Reflections on operational competencies required of educators at public secondary schools

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to identify the operational competencies perceived by educators to be important in teaching at secondary schools. The secondary objective was to investigate the relationship between secondary school educators’ overall teaching satisfaction and the identified competencies. The results of the survey indicated that the competency factors that educators perceived to be of importance were: communication and behavior management, interpersonal relationships, planning and assessment, leadership skills, and perseverance and organisational commitment. The level of correlation of these identified factors with teaching satisfaction was also assessed- indicating that interpersonal relationships had the highest correlation with teaching satisfaction and factors like planning and assessment, organisational commitment and communication and behaviour management had a moderate influence on teaching satisfaction.