49

Competency- BasedInservice Instruction forHome Economics Teachers

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate the effectiveness of two compe-tency-based inservice workshops for home economics teachers in Maryland. Teachers enrolled in afamily relations workshop served as the control group. Forty-six teachers and 839 of their studentsparticipated in the study.

The competency-based inservice workshops were effective in increasing knowledge, making atti-tudes more positive, and increasing time spent individualizing instruction. The 3-week workshopwas more effective than the 1-week workshop, and teachers who spent more time individualizinginstruction were perceived by their students as more concerned. Teachers in the experimentaland control groups showed similar mean levels of commitment, and commitment did not change

significantly over the time of the study.(Home Economics Research Journal, September 1979, Vol. 8, No. 1)

Peggy S. Meszaros and Joan BairdThe performance of teachers, their compe-

tency in stimulating and facilitating the growthof students, is generally assumed to be a func-tion of the quality of their own preparation.Unfortunately, traditional 4-year preservicepreparation often does not permit teachers toattain the level of effectiveness to which theyaspire. Inservice education offers opportuni-ties for continued professional development,up-dating in content areas, and introduction ofnew concepts. Although inservice educationhas been a viable concept since the mid-1800’s,few studies exist in either home economics or

general education concerning the effectivenessof inservice programs.

Competency-based education (CBE) repre-sents the culmination and integration of anumber of concepts developed over the yearsand offers a process for systematic design andevaluation of the effectiveness of programs.Methods of introducing this concept into class-rooms and implementing the concept in voca-tional home economics programs are needed.

Competency-based education has been de-fined by Houston and Howsam (1972, pp. 5-6) as &dquo;a simple, straightforward concept withthe following central characteristics: (a) speci-fication of learner objectives in behavioral

terms; (b) specification of the means for deter-mining whether performance meets the indi-cated criterion levels; (c) provision for one ormore modes of instruction pertinent to the ob-jectives, through which the learning activitiesmay take place; (d) public sharing of the objec-tives, criteria, means of assessment, and alter-native activities; (e) assessment of the learningexperience in terms of competency criteria;and (f) placement on the learner of the ac-countability for meeting the criteria.&dquo;

Authors’ addresses: Peggy S. Meszaros, 654 Bay GreenDrive, Arnold, Maryland 21012; Joan Baird, 1215Westwood Drive, Stillwater, Oklahoma 74074.

Research was done at the College of Education,University of Maryland, College Park, and was fundedin part by the Maryland State Department of Education,Division of Vocational/Technical Ed., Part F Funds, andComputer Sciences Center, University of Maryland.

50

Statement of the Problem

This study was an investigation of the effec-tiveness of competency-based inservice work-shops on the knowledge of competency-basededucation, attitude toward competency-basededucation, teaching behavior, and student per-ception of teacher concern for them as individ-uals. Answers to the following questions weresought: Are there significant differences amongthree groups of home economics teachers intheir attitudes toward competency-based edu-cation, implementation of individualization intheir classrooms, and scores on a pre-, andpost-, and delayed post-assessment of knowl-edge of competency-based education and

professional commitment? Do significant dif-ferences exist among the three groups of pu-pils taught by the teachers as to their estimatesof teacher concern for them as individuals?

Related Research

Inservice education, variously called contin-uing education, professional development, andstaff development, has been a standard insti-tution in the educational system of the UnitedStates for a number of years. However, no con-sistent efforts to assess the effects of inserviceeducation were apparent from the literaturereviewed.While numerous articles criticizing compe-

tency-based education continue to appear inprofessional publications (Adams and Shu-man, 1975), the positive features that emergeas a result of the competency-based educationprocess are often overlooked.

