SEMINAR PAPER |0

SEMINAR PAPER ON

VALUE PATTERNS OF PROSPECTIVE SECONDARY

SCHOOL TEACHERS: A STUDY

SEMINAR PAPER SUBMITTED FOR NATIONAL SEMINAR

ORGANIZED BY DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, UTTAR KAMPITH
MAHAVIDYALAYA (SR.), NALABARI, ASSAM

ON 16TH & 17TH MAY, 2014

SUBMITTED BY

Dr. Utpal Kalita

Email id: utpalkalita20@gmail.com
Assistant Professor

Department of Education
Rangia College, Rangia
Assam
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INTRODUCTION

No system of education, no syllabus, no methodology, no

textbook can rise above the level of its teachers. If a
country wants to have quality education, it must have
quality teachers.

-V.S. Mathews

A value is a belief, a mission, or a philosophy that is meaningful. Whether we

are consciously aware of them or not, every individual has a core set of personal
values. Values can range from the commonplace, such as the belief in hard work
and punctuality, to the more psychological, such as self-reliance, concern for others,
and harmony of purpose. Important and enduring beliefs or ideals shared by the
members of a culture about what is good or desirable and what is not. Values exert
major influence on the behaviour of an individual and serve as broad guidelines in all
situations.

Education, in its true sense, is a process of aiding the all round development
of an individual which includes physical, intellectual, social, moral and spiritual
aspect. The teacher is expected to function not only as a facilitator for acquisition of
knowledge but also as transformer of inner being. But during recent times, education
became mere acquisition of information in cognitive learning areas with the sole
purpose of passing examinations and getting degrees. This is resulting in the
emergence of lopsided personalities. Ancient Indian education was value based. The
ultimate purpose and aim of education in ancient India was attainment of self
realization. Education was beyond all religions, in the sense that it was aimed at
realizing the ultimate reality, harmonious development and spiritual well being of an
individual. The relationship between the teacher and the taught was spiritual and
divine with such a close relationship; individuals acquired knowledge, efficiencies
and attained meaning to life.

According to Rajendra Prasad (2010) neglect of education in general and

inculcation of values through education in particular has been accepted in the
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“Challenge of Education – A Policy Perspective” - a paper published and circulated

in August 1985 by the Government of India. It is stated that education is a national
responsibility which is to transform a state society into one vibrant with a
commitment to development and change. The development of human resources is
said to be the main function of education.

The National Curriculum Frame work (2005), NCERT, echoes the vision of
integrating values in every aspect of schooling, seeking guidance from the
constitutional vision of India as a secular, egalitarian and pluralistic society, founded
on the values of social justice and equality. The values enshrined in the constitution
assume paramount significance (NCF, 2005). The inculcation of values among
students would be possible through teachers only, but the products of present
teacher education programmes are not adequately equipped to foster these values
among the children in schools. It is a hard reality that our teacher education
programmes are isolated from the schools and the main stream of universal life.

As teachers are supposed to look after the total development of children and
their performance is the most crucial input in the field of education (POA 1992),
training should be adequate to stimulate the socio – cultural, moral development of
the child; hence an immediate break is necessary in teacher education programme
so that it can meet the challenge of value crisis among young generations, which
may result in the elapse of the future society.

RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

We are living in an era in which human knowledge, particularly technological

knowledge is increasing at an exceptionally rapid pace. This in turn, is having a
profound impact on the social, economic and political evolution. Technological
advancement has brought about drastic changes in lifestyles and a sudden shift in
values is being experienced. The erosion of human values has become a
phenomenon. The loss of values in our society is a cause of serious concern.

It has been realized since long that man and values are inseparable. Since an
individual is comprised of physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual dimensions,
values are essential for their wholesome development. These are the blue prints on
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which the actions, reactions, emotions, judgments and interactions of an individual

depend.

