REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES ON THE INFLUENCE OF COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION RESULTS OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS TO THE LICENSURE EXAMINATION FOR TEACHERS: A SYNOPSIS
A Research Article Summary to the Institute of Education of Far Eastern University Nicanor Reyes St., Sampaloc, Manila
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Ed14N (Educational Research)
Presented to: Prof. Lect. Freddie A. Quinito
Presented by: Dela Cruz, Jonh Nicko I. Gaña, Maria Stephanie A. Remoroza, Jobelle F. Tesoro, Edward V.
2013
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Introduction
The Philippine Teachers Professionalization Act of 1994 also known as Republic Act No. 7836 is define as an act to strengthen the regulation and supervision of the practice of teaching in the Philippines and prescribing a Licensure Examination for Teachers and for other purposes. The Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) is the professional board examination given by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to determine who should be allowed to teach. In accordance with the rules of PRC, only qualified and certified teachers are supposed to teach. Salandanan (2001) emphasized that “Licensure for Teachers provided a valuable framework against which teaching practice can be measured and certified. It can easily be considered a critical venue to continuing professional growth and development (p. 61)”. This professional license serves as a passport to practice the profession. According to Arce & Belen (2011), teaching is a profession with a long and cherished tradition. It is universally acknowledge as a respected and highly- esteemed career. Its lifelong mission consists of relentless pursuit of knowledge, development of skills proficiency in work dimensions, and of course a license to teach obtained by passing the Licensure Examination for Teachers. Teacher certification is one of the indicators of teacher quality (Laczko-Kerr & Berliner, 2002 as cited by Ricote, 2008), hence the need to examine its role in student achievement. Other indicators include teacher preparation programs, teacher licensure standards, and professional development for relicensing purposes. According to Pyburn (1990), as cited by Aquino in 2004, teacher certification and licensing systems exist to assure the public that a minimum level of competency has been achieved by practicing teachers, thereby ensuring that unqualified people are not practicing the profession.
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Thus, knowing these indicators of teacher quality, the researchers come to a point of having a study on the influence of comprehensive examination to that of the licensure examination for teachers. A comprehensive examination is a mock professional examination which is done in teacher education institutions before graduation.
The researchers divided the following related studies into three parts: (I) Pre- service Education Programs, (II) Comprehensive Examinations and Academic Achievement, and (III) Teacher Preparation and Licensure Examination.
Pre- service Education Programs
The results of the licensure examination reflect the quality of education that it has provided to its graduates.
The study of Barrientos and Garin(2008) analyzed the readiness and competencies of CAR Senior Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education (BSEd) English Majors to teach the skill and competencies that secondary students must learn as specified in the Revitalized Basic Education Curriculum. The findings of the study revealed the following: 1)The respondents come from varied language backgrounds. They use English in the classroom, the Filipino or Ilocano outside the classroom. Ilocano is the first language of majority of the respondents, although English is the preferred medium of communication in the classroom. 2) The respondents assessed their level of readiness in teaching in the following tasks as neither easy nor difficult. These tasks were: presenting a report, summarizing ideas orally, summarizing
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ideas in writing, participating in oral discussions, and understanding rules of grammar. The same tasks when done in Filipino resulted as easy. 3) The respondents rated their skills in following areas: Reading and Literature, Listening and Speaking as Average. 4) The scores on the content of communication arts revealed that the respondents have poor to unsatisfactory performance in Reading and Language. The following are the competency levels in Reading: Poor – Vocabulary, Diction, Recognizing Supporting Ideas, Identifying Figures of Speech. Satisfactory – Interpreting Graphs, Locating Information, Story Elements, Sequence and Paragraph Comprehension. The Competency levels of students in language are: Unsatisfactory – Grammar, Capitalization, Punctuation Marks. Poor – Sentence Structure, Subject Verb Agreement. Very Satisfactory – End Marks. According to Dr. Mark R. Riney et al.(2006), in their study on the National Implications: Teacher Education Students’ Perceptions of State Licensure Requirements and Pedagogical Training, as a result of the “No Child Left Behind” legislation, many state departments of education are advocating stricter standards of accountability to ensure only “highly qualified” teachers are employed, and many states require teacher education students to pass state licensure examinations to meet the “highly qualified” standard. This study examines teacher education students’ perceptions of pedagogical training and state teacher licensure examinations. Data from open-ended interviews of 267 teacher education students show most teacher education students believe formal pedagogical training and state licensure examinations are important to ensure teachers are well trained before entering classrooms. Although many policy makers are concerned about teacher shortages, our findings seem to confirm that state licensure requirements do not discourage prospective teachers from
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entering the teaching profession; instead, most teacher education students accept licensure examinations as important requirements for any profession such as the law, medicine, or teaching. Based on an analysis of occupational competence in teaching and teacher education, this article draws together a set of dilemmas that face the field, arguing that an occupational analysis is needed to complement the more common institutional analysis of teacher education. Then, this analysis is used to evaluate the prospects of the reforms that currently are dominant in the policy discourse of teacher education. The article concludes with thoughts on some promising directions for the improvement of the field of teacher education. All of the aforementioned studies thus justify the need for the implementation and enhancement of pre-service education programs which contributes to the academic progress of the student in preparing him or her to the real world.
