The Structural Relationship between the Role of Instructional Group and Teacher's Quality of Performance

Introduction Instructional Groups are one of the most important elements of educational system that are decisive and crucial in achieving the goals and missions of education quantitatively and qualitatively. Therefore, focusing on their performance and competencies through various aspects, especially in the realm of teaching and their effects on increasing the teacher's quality of performance is crucial. In this regard, the main goal of this study was to present the structural relationship between the instructional group's role and teacher's quality of performance at high schools of Yasooj in the academic year of 2013-2014. In relation to the research objective, the following research question is proposed:  Is instructional group's role a significant anticipant of teacher's quality performance?
Method The statistical method was correlative descriptive. The population includes all teachers at high schools of Yasooj from 2013 to 2014. Participants were 201 teachers (111 men and 90 women) who were selected through stratified sampling method. All of them completed scales of instructional group's role covering four dominants (coordinator, group leader, consultant, evaluator) and teacher's quality of performance covering eight dominants (professional role, relationships, management of course, teaching coaching, cultural competency, monitors and ensures quality education, quality of feedback, task, classroom management). Then, the validity and reliability of instruments were attested and data were analyzed by SPSS 19 and LISREL 8.54.
Results According to the literature review and the importance of instructional group's role in the success of educational organizations to achieve their educational and organizational desirability and also to create favorable conditions for the development of performance quality, the hypothesized model of the structural relationship between instructional group's role and teacher's quality of performance was considered in this research. The results of this study indicated: 1) The dominant component of instructional group's role from the viewpoint of teachers was group leader (M = 3.58). 2) The dominant component of quality of performance from the viewpoint of teachers was relationships (M= 4.23). 3) There was a positive and significant relationship between components of instructional group's role (coordinator, consultant, group leader, and evaluator) and components of teacher's quality of performance (professional role, relationships, management of course, teaching- coaching, cultural competency, monitors and ensures quality education, quality of feedback, task, classroom management). 4) Instructional group's role had a positive and significant effect (β=0.18, PDiscussion and conclusions The first finding suggests that from teachers’ viewpoints, group leadership and communications have the highest means. On the one hand, these findings could be resulted from instructional groups for optimum use of time to implement educational goals, effective verbal and nonverbal communication with teachers, creating suitable opportunities for arising questions, suggestions and ideas in order to have more desirable education, encouraging teachers to develop critical thinking to provide more optimum teaching and learning. It also suggests that it could be a result of constructive interactions between educational groups and teachers, using effective teaching strategies, and dealing equitably with the teaching problems of teachers. Also the role of instructional groups had direct structural effects on the quality of teachers’ performance. From teachers’ points of view instructional groups can affect teachers’ performance via developing a systematic approach to design educational planning, assisting teachers in the description and analysis of the teaching-learning tasks, practical implementation of written lesson plans, selection and use of resources, media and educational strategies, presenting workshops proportionate to the needs of teachers in teaching special courses topics, providing academic visits proportionate to teachers’ teaching needs etc