Browsing by Author "Shega, Temesgen"

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    Leading Secondary School Teachers for Organizational learning: A Comparative Case Study of Government and Private Schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
    (Addis Ababa University, 2017-02) Shega, Temesgen; Holger, Emeritus (Professor); Chinapah, Vinayagum (Professor)
    School leadership is not merely getting hold of the status, but it is having dependable theoretical and practical attributes the status demands. In order to fulfill the demands of leadership, it is normal to challenge followers in scholarly ways and to be challenged by followers for the good of the organization. This is one possible way of differentiating a leader from a manager. Thus, the study was targeted to explore how the actual school principals’ actions enhanced/discouraged the commitment of teachers to organizational learning in the selected schools. The study was initiated because of two basic reasons. The primary reason was that lack of research evidence’ of how leadership actions and competencies inspire teachers for organizational learning. Second, although leadership actions are decisive for schools’ success, the school principals’ roles as a leader were not recognized by the society. In a similar way, management functions are more credited than leadership roles by the actors themselves in Ethiopia. Qualitative case study was used as a research design and semi- structured interview, observation, and document analysis were the data gathering tools. The findings show that the school principals and teachers have similar perception of the importance of organizational learning. Although they have similar insights about the concept and importance of organizational learning; its implementation was not the same in the studied government and private secondary schools. The major finding of the study reveals that the government school principal was perceived by teachers as ineffective in leading OL. They felt that CPD as one of the strategies for organizational learning is top-down by its design and it does not match to the realities in the school. The school principal used transactional leadership approach to achieve the school’s goals and applied his legitimate power in leading the teachers for work place learning. The teachers complained that their ideas were not given attention and not valued. Senior teachers considered themselves as master minds of the school because of their long years teaching experience and they discouraged novice teachers when they come up with new ideas. Sense of "we" and "they" was deep-rooted between the school management and teachers. A culture of working together was not well developed; teachers blame the school administration and the school administration accuses the teachers. On the contrary, leadership actions in the private school were transformative. The school principal had shown adequate potential to motivate and persuade the teachers to learn new things and he had been willing to listen to teachers' voices, to read teachers' interests and needs. He served as a role- model by making himself life-long leader-learner in his retirement ages, valued collective endeavors and an individual’s contributions. The teachers were also open to accept new ideas, professional comments and they visited each other’s classrooms and tried together new pedagogical arts. At the institution level new ideas were welcomed regardless of power and position. The teachers solved the school problems together, valued collective endeavors and an individual’s contributions, visited each other’s’ classrooms and tried together new pedagogical practices. Key words: leadership, transformational leadership, organizational learning, and learning culture
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    Major Factors that hinder the implementation of Constructivist Teaching Learning Approach: The Case of Two preparatory Schools of Kolfe-Keranyo Sub-City (Ayertena and Millennium)
    (Addis Ababa University, 2010-06) Shega, Temesgen
    Th purpose of this study wa to investigate the major problems that hindered the implementation of eTLA from constructivism philosophical pedagogical and p ychological points of view. The problem of the study wa non- involvement of preparatory school students in knowledge and meaning construction. Both qualitative and quantitative re earch methods were u ed. Qualitative re earch methods was employed to explore participant ' experiences, views feeling and opinions regarding the implementation of eTLA. Questionnaire was used as tool of data collection. 54 teachers and students were 'elected based on purposive and snowball ampling techniques. The major findings of the study were: the teaching learning process was one way communication,' learning was limited at recall and comprehension levels, high order thinking was ignored,' except language teachers, the rest were not confident to implement eTLA in their respective classes,' basic facilities and infrastructures were not fulfilled,' the prevalent curricula were not conducive to implement eTLA and student were criticized for committing mistakes. The researcher concluded that didactic teaching was the dominant teaching approach. Teachers lacked adequate knowledge and practical skill in implementing eTLA.As a re ult they were not in a position to assist student to con truct their own knowledge and meaning from the learning material. So the teaching learning proce s was not healthy from con tructivist teaching learning point of view. Teaching learning was on shaky-ground. hort-term training for the teachers on the job, revising the existing curricula from eTLA point of view; redesigning the teachers ' training programs in line with eTLA,' assisting student to construct their own knowledge and meaning; motivating teachers for life-long learning and conducting intensive research for generalization were recommended as olutions b) the researcher .
