الاحتياجات المهنية لمعلمي العلوم الجدد في المرحلة الأساسية في مدارس محافظة نابلس في فلسطين من وجهات نظرهم
The purpose of this study is to investigate and determine the teaching needs of the newly appointed (1-3 year experience) science teachers at Nablus governorate basic schools from their point of view. The effect of authority (government, UNRWA, private), faculty (science, educational science), sex and school level(upper basic, lower basic), on the degree of teaching needs was also investigated. The study aimed to get answers for the following questions: 1) What are the professional needs of new science teachers at Nablus governorate basic schools ordered according to their perspectives? 2) Is their any difference in the new science teachers professional needs in Nablus governorate basic schools with respect of variables (authority, faculty, sex and teaching stage)? Methodology: The sample of this study consisted of 210 newly appointed science teachers (84 males, 126 females) representing 100% of the study population. Questionnaire of 46 items was used to measure the degree of concerned teachers needs in five dimensions: (teaching planning, teaching implementation, teaching methods, laboratory and evaluation). Teachers ranked their needs toward each item on a five point Likert scale. The study tool also consisted of a group of proposed measures to meet the needs, in addition to an open question for other needs. The content validity was assessed by 9 educators. The internal consistency coefficient was calculated. The collected data was analyzed to get the means, standard deviations and percentiles of the whole study instrument, dimensions and items. Findings and conclusions, the results of the study revealed the followings: The responses of the newly appointed science teachers on the teaching needs were medium on the whole instrument and its five dimensions and also on 45 items, where it was weak on the item (preparing lesson plans) with mean 2.49. The five dimensions had descending order in means according to the degree of need: laboratory, teaching methods, planning, teaching implementation and evaluation. Science teachers of ministry of education and private schools had medium degree of teaching needs but UNRWA teachers had low degree of needs. Equal means for both groups: science graduators and educational science faculty graduators. (Author’s abstract)