Teachers have a great responsibility in moulding the personality of the

students and their personality influences the attitudes, values, interests, morals,
ideals, conduct and behaviour of the students. One of the important factors affecting
teachers’ behaviour is the belief system. If the teacher acts according to the set
principles, the pupils automatically follow the teacher. Teachers have to set new
ideals and norms, and inculcate the values of human welfare and mutual good-will
among the students. Since the teacher plays a very crucial role in the process of
education and it is ultimately the teacher who performs the task of inculcation of
values, it is generally attitude of the teacher that carries the stamp of his chosen
values which are exhibited, on occasions in the form of behaviour. They are only
force to influence the society in general and their students in particular. In this
connection, NCTE (1998) recommended that a teacher in the technological age must
have commitment to the learner, commitment to the society, commitment to the
profession, commitment to achieve excellence and commitment to basic human
values. Hence, the present paper is justified to study the values of prospective
teachers.

LITERATURE REVIEW

There were many studies undertaken which reveal value patterns and
personal value profile of students as well as teachers. Few of them are mentioned
below.

In a study to determine values of future teachers in elementary, secondary

and special education schools, Kirchner and Hogan (1968) found that there was no
significant change and the values of future teachers and it remained constant after
the students had been exposed to a course of Philosophy of Education. Very little
change was observed in the theoretical value scores.

In an attempt, Padhan (1994) pursued a study of the possible relationship

between moral values and the Ten Personal Values mentioned in the PVQ. The
results indicated that moral judgment (cognitive aspect) was positively correlated
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with religious, social, democratic, knowledge and health values but negatively
correlated with economic, hedonistic, power and health values.

Pozzebm (2006) investigated the importance of personality traits and personal

values in the prediction of behaviour. The study found that the personality factor
Honesty-Humility was strongly correlated with values. In the prediction of behaviour
both personality and values were able to account for significant and similar kind of
variance.

Bajwa (2007) reported that teachers who are in possession of aesthetic,

social, democratic, knowledge and health values have sound mental health whereas
those equipped with high economic, power and family prestige values have poor
mental health. Thus right pattern of Teacher’s Personal Values helped them to
improve their mental health.

Sandhya (2007) undertook a study on extent of Value Attainment among

student teacher and reported that student teachers gave highest priority to aesthetic
values, whereas second priority was given to theoretical value while political and
economic values were least preferred.

On the other hand, Srihari (2007) undertook an in-depth study to identify the
level of values possessed by the prospective teachers. A standardized research tool
developed by Shamim Karim called ‘Teachers Value Inventory’ was used to collect
data. The investigator used arithmetic mean, standard deviation and t-value for
analysis of data and reported that teachers possess high level of values. Moreover,
there was no significant difference in possession of values between science and
arts, male and female prospective teachers.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The research problem undertaken is entitled as “Value Patterns of

Prospective Secondary School Teachers: a Study.”

OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS OF THE KEY TERMS

The following terms used in the research have been defined with a view to
clarify the connotation in which they are used in the present research study.
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Value Patterns: Value patterns are set principles whereby conduct is directed
and regulated as guide for individual or social group. In the present study, scores
obtained by the Prospective Secondary School Teachers on Personal Value
Questionnaire (PVQ) by Sherry and Verma were taken as indicative of Value
Patterns.

Prospective Teachers: Prospective Teaches were considered those pupil

teachers who were undergoing teacher training programme but had not yet been
conferred with degrees.

Secondary School: Secondary schools are established under the rules and
regulations framed by the Government. These are under the administrative control of
Directorate of Secondary Education, Government of Assam.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives of the study are as follows:

1. To study the value patterns of prospective secondary school teachers.

2. To study the value patterns of male and female prospective secondary school
teachers.

HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY

The following hypotheses are formulated to test the objective mentioned

above:

 Value patterns of prospective secondary school teachers are high.

 There exist no significant differences between male and female prospective
secondary school teachers on their value patterns.

DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Keeping time and resource constraints in view, the study is delimited to the
following:

i. The study was conducted on prospective secondary school teachers in

South Kamrup area of Kamrup district, Assam only.
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ii. In this study, the entire sample Colleges of Education are affiliated to
Gauhati University and all the institutions are private in nature.

PLAN AND PROCEDURES

RESEARCH DESIGN:

Considering the nature of the problem, objectives, hypotheses and the nature
of data to be collected, the Descriptive Survey Method is adopted in the present
study.

