Power should be in the
between teachers and hands of the teacher.
students.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
2) I take responsibility for my The teacher is the sole responsible
own learning. for my learning.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
3) I prefer dialogues to top- I prefer top-down teaching to
down teaching. discussions.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
4) I prefer structured learning I prefer unstructured learning
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
5) I prefer YES or NO answers. I prefer OPEN-ENDED answers.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
6) I build my learning on I build my learning by exploring
previous experiences. new territories.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
7) Homework should follow Homework should be a creative
strict instructions. output.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
8) I prefer to work I prefer to work in a group.
independently.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
9) In the class I prefer to argue In the class I prefer to listen rather
rather than listening. than arguing.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
10) I dont like sharing my I like sharing my personal property.
174
personal property.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
11) I take initiative in class I do not take initiative in class.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
12) In my family, roles are rigid. In my family, roles are flexible.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
13) In my culture, girls cry, boys In my culture, both boys and girls
dont. cry.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
14) Failing at school is disastrous. Failing is an opportunity.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
15) Teachers should admire best Teachers should admire team efforts
students in class. in class.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
16) A personal certificate is Class achievement is more important
desirable at the end of the than a certificate.
year.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
17) I like competitive task. I like cooperative tasks.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
18) I compare myself to other I compare my ethnic group to other
students. students.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
19) I make myself heard in the I dont make myself heard in the
classroom. classroom.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
20) I perform one task at a time. I perform many tasks concurrently.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
21) I rely on established I rely on information I get from
schedules. peers.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
22) I prepare long term study I prepare short term study plans.
plans.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
23) I start studying immediately I study just before exams.
at the beginning of the year.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
24) I give up life pleasures to I balance between life pleasures and
study. study.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
25) I like it when lessons start I prefer lesson time to be flexible.
on time and fish on time.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
26) Class time has to be clearly Class time has to be fluid and
scheduled on a time table. flexible.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
27) Procedures have to be strict. Procedures have to be fluid.
175
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
28) Assignments have to meet Assignments deadlines have to be
deadlines. fluid.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
29) Time is not to be wasted. One should reflect before rushing
One should be quick if s/he through an activity.
to get results.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
30) Time management is Adapting to time is important.
important.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
31) Opportunity knocks once ! There will be other opportunities.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
32) Past experiences in learning Reflecting on past experiences is
are not important. Lets important for a good performance
work now ! now and in future.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
33) Classroom regulations are Development of relationships are
more important than more important than classroom
development of regulations.
relationships.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
34) I am not affected by what I am very much affected by what
happens around me at happens around me at school.
school.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
35) I do not share school I share school experiences with
experiences with family family members.
members.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
36) I rely solely on my own Besides achievement, age, sex and
achievements to succeed in other qualities will help me to
life. succeed in life.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
37) I find it difficult to adapt to I find it easy to adapt to changes (eg:
changes (eg: time table) time table)
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
38) Class regulations are more Relationships are more important
important than than class regulations.
relationships.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
39) I do not care about events I do care about events happening
happening around me. around me.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
40 I do not share my school I do share my school experiences
experiences with family with family members.
members.

176
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
41) To move ahead in life you To move ahead in live you also
need to focus on need to focus on personal
achievements. characteristics such as age, gender
and personal experiences.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
42 I find it difficult to adapt to I find it easy to adapt to changes
changes (eg: time table (eg: time table changes
changes)
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
Teachers Questionnaire
Dear Teachers,
The aim of the questionnaire is to find ways and means to bridge cultural
disparities which may exist between you and your students. Following your
responses, a series of strategies to address these disparities will be suggested,
based on findings. There are no right or wrong answers. Simply circle the
number that best indicates the statements below. Responses range from 1 to 7. A
1 response indicates that you fully agree with the statement on the left while a 7
indicates that you fully agree with statement on the right. Thank you for your
answers.
Example Decision making in class is I involve students in class decision

entirely my responsibility making.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
1) Classroom power is to be Classroom Power should be in the
shared between teachers and hands of the teacher.
students.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
2) I take responsibility for what Students are responsible for their
my students learn. own learning
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
3) I prefer dialogues to top-down I prefer top-down teaching to
teaching. discussions.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
4) I prefer structured teaching. I prefer unstructured teaching.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
5) I construct YES or NO type of I construct OPEN-ENDED questions.
answers
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
6) I urge students to build their I urge students to exploring new
learning on previous territories while learning.
experiences.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
7) I give assignments with clear I give assignments requiring a
strict guidelines. creative output.
177
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
8) I urge students to work I urge students to work in a group.
independently.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
9) In the class I encourage In the class I urge students to listen
discussions more than rather than to discuss.
listening.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
10) I do not encourage sharing in I urge students to share personal
the classroom. property.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
11) I promote initiatives in class. I do not promote initiatives in class.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
12) In my family, roles are rigid. In my family, roles are flexible.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
13) In my culture, girls cry, boys In my culture, both boys and girls cry.
dont.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
14) I perceive failing at school as I perceive failing at school as an
disastrous. opportunity.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
15) I admire best students in class. I admire team efforts in class.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
16) I put more emphasis on Class achievement is more important
certification than a certificate.
rather than class
achievement.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
17) I prepare competitive tasks. I prepare cooperative tasks.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
18) I compare myself I compare my ethnic group
(academically) to other (academically) to other ethnic
teachers backgrounds.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
19) I make myself heard in the I dont make myself heard in the
classroom. classroom.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
20 I perform one task at a time. I perform many tasks concurrently.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
21 I rely on established I rely on information I get from
schedules. peers.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
22) I prepare long term schemes I prepare short term schemes of
of work work.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
23) I urge students to start I urge students to study just before
studying early through the exams.

178
academic year.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
24) I urge students to give up life I urge students to balance between
pleasures in order to study. life pleasures and study.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
25) Lessons have to start on time Lesson time has to be flexible.
and finish on time.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
26) Class time has to be clearly Class time has to be fluid and
scheduled on a time table. flexible.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
27) Procedures have to be strict. Procedures have to be fluid.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
28) Assignments have to meet Assignments deadlines have to be
deadlines fluid.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
29) Time is not to be wasted. There should be opportunity for
Students have to be quick if reflection and contemplation before
s/he wants results. attempting a task.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
30) Time management is Adapting to time is important.
important
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
31) Opportunity knocks once ! There will be other opportunities.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
32) I urge students to forget I emphasize the importance of
about their past learning reflecting on past learning experiences
experiences and start and use these experiences now and
working from . now ! in future.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
33) Classroom regulations are Development of relationships are
more important than more important than classroom
development of regulations
relationships.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
34) I am not affected by what I am very much affected by what
happens around me at happens around me at school.
school.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
35) I do not share school I share school experiences with
experiences with family family members
members
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
36) I rely solely on my own Besides achievement, age, sex and
achievements to succeed in other qualities will help me to
life succeed in life
1---2---3---4---5---6---7

179
37) I find it difficult to adapt to I find it easy to adapt to changes (eg:

changes (eg: time table) time table)
1234567
38) Class regulations are more Relationships are more important
important than relationships. than class regulations.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
39) I do not care about events I do care about events happening
happening around me. around me.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
40 I do not share my school I do share my school experiences
experiences with family with family members.
members.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
41) To move ahead in life you To move ahead in live you also
need to focus on need to focus on personal
achievements. characteristics such as age, gender
and personal experiences.
1---2---3---4---5---6---7
42 I find it difficult to adapt to I find it easy to adapt to changes
changes (eg: time table (eg: time table changes
changes)
1---2---3---4---5---6---7

180

Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 180-200, August 2014
Assessing Principals Coordinating and Controlling

Strategies for Effective Teaching and Quality Learning
Outcome in Secondary Schools in Ondo State, Nigeria
Adeolu Joshua Ayeni, Ph.D.

Department of Educational Management, Adekunle Ajasin University,
P. M. B. 001, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo Sate, Nigeria
Comfort Ayandoja Akinfolarin, Ph.D.

Department of Educational Management, Adekunle Ajasin University,
P. M. B. 001, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo Sate, Nigeria
Abstract. The study examined the efficacy of principals coordinating

and controlling strategies on teachers instructional performance;
determined students learning outcome; and investigated the challenges
in instructional management in secondary schools. Descriptive survey
research design was adopted for data collection and analysis. A total of
480 participants comprised of 30 principals and 450 teachers completed
the questionnaire titled Coordination and Control Strategies
Questionnaire (CCSQ) in 30 public secondary schools using multi-
stage sampling technique. Four research questions and four hypotheses
were formulated. The simple percentage was used to answer the
research questions while Pearson correlation statistics was employed to
test the hypotheses at p<0.05 level of significance. The result showed
that the relationship between principals strategies and teachers
instructional performance was low in coordinating (r=0.284, p<0.05),
controlling (r=0.149, p<0.05), and teachers instructional performance
and students learning outcome (0. 076, p<0.05). The major constraints
identified included inadequate number of qualified teachers (50%);
excess workload for teachers (63.3%); inadequate learning resources
(63.3%); lack of adequate and well equipped offices for teachers (80%);
lack of conducive classrooms (36.7%); and fairly conducive classrooms
(40%). The study concluded that the Government in collaboration with
the school principals and other relevant stakeholders should provide
adequate number of teachers, learning resources, classrooms and
capacity development for teachers to address the gaps in curriculum
instruction management in secondary schools.
Keywords. Principals competences; coordinating strategies; controlling strategies;

teachers curriculum workload; students learning outcome.

