Office Productivity Skills of Lalaan Central School Teachers in Microsoft Word: Basis for an Action Training Program

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

One of the most vital defining characteristics of our century today is that information is increasing at a level too fast to catch up. In such an atmosphere, it is unavoidable to develop, create, and update the different skills of every people in information-based professions. Or else, their status and professional skills may be questionable. The effective use of Information and Communication Technology as a pedagogical tool integrated into the subject being taught is for improving the teaching and learning by the teacher to all his students. The researcher, as a member of the academe as elementary public school teacher in Lalaan Central School from the District of Silang II, was motivated to conduct this study, which she believed will be able to provide the school administrators data pieces of information on how to establish an action program to enhance the teachers' skills and knowledge in order to achieve the objectives of each subject and the school's goals.

METHODS

The descriptive method of research was utilized. It involved the gathering of information to find out to what extent of Office Skills are demonstrated by the teachers. To evaluate the Office Productivity Skills of the Elementary Teachers of Lalaan Central School, the researcher used a self-made questionnaire and an adapted questionnaire from Chowdhury (2009). It was administered to the respondents as a measuring instrument in gathering the data. To present, analyze and interpret the data of the study, the frequency and mean were used to determine the Office Productivity skills in Microsoft Word of the elementary teachers as evaluated.

RESULTS

Finding reveals that elementary teachers in Lalaan Central School are very highly competent in the basic skills like opening and closing Microsoft Word program and doing some formatting of the texts. There are some items that are fairly competent like saving and printing documents, inserting a header and footer, using numbered and bulleted list and spell grammar checker.

DISCUSSIONS

Using ICT can help the teachers in choosing the right resources that are suited for the teaching and learning situations of the teachers and students inside the classroom. This helps the teachers in giving effective presentations and explanations of the topic they are discussing and can make the teaching and learning more exciting and interactive since there is an integration of the ICT that the teachers and students can use during the discussion.