English abstract
The general objective of the present study was to investigate the quality of the ITTCs program in TEFL as determined by identifying the degrees of satisfaction of these institutions' graduates and EFL faculty members as well as the EFL inspectors affiliated with the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman.
To attain this general objective, three research questions and three corresponding hypotheses were generated. The questions were related to the different program components whereas the hypotheses related to group differences on the satisfaction ratings. The questions were stated as follows: Question 1: To what extent are the ITTCs graduates and teachers satisfied with the academic training of the TEFL program of these
institutions?
Question 2: To what extent are the ITTCs graduates and teachers and the ELT inspectors satisfied with the pedagogical training of the TEFL program of these institutions? Question 3: To what extent are the ITTCs graduates and teachers satisfied with the organizational aspects (namely teaching practice and length of the program) of the TEFL program?
The three related hypotheses (stated in the null form) were as follows: Hypothesis 1: There are no statistically significant differences between the degrees of satisfaction of the graduates and the ITTC teachers with the components of the academic training (namely pedagogical courses, specialization courses, and general education courses). Hypothesis 2: There are no statistically significant differences between the degrees of satisfaction of the graduates, the ITTC teachers, and EFL inspectors with the components of the pedagogical training Hypothesis 3: There are no statistically significant differences between the degrees of satisfaction of the graduates, the ITTC teachess and the EFL inspectors with the organizational constituents, namely teaching practice and the length of the program.
In order to deal with the above questions and hypotheses a questionnaire was developed, validated, piloted and administered to the informants. The samples of informants consisted of 180 ITTC graduates, 23 ITTC teachers, and 34 EFL inspectors. The collected data was subjected to descriptive statistics (especially means and standard deviations) and inferential statistics (t-test and Oneway ANOVA). The descriptive statistics were used to address research questions that were related to the respondents' satisfaction with the main components of the program and their constituents. The inferential statistics were used to test research hypotheses about the differences between the groups of respondents on their ratings of the program components.
The results of data analysis can be summarized in the following conclusions: (1) The ITTC graduates and teachers were not satisfied with the pedagogical and the general education courses of their TEFL program. This feeling of disatisfaction was especially strong among the ITTC teachers who gave these components significantly lower ratings than the graduates did. However, contrary to these two components the specialization courses were rated as moderately satisfactory and this was done by both groups of informants, the teachers and the graduates. (2) The three groups of respondents (the graduates, the ITTC teachers and the EFL inspectors) were, in general, dissatisfied with the subject matter training the ELT methodology and general pedagogy. However, they showed a reasonable degree of satisfaction with some of the graduates' administrative abilities. (3) Overall, the teaching practice (which refers here to all the
practical teaching activities of the trainees) received slightly below moderate ratings from both the graduates and the ITTC teachers; however, some aspects of this component were judged as satisfactory. This was the case, for example, with the amount of supervision and guidance given to the trainees. (4) There was a general feeling among both the graduates and the teachers that the program was not long enough to allow for an adequate study of the courses. (5) Although there were aspects of the program on which the groups of respondents showed some agreement in their degree of satisfaction (e.g. the specialization courses), there were others on which the groups differed significantly. When the differences did occur and when they involved all three groups, the graduates tended to express a higher level of satisfaction than either the teachers or the inspectors. On the other hand, the teachers and the inspectors tended to give about the same satisfaction ratings.
The implications of the present study included the following: (1) the use of qualitatively-oriented data in future research for the evaluation of teacher training institutions; (2) establishing within the new structure of the ITTCs evaluative routines for the continuous improvements of their programs; and (3) maintaining in the new curriculum the strength of the specialization courses and improving the quality of the pedagogical and general education courses by making them more relevant to trainees' needs and interests.