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1. Introduction
The secondary school system is designed to prepare students for higher
education and useful living in the society (Federal Republic of Nigeria: NPE,
2004). The attainment of this lofty goals hinges on the effective coordination and
control of teaching and learning activities by the school principal. As an
instructional leader, the principal occupies an important position and plays
pivotal role in the management of both human and material resources that are
used in the delivery of school curriculum to ensure high quality education for
the learners. The ability of the school principal to effectively plan, implement,
monitor, evaluate and review educational programmes and activities with the
teachers will in no doubt ensure sustainable improvement in the teaching-
learning process and lead to the school success in the pursuit of the set goals.
The need for effective coordination in secondary school is based on the

assumption that human beings are naturally lazy, dislike work and enjoy
pleasures more than work (Mc Gregor, 1960). This is counter-productive to the
achievement of the set educational goals. Since the teachers are the hobs on
which the education system rests upon, their roles cannot be under-estimated if
quality education is to be achieved. It is therefore expedient for the school
principal to set achievable standards and goals which all teachers must strive to
attain in the delivery of the school curriculum. The teachers must be focused and
well skilled in curriculum planning, utilization of instructional materials,
content delivery, continuous assessment of learners, classroom management and
record keeping to promote meaningful instruction and effective development of
learners in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of learning.
In the pursuit of quality instruction and student learning outcome, it is equally

imperative to put in place effective control mechanisms so that the set goals can
be achieved. The principal being an instructional leader is expected to be the
driving force for effective curriculum delivery. The principal must device
appropriate measures to ensure that all the teachers comply with the laid down
rules and regulations in the performance of their instructional tasks. This is not
to witch-hunt the teachers but to make them committed, self-regulated and goal-
oriented, and have high expectations for the learners.
In spite of the awareness of the goals of secondary education by the principals

and teachers, it is still highly surprising that students learning outcome in terms
of their performances in the Senior School Certificate Examinations conducted
by the West African Examinations Council is relatively low (below 40%) in
Nigeria and 30% in Ondo State. This is a matter of serious concern to the
stakeholders in the education sector and something positive is needed to be
done in order to reposition the secondary education system for better
performance. This study therefore seeks to examine the coordinating and
controlling strategies that are being used by the school principals in order to
identify their strengths and challenges, and the attendant consequences on
students learning outcomes. This is with a view to making appropriate
recommendations that will ensure sustainable improvement in instructional

182
management and the achievement of desirable learning outcome in secondary

schools.
2.1 Coordination of Teachers Instructional Tasks

Coordination is the process of integrating the various units and sub-units in a
unified operation towards achieving a common purpose in an organization. The
process involves the linking of objectives, activities and strategies of different
work units (departments or functional areas) in a systematic manner in order to
allow a group of people whose capabilities complement one another to work
together through collective efforts, actions and pooling of resources, which
enable the organization to provide the proper quantity and quality of products
within the stipulated time frame for the accomplishment of the set goals.
According to Crowston (1997), coordination is the process of linking the

activities of the various departments of the organization. Ibukun (2008)
perceived coordination as the need to synchronize individual efforts to achieve
the objectives of the organization since individual differences may arise due to
subjective interpretation of goals and roles. Enikanselu & Oyende (2009) viewed
coordination as the orderly arrangement of group efforts to provide unity of
action in pursuit of a common purpose. In the school system, the work people
do must be well coordinated so that the teaching and learning processes can
produce the desired outcomes.
The need for effective coordination in the school is predicated on the fact that the
school is a system with many sub-units interacting with one another to achieve a
common goal. Griffiths (1963) defined a system as a complex of elements in
mutual interaction and described the school as an open system which has an
environment that inputs energy to the system, which undergoes transformation
process to give desired outputs into the environment. Weick (1976) postulated
that every system is loosely connected with many other sub-systems or sub-
units. For instance, the educational system is loosely coupled by the following
elements: teacher-materials, school boards, administration-classrooms, process-
outcome, teacher-teacher, parent-teacher and teacher-student, and so on
(Chukwu, 1999).
The school as a system is established to train learners to achieve educational

goals and values. In pursuit of this mission, it receives resource inputs in form of
human, material and physical resources from the community to carry out its
operations. For example, a school receives students as inputs and processed
them over the period of their training through coordination of teaching and
learning activities, utilization of available resources for human capital
development, adequate supervision, monitoring and evaluation of instructional
activities and materials on periodic basis, while in the long run, the students
transformed into outputs (product value) in form of educated persons (intended
outputs) to the environment in order to fulfill the expectations of the society. It is
therefore imperative for the school principals to be effective in coordinating
activities of the various departments and units in order to make sure that the

183
various components work in harmony and no part of the system strays from the
common purpose.
Effective coordination promotes teachers instructional performance. Ibukun

(2008) opined that coordination enhances productivity when competent hands
are appointed as unit heads; the goals and responsibilities are clearly defined
and communicated to all members of the organization. This process reduces
administrative bottlenecks, promotes inter-departmental cooperation and
optimization of resources to produce the desired results in the organization. The
principal being the driving force behind the school success is expected to adopt
both vertical and horizontal coordination techniques in the management of the
secondary school system. The vertical coordination ensures the linking together
of the activities of the superiors and subordinates of the various departments,
units, and sub-units at different levels while the horizontal coordination
promotes the linking together of the top management members at the different
departments, units and sub-units of the organization for the purpose of common
actions. This process facilitates information processing, promotes innovation,
increase teachers instructional performance and produce quality learning
outcome in the secondary school system.
Teachers instructional performance is manifested in their knowledge of the

subjectmatter, skills and competences in the teaching-learning process. This
means that the real teacher must possess the qualities for effective teaching and
pleasant learning within the school setting. He/she must know what to teach,
how to teach, and whom to teach. The purpose is to deliver the curriculum
efficiently, so as to enable learners achieve the set educational goals and
standards in schools (Makinde & Alao, 1992; Koleoso, 2002).
The teachers role is crucial to effective and efficient learning, the teacher is
expected to provide essential inputs like adequate planning of lesson notes,
effective delivery of lessons, proper monitoring and evaluation of students
performance, providing regular feed-back on students performance,
improvisation of instructional materials, adequate keeping of records and
appropriate discipline of students to produce and enhance expected learning
achievement which require effective coordination by the principal in secondary
school (Ayeni, 2010).
The teachers instructional performance are germane to the achievement of

quality learning outcome in secondary schools. Ameen (2007) highlighted the
areas to be coordinated by school principals as follows: 1) Formulating aims and
goals of programme in a thoughtful manner; 2) regular curriculum
implementation and revisions; 3) teaching methodology and assessment
methods; 4) staff development; 5) ICT education, modern teaching aids and
physical environment; 6) internal quality assurance; and 7) cooperation at
national and international level. This ultimately depends on the avowed
commitment of principals, heads of departments, units and sub-units to

184
effectively coordinate teaching and learning activities to optimize instructional

resources and achieve success for all students in secondary schools.
2.2 Controlling of Teachers Instructional Tasks

Control in the school system is a management process that guides both the
principal and the teachers in the performance of their tasks, evaluating the
process and making necessary adjustments towards ensuring effective teaching
and learning activities for the purpose of achieving the predetermined
educational objectives. Freeman (1992) defined control as the process of ensuring
that actual activities conform to planned activities. Ibukun (2008) viewed control
as the assessment and correcting of the activities of subordinates to ensure that
they conform to plans. The control process involves four basic steps which
Ibukun (2008) listed as : establishing standards and objectives, measuring
performance against standards, correcting deviations from standards, and
evaluating through analysis and comparison of performance with the original
goals to determine whether control has yielded desired change. In the operation
of the school system, this process strengthens the principals capacity to make
appropriate decisions on the provision, allocation and relocation of human and
material resources to reduce deviations from plans, so that the set goals would
be achieved.
Control is an internal assessment of schools curricula and co-curricular activities

by the principal and other top management members for the purpose of helping
teachers and learners to improve on their teaching and learning capacities in
achieving educational objectives. It is the process by which school
administrators and other top management members ensure proper application
of monitoring and evaluation instruments to determine and enhance the
effectiveness of teachers instructional task performance towards advancement
in students intellectual and skills development for the achievement of quality
learning outcome in secondary schools.
In specific terms, the goals of school based control among others include: 1)
Identifying and focusing on areas where improvement in the provision of
teaching and learning resources needs to be made; 2) Making principal and top
management members become Quality Assurance (QA) evaluators in their own
school; 3) Assessing teachers pedagogical skills in curriculum delivery; helping
teachers in identifying their strengths and weaknesses; and providing relevant
remedial training for upgrading teachers conceptual knowledge and teaching
skills that will hopefully turn their weaknesses to strengths; 4) Identifying
teachers who should be promoted, retrained, redeployed or disengaged; 5)
Assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of educational programme and its
efficacy in relationship to original expectations; 6) It enables school
administration to collect information that are evidence-based for the purpose of
periodic review of instructional practices and capacity development of teachers
for further improvement in classroom management and curriculum delivery; 7)
Generating innovative ideas, knowledge and relevant data that will be useful for

185
decision-making, policy formulation and review for improved performance. It is

the management responsibilities of the principals to ensure effective control
measure so that both the teachers and learners work towards achieving the set
goals.
Teachers instructional tasks are multi-dimensional, covering key areas such as

curriculum planning, content delivery, classroom management, evaluation of
learning outcomes and giving performance feedback to students, principals and
parents. In order to ensure quality education delivery and achieve the set
educational goals, the instructional activities of the teachers are controlled by the
school principal. As an instructional leader and driving force behind the school
success, the principal in most cases, carries out the controlling function through
the heads of departments, units and sub-units heads who are appointed based
on their qualifications, seniority and experience. The purpose of school based
control is to enable the school management develop a virile and result-oriented
supervisory system that is professionally operated by experienced, dedicated
and efficient top management staff that will guarantee sustainable quality in
curriculum organization and delivery, improved academic standards and
outputs in secondary schools.
This controlling process enables the principal to continuously monitor, assess,

regulate and get feedback on teachers activities based on evidence collected
through the process of observation, discussion and documentation (ODD). This
perspective is predicated on the principle of Demings cycle of continuous
improvement, which is fundamentally based upon Plan, Do, Check and Act
cycle (PDCA). The principle enables the school principal to be pro-active in
instructional management by identifying the key issues that need to be reviewed
and improved upon in the course of implementing educational programmes so
as to ensure that significant agreement exist between the set goals and what is
actually achieved in terms of standards and students learning outcomes in
secondary schools (Deming, 1986; Stahl, 1998; Temponi, 2005).
However, in a study conducted by Wildy & Dimmock (1993) in Western

