Earlier, in Table 5.3.2A the distribution of activities of 85 teachers was reported. Since some
of the teachers did not report their respective age group, the sample size has reduced to 80. Of
the 80 teachers in the survey group, 38 perform at most 9 activities, and 42 perform more
than 9 activities. Of those teachers that perform more than 9 activities, the largest proportion
is from the age cohort 41-50 years. Similarly, for teachers performing at most 9 activities the
modal age group is 41-50 years. The distribution of activities across the five age groups is
shown in Table 5.3.3A.
Table 5.3.3A Number of activities performed by teachers in various age groups
Activities Age Age of Teacher
Total
Activities 21-30yrs 31-40yrs 41-50yrs 51-60yrs over 60yrs All
At most 9 activities 4 7 21 5 1 38
More than 9 activities 1 8 25 8 1 42
Total 5 15 46 13 2 80
There are also several small non-zero entries in activity patterns of teachers, and these empty cells make tests for statistical independence of age and number of activities, unreliable
(invalid). In order to have validity in testing for the dependence of activity on age – it is
necessary to recode the age categories as well as the main tasks performed categories. Two
groups of performers are identified: all teachers performing the modal number of activities, or
more; and, those teachers performing less than the modal number of activities. Similarly, all
teachers are recoded into two groups: those teachers aged 41-50 years, and teachers in other
aged categories. This recoding yields a new 2x2 cross classification table that has adequate
degrees of freedom with which to perform chi-squared tests of independence. The results of
the recoding and analysis, thereof, are shown in Table 5.3.3B below.
Table 5.3.3B Common of activities performed by teachers in various age groups Age Groups
Activities, Test Statistics Other age 41-50 years Totals
Activities ≤ 9 19 25 44
Activities >9 20 21 41
Totals 39 46 85
Tests (Diagnostics)
Level of significance α=0.05 Chi-square critical value 2.7055 Chi-square test statistic 0.2679
p-value 0.6050
At the 5 percent level of significance, the chi-square critical value is 2.7055, given the
degrees of freedom associated with this cross-classification. The chi-square test statistics
(χ=0.2679, p-value=0.6050), suggest that the evidence available is not sufficient to reject the null hypothesis of independence of number of activities and age of the teacher. In other
These results might suggest that, this cohort of teachers and the subgroups in their respective
age groups are essentially polychronic. That is, there is no discernible difference in the way
in which teachers accomplish a set number of activities. It other words, it is not the younger
or older teachers undertaking too many activities in the school. This result is important
because years of teaching experience is normally linked to age, and teachers in the 41-50 year
age group are often assumed to be taking too many responsibilities in the school. All the 85
primary teachers in the sample may simply be juggling all the activities presented to them,
and then allocating time to a multiple of activities that are often performed concurrently.
It is also possible that the lack of evidence with which to reject the null hypothesis of
independence of number of activities and age of the teacher may be a result of the way the
activity and age groups are clustered, or the fact that ‘years of teaching experience’ should
have been used instead. In Table 5.3.3B two age groups and two activity groups were
presented. It might of value to broaden both the teacher’s age groups and the number of
activities, by looking at those teachers that are early-career (under 11 years of experience
(Day, Sammons & Gu, 2008)) , mid-career (11 to 20 years of experience (Day et al., 2008))
and late-career (over 20 years of experience (Day et al., 2008)). This broadening yields a 2x3
cross-classification table. The properties of this classification table are presented in Table
5.3.3C, below.
The chi-square statistics (χ=3.6970, p=0.1570), reported in Table 5.3.3C show that there
insufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis of independence of number of activities and
teaching experience. The results reflect those presented earlier in Table 5.3.3B. In other
words, more experienced teachers are undertaking the same or similar number of activities as
their counterparts. These findings are important in as far as they point to the fact that
whatever makes the workloads or time-use different may not necessarily be in the number of
number of activities (n_active) is a significant determinant of daily and weekly time use, by
running OLS, SUR and IV regressions. The results of the analyses that use this suite of
techniques are reported in Section 5.10.
Table 5.3.3C Number of main tasks performed by teachers in experience groups Early-
career
Mid-career Late-career Totals
Activities ≤ 9 6 12 24 42
Activities > 9 9 16 14 39
Totals 15 28 38 81
Tests (Diagnostics)
Level of significance (α) 0.05 Chi-square critical value 9.488 Chi-square test statistic 3.6970
p-value 0.1570
Notes: Early-career=under 11 years experience, mid-career=11 to 20 years experience, and Late-career=21 plus years of experience.