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    A Study on Teaching Competencies of Bachelor Degree Holders in Teaching Preparatory Classes (11 Th And 12th Grades) : The Case Of North Shewa Zone (Oromia)
    (Addis Ababa University, 2004-06) Shega, Temesgen; Dufera, Dirbsa (PhD)
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of high school teachers (those who have first degree) in implementing the new curriculum according to the new direction of teaching (teaching how to learn). Dewey argued that a quality or effective teacher has the "ability to think scientifically, an unusual love and aptitude in some one subject, genuine insight into all subjects and the ability to communicate love of learning to others. " If education is under consideration, the aim cannot be merely to train students, as if they are dogs, to act in certain ways. But education concerns teaching with regard for students' capacity to know, understand and reason. Education should not be reduced to training or conditioning behavior. In the last 12 years many promising actions have been taken to raise the quality of education at all levels. Varieties of instructional materials and equipment have been purchased, short training and workshops have been conducted and new curricula have been developed, but the competence of curriculum implementers (teachers) has not been investigated yet. There is information that high school teachers are not implementing the curriculum the way it is expected. Students have discussed it formally and informally, as teachers are not competent enough to implement the curriculum. Some teachers also reported as they faced difficulty in implementing the new curriculum. This complains initiated the researcher to conduct research on teachers' competence in implementing the curriculum. This study followed a descriptive survey method. Questionnaires were administered to available samples of 67 teachers (to those who have bachelor degree in teaching) and to 33 instructional leaders (principals, vice principals, department heads and supervisors). Classroom observation, document analysis, structured and unstructured interview were also used to collect detailed information. The findings indicated that a large proportion that is 73.13%, 88.06%, 94.03%, 100.00% and 70.115% of the teachers rated themselves as "poor" in stimulating thought provoking questions, in using varieties of teaching methods, in relating lessons to students personal experiences and real world situations, and in organizing instructional tasks that advance higher order thinking respectively. It was concluded that most teaching in North Shewa Zone (Oromiya) was formal and didactic. Activity-based learning was rare. Some teachers were aware of other methods but they rarely used them. Pre and in-service programs will have to prepare prospective teachers in both professional skills and attitudes necessary for accepting teaching responsibilities. The teachers also have to develop their capacity for self-sustaining professional growth. Since subject matter knowledge, pedagogical and psychological skills are the prerequisite criteria for teaching, the researcher recommends that all teachers should be committed all the time to improve their subject knowledge and pedagogical and psychological skills through reading up-to-date educational and research literature, because it is quite impossible to train teachers fully and for life during initial teacher training.
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    A Studyon Teaching Competencies of Bachelor Degree Holders In Teaching Preparatory Classes (11 Th And 12th Grades): The Case of North Shewa Zone (Oromia)
    (Addis Ababa Univerisity, 2004-06) Shega, Temesgen; Dufera, Dirbsa(PhD)
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of high school teachers (those who have first degree) in implementing the new curriculum according to the new direction of teaching (teaching how to learn). Dewey argued that a quality or effective teacher has the "ability to think scientifically, an unusual love and aptitude in some one subject, genuine insight into all subjects and the ability to communicate love of learning to others. " If education is under consideration, the aim cannot be merely to train students, as if they are dogs, to act in certain ways. But education concerns teaching with regard for students' capacity to know, understand and reason. Education should not be reduced to training or conditioning behavior. In the last 12 years many promising actions have been taken to raise the quality of education at all levels. Varieties of instructional materials and equipment have been purchased, short training and workshops have been conducted and new curricula have been developed, but the competence of curriculum implementers (teachers) has not been investigated yet. There is information that high school teachers are not implementing the curriculum the way it is expected. Students have discussed it formally and informally, as teachers are not competent enough to implement the curriculum. Some teachers also reported as they faced difficulty in implementing the new curriculum. This complains initiated the researcher to conduct research on teachers' competence in implementing the curriculum. This study followed a descriptive survey method. Questionnaires were administered to available samples of 67 teachers (to those who have bachelor degree in teaching) and to 33 instructional leaders (principals, vice principals, department heads and supervisors). Classroom observation, document analysis, structured and unstructured interview were also used to collect detailed information. The findings indicated that a large proportion that is 73.13%, 88.06%, 94.03%, 100.00% and 70.115% of the teachers rated themselves as "poor" in stimulating thought provoking questions, in using varieties of teaching methods, in relating lessons to students personal experiences and real world situations, and in organizing instructional tasks that advance higher order thinking respectively. It was concluded that most teaching in North Shewa Zone (Oromiya) was formal and didactic. Activity-based learning was rare. Some teachers were aware of other methods but they rarely used them. Pre and in-service programs will have to prepare prospective teachers in both professional skills and attitudes necessary for accepting teaching responsibilities. The teachers also have to develop their capacity for self-sustaining professional growth. Since subject matter knowledge, pedagogical and psychological skills are the prerequisite criteria for teaching, the researcher recommends that all teachers should be committed all the time to improve their subject knowledge and pedagogical and psychological skills through reading up-to-date educational and research literature, because it is quite impossible to train teachers fully and for life during initial teacher training.