Australia found that principals submitted all the duties and responsibilities of
instructional leadership to their senior assistant teacher and senior teacher at the
department. They proved that principals do not play their role as instructional
leaders. Their findings also share similar results with studies conducted by
Taraseina & Hallinger (1994) in Thailand which indicated that principals in
North Thailand do not perform the instructional leadership domain actively.
2.3 Teachers Instructional Tasks and Students Learning Outcomes

The teachers instructional tasks have strong influence on students academic
achievement. The purpose of any teacher in the classroom is to help learners
learn, inquire, solve problems, and cope with their own emotional needs and
tensions. The teacher promotes quality education from the domain of teaching
and learning through creative idea, participation and cooperative learning,

186
research, analysis and critical thinking, problem solving, innovation and

encouragement of creative and divergent thinking.
The quality of students learning outcomes are the overall effects of the
educational system, which are expressed in terms of desirable changes in
knowledge, skills, attitudes and values of individuals as a result of their
experiences in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of learning
over a period of study (Simkins, 1981; Tsang, 1988). In the context of this study,
quality learning outcome is limited to the level of credit passes achieved by the
students in the Senior School Certificate Examinations conducted by the West
African Examinations Council (WASSCE) and National Examination Council
(NECO SSCE) which make them eligible for admission into tertiary institutions
for further study or fit into the world of work as employees or owners of small
business enterprises.
The success or failure of students rests on the quality of instruction and not lack
of students abilities to learn (Levine, 1985; Mills, 1991). In order to ensure
quality assurance-oriented teaching and learning processes, the teachers are
expected to have in-depth knowledge of the pedagogy in their subject areas to
be able to understand the effective ways of organising and presenting subject
matter in terms of objective statements, providing the right methods, learning
experiences and learning resources, and evaluating teaching and learning
activities in consonance with the set objectives. The quality process requires that
the classroom instruction meets the set standards. The teaching approach that a
teacher adopts is an important factor that may affect students achievement and
facilitates high standards of learning outcomes.
The quality of students learning outcomes is directly dependent on the quality

of teachers instructional performance and the assessment of students by
teachers and other examination bodies such as the West African Examination
Council, and National Examination Council (WAEC/NECO). It is therefore
imperative of the principals to ensure effective teaching and thorough
supervision of instructional activities so that students learning outcomes can
meet the set standards and satisfy the expectations of the society.
The quality of students learning outcomes could be made better through

effective use of instructional materials by the teachers in curriculum delivery.
This will facilitate students in-depth understanding of the course contents. This
is important because a well planned and imaginative use of instructional
materials as educational inputs promotes the quality of teaching-learning
process and contributes significantly to learning outcome in schools.
Instructional resources provide good supplement for students who are faced
with the challenge of inadequate of textbooks and enable the teachers to capture
students attention, motivate and sustain their interest to learn. This underscores
the need for teachers to have adequate knowledge of instructional resource
management in order to ensure effective teaching and practical learning of
curriculum content in secondary schools.

187
Banjo (1987), posited that, adequate training of teachers in the latest

methodology, to a large extent, determines how the learner learns during
instructional activities. This viewpoint was further stressed by Maduekwe (2007)
in a study on the strategies for teaching English lessons in Lagos, that in spite of
the fact that most of the teachers have teaching qualifications, many of them do
not have adequate knowledge of some grammatical concepts and they ended up
imparting the wrong knowledge to their students. This situation is also a serious
gap in the teachinglearning process in Ondo state as reflected in poor academic
performance of students in the Senior School Certificate Examinations
conducted by the West African Examination Council (WASSCE) in which the
percentage of students that obtained five credit level passes and above in
subjects including English Language and Mathematics were 38.73% in 2012;
29.92% in 2013 and 32.40% in 2014 ( Ondo State Ministry of Education, 2014;
Eguridu, 2014).
The trend in Nigerian students academic performance has shown continuous

low academic achievement in secondary schools. For instance, Bello-Osagie &
Olugbamila (2009) reported that in the 2009 November/December Senior
Secondary School Certificate Examination conducted by the National
Examination Council (NECO-SSCE) out of the total number of 234,682 Nigerian
candidates who sat for the examination, only 4,223 obtained credit passes and
above in five subjects including English and Mathematics, which is a 98.2%
failure rate. Owadiae (2010) reported that in 2009 May/June Senior Secondary
Certificate Examination conducted by the West African Examinations Council,
only 25.99 percent of the candidates obtained credit passes and above in five
subjects including English Language and Mathematics, while in the 2010
May/June WASSCE, out of the 1,135,557 candidates that sat for the examination,
only 337,071 (24.94%) candidates obtained five credit level passes and above in
subjects including English Language and Mathematics (Federal Ministry of
Education, 2011b).
Furthermore, in Nigeria, the 2011 May/June Senior Secondary Certificate

Examination conducted by West African Examinations Council shows that only
30.99% of the 1,540,250 candidates obtained credit level passes and above in five
subjects including English Language and Mathematics, while in 2012 May/June
WASSCE, 649,156 (38.81%) of the 1,672,224 candidates that sat for the
examination obtained five credit level passes and above in subjects including
English Language and Mathematics; also 36.57% was recorded in 2013 and
31.28% in the 2014 WASSCE. A comparative study of the results between 2012
and 2014 show a sharp decline in the performances of candidates in WASSCE in
the 36 States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (Owadiae, 2011;
Owadiae, 2012; Eguridu, 2014).
3. 1. Statement of Problem
The most prominent task of the school principal is to improve teaching-learning
process through effective coordinating and controlling strategies that are
connected to teachers instructional performance and more generally determine

188
students learning outcomes in secondary schools. It is the primary

responsibility of the school principal to coordinates and controls teachers
activities for the purpose of achieving the best in the management of
instructional resource inputs, process and outputs which determine students
academic success in secondary schools. However, there is a growing public
concern about the realization of the objectives of secondary education due to
dwindling students academic performance. This has been partly attributed to
teachers inadequacies in curriculum delivery and that many principals give
little attention to coordination and control of teachers instructional
performance, which has its negative implications on students learning
outcomes.
It becomes imperative to think of the challenges of realising secondary school

objectives in a situation where the principal looks away and allow the teachers
to do whatever they like. Scholars such as Lunenburg & Ornstein (1991),
McEwen (1998), Blas (2001), and Adeniji (2002) have thought of dwindling
academic performance of secondary school students partly due to non-challant
attitude of school teachers and principals. The quality of lesson delivery seems
to be nose diving in the school system nowadays as a result of lack of effective
coordination and control by the school principals.
The worse of it all is that some principals have compromised the educational
goals in secondary schools due to their failure to continuously monitor and
supervise the teachers effectively. Others appear to have totally delegated their
instructional leadership roles to their subordinates (vice-principals and heads of
departments), while the principal becomes nobody in the school. All of these
thoughts provoking statements have given credence to the study. Thus the
purpose of this study was to examine principals coordinating and controlling
strategies for effective teaching and quality learning outcome in secondary
schools in Ondo State which is the only state that operate autonomous Quality
Education Assurance Agency in South-west, Nigeria.
3.2 Research Questions

The following research questions were formulated for the study
i. How do principals perceive teachers instructional performance in secondary
schools?
ii. How do teachers perceive principals coordinating strategies in secondary
schools?
iii. How do teachers perceive principals controlling strategies in secondary
schools?
iv. What are the constraints faced by principals in coordinating and controlling
of teachers instructional tasks in secondary schools?
3.3 Hypotheses
i. HO1: There is no significant relationship between principals coordinating
strategies and teachers instructional performance in secondary schools.

189
ii. HO2: There is no significant relationship between principals controlling

strategies and teachers instructional performance in secondary schools.
iii. HO4: There is no significant relationship between teachers instructional
performance and students learning outcomes in secondary schools.
iv. HO3: Principals coordinating and controlling strategies will not jointly have
significant effect on students learning outcomes in secondary schools.
3.4 Methodology
The study employed the descriptive survey design. With this design, both
quantitative and qualitative methods which involve systematic and objective
collection and analysis of data were adopted to elicit responses from the
participants in order to find solution to the problems identified. The target
population comprised principals and teachers in secondary schools in Ondo
state. The sample consisted of 30 principals and 480 teachers, the respondents
were randomly selected from 30 public secondary schools, representing ten
percents (10%) of the total existing 304 public secondary schools in Ondo state.
The secondary schools were selected using multi-stage sampling method from 5
Local Government Areas (LGAs) out of the existing five educational zones
(Akure, Ikare, Okitipupa, Ondo, and Owo) in Ondo State, South-west, Nigeria.
Two research instruments were used for data collection; they are Coordinating
and Controlling Strategies Questionnaire (CCSQ); and Interview Guide for
Principals (IGP). The questionnaire (CCSQ) was a 43--structured questionnaire
developed by the researchers and comprised of two sections. The first, section A,
had 23 items which sought information from the school principals on teachers
instructional performance and students learning outcomes, while the second,
section B, had 20 items; that sought relevant research information from the
teachers on the level of principals coordinating and controlling strategies in
secondary schools. The instrument utilized a 4- point rating scale indicating
strongly agree, agree, fairly agree, disagree, and strongly disagree with 5, 4, 3, 2,
and 1 rating points used to assess the level of principals coordinating and
controlling strategies for effective teaching and quality learning outcome in
secondary schools.
The instrument was validated by two experts in the Department of Educational

Management; Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko and the items were
further subjected to meticulous vetting and review by Test and Measurement
experts in the Department of Guidance and Counseling in the Faculty of
Education at Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko which ascertained
the suitability of the items on the instrument. The reliability coefficient of 0.76
was obtained, using Cronbach alpha, which ascertain the inter-item consistency.
Finally, the instrument was administered through the help of two trained
research assistants, while the researchers coordinated the administration and
collation of completed questionnaires. Four research questions and four
hypotheses were formulated. The simple per-cent and mean scores were used to
answer the research questions, while Pearson correlation statistics was

190
employed to test the hypotheses at p<0.05 level of significance; using Statistical

Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0.
4. Results
The results of data analysis were presented in order of research questions and
hypothesis while discussions of findings were carried out to examine principals
coordinating and controlling strategies in determining the quality of teaching
and learning outcome in secondary schools.
4.1 How do principals perceive teachers instructional performance in secondary

schools?
The evidence from the data analysis presented in table 1 showed that the level of
teachers instructional performance was good as rated by the school principals
and reflected in the following percentage points: strongly agreed (6.7%-60%);
agreed (26.7%-53.3.%); fairly agreed (3.3%-50%); disagreed (3.3%-30%); and
strongly disagreed (0%). The tasks that were well performed included:
preparation of lesson notes, checking of lesson notes, teaching of lessons,
continuous assessment of learners, classroom management, checking of
students notes, filling of diaries, capacity development and collegiality.
However, the following tasks were fairly performed by teachers: usage of
instructional materials, marking of students class attendance, while 10% of
teachers did not attend to their lessons punctually and regularly.