A results-oriented approach has been advo-cated by many educators (Gibson, 1967;Thompson, 1967; Thelen, 1971; Ward, 1976).Essentially, it is an approach of measuring theeffects of inservice education by the changes inthe educators and/or their pupils. There is agrowing and substantial amount of evidencethat specifying objectives and instructional

strategies is effective. Travers (1973) cites sev-eral themes that are emerging from researchin teacher education that point toward the suc-cess of a systems or competency-based ap-proach as measured by teachers and pupils.These themes include the effectiveness of a

systems approach to teacher education, role-modeling of teaching behavior, direct involve-ment in the role to be learned, and the use ofpupil-gain measures, both affective and behav-ioral, as the ultimate criteria of teaching effec-tiveness.

z

Research DesignThe basic design of this study was quasi-ex-

perimental. Though this design is limited by itsinability to randomly assign subjects and treat-ments, Campbell and Stanley (1963) encour-age this approach for researchers who wish totake their work out of the laboratory and intothe operating situation.

ObjectivesThe objectives of this study followed the

questions of the problem:1. To design 1-week and 3-week compe-

tency-based workshops to teach the content ofcompetency-based education through the CBEprocess

2. To determine whether a 1-week or 3-week

workshop is more effective in increasingknowledge of competency-based education,changing attitudes toward competency-basededucation, and increasing the time teachersspend individualizing instruction in their class-rooms

3. To determine whether there are differ-ences in student perceptions of teacher con-cern for them as individuals among groups ofstudents taught by teachers attending the com-petency-based workshops and teachers in thecontrol groups and

4. To determine whether changes in knowl-edge about and attitudes toward competency-

51

based education occurred after workshop in-struction.

SubjectsThe study was limited to three groups of

home economics teachers registering for inser-vice workshops in Maryland during the sum-mer of 1975.The 16 members of Group I were partici-

pants in a 1-week workshop, &dquo;IndividualizingInstruction in Home Economics,&dquo; which wastaught with a competency-based approach.The 15 participants in the 3-week workshop,

Group 2, also studied individualizing instruc-tion in home economics through a compe-tency-based approach.Group 3 (control) consisted of 15 teachers

who attended a 2-week workshop, &dquo;TeachingFamily Relations,&dquo; which had no emphasis onindividualization of instruction or competency-based education.

All three workshops were funded by theMaryland State Department of Education

through Part F vocational funds. All partici-pants were self-selected and eligible for tuitionsupport as teachers of home economics in

Maryland. Random assignment to groups wasnot possible. Therefore, the design was basedon Campbell and Stanley’s (1963) Nonequi-valent Control Group Design Number 10. Thegroups were similar as shown by the absence ofsignificant differences in pretest scores on thecompetency-based knowledge test, attitude

scale, and professional commitment measure.All teachers met the standard Maryland certi-fication requirements for consumer and

homemaking teachers.Each sampling unit of students was one in-

tact class being taught home economics with anindividualized, competency-based approach byGroup I and 2 participant teachers. Areas ofhome economics taught included nutrition,child development, clothing, and textiles.Teachers in the control group chose one class

being taught family relations. There were 485students involved in Groups I and 2, and 354

students participated in the control group (3)for a total of 839 students. This number wassomewhat smaller than anticipated due to theruling against student involvement in researchprojects encountered in one county.

Procedure

The research consisted of three phases. Thefirst phase involved developing competency-based inservice workshops focusing on teach-ing the content of competency-based educa-tion while participants experienced achievingcompetencies through an individualized com-petency-based process. Materials were devel-oped for a 1-week workshop and a 3-weekworkshop with parallel forms for a pre- andpost-assessment of knowledge of competency-based education and attitude toward compe-tency-based education.The second phase was implementation of

the 1-week and 3-week competency-basedworkshops during the summer of 1976. Theresearcher taught both workshops. Partici-

pants in Groups I and 2 took the pre-assessment(Form A) of both knowledge and attitude onthe first day of the workshops and the post-as-sessment of knowledge and attitude (Form B)on the last day of the workshops. All partici-pants filled out the Teacher Personal DataSheet (TPDS), which included information ontheir previous individualizing of instruction,and the Measure of Professional CommitmentScale (MOPC) on the first day of the work-shops and the MOPC again on the last day.The control group (3) of home economicsteachers enrolled in a workshop in family re-lations, taught by a subject-matter consultant,completed the pre-assessment (Form A) ofknowledge, attitude, MOPC, and TPDS on thefirst day of their workshop. No instruction incompetency-based education was given to thecontrol group. Teachers in all three groupswere aware they were in a research study.The third phase involved a mailed follow-up

