Learning is perhaps the most integral and fundamental aspect of mankind. Genetically, a child is born with the ability to learn and the brain becomes the first part of the body to be fed. Indeed, psychology has sought to prove the hypothesis that learning begins cognitively within hours after birth and continues for a lifetime. This makes teaching a noble and perhaps the most important profession. In the contemporary world, great focus has been placed on the subject of teaching in general and the qualifications of a teacher in particular.
Different countries adopt different methods of determining a qualified teacher. Although many of them will prefer combining factors such as academic qualification, teaching experience, and regions where such experiences were gained, some opt to use a single parameter to determine a better teacher. With education systems varying from one region to another, countries have designed specific teacher qualifications for their respective systems. Currently, academic qualifications that were initially considered high enough to secure a teaching position in a high school have been foregone for classroom teaching experience. Similarly, it is also possible to find an active teacher who has been in the profession for up to 40 years but is still considered unsuitable in another country due to low academic qualification. Given the same setting, the question of whether academic qualification or teaching experience makes one a better teacher comes in play. This research paper, therefore, seeks to determine if being qualified/more qualified or having more teaching experience produces a better teacher to teach in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
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Significance
Research has shown that learning between the ages of 1 and 5 can make a difference in the entire life of a human being. It will impact not only the years of learning, but also the individual’s professional, family, and social life. This shows how important teaching is to the lives of the individual learner. A single mishandled class at say the age of ten can impact a child for the perchance 70 remaining years. It is through prime qualification that the best level and format of teaching can be established. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the education system is well defined, and student development will, therefore, be dependent on the teaching skills of a teacher which can be achieved through either experience or higher academic qualification.
Vähäsantanen (2015) points out that academic qualifications obtained from certificate level through the doctorate level equip a teacher on what to teach a child, how to teach, and the general psychological implications of learning. However, according to Papay and Kraft (2015), a teacher who has interacted with children for decades has an almost instinctive level of interaction with the children. This is a level of qualification that cannot be instilled through academic learning. It is, therefore, important to establish which one of the two creates a more suitable qualification in the unique learning environment in Saudi education.
Review of related literature
To understand the suitability of the two levels of qualification in teaching, it is important to understand how teaching works in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Initially, education in Saudi Arabia was purely religious (Pearson, Clarke, & Chambers, 2014). However, it became necessary to include secular teachings due to their relevance in life and the Saudi economy. Therefore, the primary concerns in the formulation of the Saudi education curriculum are religious content and patriotism. Secular teaching albeit important is, therefore, continually made consistent with religious teaching. With the government and religious organizations funding a majority of academic institutions, this level of regulation is absolute (Pearson, Clarke, & Chambers, 2014).
The article by U.S.-Saudi Arabian Business Council (2015) gives ample and recent particulars about Saudi education. There are four primary levels of education with the pre-primary education being optional and parent controlled with a very low enrolment. The absence of systematic learning at the preschool level implies that the foundation set for Saudi students is education from the perspective of tutor experience rather than academics. The children are taught by the parents, and/or siblings and their first exposure to education is, therefore, without the nature of structure that comes from academic qualifications. The 6-year primary education that comes after pre-primary is state sponsored and controlled and an overwhelming majority of Saudi children of about 96% attend this primary education (U.S.-Saudi Arabian Business Council, 2015).
Elyas and Picard (2013) in their research indicate that the entire Saudi education curriculum is circumspectly controlled by the government through the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Higher Education and the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training. Further, some department staff such as members of the presidential guard educates their children independently. The 3-year intermediate education and the 3-year secondary education that come after the primary education are state sponsored and controlled with priority given to religious studies, which take slightly less than a third of all study time.
In secondary education, the students make a choice to attend grammar schools or technical schools. Most grammar schools are state schools with about 70% of technical secondary schools being privately owned. The end of secondary education also marks the ends of formal education in Saudi Arabia. According to Habibi (2015), post-secondary education entails either vocational training or university education and over 70% of students take humanities courses ( Smith & Abouammoh, 2013) . Therefore, most technical students prefer the simpler and less internationally regulated vocational training. The Mansell (2012) study points out that there are also international schools in Saudi Arabia dominated by Philippine schools. International schools cater for about 6% of elementary education in Saudi Arabia with content being monitored by the government though less strict on religious culture.
It is clear from the preceding that education at all levels is a combination of academic teachings, political indoctrination, religious teachings, and cultural derivatives. While considering academic qualification against experience in this case, it will be important to consider these four factors. The article by Alghamdi and Higgins (2015) clearly shows that ICT qualifications are emphasized in the teaching profession in Saudi Arabia and it mostly involves retraining of elementary teachers. Information technology, a field that entails more of learning than experience due to its novelty is also emphasized in Hammond and Gamlo (2015), and this shows a departure in Saudi University from traditional teaching regimens towards adaptation of ICT in learning. Although this clearly shows a leaning towards academic qualification as primary to education, it does not authoritatively approve it as an element of creating better teachers.
The supremacy of academic qualification is also shown by Barnawi and Le Ha (2015) which gives an impression that Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) teachers are highly valued in Saudi Arabia. This is also supported in Alrashidi and Phan (2015) which regard government support for and the pursuit of better training in the English language. This clear departure from the emphasis on the Arabic language is premised on the understanding of the need for sound academic training among the teaching fraternity. Learning a language other than the common language in Saudi does not however, show a better teaching skill.