191
Table 1: Principals Ratings on Teachers Instructional Performance (N = 30)

S/N ITEMS SA A FA D SD
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
1. My teachers prepare their lesson notes
promptly according to the syllabus 43.3 53.3 3.3 0 0
2. All lesson notes are checked and marked
promptly and regularly by the vice-
principals/heads of departments on 40.0 46.7 13.3 0 0
3. weekly basis
The teachers make good use of 0 43.3 50.0 6.7 0
4. instructional materials while teaching 13.3 53.3 23.3 10.0 0
5. All the teachers attend to their lessons 0 26.7 43.3 30.0 0
6. punctually and regularly 16.7 66.7 16.7 0 0
7. The teachers mark students attendance
during lessons 20.0 43.3 33.3 3.3 0
8. The teacher have effective classroom
management 60.0 36.7 3.3 0 0
9. All the teachers give notes and written 10.0 50.0 36.7 3.3 0
10. work to students regularly 46.7 40.0 13.3 0 0
11. The teachers conduct continuous 33.3 50.0 13.3 3.3 0
12. assessments on regularly basis 50.0 43.3 6.7 0 0
The teachers mark students
13. exercises/written work regularly 6.7 40.0 20.0 13.3 20.0
All the teachers fill their dairies of work
up to date
The teachers show interest in capacity
development training
The teachers maintain good working
relationship with colleagues
Students achievement in 2013 WASSCE,
it is Excellent (5) if 75% or more obtained
5 credits and above including English
Language and Mathematics; Very Good-4
(60%-74%); Good-3 (50%-59%); Fair-2
(40%-49%); Poor-1 (below 40%).
4.2 How do teachers perceive principals coordinating strategies in secondary

schools?
The data presented in table 2 revealed that principals coordinating strategies

was good as indicated by the teachers ratings and reflected in the following
percentage points: strongly agreed (24%-70.7%); agreed (22.7%-48.7%); fairly
agreed (4.7%-28.7%); disagreed (0.9%-11.8%); and strongly disagreed (0.4%-
11.3%). The tasks that were well coordinated by the school principals included:
appointment of heads of departments based on qualifications, seniority and
teaching experience; grouping of teachers into departments; management of

192
teachers by the heads of departments; effective communication with teachers;

distribution of authorities and responsibilities to teachers; consideration of
subject teachers requests; team work among teachers; brainstorming among
teachers; and inter-departmental cooperation. However, 59% of teachers have
subject overload.
Table 2: Teachers Rating on Principals Coordinating Strategies (N = 450)

(%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
1 All the teachers are well grouped into
departments in my school 67.1 25.1 4.9 2.4 0.4
2 The appointment of HODs is strictly
based on competence (qualifications, 70.7 22.7 4.7 0.9 1.1
3 seniority and teaching experience )
Allocation of subjects to teachers is 49.3 30.7 13.3 5.1 1.6
4 strictly based on areas of specialization
My subject workload is within my 24.0 34.4 18.4 11.8 11.3
5 capacity/not too many for me 24.0 38.2 28.7 7.8 1.3
6 The principal responds promptly to the
needs of my subject (s) 36.2 48.7 11.1 2.7 1.3
7 The principal clearly defines
responsibilities to avoid conflict among 35.1 40.2 14.7 7.3 2.7
8 teachers
Teachers in my department always
brainstorm together to solve difficult
concepts in their subject 36.0 42.4 12.9 7.6 1.1
9 The principal encourages cooperation
among teachers within and across 40.7 43.1 10.9 3.8 1.6
10 departments on the teaching of inter-
disciplinary subjects such as Social 48.4 40.4 9.6 0.9 0.7
Studies, Basic Science, Basic Technology
and others
The principal maintains effective
communication with teachers in my
department
Teachers in my department are well
managed by the head of department
4.3. How do teachers perceive principals controlling strategies in secondary

schools?
The data presented in table 3 showed that majority of the teachers
strongly agreed (17.8%-61.3%) and agreed (27.6%-47.8%) that the principals
made good use of controlling strategies to enhance teachers instructional
performance in secondary schools. The controlling strategies that were
effectively used by principals included: intimating teachers with school goals
and supervision schedule; regulating teachers activities in line with the schools

193
rules and regulations; involvement of vice-principals and heads of departments

in classroom supervision; checking of teachers lesson notes and records of work
by the vice-principals and heads of departments; unscheduled visits to teachers
in the classrooms; discussing performance feedback with teachers; and follow up
activities. However, the provision of learning resources and reward of teachers
for extra work done are still at the average level of controlling strategies.
Table 3: Teachers Rating on Principals Controlling Strategies (N = 450)

(%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
11 The principal set goals to be achieved,
designs supervision schedule and 38.4 43.3 13.6 3.3 1.3
12 intimate teachers with the plan
Teachers activities are regulated by laid 43.1 47.8 6.9 1.8 0.4
13 down rules and regulations in the school
The principal involves the vice-principals 54.0 35.8 6.0 2.9 1.3
14 and heads of departments in classroom
supervision 61.3 32.4 4.2 1.6 0.4
15 The principal/vice principal/HOD
always check my lesson notes and record 21.6 35.3 22.9 15.1 5.1
16 of work towards students academic
works 28.0 46.0 16.0 7.8 2.2
17 The principal provides adequate
resources (textbooks and instructional 28.9 40.0 19.3 8.7 3.1
18 materials) to support curriculum delivery
The principal always carry out 24.0 42.2 22.7 8.0 3.1
19 unscheduled visits to teachers in the
classrooms 23.6 41.3 20.7 10.7 3.8
20 The principal discusses performance 17.8 27.6 23.8 18.0 12.9
feedback with teachers after classroom
supervision
The principal always follow up teachers
work after the performance review
meeting
The principal always issue query to those
teachers who have been very irregular in
their lessons
The principal reward teachers for extra
work done
4.4 What are the constraints faced by principals in coordinating and controlling
of teachers instructional tasks in secondary schools?
The evidence from the data analysis in table 4 showed that 5 out of the 10 items
are factor constraints militating against effective coordination and control of
instructional activities in secondary schools. The major constraints identified by

194
the principals are reflected in the following percentage points: inadequate

number of qualified teachers (50%); excess workload for teachers (63.3%);
inadequate learning resources (63.3%); lack of adequate and well equipped
offices for teachers (80%); lack of conducive classrooms (36.7%); and fairly
conducive classrooms (40%).
Table 4: Challenges facing Principals Coordinating and Controlling Strategies in Secondary

Schools (N = 30)
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
16. The school has adequate number of
qualified teachers in all subjects on the 0 20.0 30.0 43.3 6.7
17. curriculum 33.3 30.0 16.7 20.0 0
18. The teachers usually complain of excess
workload 10.0 30.0 30.0 26.7 3.3
19. The HODs practice inter-departmental
team teaching among teachers 20.0 40.0 26.7 13.3 0
20. The HODs are very effective in the
management, monitoring and 16.7 46.7 26.7 10.0 0
21. supervision of teachers in their various
departments
The HODs give prompt and regular 6.7 30.0 33.3 23.3 6.7
22. performance feedback to teachers in their 0 20.0 40.0 33.3 6.7
23. respective departments
The school has adequate learning 6.7 16.7 40.0 20.0 16.7
24. resources (library materials, laboratory
equipment and other instructional 0 23.3 40.0 26.7 10.0
25. materials) for effective teaching and
learning activities 20.0 43.3 20.0 13.3 3.3
The school has adequate and well
equipped offices for teachers
The school has conducive learning
environment (classrooms) for the entire
student population
The school receives adequate learning
resources from the government
The school enjoys adequate support from
the PTA on the provision and
maintenance of learning facilities
4.5 Relationship between Principals Coordinating Strategies and Teachers

Instructional Performance.
The result presented in table 5 revealed that the calculated r-value (0.284) was
less than the critical-value (0.64) at p<0.05 is not significant. Hence, the null
hypothesis (Ho) is accepted while the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is rejected.

