Can An Educational Leader's Professionalism Be Judged Via Written Language?

Author(s):

Heidi Flavian(presenting / submitting)Doron Dan

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

11. Educational Improvement and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 11 A, Paper Session

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-25

17:15-18:45

Room:

OB-E2.14

Chair:

Andra Fernate

Contribution

How we express ourselves is very often the basis for how society judges our professional and cognitive abilities, and hence also the process of how we integrate into society. But are teachers and educational leaders in fact judged according to the language they use?

Throughout their years of schooling, pupils are expected to learn to use spoken and written language in different ways. From the moment a child enters the school system there are programs for verbal enrichment and proper use of the language for purposes of communication and self-expression. Beyond the teaching of the language itself, teachers of other disciplines also use spoken and written language in ways that directly and indirectly teach their pupils how to use language.

The participants in this study were 308 student teachers, teachers and parents who were asked to rate a teacher's professionalism on the basis of reflections written in various language registers. The findings of this study show that though the contents were the same for all language registers, even when the raters judged the level of the teacher's professionalism to be low, they did not connect this to the low level of language the teacher had used.

Method

This study applied a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. 308 participants anonymously completed questionnaires containing seven statements to which they were asked to respond by ranking their agreement on a scale of 1 to 6. In addition there was one open-ended question. The quantitative information from the closed questions was gathered and analyzed according to frequency comparisons, while the information from the written responses was analyzed according to the text analysis approach and sorted into preset categories in accordance with the statements. The research population consisted of 90 parents of pupils attending the school at the time of the study, 92 teachers actually teaching at the school and 126 student teachers. Each participant was asked to read one written reflection originally written by an elementary school teacher. To the end of this was attached the questionnaire described above. The original text was rewritten in three different registers according to the approach of having low, medium, and high level language. This rewriting was carried out in accordance with the parameters characterizing these types of language as tested in various studies (Schlesinger, Ravid & Sarel, 1996; Schlesinger, 2003). In addition to answering the questions on the text itself, the participants were also asked to provide personal data so that it would be possible to find out whether there were differences between participants according to their age, gender, teaching seniority or the discipline they teach. All the participants completed the questionnaires voluntarily, and in order to maintain their privacy, they were not required to provide any identifying details, only information that was useful to the study without individual identification.

Expected Outcomes

Quantitative analysis of the data and the information about the participants yielded two main points: 1. Analysis of all the answers given it emerges that the variables of the participants' background did not lead to differences in their responses. In other words, there was no difference between the participants' responses in view of their being teachers, parents or student teachers. 2. The study participants were able to distinguish a low language register compared to the medium and high registers, but did not distinguish between the medium and high registers. The open-ended question allowed participants to make any suggestions they wanted to the 'teacher' in order to enhance her teaching. Out of all the participants, only 5% related to the low language register, recommending that the teacher improve the language of her teaching and writing. All other recommendations related to the importance of expanding the teacher's knowledge of the subject of study, greater familiarity with the pupils and their cultural background, and the development of differential approaches to teaching. This study was developed in order to understand the importance of the use of written language as a basis for rating a teacher's professionalism. To our surprise, the research participants barely related to the level of language used, even though the literature insists that the higher the language register a person uses, the more highly regarded he or she is. From these findings we raise few questions, as for the major one is the question of the content that should be taught during teacher training. Should we continue to stress the importance of using correct language or perhaps invest greater training time in extending the teacher's professional knowledge?

References

Bar-Ilan, L., Nir-Sagiv, B., & Sternau,M. (2006). Vocabulary as a diagnosis tool: Hebrew vs. English. Hebrew as a dynamic language, 4: 71-86 (Hebrew). Mochnik, M. (2001). Language in a context. Language, Society and Culture. Tel-Aviv: Open University Press. (Hebrew). Pomeranz, B. (2010). Loving the Hebrew language. Atrog, 49: 6-9. (Hebrew). Shiniak, M. (2013). Poor language and lack of knowledge: what can language-education can do about it?. Multi language: Hebrew as a cultural language. Jerusalem: Van Leer Institute. (Hebrew). Shlezinger, Y. (2003). Analytic feature of low language. In: Shlezinger and Muchnik (eds.). Studies collection of practical linguistics. 341-356 (Hebrew). Shlezinger, Y., Ravid, D. & Sarel, T. (1996). Developing understanding of the variety levels of language uses among teachers. Tel-Aviv: Mofet. (Hebrew). Skedi, A. (2011). The meaning behind the words. Tel-Aviv: Ramot. (Hebrew). Wales, K. (2001). A dictionary of stylistics. Harlow, Eng. Longman. Berman , R . A . & Ravid , R . (1999). the Oral / Literate Continuum: developmental Perspectives. Final Report Submitted to the Israel Science a Crosslinguistic developmental. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence. Erlbaum.

Author Information

Heidi Flavian (presenting / submitting)

Achva Academic College

Teacher Education

Nes Ziona

Doron Dan

Achva Academic College, Israel

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