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In-service Professional Field Expansion Model of Vocational Senior-high Technology Teachers in Taiwan

Abstract

Coping with rapid knowledge growth, career expansion become an important consideration for technology teachers. By getting teacher license of the second professional field, teacher might survive when ever he or she can not find job in the first teaching major. In Taiwan, most of technology teachers get their cross-discipline teaching license through in-service education. The purpose of this study was to identify an in-service teaching professional field expansion model of middle school technology teachers in Taiwan. Based upon analyzing teacher license records, the growth trends of the second license were explored. The populations of this study were vocational senior high school technology teachers at 2009 school year. Totally, 7978 teacher-records were reviewed. It was argued that there might be a decision tree model of professional areas expansion. Teachers in certain professional fields might have higher potential to have multiple licenses. There might be some categorized model for predicting the behavior of crossing professional fields. Based on these arguments, statistical hypothesis were established for verifying according to empirical data. For testing research hypothesis and establishing model, SPSS and Clementine software were applied. Descriptive statistics of in-service teachers’ licenses would be presented to show the distribution of teachers’ professional fields. A decision tree model would be constructed as a classification system to predict and classify future observations based on a set of decision rules. This approach showed several advantages. First, the reasoning process behind the model is clearly evident when browsing the tree. Second, the process will include in its rule only the attributes that significantly in making a crossing-professional-fields decision. According to the research finds, conclusion of in-service professional field expansion would be drawn directed from statistical evidence.

Introduction

Teacher is the soul in a learning environment. A capable teacher could provide learners ensured foundation of erudition. Since the learning needs are changing, teacher should check upon their professions all the time. The market of teaching jobs is also shifting1. Especially, technology teachers are coping with rapid knowledge growth and teaching subjects innovating. To a high school technology teacher, there always is a potential need of teaching career expansion. On the other hand, the population percentage of age under fourteen is decreasing at minus 0.6% each year in Taiwan2. The number of teaching jobs could be decrease if the ratio of students per teacher was kept constant. This potential of teaching job market also plays a force to move teachers getting new licensees. Pre-service teacher education provides teachers with basic teaching ability. In-service teacher education provides teachers with professional development. Through professional development, it is not only improving students’ achievement, but also providing teachers with knowledge crossing teaching areas.

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Yu, J., & Yang, H., & Kuo, L., & Yang, H. (2010, June), In Service Professional Field Expansion Model Of Vocational Senior High Technology Teachers In Taiwan Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--16441