195
Table 5: Relationship between Principals Coordinating Strategies and Teachers Instructional

Performance
Items N Mean Std. Deviation r Sig
Coordinating
Strategies 450 4.5867 0.55664
Teachers 0.284 0.64
Instructional 30 3.7000 1.05536
Performance
4.6 Relationship between Principals Controlling Strategies and Teachers

Instructional Performance
less than the critical-value (0.216) at p<0.05 is not significant. Hence, the null
hypothesis (Ho) is accepted while the alternative hypothesis (Ha) is rejected.
Table 6: Relationship between Principals Controlling Strategies and Teachers Instructional

Performance
Controlling
Strategies 450 4.3689 0.64148
Teachers 0.149 0.216
Performance
4.7 Relationship between Teachers Instructional Performance and Students

learning outcomes
less than the critical-value (0.345) at p<0.05 is not significant. The null hypothesis
(Ho) of no significant relationship is accepted while the alternative hypothesis
(Ha) is rejected.
Table 7: Relationship between Teachers Instructional Performance and students

Learning Outcomes
Teachers
Performance
Students 0. 076 0.345
Learning 30 3.0000 1.28654
Outcomes

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4.8 Principals coordinating and controlling strategies will not jointly have
significant effect on students learning outcomes in secondary schools
The result presented in table 8 showed that the calculated r-value (0.094) was
less than the critical-value (0. 311) at p<0.05 is not significant. The null
hypothesis (Ho) is of no significant relationship is accepted while the alternative
hypothesis (Ha) is rejected.
Table 8: Relative effect of Principals Coordinating and Controlling Strategies on Students

Learning Outcomes
Coordinating and
Controlling 450 4.5089 .57114
Strategies 0. 094 0. 311
Students Learning
Outcomes 30 3.0000 3.0000
4.9 Discussions
The findings of the study in table 5, revealed a low significant relationship
between principals coordinating strategies and teachers instructional
performance. Despite the fact that the school principals grouped teachers into
departments that are managed by the heads of departments while many teachers
prepared lesson notes and conducted continuous assessment for learners; this
has not yielded the desired results in table 7 which shows that there is no
significant relationship between teachers instructional performance and
students learning outcome. This is evident in 38.8% of the students that
obtained credit level passes in five subjects and above, including English
Language and Mathematics in 2012 and 28.8% recorded in 2013 in Ondo State.
The low academic performance could be partly attributed to 63% of teachers that
have excess workload, inadequate learning resources in the library and science
laboratory (43%), and low usage of instructional materials by 56% of the
teachers during teaching-learning process as evident in the analysis of data in
tables 1 and 4 respectively.
The implication is that teaching would not be thorough as many teachers in an

attempt to cover the syllabus would be giving scanty notes to students who will
have limited knowledge. The principals are not likely to have effective control
since majority of the teachers have excess workload that often hindered them
from being thorough in curriculum delivery. The resultant effect is poor
academic performance and non realization of the desired learning outcomes in
secondary schools. The relatively low effect of principals coordinating and
controlling strategies on students learning outcome indicated in table 8 also
confirms the earlier findings by researchers such as Lunenburg & Ornstein
(1991), McEwen (1998), Blas (2001), and Adeniji (2002) who reported on
dwindling academic performance of secondary school students partly due to
non-challant attitude of school teachers in curriculum delivery and lack of

197
effective coordination and control by the school principals. This situation

hampered the quality of curriculum delivery and learning outcome in secondary
schools.
The school principals interviewed said that teachers are inadequate in many
subjects namely English Language, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Animal
Husbandly, Civic Education and Trade Subjects. The principals have been
mobilizing the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) to engage the services of
part-time teachers to complement teachers efforts in some subjects in the
certificate classes where there is acute shortage of teachers. However, the PTA
still have the strong believe that it is the government responsibility to ensure
adequate number of teachers in secondary schools.
There is a relatively low significant relationship between principals controlling

strategies and teachers instructional performance. The teachers ratings on
principals controlling strategies revealed that many principals intimated
teachers with school goals and supervision schedule, involved vice-principals
and heads of departments in classroom supervision, checking of teachers lesson
notes and records of work, and follow up activities. However, the provision of
learning resources and reward of teachers for extra work done are still very low
in secondary schools. The teachers interviewed complained of inadequate
motivation to stimulate their interest for efficient service delivery since many of
the classrooms are in poor condition with class sizes ranging from 60-75 students
in urban schools. This impaired effective teaching and learning processes and
caused poor classroom management in secondary schools.
The outcome of the study also revealed no significant relationship between

teachers instructional performance and students learning outcomes in
secondary schools. By implication, teachers occupy centre stage in the teaching
and learning processes; while students academic performance is dependent
greatly on teachers content knowledge, pedagogical skills and competence.
There is a high mean score of 3.70 recorded on teachers instructional
performance in table 7, which implied that majority of the teachers accorded the
desired attention to teaching and learning processes. However, the mean score
of 3.00 recorded on students learning outcome was very low because many of
them are not equipped with the necessary learning materials. The teachers
interviewed revealed that less than 30% of the students have textbooks in
subjects such as English Language and Mathematics, while most have no
textbooks in others subjects. This made it difficult for most learners to extend
learning beyond the classrooms while the principals coordinating and
controlling strategies to make teachers work very hard to improve students
learning outcomes have not yielded the desired results. The implication is poor
academic performance. It could be deduced that students are faced with a lot of
challenges which require stakeholders intervention.

198
5. 1 Conclusion
The study concluded that effective coordination and control of teachers
instructional performance by principals are no doubt the hob of students
learning outcome and leads to quality education in secondary schools. The
noticeable gaps in teachers instructional performance and students learning
outcome could be partly attributed to shortage of qualified teachers and
inadequate learning resources that will eventually result into good output
(product value). In Nigeria, the level of learning achievement of students in
secondary schools is relatively low partly due to the inability of the government
to provide adequate learning facilities and teachers for effective curriculum
delivery in secondary schools. As a result, students are faced with a lot of
challenges which require stakeholders intervention to improve the standard of
secondary education. The continuous teachers capacity development,
motivation and effective coordination and control by the principals are potent
factors for teachers morale and commitment to instructional tasks performance,
which are great determinants of the quality of students learning outcome.
5. 2 Recommendations
Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made in
order to improve instructional management for the achievement of better
learning outcomes in secondary schools.
The Government should provide adequate number of qualified teachers
to ensure thorough teaching and full coverage of the syllabi in all
subjects; this will also make coordinating and controlling functions of
principals to be effective and achieve the desired learning outcome in
secondary schools.
Government should provide adequate classrooms to decongest large
class size and improve working environment of teachers by providing
good offices to motivate them for greater productivity in secondary
schools
The school principals should provide adequate instructional materials
and facilities through Parents-Teachers Associations, (PTA), Old
Students Associations, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs),
Communities, Philanthropists and other Development Partners, to
enhance effective teaching and learning processes in secondary schools.
The school authority should give periodic feedback on students
academic performance and sensitize parents to equip their
children/wards with the prescribed textbooks and other learning
materials to improve the quality of learning outcome in secondary
schools.
School principals should collaborate with relevant stakeholders to
organize capacity development workshop for teachers on production and
effective utilization of instructional materials to enhance teaching-
learning process in secondary schools.

199
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Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 201-216, August 2014
An Evidence-based Approach to the Design of a Learning

Program: Evaluating Preliminary Data Sets
Andrea Carr
University of Tasmania
Hobart, Australia
Jo-Anne Kelder
Hobart, Australia
Juliet Sondermeyer
Hobart, Australia
Abstract. The Global Perspectives (GP) program is an evidence-based

curriculum initiative that integrates the process of designing and
implementing a learning program with a process for developing and
implementing a plan to evaluate it for effectiveness and impact. The GP
program educational evaluation and research (EER) plan was based on the
framework for evaluating e-learning proposed by Phillips, McNaught, and
Kennedy (2012), which includes the LEPO framework for learning. The focus
is to evaluate learning design for fit with achieving the learning objectives
and, for the mature GP program design, research the effectiveness and impact
of the GP program on students. This paper presents the method and results of
a core activity of the EER plan: review data collected during Phases 1 and 2
(pilot and implementation) where the GP program was embedded into two
first-year units in the Faculty of Health Science. We describe the method and
discuss the results of our analysis in terms of a protocol for a systematic
analysis of each data set in terms of ability to inform learning design, the
impact and effectiveness of the GP program and usefulness of data in terms of
contributing to the development of a diagnostic tool to measure cultural
competence.
Keywords: Educational evaluation research; cultural competence; global

perspectives; graduate attribute

202
Introduction
The Global Perspectives (GP) Program is a curriculum initiative at the University of
Tasmania (UTAS), designed to teach and assess the global perspectives graduate
attribute and equip students for cultural competence and lifelong learning in a global
society. The GP Program design was informed by the Learning Environment,
Learning Processes and Learning Outcomes (LEPO) framework, presented in Phillips
et al. (2012). The LEPO framework is a synthesis of a range of higher education and e-
learning research: a generalized and integrated conceptual framework for learning
[that is] pedagogically inclusive (Phillips et al., 2012, p. 42). LEPO provides a
conceptual foundation for rigorous educational research and evaluation of a learning
design. The GP Program incorporated each element in the LEPO framework in its
design: learning environment, learning processes and learning outcomes, particularly
attending to the interrelationships between the elements and the roles of teacher and
learners. Using the framework allowed educational designers to choose specific
strategies and understand their impacts on different aspects of the learning context.
The framework was also the foundation for an evaluation-research plan that
integrated evaluation of the design with research into impact and effectiveness.
Kelder, Sondermeyer, Phillips and Rothwell (2012) reported on the rationale and
design of a systematic plan for educational evaluation and research (EER) that
aligned with the design, delivery and project management of the GP Program
curriculum initiative. The realities of a large, multi-disciplinary team busy with
design and implementation of the GP program suggested a flexible, opportunistic
approach to data collection during the initial phases of the project. This approach was
predicated on a commitment to evaluate the data for relevance and suitability for
analysis to inform learning design and measure research impact of the GP Program
on students.
This paper presents the method and results of a core activity of the EER plan: a
review of data collected during Phases 1 and 2 (pilot and implementation) in which
the GP program was embedded into two first year units in the Faculty of Health
Science (FHS). We describe the method and present the results of our analysis, and
discuss the implications for the GP program design in Phase 3 (roll out to first year
units for all Schools in the FHS) as well as future data collection and analysis.
The Global Perspectives (GP) Program

The GP Program was designed to support first year FHS students from UTAS to learn
and apply knowledge and skills to demonstrate the global perspective or cultural
competence graduate attribute. Cultural competence is nominated as a critical
graduate attribute for FHS graduates training for clinical professions. The GP
Program built on prior curriculum initiatives, directed at students unfamiliar with
Australian culture, to prepare them for clinical professional experience placements
and interactions with clients. Critically, the vision for the GP Program included a
conceptual shift from a deficit model (Sondermeyer, van den Berg, & Brown, 2005)

