Teachers' professional growth: Examining the effect of teacher maturity on LOC orientation
Date
2008
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
School of Education, UWI, St. Augustine
Abstract
This research compared the professional growth of Jamaican teachers with those in the United States and Israel. The high correlation (r = 0.845) between age and length of service allowed for two studies to be replicated; one from the US showing increasing internality with increased length of service and the other from Israel showing increasing internality with age. In this research, a modified version of Rose and Medway's Teachers' Locus of Control (TLOC) instrument was used to compare the increases in maturity of self-direction and self-confidence of Jamaican teachers with that of teachers in the United States and Israel. A sample of 205 teachers in the Corporate Area, Kingston, Jamaica completed this study to replicate the findings relating years of service and age to teachers' locus of control orientation as measured using the TLOC scale. T-test and analysis of variance showed no significant difference between Jamaican teachers' length of service, age, and their locus of control orientation. These results imply that Jamaican teachers are not developing the same levels of self-direction and self-confidence as Israeli and US teachers who have similar years of teaching experience. It is suggested that in-service development programmes should address these particular shortfalls in professional growth of Jamaican teachers
Description
Table of Contents
Keywords
Teacher characteristics, Comparative analysis, Jamaica, Israel, USA
Citation
Cook, L. D., and Bastick, T. (2008). Teachers' professional growth: Examining the effect of teacher maturity on LOC orientation. In L. Quamina-Aiyejina (Ed.), Reconceptualising the agenda for education in the Caribbean: Proceedings of the 2007 Biennial Cross-Campus Conference in Education, April 23-26, 2007, School of Education, UWI, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago (pp. 631-638). St. Augustine, Trinidad: School of Education, UWI