Abstract
This study was to determine the competencies and service quality of government employees teaching part-time at the university. The study collected data on the assessment of the teachers about skills and students regarding the service quality of their teachers in a private non-sectarian university in Cebu City, Philippines. The part-time teachers in the university have extremely high competencies in methodology, motivation, material utilization, instructional process, teaching evaluation, and interaction process. As these college teachers gain experience both in school as teachers and as government employees, they are also enriching their ability and commitment to teaching and for the goal of quality education. The quality of their services is learned through their readings research and self-learning activities as part of their continuing education. The level of competencies among the part-time teachers in the university is not significantly associated with their service quality delivery.
Introduction
Changes brought about by globalization and technology transform education. Global emphasis on the teacher's role in the development of the society shows the world's concern for teachers' competencies. Readings have it that global competence is critical for innovation in the 21st century. The new models of higher education are improving quality, increasing market share, and lowering the cost. ASEAN Integration 2015 has brought so many challenges in the academic, because of the difficulty of attuning the educational approaches to the problems of internationalization and teacher's ability to teach. The changes in the labor market make schools adjust to become more innovative educational systems by equipping it with highly competitive teachers.
Their students are also strongly satisfied with their teachers' service quality on reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and responsiveness. Regardless of teachers' age, sex, civil status, and education, they are competent teachers because of their wealth of experiences at work and home. Teachers' profile on age, length of service, sex, civil status, and highest educational attainment are not associated with their teaching competencies. This study proves that the teachers' age, length of service, sex, and civil status are not predictors of their service quality. Their highest educational attainment of the teachers, the better is their service delivery to their students. Their learning and experience in graduate education contributed to their superior service quality.
It is said that every right school has a great teacher to achieve its goals and objectives because a good teacher is a central concern of the educational system and is the most significant component in the order of education. The university hires experienced and academically equipped teachers whose job their work exposure has honed expertise. Experience in any profession is considered as an asset. This holds for teaching, Bhargava and Pathy, (2011). It is keeping the importance of knowledge in mind. Lieberman et al. (2000) reported that the experience of a teacher gives him confidence and improves his performance in teaching, motivating, encouraging, and leading students.
Government employees work in a range of different contexts that combine to shape their professional profile. Their prior learning and professional preparation form part of their competencies and add value to the academic experience of the students through mentoring and experiential learning. Added to these, government employees are given a long period of institutionalized training which helps them acquire specified practical experience in some sort of employment role" (Turregano and Fleenor, 2010). They perform what they teach. There is a need to find out what competencies do they have as well as the quality of service.
Assessing the employees' competencies and quality of service will determine the set of skills, knowledge, abilities, capabilities, and work performance that teachers should have for them to be qualified for the position and meet the set of expectations the university set for them. Moreover, it will help the supervisor find a practical approach on how to handle an employee with a reduced productivity level and how to strengthen an employee with good performance further.
Lastly, it has been observed that several studies have been done separately on competencies and service quality. To cite some, there was this research on "Teacher's Competence in Change," conducted by the researchers of the University of Gothenburg, dated November 23, 2010, which studied teacher's competencies from the perspectives of different stakeholders like teachers, educators, students, directors and parents. It summarized teachers' skills as the ability, over time, to relate oneself both to the expectancies and demands of society, as well as to one's qualifications/conditions. Another study on teacher's competencies was conducted by David Newby of the University of Graz entitled "Competence and Performance in Learning and Teaching: Theories and Practices." This work examined the different ways in which both competence and performance have been defined by linguists and considered how differing interpretations of these concepts had influenced foreign language learning and teaching. Yet, none has been done to find out the relationship between the competency and service quality of teachers. Lastly, there are several researchers working on the teaching competences, yet no consensus has reached on the teaching competences (Aydogdu, E., 2007). What is more, the studies on teaching competencies are mainly on general teaching competences, and these general competencies may not fit well to specific disciplines. This study seeks to lessen the gap in the literature on this particular topic to make this as one of the references to those who will conduct similar studies in the future.
The skills of the teachers are independent of their level of articulation on service quality. Some teachers have very high competencies yet low in-service quality and vice versa. Finally, the part-time teachers' level of skills varies significantly as well as their service quality according to the specific dimensions. Therefore, some teachers have high methodological competencies but lower motivational competencies and vice versa. Those who have high material utilization may have a more economical instructional process or vice versa. The same is accurate of service quality. It is concluded that there are teachers who have superior delivery intangibles but little empathy or vice versa. These are those who have high assurance but low in reliability and vice versa.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
This study determined the competencies of part-time teachers and service quality of a private non-sectarian university in Cebu City, Philippines. The study collected data on the assessment of the teachers about their competencies and that of the students regarding the service quality of their teachers.
Accurately, this study answered the following:
- What is the profile of the respondents in terms of age, sex, civil status, highest educational attainment and number of years in the university?
- What are the levels of competencies of the teachers working part-time at university in terms of methodological competencies, motivational competencies, material utilization, instructional process, teaching evaluation and interaction process?
- What is the level of service quality on teaching rendered by the teachers in terms of reliability, assurance, tangibility, Empathy and Responsiveness?
- Is there a significant relationship between the teachers' profile and competencies, profile and service quality and competencies and service quality?
