College Surveys Teachers About Additional Qualification Courses

Ontario teachers who have recently taken courses leading to additional qualifications – Additional Basic Qualification (ABQ) courses, Honour Specialist and the Principal’s Qualification Program (PQP) – generally found them to be relevant and helpful.

In November 1999, the College mailed a survey to a random sample of 1,230 teachers who had taken Additional Qualification courses during the 1999 summer session. The College wanted to learn if the courses were perceived by participants to have met the legislated requirements and expectations for approval established by the College. The College also wanted to determine how helpful participants felt the courses were.

Seventy-one per cent of the sample returned the surveys – a very good response.

More than three-quarters said they found their course useful and motivating. They also rated their primary instructor as good to very good, including the methods the instructors used to evaluate their work.

Almost a third said they had been amalgamated into a class with people from other courses. These respondents rated their courses’ overall usefulness lower than did the other teachers.

Of the half whose course included a practicum, 90 per cent reported it to be a valid experience.

CONTENT RELEVANCE

Course content should reflect current curriculum changes and Ministry of Education policies. The survey listed 16 topics and asked if they were a major or minor part of the course, or if the topics were mentioned briefly or not at all.

The top-ranked topics were:

• new ministry documents (63 per cent said it was a major topic, 24 per cent said it was a minor topic)

• curriculum design (55 per cent major, 30 per cent minor)

• teaching and learning strategies (54 major, 30 minor)

• current research (52 major, 31 minor)

• leadership (48 major, 21 minor)

• assessment, testing, report cards (46 major, 39 minor).

The next group of topics, ranked as major by 27 per cent to 22 per cent, included school councils, child and adolescent development, equity issues and standards of practice.

INSTRUCTOR EXPERIENCE

Instructors with recent and relevant experience should teach a high proportion of the course.

The survey showed that half the respondents were taught by a single instructor. Of the rest, 86 per cent had a series of instructors.

Respondents reported that 58 per cent of the courses were taught by elementary or secondary teachers all or most of the time. Just over 51 per cent of the courses (mainly in the PQP) were taught by school administrators all or most of the time. 

Eighteen per cent of the courses were taught completely by faculty from the universities.

COURSE LENGTH

Regulations require a minimum of 125 hours of course work. Of that time, a minimum of 100 hours is considered contact time, that is, work in a small or large groups. The remaining hours are for reading, preparation and independent study or research.

Of the respondents, 85 per cent said the course met the requirement of 125 hours.

THEORY AND PRACTICE

Courses should also have a balance of theoretical and practical knowledge. Participants’ comments reflected their appreciation for practical knowledge. Few people highlighted theoretical aspects of their courses in their responses.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

Clear criteria for assessing and evaluating teachers’ performance in the course are also important accountability measures.

Eighty-five per cent of the teachers reported that the instructors were very good or good at making sure the assessment criteria were clear. Short written assignments – 89 per cent – and oral presentations – 83 per cent – were, by a large margin, the most frequently used. A range of other formative and summative assessment strategies was also reported by participants.

Participants recognized and appreciated instructors’ efforts to ensure that candidate assessment criteria were in most cases explicit and appropriate.

ACCESS TO COURSES

Since the survey was mailed only to teachers who had taken a course, the survey cannot say accurately how accessible the courses are to all teachers in Ontario.

The survey does report that 18 per cent of the respondents lived away from home while taking the course. About 20 per cent did all or part of their course through distance education.

ISSUES

The College will be following up on a number of issues identified by survey respondents. They include accessibility, the integration of technology and distance education strategies into the course design, the concerns expressed by some participants about the integration of people from several different courses into a single instructional group and the range of assessment strategies used for candidate evaluation.

To view the complete survey, visit the College web site at www.oct.ca/english/professional_{_}affairs/aqs/aqsurvey.htm