A Study of Factors Affecting Teachers and Students Satisfaction for Nanzhan Primary School s Service in Kunmming, China

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1 A Study of Factors Affecting Teachers and Students Satisfaction for Nanzhan Primary School s Service in Kunmming, China Zhou Yang and Chittipa Ngamkroeckjoti Abstract This study aims to improve the students satisfaction of Nanzhan primary school, in order to enhance the competitiveness. The students satisfaction can increase the school s brand quality. The rapid expansion of school, and significant increases in education costs combined with demographic shifts in the population, force schools to think differently about the role of student satisfaction for their survival. So it is very important for school to improve it. A total of 420 questionnaires of students and 72 questionnaires of teachers were distributed in Nanzhan primary school. The study gave a valuable insight into how students perceive the quality of the services offered at school. In order to increase the student satisfaction, Nanzhan primary school needs to improve cognitive outcomes, teacher satisfaction and student involvement. To increase teacher satisfaction it needs to increase reward & recognition and teacher s interesting. The results show that school should not only improve students factors but also teachers factors in order to increase students satisfaction. This paper provides a model in two levels to analysis the students satisfaction from teachers and students. Keywords Student Satisfaction, Teacher Satisfaction, Cognitive Outcomes, Nanzhan Primary School, China. E I. INTRODUCTION DUCATION is more and more important in the competitive environments. Student learning outcomes assessment has become an increasingly important component of learning environment. Education, as a service industry, is placing greater emphasis on meeting the expectations and needs of their participating customers which are the students [29] (Oscar et al., 2005). Like customer satisfaction, it is important to the company. Thus, student satisfaction is also important to the school. This research will discuss the factors that affect student satisfaction of Nanzhan Primary School from both students and teachers. For teacher, the factors are training and development, reward and recognition, teamwork, stress, and interest. Factors for student are cognitive outcomes from education quality, resource quality and student involvement. Combined Chinese situation and the interview of target population, these become key factors to affect student satisfaction and can be turned into competitive advantage. II LITERATURE REVIEW A. Factors Affecting Teacher Satisfaction The previous research confirmed by the earlier Australian study [12] (Dinham and Scott, 1996), it was found that teachers in schools are most satisfied by matters intrinsic to the role of teaching. Student achievement, helping students to modify their attitudes and behavior, positive relationships with students can be linked to the teacher satisfaction. Teacher satisfaction also can be considered as job satisfaction and employee satisfaction in the school. Job satisfaction is an issue of importance to school because low levels of job satisfaction are related to increased absenteeism and to higher job turnover levels. Also the job satisfaction can motivate the teachers. If the school wants to manage turnover and absenteeism effectively, it must develop employees satisfaction. Job satisfaction is a measure of the quality of life in an organization. Teacher satisfaction can improve the teacher s responsibility for teaching students. Because employee satisfaction can link to customer satisfaction, the teacher satisfaction also can affect student satisfaction. In teacher satisfaction there are five factors affecting teachers satisfaction which are Training & Development, Reward & Recognition, Teamwork, Stress and Interest. Training and development can increase the experience and outcomes of teachers which can affect their organizational commitment and career satisfaction. Pay level refers to the individual s current direct compensation in terms of wages and salary. Raises refer to change in pay level. Benefits reflect indirect pay to the individual in the form of health, retirement and payment for time not worked, and other non-financial returns. Those factors are directly affecting job satisfaction in most situations. A good team can lead the team members who satisfied with their team and lead to greater commitment, fewer absences and reduce turnover in the workplace. Satisfaction was significantly associated with mental wellbeing, so that the more satisfied were also the least distressed as measured through the General Health Questionnaire. It is believed that job satisfaction is directly correlated with the employee s interest and stable work performance. B. Factors Affecting Employee Satisfaction 17