POPULATION AND SAMPLE

The population of the present study comprises all (300) the prospective
secondary school teachers of all (03) the Colleges of Education of South Kamrup
area of Kamrup district, Assam. The sample of the present study is selected from
these three (03) Colleges of education of South Kamrup area by applying stratified
random sampling technique. From these colleges, 30% i.e. 90 prospective teachers
have been selected as sample on the basis of equal allocation i.e., 45 males and 45
females.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

The following instrument is employed by the investigator.

Personal Value Questionnaire: For this study, Personal Value

Questionnaire (PVQ) constructed and standardized by Sherry and Verma (1998)
was employed. PVQ comprises of 40 questions covering the range of ten values
namely religious, social, democratic, aesthetic, economic, knowledge, hedonistic,
power, family prestige and health value. Each question consists of two parts (i) a
stem and (ii) 3 parts. Each value has an equal number of items and there are 12
items for each value. Two methods of reliability i.e. Hoyt’s method and Test-retest
method were employed and validity has been established through Criterion-oriented
validity and validity via correlation.

Interpretation and remarks were given on the basis of following range of

scores:
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Range Remarks
21 and above Very High
16 to 20 High
11 to 15 Average
6 to 10 Low
5 and Less Very Low

STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES

The data are mainly analyzed in terms of Mean and Standard Deviation. The
‘t’ test is used to find out the significant differences as well as relationship between
the two variables. To find out the level of significance, the calculated ‘t’ values are
compared with the table values.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

The resulting data are analysed by using appropriate statistical treatment. The
results have been explained below.

Table 1: Mean of Different Types of Value Pattern of Prospective Secondary

School Teachers

Sl. No. Name of Value M Remarks

1. Religious value 14.92 Average
2. Social value 15.15 Average
3. Democratic value 14.41 Average
4. Aesthetic value 15.13 Average
5. Economic value 15.75 High
6. Knowledge value 15.25 Average
7. Hedonistic value 15.14 Average
8. Power value 15.52 High
9. Family prestige value 15.25 Average
10. Health value 14.10 Average
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From the above table, it is found that most of means fall under the range of
average. Only for Economic and Power value are under high category.

The comparison among different values are clearly reflected with the help of
following bar diagram.

Figure 1: Graphical Representation of Mean Score of

Different Values
15.75
16 15.52
15.15 15.13 15.25 15.14 15.25
15.5 14.92
15 14.41
14.5 14.1
14
13.5 Mean
13

Table 2: Gender wise Mean, S.Ds. and ‘t’ ratio for Different Values of
Prospective Secondary School Teachers
Sl. Male (45) Female (45)
Value t-value Remarks
No. Mean S.D. Mean S.D.
1. Religious value 15.26 4.00 14.57 3.97 0.82 NS
2. Social value 14.35 3.87 15.95 4.39 1.74 NS
3. Democratic value 14.42 4.93 14.40 4.89 0.02 NS
4. Aesthetic value 16.33 4.62 13.93 4.80 2.43 S
5. Economic value 15.57 5.06 15.93 4.78 0.35 NS
6. Knowledge value 15.55 4.51 14.95 4.37 0.64 NS
7. Hedonistic value 14.75 5.50 15.53 5.75 0.63 NS
8. Power value 14.84 4.43 16.20 4.42 1.46 NS
9. Family prestige value 15.28 4.01 15.22 4.43 0.07 NS
10. Health value 14.37 4.86 13.82 4.58 0.57 NS
Total 150.77 16.60 150.53 16.61 0.06 NS
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From the above table, it is revealed that aesthetic value among male
counterparts is higher than other values. And in case of female counterpart, power
value is higher than other values. Again there exist no significant difference between
male and female prospective secondary school teachers in case of religious, social,
democratic, economic, knowledge, hedonistic, power, family prestige, health and
total values. In case of aesthetic value, there exists significant difference between
male and female teachers.

FINDINGS

Based on Objective No.1:

 Mean score of economic value is higher than other values.

 Religious, social, democratic, aesthetic, knowledge, hedonistic, family
prestige and health value of prospective secondary school teachers is
average.
 Economic and power value of prospective secondary school teachers is under
high category.
 Health value of prospective secondary school teachers is lower among all the
values.

In case of first objective, hypothesis is accepted in case of economic and

power value and hypothesis is rejected in case of religious, social, democratic,
aesthetic, knowledge, hedonistic, family prestige and health value.

