Teachers’ perceptions of challenges facing pre-vocational education in Jordanian middle schools

Abstract EN

This paper was conducted to identify the Pre-vocational Education (PVE) teachers' perceptions of the challenges hindering the effective implementation of PVE in Jordanian middle schools.

To that end, a questionnaire of 28 items integrating four categories of challenges was developed.

These included: a) values and attitudes, b) economic, administrative and human related challenges.

The questionnaire was administered to a random cluster sample of (302) PVE teachers from four educational directorates in Irbid Governorate in the Northern Region of Jordan.

Results revealed that PVE teachers are confronted with a number of challenges; namely negative public attitudes and perceptions towards PVE, lack of facilities and materials for training students, and incompetency of PVE teachers themselves.

There were significant statistical differences regarding teachers’ perceptions of economic challenges which can be attributed to the gender factor.

Results also showed other statistical differences which can be attributed to teachers’ area of expertise or specialization.

A number of recommendations were offered to mitigate the effects of identified challenges faced by PVE teachers.