50 teacher-educators completed the questionnaire and for clarity, the data on each item is presented in percentages using SPSS version 19. In the teacher-educator dataset (N= 50), the percentages were counted from the responses received. Table 6.1 shows the percentages of each group in questions Qs.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 based on the teacher- educators’ questionnaires. N=50 Factors % (a) Ge nder Male 30 Fe male 70 (b) Age Gr oup 24-30 36 30-40 32 40-50 20 above 50 12
(c) Acade mic Qualification
M.Sc. 38
Master in Education 20
Current student of PhD 20
PhD Sc ience 22
(d) Years of e xperience
Less than a year 20
1-5 50
6-10 14
More than 10 16
(e) Courses Taught
Science 56
Both (Sc ience and teaching Method course)
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(a) Table 6.1 shows that 70% of respondents were female teacher-educators. Teacher education courses are accepted among females as the teaching profession is one of the most popular and socially acceptable professions for women in Pakistan.
(b) 36% of respondents were between 24-30 years of age, 32% were between 30-40 years of age, 20% were aged between 40-50 years and 12% were more than 50 years old. The University of X is a young university, established in 2002. This university is in the process of recruiting new staff; therefore, the majority of the respondents were young lecturers and therefore have fewer years of experience than the older ones at the university.
(c) The analysis of academic qualifications of the teacher-educators shows that 38% have a Master’s degree in Science; 22% have a PhD degree in different disciplines in Science, 20% have a Masters degree in Educational Studies; and 20% are currently studying for a PhD in Educational Studies. As the recruitment of new teacher- educators is an ongoing process at the University of X, the majority of the teacher- educators are young and hold an MSc degree or are currently studying for a PhD. (d) 20% of the teacher-educators have less than a year’s experience; 50% have between 1
and 5 years’ experience (the above two categories are also in the young age group), 14% have experience of between 6 and 10 years; and 16 % have more than 10 years’ teaching experiences (the above two categories are in the senior age group). A cross tabulation between teacher-educators’ years of experience and their age group indicates that 36% (the majority of teacher-educators) having 1-5 years’ experience are young and lie in the junior age-group. Also, a correlation (r= 0.43, p=<0.01) indicates a strong relationship between their ages and years of experience. It can be noted that younger teacher-educators are more likely to have fewer years of experience, and that older teacher-educators tend to have more (i.e. more than 5 years) years of experience.
(e) The data also provided details about the courses being taught by the teacher-educators: 58% of teacher-educators taught science courses (these have been identified as ST) and 42% taught both science courses and teaching methods of science courses (these have been identified as BT). The majority of teacher-educators were in the ST category and this difference in the number of teacher-educators is indicative of a common characteristic, as only those teacher-educators with MSc in Science or in Education teach science method courses.
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Cross tabulations show that the majority of women participating in this study were in the age group of between 24-30 years old.
Bar Chart 6.1: Gende r and Age
It can also be observed that the majority of female respondents have an MSc qualification whereas the males have more PhDs than females, though no male teacher-educators had Masters in education. A cross tabulation between gender and years of experience indicates that the majority of both male and female were to be found in the young age group. However, females were relatively higher in the young group with 1-5 years of experience, rather than males. Also, a cross tabulation between gender and courses-taught indicates that the majority of females have been teaching BT which is not the case with the male teacher-educators.
A cross tabulation between academic qualifications and the courses they taught indicates that teacher-educators with an M.Sc. qualification have been teaching science courses and teaching method courses more than any other group, as shown in the graph below:
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Cross tabulation between teacher-educators’ years of experience and academic qualifications and between age and academic qualifications indicated that the young teacher-educators group is higher than the older group at each academic level. The majority of young teacher-educators had either M.Sc. or are currently PhD student- teachers, or already had a PhD. The majority of older teacher-educators (aged above 50 with more than ten years of experience) have a PhD in science, as shown in the graph below:
Bar Chart 6.3: Years of Experiences and Acade mic Qualification
Thus, the cross tabulations show that the majority of teacher-educators are junior (new and young), have an MSc and are teaching ST courses at the University of X. With regard to the responses to question 7 in the teacher-educators’ questionnaire, Table 5.2 shows data on the training the teacher-educators had received.
Trai ning Recei ve d Responses %
Professional development train ing Presentation skills
Hands-on (inquiry-based) science activities Skills for assessing student-teacher
Inquiry-based pedagogy
Co mputer skills (e.g. spread sheets) No train ing offered
48 40 52 44 32 56 64
Table 6.2: Training received by Teacher-educators
7 options were offered to the teachers. It appears from the table that 52% of teacher- educators had received training for hands-on (inquiry based) science activities. The majority of the teacher-educators, i.e. 64%, responded that no training had been offered to them. Thus, the majority of teacher-educators have had no training during their professional time at the University of X.
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