Teachers on the job are exposed to formal school training on updates on subject specialization, on classroom skills improvement, and on values enhancement. Experienced peers in the school may conduct lectures and demonstrations. Regular meetings are scheduled which may include planning sessions and holding assemblies with parents who are educators, other authorities and professionals from the community, and individual or group counseling sessions. These are teacher training activities by which teachers in the service learn to grow and empower themselves (Salandanan, 2001).
Teachers’ teaching experience provides them with a wealth of actual knowledge, and skills in terms of problem-solving, decision-making, planning, critical thinking, communication, and management; and positive attitudes and values through professional relationship and responsibilities.
Table 5 shows the teaching experience matrix of the UC elementary teachers showing that all the teachers has a teaching experience from a low of 1 to 6 years to a high of 15 to 20 years.
Table 5
Teaching Experience Profile
Number of Years | f | P* |
1. 21 and above | 0 | 0 |
2. 15 - 20 | 3 | 15 |
3. 7 - 14 | 6 | 30 |
4. 1 - 6 | 11 | 55 |
5. Less than 1 year | 0 | 0 |
Total | 20 | 100 |
* Percentage
Eleven or 55 percent of the 20 teachers registered a teaching experience of 1 to 6 years, although two teachers just completed a year of service before entering UC. They were just newly-hired. Six teachers or 30 percent had already taught for a period within the 7 to 14 bracket, while 3 or 15 percent had a longer teaching experience within the 15 to 20 year bracket. Forty-five percent of the teachers described the teachers’ experience as Adequate. All the teachers were experienced but two newly-hired were practically on the probationary stage.
They felt that they were prepared to tech with teaching experience. They remarked as follows:
Our school experiences reinforced our preservice education in college.
Our collaboration activities with others teachers filled the knowledge gap we needed most.
We learned from our experienced mentors.
We became more tactful with our “senior” teachers. The instructional relationship was either formal, informal or nonformal
We learned.
It is clear that teachers on the job learned from experience. As earlier stated, Lumapas (2000) mentions that administrative on teaching experience is significantly related to performance competencies. Capapas (1994) likewise concluded in her study that professional preparation which includes educational qualification, experience, and in-service training are significantly correlated with supervisory practices which in this study concerned teaching practices. Length of teaching service has been influential to school administrators in their leadership and management roles as revealed by Fernando (1990) in his dissertation. Experience is a teaching resource material. Through experience, one becomes a teacher and a learner.
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