Open AccessJOB ANALYSIS OF THE KNOWLEDGE IMPORTANT FOR NEWLY LICENSED SOCIAL STUDIES TEACHERS
Author(s) -
Norback Judith Shaul,
Bukatko Patricia A.,
Wesley Scott,
Rosenfeld Michael
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
ets research report series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.235
H-Index - 5
ISSN - 2330-8516
DOI - 10.1002/j.2333-8504.1996.tb01710.x
Subject(s) - civics , social studies , government (linguistics) , praxis , social science , pedagogy , sociology , subject (documents) , psychology , mathematics education , public relations , political science , library science , linguistics , philosophy , computer science , law
The purpose of this study was to conduct a job analysis focusing on the knowledge important for newly licensed (certified) Social Studies teachers. The results of the job analysis will be used to develop test specifications for the Subject Assessment in Social Studies of the Praxis Series: Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers™. A domain consisting of 10 major knowledge areas (United States History, World History, Skills/Themes, Government/Civics/Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Geography, Economics, and Pedagogy Specific to Social Studies) and 483 knowledge statements was developed by subject‐matter experts. Due to the large size of the content domain, two survey forms were developed. Form 1 consisted of the major areas of U.S. History, World History, and Skills/Themes and contained 249 specific knowledge statements. Form 2 consisted of the areas of World History, Government/Civics/Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Geography, Economics, and Pedagogy Specific to Social Stuies and contained 234 statements. These survey forms were then administered to a national sample of social studies teachers, administrators, and college faculty whose names were obtained from the membership of the National Council of the Social Studies (NCSS). In addition, a supplementary group of teachers from schools with high levels of minority students (80–100%) and teachers with five or less years of teaching experience were included in order to increase the likelihood that a sufficient number of responses from these groups would be available to reflect their perspectives on the job of a newly licensed social studies teacher. These professionals rated the importance of each knowledge area and statement using a 5‐point rating scale that ranged from 0 (of no importance) to 4 (very important). A cut point of a mean importance rating of 2.50 (the midpoint between moderately important [scale value 2] and important [scale value 3] was established to identify the core of important statements. The results of the mean analysis conducted for teachers and college faculty in the primary sample and for teachers in the supplementary sample for Form 1 showed that 19 of the 249 knowledge statements were rated less then 2.50 by one or more of the three groups. This represents 7.6% of the content domain. The corresponding results for Form 2 yielded 21 (9.0%) statements with mean ratings below the cut point. In the mean analysis for subgroups, 34 (13.7%) statements were rated below 2.50 for Form 1, while in Form 2, 29 (12.4%) were rated below the cut point. The knowledge statements that were verified to be important by the surveyed teachers, college faculty, and the demographic subgroups should be used as the foundation for the development of test specifications.