of all participants 6 months after the work-

52

shops. They completed the MOPC, Compe-tency-Based Education Test (Form B), Com-petency-Based Education Attitude Scale (FormB), and the Workshop Follow-Up Form. Incounties where permitted, teachers collecteddata from their students through the StudentEstimate of Teacher Concern.

InstrumentsNine instruments were used for the collec-

tion of data. They included: Measure ofProfessional Commitment Scale, Student Esti-mate of Teacher Concern, Workshop SurveyForm, Competency-Based Education Test

(Forms A & B), Competency-Based EducationAttitude Scale (Forms A & B), Teacher Per-sonal Data Sheet, and the Workshop Follow-Up Form.Teacher Personal Data Sheet. The personal

data questionnaire was constructed especiallyfor this study to elicit from each respondenther previous success or failure with individual-ization of instruction and approximate num-ber of weeks individualization was attempted.Measure of Professional Commitment Scale.

The professional commitment of teachers wasascertained by the Measure of ProfessionalCommitment Scale (MOPC). This self-reportscale was developed by Loftis (1962), who de-fined commitment to the teaching professionas the dedication or devotion of a teacher tothe profession.Student Estimate of Teacher Concern. The

Student Estimate of Teacher Concern (SETC)was originally developed by Nygren (1955) andrefined by Ray (1959) to obtain measures ofthe degree to which students felt that teachersgave them recognition, understood their mo-tivation, and helped them.Competency-Based Education Knowledge

Test. A review of the literature revealed no in-strument which met the needs of this study forassessing knowledge of the components ofcompetency-based education. Therefore,equivalent forms of a knowledge test followingprocedures advocated by Arny (1953), Gron-lund (1976), Ahmann and Glock (1975), and

Tuckman (1972) were developed. A table ofspecifications was developed with items re-

viewed for content validity by a group of 10educators having recently participated in in-tensive CBE instruction. In order to furtherestablish content validity of the equivalent testforms and to obtain a measure of equivalencefor the two forms a group of 31 educators

completed Forms A and B of the knowledgetest. Analysis of the correlation of their scoreson the equivalent forms of the knowledge testshowed a Pearson Product Moment Correla-tion of .79. The estimated coefficient of relia-

bility (Spearman-Brown) was .85 for Form Aand .80 for Form B.

Competency-Based Education AttitudeScale. No test to measure attitudes toward

competency-based education could be locatedthrough a review of literature or personal in-quiries at the time of the study. Therefore,equivalent forms of a Likert-type attitude scalewere developed following procedures advo-cated by Tuckman (1972), Gronlund (1976),Shaw and Wright (1967), and Edwards (1957).The estimated coefficient of reliability (Spear-man-Brown) was .87 for Form A and .85 forForm B. The Pearson Product Moment Cor-relation Coefficient between Forms A and Bwas .89.

Workshop Follow-Up Form. The WorkshopFollow-up Form with seven items was designedto collect data from all groups at the end of the6-month follow-up of the workshops. Ques-tions related to the amount of time spent im-

plementing competency-based individualizedinstruction, specific techniques and methodsused, amount of success, additional helpneeded, and student reactions. This self-reportinstrument was field tested with home eco-nomics teachers and revised to relate as closelyas possible to the objectives of the competency-based workshops.

