A Comparative Study of the Competencies of In-Service Promoted and Directly Selected Elementary School Teachers Regarding Classroom Management in District Karak (Pakistan)

Classroom management is a critical part of effective and successful instruction. Effective teaching learning process depends upon effective classroom management. Effective classroom management depends upon the competencies of teachers. Therefore the study was conducted to explore and compare the competencies of in-service promoted and directly selected elementary school teachers regarding classroom management in District Karak, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (Pakistan). The objectives of the study were: (a) to compare the competencies of directly selected and in-service promoted elementary school teachers regarding classroom management (b) to explore the weak and strong points of directly selected and in-service promoted elementary school teachers regarding classroom management and (c) to suggest proper ways and means to improve the quality of elementary school teachers regarding classroom management. All the students at Elementary Level in District Karak, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (Pakistan) constituted the population of the study. In order to ensure adequate representation of sample, only 1350 students studying in forty five schools at elementary level in District Karak were selected randomly. From each school, 05 students from class 6 th , 10 from class 7 th and 15 students from 8 th were selected. The study was descriptive in nature therefore, the researchers decided to develop questionnaires for the collection of data. Two questionnaires were developed for the whole sample. One questionnaire was prepared about in-service promoted elementary school teachers and the other was prepared about directly selected elementary school teachers. Pilot testing was conducted to explore the weakness, misconceptions and ambiguities of the questions in questionnaires in order to make it more reliable and authentic. After conduction of pilot testing, the questionnaires were revised and then their final versions were prepared. The researchers personally visited to the respective sample students and distributed two two questionnaires among the participants. In this way data was collected. After the collection of data, the data was organized, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted. Percentage and chi-square were used for the statistical treatment of the data. After statistical analysis of data, the researchers concluded that the overall performance of the directly selected elementary school teachers is better and highly appreciable. On the other hand, the performance of the in-service promoted elementary school teachers is poor and unsatisfactory. On the basis of findings and conclusions, it is strongly recommended that special training should be given to the existing in-service promoted elementary school teachers in classroom management and teaching methods to equip them with the modern teaching methods and techniques so that they may perform their duties effectively. KEYWORDS: Elementary School Teachers, Competencies, Classroom Management, Elementary Level