The in-service training of primary school teachers in Greece: views of directors and vice directors of PEK

Gives a brief view of the in-service training of primary school teachers in Greece in the historical contexts as well as the current situation. The major purpose, however, is to investigate the views of directors and vice directors of `̀ regional in-service training centres'' (PEK) about the different aspects of in-service training of primary school teachers. These include: the objectives and curricula of different in-service training programmes; the methodology of teaching and practice; the assessment criteria for trainee teachers; the criteria for the selection of trainees and trainers; the provision of daily allowance for trainees and trainers; the organizational set-up; the financing and nature, duration and management and control of different training programmes. The results showed that generally the respondents were satisfied with the existing situation. The chi-square (w) test demonstrated that position/rank and qualification had no significant impact on the opinions of directors and vice directors regarding most of these aspects. This article is a part of a project that was completed in four years (1994-97) under the guidance of three member committee: Dr Zoi Papanaoum (supervisor), Associate Professor Dr P. Xochellis (professor); and Dr Michael Kelpanidis, Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Education, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. The project was funded by State Scholarships Foundation, Athens, Greece. Their co-operation is highly acknowledged. teaching experience (Presidential Decree, 177/1983,articles 1 and 4). SELDE were closed in the academic year 1991-92 and in the preceding year a new body under the name `̀ Regional In-service Training Centres'' (Peripherika Epimorphotika Kendra/PEK) was established with the purpose of providing in-service training courses for all kinds of school teachers (Hellenic Republic Laws 1566/1985; 2009/1992). It is noted that the creation of PEK was not an incidental decision. The responsible authorities at the Ministry of Education took this decision after lengthy discussions to give the practical shape to the proposals from a research team of Unesco (Chiappano and Vandevelde, 1988) and the two major working groups (Omades Erghasies) formed at the ministry in 1988 and 1991 respectively (Ministry of Education 1988; 1991). With the establishment of 16 PEKs (Ministry of Education, 1995a,b,c,d), a new phase of in-service training of school teachers was initiated. The organization and management of PEK is controlled by the `̀ co-ordinating council'' (Sindonistiko Sumvoulio) at the Ministry of Education. Each PEK is headed by a director who is assisted by two vice directors: one for nursery and primary education, and the other for secondary education. At the platform of PEK, usually three kinds of in-service training programmes are organized: 1 initial in-service training; 2 periodical in-service training; and 3 intensive in-service training. The duration of these three kinds of programmes is up to four months, three months and 10-100 teaching hours respectively (Presidential decree, 250/1992). Initial in-service training has been stopped since the last two years after providing training to 10,247 school teachers (comprising 32 per cent primary teachers) between 1992-94. Besides this a total of 11,690 school teachers (comprising 37 per cent primary teachers) were trained between 1992-94 through different periodical in-service training programmes (Ministry of Education, 1995a,b,c,d). Under the recent organizational changes, a number of `̀ subregional in-service training centres'' have been established at many district level cities under the administrative control of the already existing 16 PEKs. With the result of this decentralization policy, the pace of periodical in-service training has significantly been increased. This can be analyzed from the fact that within the academic year 1995-96, only at PEK-2 Thessaloniki, a total of 1,427 primary school teachers were trained through different in-service training programmes of 8-10 weeks duration. Now both trainees and trainers at each PEK are entitled to an extra-allowance. As regards the programme of study at the PEK, this is the function of each trainer who formulates it in his/her own way, keeping in view the current needs of the school in that particular area. It generally includes the objectives, content outline, method(s) of teaching and assessment procedure for the trainee teachers. At present, the assessment of the training programme is normally based on the completion of a questionnaire which is filled out by the participant trainee teachers at the end of the training course (Saeed, 1997). 2. Purpose of the study . To investigate how the directors and vice directors of PEK conceive of the different aspects of in-service training of primary school teachers. . To investigate whether position/rank and qualification of directors and vice directors have significant impact in formulating their opinions. 