203
to a learning design that is embedded as a compulsory, assessable component of

curricula for all students.
The intended impact on students who participate in the GP Program is, cultural
competence for life-long learning and work in a global society. The definition of
cultural competence was formulated from four major components identified by a
literature review of cultural competence and equivalent concepts (Deardorff, 2009).
The LEPO framework conceptualizes learning along three interrelated dimensions:

learning environment, learning processes, learning outcomes in the context of
learners and teachers interactions (see Phillips et al., 2012, Figure 3.1, p. 27). The
opportunities for design of the learning environment were initially constrained by the
fact that the GP Program had to be delivered within an existing first year unit,
following the traditional lecture/tutorial format. To enhance learner-teacher
interaction, the lecture was rebadged plenary lecture and delivered in a highly
interactive style. Likewise, the tutorial was named tutorial discussion and included
activities designed to prompt discussion, personal reflections and transformational
conversations. Given the explicitly challenging nature of the content and potential for
negative interactions, the learning design implications included training tutors to
manage situations in which students failed to interact appropriately, for example
making racist remarks.
Table 1: Constructive alignment (Biggs & Tang, 2007) embedded in the learning design
Cultural Competence Definition Learning Objectives

An ability to communicate/interact Four learning objectives derived from
effectively and appropriately with the definition.
people of different cultures, Each learning objective the focus of a
comprising four components: week in the four-part GP program.
Student identifies awareness of his/her
a) AWARENESS of ones own cultural
own worldview in the context of other
worldview;
worldviews;
b) ATTITUDE towards cultural Student demonstrates a respectful
differences; attitude towards cultural differences;
c) KNOWLEDGE and ACCEPTANCE Student demonstrates recognition and

of different cultural practices and understanding of different cultural
worldviews; practices;
Student uses communication effectively
d) SKILLS (including
and appropriately to enhance
COMMUNICATION).
intercultural understanding.

204
In recognition of the interrelationships between learning processes and learning

outcomes, a core principle of the learning design to ensure constructive alignment of
definition, learning objectives and assessment (Biggs & Tang, 2007) (see Table 1
above). Learning objectives were embedded in the core components of the GP
Program and the acted as criteria for decisions on content, structure, learning
processes (including sequencing) and supporting resources.
Table 2 sets out the components of the GP Program as it was developed and delivered
2011-2013.
Table 2: Global Perspectives program adapted from (Kelder et al., 2012)
Delivery
Components Purpose Delivery mode
sequence
Quiz (self)- Online Administere

consciousness Via link on LMS d prior to
Not assessed raising Voluntary and four-part
Conversation anonymous Module
scaffold for Students
discussion in notified via
Module. LMS email
Module Module each Face to Face Plenary

week focuses on whole of student session: one
Four instances one of the four cohort interactive hour per
of plenary learning plenary session week for four
session objectives (LOs) small group tutorial weeks
followed by content related to discussion (25 max) Tutorial
tutorial an LO for that Online discussion:
discussion part of the plenary session one hour per
Module recorded and week for four
Assessed discussion and uploaded to LMS. weeks
Exam exercises to
consolidate and
apply the LO to
personal and
professional
practice
Workshop Preparation for Face to Face Delivered in

students 30 minutes GP following
Compulsory Professional program content semester
attendance, Experience embedded in 2 hour
not assessed Placement (PEP) PEP workshop

205
The learning design is structured around three elements: an online Quiz, a face-to-face
teaching Module and, for students who are required to participate in clinical
Professional Experience Placement, a Workshop component (Kelder et al., 2012). This
design explicitly enhanced student engagement with the content and interactions
with each other and with the team of teachers. The Quiz, for example, was
administered prior to the first plenary lecture as a consciousness raising exercise; the
class responses reported in the plenary lecture and subsequently used to facilitate
discussion on cultural worldviews.
An Educational Evaluation and Research (EER) plan for the GP Program

The project to develop the GP Program curriculum initiative addressed the question,
How to design, deliver and manage a curriculum initiative to achieve the global
perspectives or cultural competence graduate attribute in health science students?
The current context in higher education is outcomes-focused quality assurance
mandated by the Tertiary Education Qualifications Authority (TEQSA) and
professional accreditation bodies. Concurrently, a range of university-wide projects
are being led by the Student Evaluation, Review and Reporting Unit (SERRU) and the
Tasmanian Institute of Learning and Teaching (TILT), for example redesigning
student evaluation of units of study (eVALUate) and Course Review Guidelines that
embed evaluation into the process. The drive for evidence-based quality assurance at
all levels of higher education activity prompted the project team to integrate a parallel
stream of activity into the GP Program development that addressed the problem,
How to design a systematic plan for educational evaluation and research (EER) that
is aligned with the design, delivery and management of a curriculum initiative?
Learning designs, such as the GP Program, have a life cycle over four broad phases of
analysis, design, development and implementation. Ensuring rigor and relevance for
evaluation in educational contexts is difficult due to the situated and highly
contextual nature of educational design and delivery. A systematic and planned
approach is required to manage a complex mixture of evaluation and research over a
life cycle of evaluative activity: an initial focus on evaluation of learning design in
early phases to quality assure the design is necessary before a design is mature and
the focus can shift to researching the effectiveness and impact on students (Phillips et
al., 2012).
Kelder et al. (2012) provide a high level view of the EER plan over each stage of the
design life cycle of the GP Program and for the evaluation of the project management.
The EER plan for the GP Program is based on an evaluation-research framework
which distinguishes four interrelated, and potentially concurrent, evaluation-research
activities: baseline analysis, design evaluation, formative evaluation and effectiveness
research with project management evaluation as a separate, related, activity (Phillips et
al., 2012). The intended outcomes of the EER plan are: 1) enabling evidence-based
improvements to the GP Program design and; 2) providing a reliable and valid
evidence base for demonstrating learning outcomes and usefulness of resources. The

206
tight integration of educational evaluation and research informing the ongoing

design and re-design of a learning program is intended to enable longer-term impact
research to establish the extent to which students are equipped for future roles in a
global society. Formative and summative evaluation of the project management is
conducted throughout.
A mixed methods, or hybrid, approach is built into the GP Program EER framework.
Ruhe and Boudreau (2011) note, appropriate assessment of curricular
innovations is an argument that includes diverse kinds of scientific evidence, as well
as the theoretical rationale and the social significance of the innovation (p. 188).
Benefits of designed evaluation include opportunities to improve program design;
communication between project team members; identifying additional/alternative
types of data to collect, reviewing evaluation procedures, and preventing
misunderstandings including with those with oversight of the project (Sanders &
Nafziger, 2011[1976]).
The high level plan for EER (Kelder et al., 2012) incorporated the following core
features from Phillips, et al. (2012): the LEPO framework, the concept of the e-
learning design life cycle with five sequential forms of evaluation-research (baseline
analysis, design evaluation, formative evaluation, effectiveness research and project
management evaluation). The distinction between design evaluation and
effectiveness research is important in terms of timing. The EER plan adopted the
principle that research to measure the impact of the GP Program (on students
learning processes and learning outcomes) should not occur until the GP Program
had been evaluated from a learning design perspective, refined and established as a
mature learning environment for students. The evaluation-research matrix tool
supports the selection of research questions appropriate to each stage of the GP
Programs design life cycle. Table 3, adapted from Kelder et al. (2012) maps the
project phases for the development of the GP program to the stages of a learning
design life cycle, with corresponding evaluation-research activities and research
questions (Phillips et al., 2012).
Table 3: GP program and EER plan

Evaluation
GP Learning Research Questions
Research
program design activity - focus
activity
Project
What is the problem
Phase 0 Problem Baseline
and how can we
Life cycle description analysis
solve it?
stage 0
Phase 0 Design GP Design How good is the

Life cycle 1 program evaluation design?

207
Evaluation
GP Learning Research Questions
Research
program design activity - focus
activity
Formative How can the e-

Pilot (Nursing,
Phase 1 evaluation of learning
year one
Life cycle 2 the e-learning environment be
students)
environment improved?
Formative How well does the e-

Implementation evaluation of learning
Phase 2
(Pharmacy, year the e-learning environment work
Life cycle 3
one students) environment to support cultural
and processes shift?
Effectiveness
research into How effective are
learning the learning
processes and processes in
Faculty Health outcomes. generating cultural
Phase 3 Science roll-out Impact shift in students?
Life cycle 4 (all year one research on What is the impact
students) students on students
thinking and capabilities in
personal / managing cultural
professional diversity?
behaviours
Data collected to date evaluation for usefulness

Phases 1 and 2 of the GP Program included a series of exploratory data collection
activities with a view to analysing the data sets for usefulness in evaluation and
development of an educational program. For each data set, this paper addresses the
question, Will this data support an answer to the research questions: 1) with a design
evaluation focus and; 2) with a focus on impact research?
The exploratory nature of the data collection included identifying what types of data
could be collected; what participant responses were likely and what problems with a
data set might emerge in terms of its usefulness for effectiveness and impact research.
Another consideration was the workability of collecting the data set. This is
particularly important as, practically, data management of large data sets and a large
number of data set types, including analysing data, require significant resources. The
next section sets out the method for analysing and evaluating the data sets collected
during phases 1 and 2 of the GP Program.