The government is also showing a bias in developing scientific and technical higher learning in Saudi Arabia as shown by Almazroaand Al-Shamrani (2015). Indeed, the Saudi government has invested billions of US dollars in sponsoring its citizens to undertake tertiary education abroad. However, the government religiously and politically monitors these international programs. Indeed, the Saudi Higher Education Ministry blacklisted Britain as an education destination simply due to the high preference for privately sponsored student. Albeit teaching is mainly done in Arabic, the second most emphasized language of use in Arabic academia is English. The article by Albousaif (2012) clearly shows that a certified locally trained EFL and ESL teacher in Saudi Arabia is way below international standards. This contention is supported by another local study reported by Al-Seghayer (2014). Alkabba et al. (2013) also analyzed teaching staff in the critical clinical health sector and found that the quality of students does not match the international standards upon graduation. This creates the impression of a need for academic qualifications that is not being met by the quality of Saudi-trained teachers.
However, the learning environment in Saudi Arabia is extremely unique. The first peculiarity regards language. As aforesaid, the level of language as used in Saudi Arabia does not conform to international standards. Therefore, even a teacher with high academic qualification will require a unique skill to teach it in a language comprehensive to the Saudi student. Secondly, there is the issue of religious affiliation, which factors in teaching. According to Pearson, Clarke, and Chambers (2014), there is an element of belief as a qualification to teach in Saudi Arabia. It does not necessarily refer to being an adherent of the Islamic faith but rather an internalization of the faith to enable politically correct teaching. This element can only be gained through experience as expounded in Braine (2014).
Hypothesis and definition
The Saudi education environment is quite unique. From the perspective of the student body, their first impression of learning is extremely informal and unstructured. This is because their preschool education is controlled by the parents from an informal setting. The parent is the textbook example of a teacher, who is clearly effective but lacking formal training. This informs the initial concept of education to the children. Therefore, there is clearly a level of qualification in Saudi education that can only be gained through teaching and this creates a definite need for academic training in an environment where a specialized experience is also fundamental. A better teacher will, therefore, be either one who has had several years of teaching experience or one who has the highest academic qualification.
Thesis Statement
Academic qualification and teaching experience are both fundamental to competence as a teacher but their being mutually exclusive can severely jeopardize proper learning. The upshot of the foregoing is that a teacher without an advanced academic qualification would not qualify to teach in the Saudi education system if its importance is dominant. There, however, seems to be a dire need for a specialized form of experience to forge suitability of the academic qualification to the peculiar teaching environment.
Methods of approach
This is a qualitative research premised on actual trends and happenings in the arena of teaching in Saudi Arabia. The research looks at the situation of Saudi academia and attempts to explain how this can be affected by the academic qualification and experience of the teaching fraternity. The study will select a sample of teachers from a population of two sets where the first population will have teachers who have academic qualifications from bachelor's to Ph.D. degrees with little or no teaching experience. The individuals who will represent the entire population will be randomly selected. The other sample will be drawn from a population of teachers who do not have academic qualifications but have been in the teaching fraternity for a long time. This sample will also be randomly selected. Both populations will consist of both male and female teachers. The sample drawn will respond to specified questions through a questionnaire and the results analyzed using statistical techniques.
Preliminary discussion and results
Academic systems across the globe demand a set of qualifications depending on the students’ needs. These qualifications are important from the formative years between one and 5 years to tertiary and specialized education. In Saudi Arabia being a teacher requires primary qualifications but being a better teacher may be determined by either higher academic qualifications or the number of teaching years. The instant research, therefore, focuses more on determining whether several years of experience or academic qualification makes a better teacher for Saudi students.
As previous studies have shown, tertiary education in Saudi Arabia has a strong element of mediocrity. This limits academic qualification and ensures that most teachers gain most of their teaching acumen through experience. This, therefore, creates a scenario where academic qualification becomes a key necessary ingredient in Saudi education. Considering that experience has not been lacking, the only logical input to improve the system would be an injection of high academic qualification. The paradox, however, is without experience there will be an element of ineffectiveness for even the most academically qualified.
On a tertiary level, most higher education tutors are either expatriates or internationally trained. They have a wide range of academic qualifications as well as experience, but teaching in Saudi may require extra skills to ensure that their teaching abilities match the political, cultural and religious demands of the country. A teacher of a subject like history, political science or literature, for instance, will be severely handicapped because the majority of acceptable doctrines in these subjects may not be acceptable to the government regulators. The tutor will, therefore, have to employ extreme caution until they learn political correctness, mainly through experience. The correlation between qualification or experience with being a better teacher in Saudi education brings out a better understanding of what the education system is well suited to give positive academic progress.
Implication of research
The dominance of either academic qualification or year of experience in determining a better teacher to Arab students brings about a new dimension of teaching to the teaching fraternity. Although many people may feel that academic qualification supersedes experience, the knowledge achieved from the teaching experience is not necessarily taught in any institution of higher learning. It is noteworthy that experience is relative, and a person who is experienced in teaching under a different system of might find the practical part of the experience irrelevant in the Saudi education environment. However, from a psychological perspective, there is still a lot of congruency between children and learners globally. This is perhaps why the learning of education as a course in institutions of higher learning is such a practical course. The implication of this research is the creation of an interim balance of necessity for the two levels of qualification. It also creates a necessity for a more specialized analysis of the issue to arrive at a more elaborate conclusion.
References
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