3. Method and procedure 3.1 The sample The sample comprised 48 subjects ± one director and two vice directors at each of the 16 PEKs. All the directors were professors or associate professors and belonged to the pedagogical departments of the universities. The vice directors either belonged to higher education institutions or worked in some capacity in other state educational organizations, mostly with the status of teachers or researchers. The average response rate was 62.5 per cent. The flow of responses was more intensive (by 18.75 per cent) in the circle of vice directors than of directors. The response rate varied from PEK to PEK. For instance, from four PEKs both the director as well as the two vice directors responded the questionnaire, but no one responded from two of the other PEKs. From the rest of the ten PEKs, one or two questionnaires were returned. The respondents were more or less varied as regards their qualification and experience. For instance, all the directors held a PhD degree in education or in some other faculty, while the qualification of the vice directors varied from the highest of PhD (40 per cent) to the lowest of Bachelor's degree (40 per cent) in education or in some other faculty; 10 per cent of the vice directors had a Master's degree in education the while other 10 per cent did not mention their qualification. As [ 181 ] Muhammad Saeed The in-service training of primary school teachers in Greece: views of directors and vice directors of PEK The International Journal of Educational Management 13/4 [1999] 180±186 regards experience, a remarkable majority of 83.3 per cent had a vast teaching and research experience of over 20 years. Thus the variable of experience was omitted from the study. 3.2 Instrumentation A semi-structured questionnaire was developed to investigate the opinions of the directors and vice directors about various aspects of the existing in-service teacher training system at primary level. It comprised three sections. Section I contained personal information such as age, sex, name of institution, post/position held, qualification and experience. In section II, the opinions were asked by developing closed-type questions on a six-point rating scale ranging from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (6). The items included the objectives and curricula of different in-service training programmes; their methodology of teaching and practice; assessment criteria for the participant trainee teachers; criteria for the selection of trainers and trainees; financing; organizational set-up, provision of teaching and non-teaching staff and other physical facilities, and daily allowance for trainers and trainees. Section III contained six openended questions and was designed to obtain the suggestions of respondents to improve the existing in-service teacher training system. In order to improve the instrument in terms of language, content and style/format, it was piloted by a small sample of five teacher educators at a PEK in Thessaloniki. The improved questionnaire was then administered on a large scale at all the 16 PEKs between April-July, 1996. 4. Analysis and interpretation of data The data were analyzed by frequency distribution and percentage. In order to determine the significant difference in the opinions of the respondents by their position/rank and qualification, a chi-square test (w) was employed (see Table I). An average of about three-quarters majority of the directors and vice directors was satisfied with the achievement of the basic objectives of the different in-service training programmes at their PEK. These included: development of personality of prospective primary teachers, familiarization of newly appointed primary teachers with the basic educational activities, equipping the prospective primary teachers with the latest knowledge and teaching skills, development of a scientific approach in the prospective primary teachers through the use of modern educational technology, and the co-ordination of school's teaching work with the practical needs of the teachers. The chi-square test demonstrated that there was no significant difference in the opinions of the respondents by their position and qualification. The frequency distribution, however, showed that the highly educated respondents (MEd or PhD) and the directors were comparatively more satisfied with the achievement of these objectives than their low qualified (BA/BEd) vice director colleagues. The opinions of directors and vice directors varied slightly from PEK to PEK. At the time of the study, there was no concrete syllabus for the different in-service training programmes. Teacher-centred curricula were followed at all the PEKs. Every teacher educator or trainer used to plan/ formulate his/her own lesson including basic objectives, content outline, method(s) of teaching and assessment of trainees. A remarkable majority of about three-quarters of respondents were satisfied with the different curriculum development practices at their PEK. They had the opinion that the programmes of study for the different in-service training programmes at their PEK coincided with the objectives. The curriculum developed by the subject specialist teacher educators was more research oriented than that followed at SELDE in the past. Due emphasis was levied on theoretical and practical components. The most probable reason was that the highly qualified teacher educators were engaged in catering training courses and mostly belonged to university faculties. The majority favoured the recent step of establishing some `̀ sub-regional in-service training centres'' (MOKSE) at a number of district headquarters throughout the country. The number of training programmes has substantially been increased, and therefore, the teachers have found sufficient opportunities for attending the refresher courses of interest to them. About a two-thirds majority disfavoured the recent exclusion of practice teaching from the periodical in-service training programmes. Chi-square results showed that there was no significant difference in the opinions of the respondents by their position and qualification. Minute differences in the opinions of the respondents at the different PEKs were obvious due to different teacher educators and the availability of other facilities. In order to further improve the overall process of curriculum formulation, the majority suggested more emphasis on the courses of specialization, bridging the gap [ 182 ] Muhammad Saeed The in-service training of primary school teachers in Greece: views of directors and vice directors of PEK The International Journal of Educational Management 13/4 [1999] 180±186