208
Method
The foci of the evaluation of the GP Program were to construct an evidence base to
inform the development, and demonstrate the impact and effectiveness, of the
learning design. This provided a framework for an opportunistic approach to collect a
wide range of data types. Decisions with regard to the category of data gathered were
ongoing and emerged as a result of experiences and discussions between project team
members. In this exploratory stage several data sets were interrogated to determine
their validity in terms of appropriateness for each element of the program evaluation.
Validity was determined using a qualitative approach, drawing on the project teams
experiences and perspectives.
We deconstructed data drawn from a variety of sources including, data drawn from
quizzes developed as a cultural awareness raising exercise and presented pre to the
GP Program presentation in two cohorts of first year students (Nursing and
Pharmacy). The quiz was not presented to Pharmacy students post completion of the
GP program as the Nursing cohort had minimal response rates post completion. Data
were gathered from the My Perspectives Questionnaire also presented pre and post
GP Program presentation to Pharmacy students. This questionnaire was originally
designed as diagnostic tool to measure cultural competence levels in undergraduate
students. Completion of the quiz and the My Perspectives Questionnaire was
voluntary. Responses to examination questions completed by Nursing students were
examined. These students were given an opt out option in terms of allowing
verbatim responses contained in their examinations to be used for research purposes.
An essay competition was offered to a cohort of first year medical students not
exposed to the GP Program. This competition asked the students to write
approximately 1000 words focusing on their opinions and experiences of culture.
Each entrant in the competition received a small participation gift and a certificate of
participation that could be added to their student portfolio. The three best essays
were awarded $100 voucher and a certificate of achievement.
We developed a protocol for a systematic analysis of each data set. Elements were
analysed by data type (qualitative, quantitative) and in terms of their contextual
validity. Data were also considered in terms of ability to inform learning design, and
ability to inform the impact and effectiveness of the GP Program. A further focus was
to determine usefulness of data in terms of contributing to the development of a
diagnostic tool to measure cultural competence. An awareness of cultural biases
inherent in any circumstance guided a self-reflective, critical approach by the project
team to the evaluation and determination of quality and fitness for purpose of each
data set. Students provided informed consent and data were gathered under the
approval of the University of Tasmanias Social Sciences Human Research Ethics
Committee (HREC H0012566).

209
Results and Discussion

Data were gathered across three first year cohorts within the Faculty of Health
Science (Nursing, Pharmacy and Medicine). All student-related information was
completed and gathered on a voluntary basis with completion rates ranging from less
than 5 percent to 100 percent and varying across each cohort (see Table 4). Four types
of data have, to date, been collected with the aim of evaluating the learning design
and impact of the GP Program.
Quiz
Year 1 Nursing and Pharmacy students completed a 22-question quiz prior to
exposure to the GP Program. This quiz aimed to raise awareness of differing cultural
practices and situations by presenting a series of situations/scenarios along with four
or five possible responses. The quiz was developed within a forced choice framework
where students could not complete the quiz unless they opted for a response
presented. If students felt the response options were outside that which they would
normally respond they were instructed to respond with the option that was closest
to the response they would actually have. Demographic data were also collected.
As a consciousness raising exercise that facilitated discussion, the quiz worked very
well. However, the use of this data in terms of the measuring the impact of the GP
Program is limited. The forced-choice format restricts the validity of responses by
assuming that students responses would fall into the provided categories. Given that
all behaviours are cultural artefacts (Krentzman & Townsend, 2008) then decisions
made by the project team members in the development of the quiz scenarios and the
corresponding possible responses are very likely influenced by their cultural
knowledge and experiences. Developing scenario based questions that are measured
on linear Likert scales allows for more measured responses. For example, gauging the
level of agreement with a statement measured on a continuum ranging from strongly
agree to strongly disagree (Kaplan & Saccuzo, 2009). Alternatively, and as a
minimum, a further open or other option should be made available to respondents.
This approach will be considered in future iterations of the quiz.
The intention of gathering pre and post GP Program data from the quiz, while sound
in purpose, was not successful. Very few students completed the quiz following the
completion of the GP Program. Thus if this exercise and its associated data are
deemed necessary in the future then an incentive or inclusion of the follow-up quiz in
the assessment requirements of the unit is necessary. Alternate forms of the quiz
should also be considered to overcome any learning effects that may carry over from
the first completion.
The data gleaned from this aspect of the GP Program has the potential to inform the
development of a diagnostic tool to measure cultural shift. Examining the responses
to the quiz across the cohorts provided a range of insights. Interestingly, responses to
the quiz questions were quite similar across the Nursing and Pharmacy cohorts. At
one level this might indicate that the questions are culturally laden with little

210
difference in responses. However, this might simply be explained by a bias toward

socially desirable responses, with considerably fewer responses evident to negatively
phrased response choices. One quiz item provides an example of this:
A man in the bar of a small hotel has been drinking a lot of beer. Suddenly he collapses
and vomits on the floor. If you were nearby, you would:
a. move away;
b. go and get one of the bar attendants;
c. ask him if hell allow you to help him;
d. call an ambulance.
Responses to this scenario were overwhelmingly positive with just 7% of Pharmacy

students and 3% of Nursing students indicating that they would avoid a person who
is intoxicated. The remaining responses indicated a positive helping attitude in this
situation. Whether this attitude is inherent in these cohorts or merely a response that
is considered appropriate is unclear and highlights the need to consider social
desirability when attempting to measure cultural competence. Such data provide
critical information for the development of a diagnostic tool that will be able to
broadly measure shifts in levels of cultural competence over time.
My Perspectives Questionnaire
The My Perspectives Questionnaire was completed by Pharmacy students, in Phase
2 delivery of the GP Program. It consisted of three questions, measured on a 3-point
Likert-type scale, focusing on curiosity about other cultures; preparedness for
working with people from other cultures and confidence in communicating with
people who speak other languages. A fourth open-ended question was also included
for students to indicate their understanding of world view. The majority of
Pharmacy students (95%) completed the My Perspectives Questionnaire pre the GP
program, however this completion rate dropped to 84% post GP program. The
resultant data set consisted of 42 valid data points.
Table 5: Means and Standard Deviations of My Perspectives Questionnaire data
Mean
Question Standard Deviation
(out of a possible score of 3)
Question 1- Pre 2.27 0.47
Question 1 - Post 2.60 0.50
Question 2 - Post 2.33 0.53
Question 3 Post 2.05 0.66

211
Paired-sample t-tests revealed that students indicated that, post the GP Program, they
were significantly more curious about other cultures (t(41) = -3.71, p = .001),
significantly more well-prepared for meeting, working with, or caring for people
whose culture makes them feel uncomfortable, (t(41) = -4.60, p< .001), and
significantly more confident about communicating with people who speak an
language other than their own, (t(41) = -3.15, p = .003), compared to pre the GP
Program. For means and standard deviations see Table 5.
These results seem to indicate an overwhelming success in terms of the impact of the
GP Program. Increased curiosity, confidence and preparedness are the outcomes for
which the GP Program was designed. Perusal of the comments given to the open-
ended question regarding world view revealed further positive outcomes. For
example, one student responded I dont know what that means pre GP Program and
post responded Being open to other peoples values, cultures and way of life. Again, this
response clearly shows a shift in cultural awareness, matching with the aims of the
GP Program and suggesting that the My Perspectives Questionnaire might be
useful as a diagnostic tool to measure of cultural competence levels in undergraduate
students. However, deconstructing the My Perspectives Questionnaire raised some
questions in terms of its validity for this purpose.
The questionnaire was not psychometrically validated and, with just three Likert-type
items measured on a 3-point scale, it was unlikely to be able to discriminate multiple
levels of cultural competence (Kaplan & Saccuzo, 2009). The same small scale
questionnaire, presented pre and post GP Program, would also be likely to result in
learning effects and thus alternate forms of the questionnaire would have yielded
more reliable data. The way in which questionnaire items were presented with
answer options referring to curiosity, preparedness and confidence may have
positively skewed responses since these traits are considered desirable in terms of
cultural competence. Social desirability bias is the tendency of respondents to answer
questions in a manner that will be viewed favourably by others and this bias poses
problems with all self-report and questionnaire data (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960;
Janda, 1998). In a recent and comprehensive review, Krentzman and Townsend (2008)
provided a summary of existing scales and suggested processes for the development
of cultural competence scales. They noted the need to consider socially desirable
responses and suggest that a valid social desirability measure is completed alongside
any cultural competence scale. Krentzman and Townsend (2008) point out the need to
consider that all scales are, in fact, cultural artefacts and thus there is a need for a
multidisciplinary, multicultural approach to their development. Thus the My
Perspectives Questionnaire is not valid or useful in terms of measuring impact of the
GP Program and further consideration will be given to developing a psychometrically
validated diagnostic tool that will accurately measure changes in a range of cultural
competencies including knowledge, skills, awareness, attitudes and behaviour.

212
Assessment
Assessment is a critical and high value data set that informs learning design and is a
measure of impact and effectiveness of the approach taken to implement curricula
(Phillips et al., 2012). Phase 1 and 2 of GP program focused on raising awareness and
providing information associated with knowledge of different cultural practices and
world views. This learning was assessed by inclusion of three questions in the
examination that represented 10% of the overall examination weighting. The
assessment questions were aligned to introductory knowledge level learning
objectives (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001; Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl,
2001). Assessment of the GP Program was limited to one cohort (Nursing) due to
constraints on the Pharmacy examination design, thus comparison of cohort
assessment outcomes was not possible.
The assessment responses were analysed for degree of achieving learning outcomes
within a framework of Blooms (1956) taxonomy. The assessment questions were
pitched at the lower levels of Understanding and Knowledge and with an overall
62% mark on these questions providing an indication that on average students have
grasped the required knowledge at an introductory level. This confirms that the
learning design is appropriate at this level and provides a foundation from which
further, higher level, learning objectives and relevant exercises and assessments can
be designed. Future development of the GP Program will focus on progressing
learning within the cognitive domain (teaching and assessing students application,
analysis and synthesis of cultural information and understanding) and also
developing their affective (attitudes) and psychomotor (behaviours) skills (Anderson
& Krathwohl, 2001; Bloom et al., 1956). When designing higher levels of learning and
associated assessment, consideration could be given to more complex thinking;
evidence applied in practice (e.g., clinical students) and supervisor assessments.
Students were given the option to allow their examination responses to be used for
research purposes and, at the time of writing, 24 have given consent to have their
data included the evaluation process. This has allowed a more in depth scrutiny of
responses and this snapshot of data has provided further insight that may inform the
learning design of future elements of the GP Program. Although, on average,
students provided responses adequate to pass this element of assessment, some failed
to answer one or more questions. This may suggest a lack of understanding or
perhaps a pragmatic response by students to nominally weighted examination
questions. Interestingly, some responses were very similar, perhaps indicating a level
of rote memory strategies supporting knowledge in this area. If this is the case then a
revised learning design should focus learning objectives and aligned assessments in a
more applied manner.
Comparison of student outcomes across cohorts for consistency is an important

consideration in all learning. It is particularly important in the instance of the GP
Program, since this is a faculty wide initiative and will be rolled out to all Schools