Comprehensive Examinations and Academic Achievement
Elizabeth Montemayor et al. conducted a study on the Mock Examination: Its Influence on Performance in the Licensure Examination for Teachers that looked into the relationship between performance in a mock examination and the Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) of 44 BEED and 76 BSED graduates of the University of the Cordilleras. Findings revealed that there is a significant correlation between performances in the two examinations. Ratings obtained by the graduates in the mock examination can validly predict performance in the L.E.T.
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The article about Helping Students Improve Academic Achievement and School Success Behavior by Brigman and Campbell describes a study evaluating the impact of schoolcounselor-led interventions on student academic achievement and school success behavior. A group counseling and classroom guidance model called student success skills (SSS) was the primary intervention. The focus of the SSS model was on three sets of skills identified in several extensive reviews of educational research as being critical to school success: cognitive, social, and self-management skills. Students in grades five, six, eight, and nine participated. Positive effects on multiple measures were found. Thus, students’ academic achievement affects the results of any examinations especially those kinds of test which will determine if he or she is eligible to be called as a professional in his field of specialization.
Teacher Preparation and Licensure Examination
Thus, students’ academic achievement affects the results of any examinations especially those kinds of test which will determine if he or she is eligible to be called as a professional in his field of specialization.
The study of Shielamarie E. Arce and Josephine L. Belen is intended to reveal the relationship of an In- House review conducted by the College of Education to the results of the Licensure Examination for Teachers. The researchers used the descriptive- correlational method of research. The respondents, consisting of 20 LET takers each from the BSEd and BEEd programs were purposely selected. The researchers used two groups of LET takers, September
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2009 and April 2010 takers. The study revealed that there is a significant correlation between the pre-board and LET results both in the general and professional courses. This result only shows that the ratings obtained by the respondents in the pre- board examination can validly predict their performance in the Licensure Examination for Teachers. This study of Juanita B. Pascua on Determinants of L.E.T. Performance of the Teacher Education Graduates in a State University determined the correlation of personal and educational related factors with the LET performance of the Teacher Education Graduates of NVSU, second semester, S.Y. 2007-2008. The respondents’ personal and educational data were gathered from the Registrar’s records while the result of the LET performance was taken from the PRC through the LET Review Committee. The study used descriptive survey method with the use of documentary analysis. T-test was used to determine the difference in the LET performance when grouped according to gender and degree course. F-test was used to determine if there is significant difference in LET performance and English proficiency of the respondents. Scheffe Post Hoc Test was utilized to determine the significant difference in English proficiency in terms of percentile ranks. There were more Elementary Education respondents than Secondary Education. English proficiency of respondents ranged from 23.0073.75. There were more passers from the Elementary level than those from the Secondary level. Females’ performance in LET was statistically the same with their male counterpart and that the BEEd performed better than the BSEd and all other courses combined (BSMath, BSAExt, BSHT, BSIE, BSAEd).Degree Course, GPA, English Proficiency, and Admission Test Score indicated significant relationship with LET performance.
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A study on the assessment of board performance of bachelor of elementary and secondary education in Olivarez College by Bryon Mariano Suriaga revealed that there is a significant relationship between the performance of the teachers and the board rating of BEED and BSED students.
With the “No Child Left Behind” legislation, many state departments of education are advocating stricter standards of accountability to ensure only “highly qualified” teachers are employed, and many states require teacher education students to pass state licensure examinations to meet the “highly qualified” standard.
Conclusion
The abovementioned studies show that there are a lot of factors that may affect the board performance of the students. The determinants of the LET performance may come from students’ academic achievement, examination ratings, general weighted average, and more as to what the previous researches revealed.
The bottom line of all these studies is that even though there are a lot of factors that may influence the professional examination results, it is still important for one to be able to pass the board examination to gain a licensed and legally practice his or her profession. Passing such licensure examinations means being a professional in your own field of specialization.
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