Specialization Mismatch in Teaching Senior High School Courses
Keywords:
education, senior high school, curriculum, teaching, teachersAbstract
INTRODUCTION
Teaching is but a never easy job. It requires hard work and persistence, especially when dealing with paperwork and students. With the trend of the curriculum, Senior High School has been introduced in the Philippines. Another 2 years have increased the demand for the number of teachers' needs. Hence, a number of teachers were hired and teachers in HEI and other industries to teach are allowed to teach in SHS. This leads to a specialization mismatch, in which a teacher teaches a course which is not aligned to her expertise. In turn, it has an effect on the curriculum and learning of the students.
METHODS
This study is a qualitative descriptive case study, which deals with the teachers who are teaching the courses not aligned with their specialization.
RESULTS
This study sought the challenged encountered by the teachers in teaching courses which are a mismatch with their specialization. Furthermore, it sought to find ways on how they cope with these challenges. It was found outthat the teachers are spending more time in setting the proper pedagogy since they have not been fully trained to teach the subjects. Likewise, they spend more time studying the concepts which are new to them before teaching it to the students.
DISCUSSIONS
This study has 10 respondents. Specifically, 2 of which are unit earners, or teachers who are a non-education graduate but took 18 units of education courses to qualify in the licensure examination for teachers; while 8 are non-major teachers of the courses they are currently teaching. The main reasons why specialization mismatch occurs are: 1) because of the lack of teachers, and 2)lack of training. The results of this study may prompt a replication in another context.