Identification and Prioritization of High School Chemistry Teachers’ Occupational Duties and Tasks Using the DACUM Process

To improve the quality of any occupation within an organization, two important steps have to be taken: Identification of the duties and tasks related to that occupation, and the required competencies for the person who is expected to do the tasks. Taking these two steps for teachers of different learning areas such as chemistry can help improve professional skills and the quality of teaching. To this end, ten of the experts in this area were invited to participate in a workshop wherein the teaching profession was analyzed and the duties and tasks of a chemistry teacher were thoroughly identified using the DACUM process. The results were categorized and approved by the participants to include five duties each with a number of tasks: Teaching and learning management with 10 tasks; assessment and evaluation with 8 tasks; management and leadership in the learning environment with 9 tasks; learners’ development with 8 tasks; and professional development with 10 tasks. In order to prioritize these duties and tasks, a questionnaire with 45 items was constructed and then filled by the participants wherein they ranked different tasks in terms of importance, frequency, and hardship. Results show that the most important and frequent duty is assessment and evaluation, while the least priority was given to professional development. In terms of hardship no significant difference was found between different tasks; hence, prioritization was not possible. These findings can help identify a competent and effective chemistry teacher