Data AnalysisOne way analyses of variance and covariance

were used to test significance of difference

53

among groups with the .05 level as criterionfor hypothesis support.Knowledge related to competency-based ed-

ucation, attitude toward competency-based ed-ucation, weeks spent individualizing instruc-tion through competency-based education,opinions related to the workshops, and studentscores on the SETC were the variables used toevaluate teacher behavior and the effectivenessof the workshops.The moderator variable was professional

commitment, defined operationally as thescores on the MOPC developed by Loftis

(1962). Loftis used professional commitmentto describe teachers who are serious in theirintent to remain in the profession and to maketheir efforts count in achieving high quality ineducation. The moderator variable is de-

scribed by Tuckman (1972) as a factor that iseither measured, manipulated, or selected bythe researcher to discover if it modifies the re-

lationship of the independent variable to anobserved phenomenon. In this study profes-sional commitment is used as a moderator vari-able in examining differences among teachersin the three groups and their implementationof competency-based education.

LimitationsThe limitations of this study include: the

small number of subjects in each group; all

participants were home economics teachers inMaryland; and all participants were self-se-

lected volunteers. All generalizations drawnfrom this study should be limited to the popu-lations sampled, or applied cautiously to groupsand settings that closely resemble those in-

cluded in this investigation.

Results

Findings of this study can best be presentedaccording to the analysis for each hypothesis.

Hypothesis OneThere will be no difference in the mean scores on

the Measure of Professional Commitment (MOPC)Scale between home economics teachers who attendthe inservice workshops on CBE and home economicsteachers in the control group attending a workshopon family relations.When MOPC pretest, posttest, and delayed

posttest scores were analyzed, no significantdifference was found between experimentaland control groups. Since the MOPC was cho-sen as the moderator variable, this findinglends support to the equivalence of groups.

Hypothesis TwoPosttest scores on the Competency-Based Educa-

tion Test will be higher for teachers attending theCBE workshops than teachers attending the familyrelations workshop.

Hypothesis two was supported by the data.The analysis of covariance showed a significantdifference at the .05 level in posttest scoresafter being adjusted for the pretest. A compar-ison of means of the three groups is shown in

Figure 1.

Hypothesis ThreeDelayed posttest knowledge scores on the Compe-

tency-Based Education Test will be higher for teach-ers attending CBE workshops than teachers attend-ing the family relations workshop.When posttest scores of CBE knowledge for

all three groups were analyzed, a significantdifference (.01) was found, with the experi-mental groups scoring higher than the controlgroup (Figure 1 ).

Hypothesis FourThere will be no difference in attitude toward

CBE of the home economics teachers attending the 1-week workshop on CBE and home economics teachersin the 3-week workshop on CBE as measured by theCompetency-Based Education Attitude Scale.There was no significant difference between

the experimental groups when posttest scoreswere adjusted for the covariate pretest attitudescores; therefore, hypothesis four was sup-ported. Figure 2 shows mean attitude scoresfor the three groups at the different time pe-riods.

54

FIGURE 1Mean scores of 3 groups of workshop partici-pants on pretest, posttest, and delayed posttestof competency-based education knowledge test.

Hypothesis FiveDelayed posttest attitude scores on the Competency-

Based Education Attitude Scale will be higher forteachers attending the CBE workshops than teachersattending the family relations workshop.An analysis of covariance among all three

groups showed that the F ratio was significantat the .01 level; therefore, hypothesis five wassupported.Teachers in the 3-week workshop had the

highest delayed posttest scores; teachers in the

1-week workshop had slightly lower scores;and teachers in the control groups had signifi-cantly lower scores (Figure 2).

Hypothesis SixTeachers attending the CBE workshops will report

more time spent individualizing instruction in theirclassrooms during the 6 months following the work-shops than teachers in the control group attending aworkshop on family relations.

55

FIGURE 2Mean scores of 3 groups of workshop partici-pants on pretest, posttest, and delayed posttestof competency-based education attitude scale.

Hypothesis six was supported by the datawith a significant difference at the .0 1 level. Ananalysis of Table 1 shows that teachers in the3-week workshop reported twice as much timeindividualizing instruction as teachers in the 1-week workshop. Teachers in the control groupsreported significantly less time than either 1-

week or 3-week CBE workshop participants.

