A Proposed National Framework for Professional Teaching Standards in North Cyprus

The aim of this study is to develop and propose the professional teaching standards (PTS) as a national framework for North Cyprus. The sequential exploratory model was used to manage the aim of this study. Data were collected using qualitative procedures first and then the quantitative procedures. In the qualitative part of the study, a group including educational experts (EEs) and a group including working group members (WGMs) were formed through purposive sampling. The educational experts group members were consisted of 7 people. The educational working group members were consisted of 17 people and comprised of faculty members, experts from the Ministry of Education, school administrators, teachers and educational secretaries of teachers’ trade unions. In the quantitative part of the study, stratified random sampling has been applied. The samples of the quantitative part of the study include 119 school administrators, 490 teachers, 42 executive members of two teachers’ trade unions, 52 faculty members and 32 experts from the Ministry of Education. The sample was composed of a total of 735 randomly selected key stakeholders. With regard to the qualitative data collection of the study, the Interview Form for Developmental Process (IFDP) was used to identify the developmental process with the educational experts, the Interview Form for Key Stakeholders 1 (IFKS 1) was used to identify the dimensions for professional teaching standards and the Interview Form for Key Stakeholder 2 (IFKS 2) was used to identify the draft professional teaching standards with working group members. Besides, Professional Teaching Standards Scale (PTSS) was developed and used to explore the extent to which the key stakeholders agreed with the draft professional teaching standards. The scale consisted of 4 dimensions and included 52 standard items. For data collection and analysis, qualitative and quantitative processes were applied. In the qualitative process, through content analysis, data were put into categories and then themes and sub-themes were identified. Quantitative data were analyzed using Rasch model. Based on this model, facets were identified as (1) teachers, (2) school administrators, (3) faculty members and experts, and (4) all groups and infit mean squares (MNSQ) of each standard item at each facet were calculated. As a result of application of the Interwiev Form for Developmental Process, existing situation, processes, working group, format of the study and study techniques were identified through face-to-face interviews with the educational experts. The educational experts revealed that a number of studies were started within the Ministry of Education for identifying the professional teaching standards, but these studies were not concluded yet. Processes that are necessary for conducting the study have been identified as establishing professional teaching standards and their developmental processes through literature review, determining the working group members, determining the dimensions and draft professional teaching standards through literature, having face to face interviews with the working group members for identifying their compliance with the TRNC’s education system and administering the Professional Teaching Standards Scale to the key stakeholders for exploring the extend to which they agreed with the identified draft professional teaching standards. Working group consisted of 17 members as 4 faculty members, 4 experts from the Ministry of Education, 3 school administrators, 4 teachers and 2 education secretaries from each of the teachers’ trade union. Format of the framework was identified as dimensions and the professional teaching standards. Face to face interviewing technique was decided to use as the study technique. In the study, Professional teaching standards were categorized under four dimensions, namely “professional values and practice”, “professional development and practice”, “teaching and learning process” and “professional relationships and practice.” Working group members were decided to include 52 professional teaching standards on valuing learners, being a role model and entrepreneurship of the “professional values and practice” dimension; professional teaching standards on focusing on learning strategies, knowledgeable expert, research skills, curricular knowledge and active leadership of the “professional development and practice” dimension; professional teaching standards on pedagogical content knowledge, learning as cycles of monitoring, assessment and feedback, planning learning, learners’ responsibilities and special needs of the dimension on “teaching and learning process”; and professional teaching standards on communication and collaboration of the “professional relationships and practice” dimension. Basing upon the identified dimensions and professional teaching standards, the key stakeholders found 45 professional teaching standards fitting the values provided with the Rasch model but they found 7 of them misfitting the values given in the Rasch model. As a result, the national framework developed for professional teaching standards in Northern Cyprus was decided to include four dimensions called “professional values and practice” (12 standards), “professional development and practice” (19 standards), “teaching and learning process” (10 standards) and professional relationships and practice” (4 standards). As a result, a total of 45 professional teaching standards were identified under the aformentioned dimensions. Key Words: Professional teaching standards, professional teaching standards scale, national professional teaching framework, mixed method, Rasch model