Teacher Opinions about Qualities of Effective Teaching

Bu calismada, etkili ogretmenlerin sahip olmasi gereken niteliklerin onem siralarina dayali olarak saptanmasi ile cinsiyet, brans ve okul turu degiskenlerine gore algilarda farklilik olup olmadiginin belirlenmesi amaclanmistir. Sonuclara gore ogretmenlerin algiladigi en onemli etkili ogretmen niteligi sinif yonetimi alaninda sahip olunan nitelikler iken diger nitelikler ise sirasiyla ogretimi planlama, kisilik ozellikleri, ogretme ve ogrenci ilerlemesini izleme olarak belirlenmistir. Ogretmenlerin niteliklerini artirma yonunde yeterince gayret gostermedikleri, sinifin gerisinde kalan ogrencilerle yeterince ilgilenmedikleri ve sinif ogretmenlerinin brans ogretmenlerine gore sinif yonetimini daha fazla onemsedikleri saptanmistir. Ogretmenlerin, ogrenci ogrenmesine donuk olan ogretme boyutundan ziyade neden sinif yonetimini en onemli nitelik olarak algiladiklarinin, mesleki gelisimlerine neden fazla onem vermediklerinin, ogrencilerle birebir ilgilenmeyi neden onemli gormediklerinin ve sinif ogretmenlerinin sinif yonetimini brans ogretmenlerine gore neden daha onemli gorduklerinin arastirilmasi onerilmistir. Ogretmenlerin yetistirilmesi ve mesleki gelisimlerinin saglanmasi faaliyetlerinde sinif yonetimi, ogretme ve ogrenci ilerlemesini izlemeye donuk egitimlere oncelik verilmesi de oneriler arasinda yer almistir.


Introduction
An effective teacher is the teacher who pushes hard for student success (Liston, Borko & Whitcomb, 2008).Classroom teaching qualities are among the most important factors that affect student success (Creemers, Kyriakides & Antoniou, 2013).A research study indicates that each increase of a standard deviation in teacher quality results in an increase of .36 standard deviation in test scores (Azam & Kingdon, 2015).Thus it can be asserted that teachers' ability in effective teaching and education is closely related to teacher qualities.Success of the whole education system depends on quality of teachers (Buchanan, 2012).Teachers are seen as the most important factor affecting student success (Rushton, Morgan & Richard, 2007;Seidel & Shavelson, 2007).Countries that are aware of this fact developed various policies to train effective teachers and hence they could be successful in international tests (Bozkuş & Gündüz, 2013).Therefore, specification of and adhering to qualities that play role in being effective teachers have become the main focus point of educational policies worldwide (OECD, 2005).
The concept of effective teacher is different from the concept of good teacher.Because "a good teacher can seldom be effective while an effective teacher is always good" (Bayrak, 2003, p. 196).Many research on the qualities of effective teachers are conducted.According to the results of these research effective teachers should; take close care of their students (Langer, 2000), treat them fairly (Peart & Campbell, 1999), establish positive interaction with students (Brookhart & Loadman, 1992), be enthusiastic in educational activities (Rowan et al., 1997), be skilled in classroom management (Molnar et al., 1999), pay more attention to teaching (Cawelti, 2004), have high expectations of him/herself and students (Cotton, 2000), and use different teaching methods and strategies (Darling-Hammond, 2001).Stronge (2007) put together these results under 5 categories (Table 1).Theoretical framework of this research is based on these qualities.(Stronge, 2007).

Quality Personality Traits
Caring for students Results of international tests that measure student success imply that our teachers are not as effective as their foreign counterparts (OECD, 2014).Turan, Yıldırım and Aydoğdu (2012) indicate that school principals as well do not consider teachers as effective.Our education system needs effective teachers since successful students will mean economic development (Çalışkan, Karabacak & Meçik, 2013).Specification of the qualities that effective teachers should have becomes important at this point.Hence, goals for teacher education and professional development can be identified.This study, therefore, aimed to determine both the importance order of qualities that effective teachers should have and differences between perceptions based on teachers' gender, branch and school types.

Research Design
Research was conducted employing survey model.This model is based on gathering data from a large sample, so the results of the study can be generalized (Fraenkel, Wallen, & Hyun, 2012).