213
across multiple campuses and many staff will be involved in teaching and assessing
various aspects of the course. The inability to accomplish standard assessment in
Phase 2 of the GP Program roll-out has highlighted the need for a mandatory
assessment component to be included in each unit of study that embeds the four-
week GP Program.
Essay
Given the limited usefulness of the data and the recognition of the influence of social
desirability biases inherent in the My Perspectives Questionnaire project team
members decided to trial an essay competition with first-year medical students. Roll
out of the GP Program to medical students will occur in Phase 3 thus the aim of the
competition was to gain an insight into students perspectives on culture prior to
exposure to the GP Program. This exercise was implemented in an effort to optimise
honest, open answers and minimise elements of social desirability in responses. The
invitation to students directed them to reflect on personal understandings of culture,
discuss a range of areas and provide evidence to support observations. Students were
asked to consider their concept of culture; their knowledge about people unlike
themselves; their thoughts on how their behaviour impacts others; their place in the
world and; how they talk about, or talk to, people who are different from themselves.
The invitation was offered to 115 students and, despite substantial incentive, only five
students responded. Evaluation of the essays was undertaken by two raters in two
parts: independent marking guided by a rubric to identify evidence of awareness,
knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours associated with cultural competence,
followed by discussion of raters individual interpretations of essay responses.
Initially, given the low response rate, this essay competition was considered
unsuccessful. However, closer examination of the essays revealed a very distinct and
rich source of information. In just five responses there was clear evidence of high
levels of cultural acceptance, awareness and experience. Likewise evidence of a range
of interpretations of culture and how it impacts students lives in educational and
personal environments was presented. One essay, for example, described the way in
which understandings of privilege impacted and were dealt with by some students
within the cohort. In discussion, the raters understood this as a clear example of
cultural understanding that extends beyond mainstream concepts of culture and a
reminder of the nuanced nature of the subject matter of the GP Program. This
productive understanding, that every aspect of the GP Program is in fact a cultural
artefact (Krentzman & Townsend, 2007), will inform and support the development of
a diagnostic tool that is as broadly applicable as possible.
Given the sensitive nature of some perceptions and understandings of culture, the
way in which these data were gathered provided a forum for students to provide
their opinion without the risk of impacting their marks. Voluntary entry to a
competition outside assessment requirements, while resulting in limited responses,
provided a freer environment for responses. This possible restriction associated with

214
assessment must be taken into consideration when analysing qualitative responses of,
what are traditionally, high achieving students.
A significant and important outcome of the evaluation of this data set was that,
despite the use of a standardised rubric, raters had very different responses to three
of the essays. This, along with unanticipated responses, prompted reflection on raters
assumptions, ideas, and the validity of the rubric. This process also identified aspects
of the GP Program that maybe cultural artefacts of the composition of the project
team who decided the content of the program. Future development of the core
curriculum will be informed by the deconstruction of the essay insights. Table 6
provides a summary of the data sets analysed according to the protocol.
Table 6: Summary of evaluation of data sets

Informs
Informs
Contextual impact and Diagnostic
Data QL QT learning
validity effective- tool
design
ness
Raising Student/staff
awareness; Embedded submission of
Supported
Informing in the items for
? development
Quiz item learning question bank;
of diagnostic
development design Some items to
tool
of diagnostic transfer from
tool Quiz to tool
? High Highlights
My Must
social need for
Perspect Not address
desirability validated
-ives useful social
issues diagnostic
Qnaire desirability
Pre/post tool
Blooms
Can measure
Aligned to Taxonomy Deconstructed
using BT as
learning (BT) assessment
criteria
Assess- objectives; analysis will have
(limited;
ment Exam; informs elements that
dependent on
portfolio design for inform item
assessment
options additional development
type)
learning

215
Informs
Informs
Contextual impact and Diagnostic
Data QL QT learning
validity effective- tool
design
ness
Conclusion
Articulated
not useful
questions
(low response
Low social and
rate). Decon- Deconstructed
desirability understand
structed data text will have
influence; ings of
Essay set showed elements that
Low culture that
high quality inform item
response not yet
info that development
rate. addressed
challenged
by GP
project team
program;
assumptions
Conclusion
To date, the EER plan has guided the formative evaluation of the GP program design
and implementation. The data collection process was exploratory and opportunistic
in Phases 1 and 2 due to the situated and contextual nature of the design process for
the GP Program. We have developed a protocol to interrogate and evaluate the data
sets from different cohorts and for different aspects of the GP Program (design and
delivery). This was a necessary and useful mechanism to evaluate the data for quality
and fitness for purpose. The outcomes of this evaluative activity are recursive, in that
they also provide a lens for evaluating the intended purposes of the data collection.
For example, the research questions have evolved in response to unexpected insights
from this meta examination of the data sets.
Results indicate that assessment items are a critical data set for determining
achievement of learning objectives. However, assessment must be carefully designed
to enable pedagogical measurement of student learning. In particular, assessment
tasks must test students cognitive (knowledge and understanding), affective
(attitudinal) and psychomotor (behaviour) (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001; Bloom et
al., 1956) gains in response to the GP Program. This suggests the need for a
framework for assessment design to ensure breadth and depth of learning for each
cohort and year level exposed to the GP program.
The EER framework includes a long-term strategic aim to measure effectiveness and
impact on students. The evaluation of the data sets to date confirmed that the
development of a rigorous and validated diagnostic tool will be problematic for a
number of reasons, conceptual and methodological. However, the cumulative data
set indicates that a rigorous, multi-methods approach and multiple sources of data
will provide a sound foundation from which a psychometrically validated diagnostic
tool can be developed.

216
The evaluative activity also confirmed that the GP Program and its various data sets
are themselves a cultural artefact. Each element reflects the political drivers,
responses and resistances, values, experiences, framing of experiences and
knowledge of the project team members. Thus, the cultural competence definition
adopted by the project has served its purpose well. It has been the guiding principle
for identifying learning objectives and designing assessment. It has also provided a
lens for each member of the project team, in whatever role, to reflect on and analyse
his or her contributions to the content and the evaluation design (what questions we
ask) and to ensure that each component models the definition for cultural competence
developed by the educational development team.
References
Anderson, L. & Krathwohl, D. A. (2001). Taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision
of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.
Biggs, J. & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for quality learning at university. Third edition. Berkshire,
England: Open University Press.
Bloom, B.S., Engelhart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H., & Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of
educational objectives: The classification of educational goals; Handbook I: Cognitive Domain
New York: Longman.
Crowne, D. P. & Marlowe, D. (1960). A new scale of social desirability independent of
psychopathology. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 24, 349-354.
Deardorff, D. (2009). The Sage handbook of intercultural competence. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage
Publications
Janda, L. H. (1998). Psychological testing: Theory and applications. Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon.
Kaplan, R. M. & Saccuzo, D. P. (2009). Psychological testing: Principles, applications, and issues.
Seventh edition. Belmont CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Kelder, J-A., Sondermeyer, J., Phillips, R., & Rothwell, A. (2012). Designing evaluation and
research into educational initiatives: The Global Perspectives Program. Ascilite 2012.
Wellington, NZ.
Krentzman, A. R. & Townsend, A. L. (2008). Review of multidisciplinary measures of cultural
competence for use in social work education. Journal of Social Work Education, 44, 7-31.
Phillips, R., McNaught, G., & Kennedy, C. (2012). Evaluating e-learning: guiding research and
practice. New York: Routledge.
Ruhe, V. & Boudreau, J. D. (2011). The 2011 program evaluation standards: A framework for
quality in medical education programme evaluations. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical
Practice, 23, 187-200.
Sanders, J. R. & Nafziger, D. N. (2011[1976]). A basis for determining the adequacy of
evaluation designs. Journal of Multidisciplinary Evaluation, 7, 44-78.
Sondermeyer, J., van den Berg, K., & Brown, J. (2005). Making nursing education culturally
competent: moving beyond the deficit model. International Conference on Critical
Discourse Analysis: Theory into Research, 669-676.
Student Evaluation, Review and Reporting Unit. Website available:
http://www.utas.edu.au/student-evaluation-review-and-reporting-unit/our-serru-
team Accessed 16th November 2012.
Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. Website available:
http://www.teqsa.gov.au Accessed 16 November 2012.

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Table 2 (see appendix) provides a quantitative summary of responses generated

Table 3 (see appendix) analyzed the area of cross-cultural communication among

Table 4 (see appendix) displays a tabular representation of teachers perceptions

Table 5 (see appendix) gives a tabular representation of the scores obtained

Table 6 (see appendix) shows a quantitative representation of Assessment Criteria

In the area of Cross Cultural Communication teachers in the three schools

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assessment procedures as to how and to what extent are cultural differences

Limitations of the study

Conclusions and Suggestions for Further Research

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Table 1: Tabular representation of schools and number of teachers as separated by

Table 2: Cultural Awareness in the classroom.

Area/ School School 1 School 2 School 3

Table 3: Cross Cultural Communication

Cross cultural SA/A N D/SD SA/A N D/SD SA/A N D/SD

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Area /School School 1 School 2 School 3

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parent I take into

Table 5: Multicultural Learning Environment

Area /School School 1 School 2 School 3

Expecting the use of 33 14 7 21 13 14 41 29 24

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Table 6: Assessment Criteria

Area/School Number School 1 School 2 School 3

@2014 The author and IJLTER.ORG All rights reserved

Cultural Diversity Awareness Inventory (CDAI)

As part of a transnational study which I am conducting across various schools

Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values,

Definition of Cultural Diversity

Cultural diversity may be defined as the multiplicity and interaction of cultural

Years of Teaching Experience: 0-5 years 6-10 years 11+ years

Number of Inset courses on

1) My culture is different from some of the pupils I teach.

2) It is important to identify immediately the ethnic composition of the

4) I prefer to work with parents whose culture is similar to mine.

5) I feel uncomfortable in settings with people who speak non-standard

6) I avoid communication with parents (whose culture is different from

7) Only English Language should be thought to multiethnic groups.