METHOD (FOR RESEARCH ARTICLE)
This study made use of a quantitative research method. Bryman and Bell (2005) describe that a quantitative approach means that data is collected with the aim of trying theories. The reason for choosing a quantitative method for this case study is that the researcher wanted to gather a lot of data that would show the level of competencies and service quality of selected teachers. Two sets of questionnaires were used to obtain the needed data. The first instrument was based on the SERVQUAL- questionnaire, which consisted of 28 different statements. Those statements were also divided into five different dimensions, namely, tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy. The competencies and service quality of the employees working in the government were described systematically factually and accurately utilizing the answers gathered. Correlational is conducted to explore "the extent to which competencies and service quality of employees associate with each other, that is, where employees' competencies and service quality have relations to each other. To determine the skills and service quality of the respondents, this study employs descriptive design such that it seeks to determine the extent or level of the variables.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Profile of Teachers
In terms of age, 33.33% of the employees have maturities ranging from 41 to 50 years old (n=17). They are followed by employees whose ages fall between 31 to 40 years old, representing 27.45% and employees aging 21 to 30 years old, representing 21.57%. On the other hand, 17.65% of the employees have ages ranging from 51 to 60 years old. The mean of employees' age is 40.45 years old. In terms of sex, 52.94% of the respondents were males, and 47.06% were females. In terms of civil status, 56.86% of the employees were married, followed by 35.29% who are single employees. However, 7.84% of the employees did not specify their civil status. In terms of length of service in a university, 60.78% of the employees have served the university for five years or less. They are followed by 15.69% of the employees who have been around in the university for 6 to 10 years, while 7.84% of the employees have served the university for 11 to 15 years, and 3.92% have been around for 31 to 35 years. On the other hand, 5.88% of the employees did not specify their length of service, while 1.96 of the employees have been in UM for 16 to 20, 21 to 25, and 26 to 30 years, respectively. The mean of employees' length of service to the university is 6.48 years. Lastly, in terms of highest educational attainment, 50.98% of the employees were full-fledged master's degree holders, followed by 23.53% of the employees who are at least college graduates and full-fledged doctoral degree holders. On the other hand, 1.96% of the employees have earned units in master's degrees.
Competencies of Teachers
Teachers were found to exhibit a very high level of methodological skills, having a composite mean of 3.60; very high level of motivational competencies having a composite way of 3.71; to exhibit a very high level of material utilization competencies, having a composite mean of 3.54; and very high level of instructional process competencies, having a composite way of 3.63 with a verbal description of "Very High"; very high level of instructional process competencies, having a composite mean of 3.59; very high level of motivational competencies, having a composite way of 3.44;
Service Quality of Teachers
Students perceive that their teachers exhibit a very high level of reliability of the services extended, having a composite mean of 3.42 with a verbal description of "Strongly Satisfied"; very high level of assurance of the services continued, having a composite way of 3.55 with a verbal description of "Strongly Satisfied; highly ensure adherence to the tangible aspects of the services extended, having a composite mean of 3.35 with a verbal description of "Strongly Satisfied"; very high level of empathy in the delivery of services extended, having a composite mean of 3.48 with a verbal description of "Strongly Satisfied; and very high level of responsiveness of the services extended, having a composite mean of 3.35 with a verbal description of "Strongly Satisfied" with a verbal description of "Strongly Satisfied.
Test of association was also conducted to determine the relationship of teachers' highest educational attainment was correlated with teachers' service quality. The computed χ2 was found to be 11.3071, which is greater than the critical value of 5.991 at df=2. Hence, the null hypothesis of no association is rejected, which means the educational attainment of the teachers is directly associated or related with their service quality at 0.05 level of significance.
Correlation analysis revealed that when teachers' competencies were correlated with teachers' service quality, the computed rxy was found to be -0.05918, which is less than the critical value of 0.27606 at df=49. Hence, the null hypothesis of no relationship fails to be rejected and is therefore accepted, which means that the relationship between teachers' competencies and teachers' service quality is insignificant at 0.05 level of significance.
28. The test of difference revealed that the computed F-value was 4.38808, which is higher than the tabular value of 2.05, which is significant at the 0.05 level of significance. This means that there is a considerable degree of variance in the service quality delivered by the teachers when grouped according to the six competencies of teachers employed. Thus, the null hypothesis of no difference is rejected.
Conclusion
The part-time teachers at the university being studied have extremely high competencies in methodology, motivation, material utilization, instructional process, teaching evaluation, and interaction process. Their students are also strongly satisfied with their teachers' service quality on reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and responsiveness. Regardless of teachers' age, sex, civil status, and education, they are competent teachers because of their wealth of experiences at work and home. Teachers' profile on age, length of service, sex, civil status, and highest educational attainment are not associated with their teaching competencies. Further, this study proves that the teachers' age, length of service, sex, and civil status are not predictors of their service quality. Their highest educational attainment of the teachers, the better is their service delivery to their students. Their learning and experience in graduate education contributed to their superior service quality. As these college teachers gain experience both in school as teachers and as government employees, they are also enriching their ability and commitment to teach and for the goal of quality education. The quality of their services is learned through their readings research and self-learning activities as part of their continuing education.
Furthermore, the level of competencies among the part-time teachers in the university is not significantly associated with their service quality delivery. Therefore, the skills of the teachers are independent of their level of articulation on service quality. Some teachers have very high competencies yet low in-service quality and vice versa. Finally, the part-time teachers' level of skills varies significantly as well as their service quality according to the specific dimensions. Therefore, some teachers have high methodological competencies but lower motivational competencies and vice versa. Those who have high material utilization may have a lower instructional process or vice versa. The same is accurate of service quality. It is concluded that there are teachers who have superior delivery intangibles but little empathy or vice versa. These are those who have high assurance but low in reliability and vice versa.