Participants
The population consisted of 981 teachers working at public schools in the Tavşanlı county of Kütahya province during 2014-2015 academic year.Data were gathered from 400 teachers selected using simple random sampling method from 123 public schools in the county.At least 350 teachers had to be included in the sample according to 5.00% acceptable error rate and 2.00% confidence interval.Forms from 373 teachers were analyzed.Participants consisted of 198 (53.00%) males, 160 (43.00%) females, and 15 (4.00%) people did not specified any gender.The sample included 139 (37.00%) classroom teachers and 234 (63.00%) branch teachers.140 (37.50%)teachers were working in primary schools, 99 (26.50%)teachers were working at secondary schools, 78 (21.00%) teachers were working at Anatolian high schools and 56 (15.00%) teachers were working at technical high schools (Table 2).

Instrument
A questionnaire was developed from the framework proposed by Stronge (2007).The questionnaire consisted of dimensions named 'personality traits', 'classroom management', planning of instruction', 'instruction', 'monitoring of student progress', and 'effective teacher qualities'.The first five main qualities took place in the last quality named 'qualities of effective teacher' as sub qualities.Ranking of sub qualities in each main quality by teachers according to the perceived importance was achieved.Participants scored their most important quality with number '1' and others with an increasing order.Therefore, a low average indicated that the quality was perceived important.
Instead of Likert type rating scale, rank order scale was adopted for more valid and reliable findings (Guskey, 2007) as a Likert type scale may result in close averages and low variances among the qualities (Williams, 2010).Finally, gender and branch variables were collected via the questionnaire form.

Procedure
All teachers participated to the research voluntarily.Interviews to inform school principals of the purpose and details of the research, and to determine the most suitable time for the collection of data were held.Data were collected in teachers' room and branch rooms.In-person guidance to teachers was provided during the process.

Data Analysis
Questionnaire forms that were filled inappropriately were eliminated and remaining 373 forms were analyzed using rank averages, independent samples t test, and ANOVA.

Results
In the main quality of personality traits, the sub quality named 'positive interaction with students' ranked first ( ̅ =3.34) as the most important sub quality (Table 3).Other sub qualities were ranked as respectively 'treating students fairly and respectfully' ( ̅ =3.47), 'motivation to work' ( ̅ =3.49), 'caring for students' ( ̅ =3.84), 'enthusiasm in teaching' ( ̅ =4.02), 'devotion to professional development' ( ̅ =4.72) and 'awareness of strong and weak sides' ( ̅ =5.12).In the main quality of classroom management, the sub quality named 'establishing classroom management' ranked first ( ̅ =1.31) as the most important sub quality (Table 4).Other sub qualities were ranked as respectively 'establishing student discipline' ( ̅ =2.02) and 'organizing tasks, instruments and space in class' ( ̅ =2.67).In the main quality of planning of instruction, the sub quality named 'organizing contents for an effective instruction' ranked first ( ̅ =1.88) as the most important sub quality (Table 5).Other sub qualities were ranked as respectively 'considering instruction important' ( ̅ =2.15), 'time management' ( ̅ =2.58) and 'having high expectations of himself and students' ( ̅ =3.39).In the main quality of instruction, the sub quality named 'directing student attention to lesson' ranked first ( ̅ =2.10) as the most important sub quality (Table 6).Other sub qualities were ranked as respectively 'using different instruction methods and strategies' ( ̅ =2.83), 'supporting learning by understanding rather than by memorizing' ( ̅ =3.16), 'guiding students with clear examples' ( ̅ =3.33) and 'using questioning effectively' ( ̅ =3.59).In the main quality of monitoring of student progress, the sub quality named 'considering student needs and proficiency' ranked first ( ̅ =1.39) as the most important sub quality (Table 7).Other sub qualities were ranked as respectively 'giving homework appropriate to lesson content and student capacity' ( ̅ =2.14) and 'providing face to face interaction to students left behind of class' ( ̅ =2.47).In the main quality of qualities of effective teachers, the sub quality named 'Classroom management' ranked first ( ̅ =2.52) as the most important sub quality (Table 8).Other sub qualities were ranked as respectively 'planning of instruction' ( ̅ =2.66), 'personality traits' ( ̅ =2.82), 'instruction' ( ̅ =3.10) and 'monitoring of student progress' ( ̅ =3.90).Independent samples t test analysis was conducted in order to determine any gender based differences in perceptions of teachers.Table 9 indicates that personality traits (t (356) = .81,p>.05), classroom management (t (356) = .51,p>.05), planning of instruction (t (356) = .03,p>.05), instruction (t (356) = .52,p>.05) and monitoring of student progress (t (356) = 1.01, p>.05) did not differ significantly.Independent samples t test analysis was done in order to determine any branch based differences in perceptions of teachers.Table 10 indicates that personality traits (t (371) = 1.89, p>.05), planning of instruction (t (371) = .74,p>.05), instruction (t (371) = .05,p>.05) and monitoring of student progress (t (371) = .28,p>.05) qualities did not differ according to branch.Classroom management (t (371) = 2.07, p<.05) quality differed significantly.Since classroom teachers had a lower average of this quality, it can be claimed that they see classroom management more important comparing to branch teachers.One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done in order to determine any school type based differences in perceptions of teachers.Table 11 indicates that homogeneity of variances were established.