Based on Objective No.2:

 There exist no significant differences between male and female prospective

secondary school teachers on their religious value.
 There exist no significant differences between male and female prospective
secondary school teachers on their social value.
 There exist no significant differences between male and female prospective
secondary school teachers on their democratic value.
 There exist significant differences between male and female prospective
secondary school teachers on their aesthetic value.
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 There exist no significant differences between male and female prospective

secondary school teachers on their economic value.
 There exist no significant differences between male and female prospective
secondary school teachers on their knowledge value.
 There exist no significant differences between male and female prospective
secondary school teachers on their hedonistic value.
 There exist no significant differences between male and female prospective
secondary school teachers on their power value.
 There exist no significant differences between male and female prospective
secondary school teachers on their family prestige value.
 There exist no significant differences between male and female prospective
secondary school teachers on their health value.
 There exist no significant differences between male and female prospective
secondary school teachers on their value patterns.

Thus, it is evident that the analysis completely accepts the null hypothesis i.e.
there exist no significant differences between male and female prospective
secondary school teachers on their value patterns. This finding of the present study
supports some earlier findings like Sharma (1977), Gupta (1985), Bar and Gurmit
Singh (2004).

RECOMMENDATIONS

On the basis of the findings of the study, relevant literature studied and
observations made by the researcher during the study, a few recommendations
which may help in developing values, teacher attitude and teaching aptitude among
teacher trainees are offered.

1. From the findings of the present study it was revealed that majority of the
prospective secondary school teachers have average level of values. As the
prospective teachers are future teachers, the teacher education curriculum should
aim at increasing the level of value orientation in them.
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2. The Teacher Education Programme should aim at the development in the

prospective teachers’ understandings, skills and attitudes as would equip them to
discharge their function as value educators.

3. The Teacher Education Programmes should inculcate favourable attitude in

Prospective teachers by changing the organizational climate of educational
institutions and by enriching the social emotional climate of their classroom.

CONCLUSION

To conclude, it is stated that as a result of quick economic growth, over

mechanisation, urbanisation and craving for materialistic life, there has been a loss
of values and of the value system at the individual level and in the country as a
whole. Materialistic needs and never ending lust to earn more and more by putting in
less and less effort has become the order of the day. Therefore, it has to be
balanced by a value-based life and by inculcation of an attitude that earning money
is for leading a respectable life and for helping others who are disadvantaged. The
kingpin in the schooling process is the teacher. In the present study, it is noticed that
most of the prospective secondary school teachers have average level of values. If
values have to be nurtured in children it would be crucial that their teachers function
as role models. So it becomes extremely important that the teacher education aims
at inculcation of values in prospective teachers, who are future teachers.

REFERENCES

Adhikari, G.S. and Hasnain, H. (1988). A Study of Values among Professional

Trainees. Perspectives in Psychological Researches. 15 (1). Pp 44-46.

Agarwal, V. (1959). Value System and Dimensions of University Students of U.P.

(Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis). Lucknow University, Lucknow.

Bajpai, Sunil (1999). A study of Values of Tribal and Non-Tribal Adolescent students.
The Educational Review. 105 (12). Pp 209-211.

Basavayya, Dr. D. (2012). Essentials of Data Processing- A Handbook for

Researchers. Hyderabad. Neelkamal Publications Pvt. Ltd.
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Best, J W. & Kahn, J. V. (1989). Research in Education. New Delhi. Prentice Hall of
India Pvt. Ltd.

Garrett, Henry E. (1981). Statistics in Psychology and Education. Bombay: Vakils,

Feffer and Simons Ltd.

Kanti, K. S. (2011). A Study of Values of Prospective Secondary School Teachers in

relation to Teacher Attitude and Teaching Aptitude. Ph.D Thesis. Acharya Nagarjuna
University. A.P. India.

Kaur, Gurjit. (2011). Value Patterns of Prospective Secondary School Teachers in

relation to their Personality Traits, Cultural Background and Academic Stream. Ph.D
Thesis. Guru Nanak Dev University. Amritsar. India.

Koul, Lokesh (1997). Methodology of Educational Research. New Delhi: Vikash

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