Hypothesis SevenTeachers attending the CBE workshops will report

more time spent individualizing instruction in theirclassrooms during the 6 months following the work-shops than they reported for the 6 months prior to theworkshop instruction.

Hypothesis seven was supported by the data.When the amount of time reported for indivi-dualizing instruction 6 months after CBE

workshop attendance was compared with timespent individualizing prior to the work-

shops, there was a significant difference (.O 1 )(Table 1).

56

57

Hypothesis EightTeacher scores on the Student Estimate of Teacher

Concern will be higher for students of teachers par-ticipating in the CBE workshops than students ofteachers in the control group attending a workshopon family relations.

Results of an analysis of covariance amongthe three groups showed a significant differ-ence at the .01 level, supporting hypothesiseight (Figure 3).

Conclusions and Implications for FurtherResearch

In conclusion, the effectiveness of a compe-tency-based inservice workshop on increasingknowledge and positive attitudes about com-petency-based instruction was supported forthe teachers sampled. Compared to the controlgroup, teachers who participated in the com-petency-based workshops spent more time in-dividualizing instruction and were perceivedby their students as being more concerned forthem as individuals.There are at least four areas for future re-

search suggested from the data and proce-dures in this study: Further study of the valid-ity and reliability of the Competency-BasedEducation Test and Competency-Based Edu-cation Attitude Scale, use of the competency-based inservice format model with larger andmore diverse subject-matter groups of teach-ers, use of the competency-based inservice for-mat as a model in developing additional inser-vice workshops, and follow-up studies of

participants after 1 year to determine contin-ued effectiveness of workshop instruction.

References

Adams, A. H., and Shuman, R. B. Reflections oncompetency-based instruction. Contemporary Edu-cation, 1975, 46, 266-268.

Ahmann, J. S., and Glock, M. D. Evaluating PupilGrowth: Principles of Tests and Measurements. Bos-ton : Allyn and Bacon, 1975.

Arny, C. B. Evaluation in Home Economics. New York:Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1953.

Campbell, D. T., and Stanley, J. C. Experimental andQuasi-Experimental Designs for Research. Chicago:Rand McNally, 1963.

Edwards, A. L. Techniques of Attitude Scale Construc-tion. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1957.

Gibson, D. Inservice Education-Perspectives for Edu-cators. U.S. Educational Resources InformationCenter, ERIC Document E.D. 015 161, 1967.

Gronlund, N. E. Measurement and Evaluation in

Teaching. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.,1976.

Houston, W. R., and Howsam, R. D. Competency-Based Teacher Education: Progress, Problems, and

Prospects. Chicago, Illinois: Science Research Asso.,Inc., 1972.

Loftis, H. A. Identifying professional commitmentand measuring its extent among selected mem-bers of the teaching profession. (Doctoral disser-tation, The Pennsylvania State University) AnnArbor, Mich.: University Microfilms, 1962, No.63-4007.

Nygren, L. G. An exploratory study of teacher con-cern and its measurement. (Doctoral dissertation,Cornell University) Ann Arbor, Mich.: UniversityMicrofilms, 1955, No. 15524.

Ray, E. Relationship of students’ estimates of teach-er concern to teaching effectiveness. (Doctoraldissertation, Cornell University) Ann Arbor,Mich.: University Microfilms, 1959, No. 60-616.

Shaw, M. E., and Wright, J. M. Scales for the Measure-ment of Attitudes. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967.

Thelen, H. A. A cultural approach to in-serviceteacher training. Improving In-Service Education. InL. Rubin (Ed.) Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1971.

Thompson, J. D. Organizations in Action. New York:McGraw-Hill, 1967.

Travers, R. M. Second Handbook of Research on Teach-ing. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1973.

Tuckman, B. W. Conducting Educational Research.New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1972.

Ward, W. G. Inservice education of vocational andtechnical educators: A results-oriented approach.In S. Goodman (Ed.). Handbook on ContemporaryEducation. New York: Bowker, 1976.

Received January 18, 1978; accepted September25, 1978.