Discussion, Conclusion & Implementation
The most important quality perceived by teachers was classroom management.Other qualities were the planning of instruction, personality traits, instruction, and monitoring of student progress, respectively.The findings that teachers place importance on classroom management and planning of instruction are in accordance with Şahin's (2011) findings.This may have resulted from the fact that teachers lack classroom management skills (Yalçınkaya & Tombul, 2002).Teacher candidates of another research which employed the same data collection tool used in this research ranked instruction as the most important quality and then classroom management as the second most important quality (Bozkuş & Marulcu, 2016).Therefore, it can be asserted that candidates attach importance to instruction which is the most effective factor in student learning (Creemers, Kyriakides & Antoniou, 2013) during preservice education, but given the changing circumstances in-service practice, classroom management becomes the most important quality for teachers.
It is thought-provoking that instruction and monitoring of student progress qualities which are closely related with student success had low rank orders.Karakelle (2005) too found that teachers did not mind instructional skills as good as other skills.Since teachers need progress in instructional methods (Yeşil, 2006;Akçadağ, 2010), this finding can be considered in caution.Teachers' disregard for monitoring of student progress may be due to their negligence in measurement and evaluation.
The finding that devotion to professional development sub quality under personality traits main quality had a low rank order may signal that teachers do not pay effort in improving their qualities.Turan, Yıldırım and Aydoğdu (2012) also asserted that teachers neglect professional development.Similarly, the other research done with teacher candidates (Bozkuş & Marulcu, 2016) found that this quality were the least important for candidates.Therefore, it can be claimed that the negligence in professional development during pre-service prevails during in-service too.
Given the fact that the sub quality of awareness of strong and weak sides under personality traits main quality had the lowest rank order in both this research and the other one (Bozkuş & Marulcu, 2016), it can be claimed that self-evaluation is not emphasized during pre-service teacher education, and thus in-service teachers neglect self-evaluation as well.
Since monitoring of student progress quality was ranked as the least important during both research with teachers and teacher candidates (Bozkuş & Marulcu, 2016), teacher candidates should be neglecting measurement and evaluation, and they continue to neglect it once they enter into teaching profession.Teachers may have ranked the providing face to face interaction to students left behind of class sub quality under this main quality as the least important quality because of highly populated classrooms.In fact, research indicate that teachers cannot establish face to face interactions with students because of crowded classrooms (Büyükduman, 2005;Gürol & Yalçın, 2009).
Since teachers and teacher candidates ranked sub qualities under classroom management and instruction main qualities in the same order (Bozkuş & Marulcu, 2016), there should be a coherence between pre-service teacher education and in-service practice.
Teacher opinions about qualities of effective teaching did not differ according to gender and school type variables, but they did differ based on branch only in classroom management quality.This may be because classroom teachers considered classroom management more important than their counterparts.Since teacher opinions did not differ regarding to gender variable in the other research too (Bozkuş & Marulcu, 2016), it could be inferred that this variable has no impact on their opinions.Some recommendations could be made according to the results of this research: Researching the reasons for teachers to perceive classroom management as the most important quality rather than instruction, for lack of care for professional development and face to face interaction with pupils, and for attaching more importance to classroom management by class teachers than that of branch teachers are recommended.Also, the preparation and professional development activities of teachers should prioritize trainings of classroom management, instruction and monitoring of student progress.

Table 2 .
Explanatory Statistics of Participants.

Table 3 .
Statistics of Personality Traits.

Table 4 .
Statistics of Classroom Management.

Table 7 .
Statistics of Monitoring of Student Progress.

Table 8 .
Statistics of Qualities of Effective Teachers.

Table 9 .
Independent T Test Results of Gender Based Differences.

Table 10 .
Independent T Test Results of Branch Based Differences.

Table 11 .
Statistics of the Homogeneity of Variances.

Table 12 .
ANOVA Results of School Type Based Differences.