EXPERIMENTS IN EDUCATION

Vol.XXXV September 2007 No.9

ATTITUDE TOWARDS RESEARCH AMONG TEACHERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION-A SURVEY

Dr. Jayant Vyas

Lecturer

Department of Education

Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar

Abstract

An impromptu survey on attitude towards research among the participant teachers in the orientation and refresher programs during March-April 2007 in an Academic Staff College in Gujarat was conducted. It was found that the sample as a whole had a positive attitude towards research. There was no significant difference between the male teachers and the female teachers in their attitude towards research; nor did length of experience, with 5 years' as the cut-off point, make for any difference in attitude to research in the sample. Informal conversations indicated that most of the participants were not aware of the support available for research and did not perceive they had sufficient time for undertaking research.

Introduction

Institutions of higher education have three distinct function namely, teaching, extension, and research. Statutory bodies like the University Grants Commission offer financial support for undertaking research by faculties in institutions of higher education. The attitude of the faculty is critical for the success of such a policy of encouragement of research.

Objectives

1. To ascertain teachers’ attitude towards research.

2. To explore the relationship between the gender of teachers and their attitude towards research.

3. To explore the relationship between the length of experience of teachers and their attitude towards research.

In this scale there were five response categories: completely agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and completely disagree. Each positive statement carried a score of 4, 3, 2, I, 0 respectively and for negative statements the scoring was reversed.

Limitation

The present study covered only the teacher participates in the Orientation and Refresher Courses conducted during March-April 2007 in Shri C. R. Gardi Academic Staff College, Saurashtra University, Rajkot. The teachers were from various P.G. Departments of Universities and from aided and self financed colleges. They were from departments of Sociology, Psychology, History, Politics and Education. There were both male and female teachers and the sample subjects had varying lengths of experience.

TOOL:

The tool was based on Bhogayata (2000). It was a Likert type scale. There were 19 statements in the scale of-which 13 were positive statement in the scale of which 13 were positive and 6 were negative

In this scale there were five response categories completely agree, neutral disagree and completely disagree. Each positive statement carried a score of 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 respectively and for negative statements the scoring was reversed.

NRT 2000 Computer programme prepare The present study covered only the teacher by Rathod was used to establish the reliability and validity of the tool. The reliability of this scale (Cronbach Alpha value) was 0.75 (N = 80) and its construct validity (Cliff 'c' value) was 0.40 (N = 80). The researcher circulated the tool to the sample subjects during the class sessions of the program in the Academic Staff College. The lecturer-participants from the Bhavnagar University were helpful in data collection.

Findings

The mean score of the entire sample of 80 on attitude towards research was found to be 40.20 (70.52%). It can be taken as high in as much as it is more than 50%.

The mean attitude scores of the male and the female teachers were tested for significance of difference:

TABLE I

GENDER AND ATTITUDE TOWADS RESEARCH

Gender	Number	Mean	S.D	t-ratio
Male	52	40.32	4.40
				0.27*
Female	28	39.92	6.84
	.

*not significant at .05 level

There were 52 male and 28 female teachers. The male teachers' Mean Score on the attitude scale was 40.32 and the female teachers' mean score was 39.92. The Standard deviations were 4.40 and 6.84 respectively: the

t-ratio for the difference between mean scores was .27 and it was not significant at 0.05 level. So the null hypothesis is accepted: there is no significant difference between male and female teachers in their attitude towards research.

TABLE 2

LENGTH OF EXPERIENCE AND ATTITUDE TO RESEACH

Experience	Number	Mean	S.D	t-ratio
up to 5 years	20	39.30	6.07
				0.78*
More than 5 years	60	40.48	5.10

*not significant at 0.05 level

There were 20 teachers having upto five years' experience and 60 with more than five years' experience. The t-ratio for the difference between the mean scores of these two groups on their attitude towards research was. 78 and it was not significant at 0.05 level.. So the null hypothesis is accepted. The number of years of teaching experience does not make for any difference in attitude research.

Conclusion

1. The score of the sample on the scale of attitude of teachers towards research was 40.20 (70.52 %).The sample group's attitude towards research was positive (more than 50 %).

2. There was no significant difference between the male and the female teacher sub sample groups in their attitudes towards research.

3. There was no significant difference between the sub sample groups with upto and more than 5 years' experience in their attitudes towards research.

It was found from informal dialogues with the teachers that information about support available for research and sufficient time for research were lacking. Perhaps if they are made aware of the support available for research and given encouragement they may come to have a more positive attitude towards research and also pursue it more actively.

References

Bhogayata ,C. (2000). Scale of Teachers' Attitude towards Research. Unpublished tool ,Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar.

Dillon, J. T.( 1984). The Classification of Research Questions. Review of Educational Research, 54(3), 327-361.

Kothari, R..(2006). Importance of research problem selection. In Joshi and Vyas (ed.), Guidance of educational research: problem selection and data analysis. Department of education, Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar, 10-14.