2 Student is treated as the primary consumer of the education service, and uses perceived quality and satisfaction ratings as the main measures of service performance. Education is a service provided to students [21] (Lola and john, 2010). Satisfaction can be defined as pleasurable fulfillment, which means that consumers perceive that consumption fulfils some need, desire, and goal and that this fulfillment is pleasurable. Student satisfaction can increase the school social effect and decrease the turnover of the students. It makes the student trust the school and make work harder on students studying. There are five factors affecting students satisfaction which are Education Quality, Resource Quality, Student Involvement, Cognitive Outcomes and Teacher satisfaction. Cognitive learning outcomes reflect how the school experience has impacted students [21] (Lola and John, 2010). That means the teacher s teaching method and skill and the courses structure are impacted student cognitive outcomes. Education as a service plays a central role in the students lives and students require motivation and intellectual skills to attain their goals. Resource quality support students in self-study and solve problem which interfere in learning and influence student cognitive outcomes [21] (Lola and John, 2010). The cognitive outcomes depend on what the student gives (involvement) and what the student receives (education quality and resource quality) [21] (Lola and John, 2010). A good outcome means students attain their goals and can increase the student satisfaction [21] (Lola and John, 2010). The student satisfaction is depends on the services provide and education quality which affect the cognitive outcomes. Hypothesis 5: There is a positive relationship between Interest and Teacher Satisfaction. Hypothesis 6: There is a positive relationship between Education Quality and Cognitive Outcome. Hypothesis 7: There is a positive relationship between Resource Quality and Cognitive Outcome. Hypothesis 8: There is a positive relationship between Student Involvement and Cognitive Outcome. Hypothesis 9: There is a positive relationship between Cognitive Outcomes and Student Satisfaction. Hypothesis 10: There is a positive relationship between Teacher Satisfaction and Student Satisfaction III. MODEL DEVELOPMENT AND HYPOTHESES The researcher has adopted conceptual model from [21] Lola and John (2010) s model and [29] Oscar et al. (2005) s model. There is a relationship between student satisfaction and cognitive outcomes, education quality, resource quality, student involvement, which is also related to teachers satisfaction. Training and development, reward and recognition teamwork, stress and interest is drawn by interview teachers from teachers interview and [16] Hurley and Estelami s model, [20] Kantsperger and Werner s model, [35] Turkyilmaz et al. model to improve the teacher satisfaction. All those factors are independent variables which influence the student satisfaction. Hypothesis 1: There is a positive relationship between Training & Development and Teacher Satisfaction. Hypothesis 2: There is a positive relationship between Reward & Recognition and Teacher Satisfaction. Hypothesis 3: There is a positive relationship between Teamwork and Teacher Satisfaction. Hypothesis 4: There is a negative relationship between Stress and Teacher Satisfaction. 18 Fig. 1 Conceptual Framework

3 IV. DATA COLLECTION AND RESPONDENTS The target population was the definite group of components or objects processing information that researcher proposed to examine [37] (Zikmund, 2003). In this study, students and teachers working in Nanzhan primary school was the target population as respondents. In this study, descriptive research is used. [37] Zikmund (1997) suggested that survey is a cheap, quick and efficient and accurate means to do assessing information of the population. [37] Zikmund (2003) determined the survey research technique using a questionnaire to gather information and data from a sample of people. The method is a general way to conduct the data collection process. In order to gather respondents data and information, the researcher designs and distributes a questionnaire to achieve it Questionnaires were distributed in classes for teachers and students. The respondents of Nanzhan primary school were categorized into two parts; Teachers were the first part and students were second part. Total 72 teachers and 420 students data were collected. For students only selected Grade 4, 5 and 6, each Grade random chose 140 students. And for Grade 1, 2 and 3, the students were younger than 10 years old and may not give the accurate respond. So they were not included in the data collection. The actual total numbers of respondents were 72 teachers and 420 students. V. MEASUREMENT Pretesting is the management of a questionnaire to a small group of respondents in order to find ambiguity or bias in the questions [37] (Zikmund, 2003). Reliability is the degree to which measures are free from error and therefore yield consistent results [37] (Zikmund, 1997). In order to measure the reliability, the data were tested through SPSS program indicated by Cronbach s Alpha ɑ. If the alpha value is smaller than 0.35, it indicates the reliability is low. If the alpha value is 0.35 to 0.6, then the reliability is high. If the alpha is greater than 0.6, it is significantly reliable. If the alpha value is equal to at least 0.6 it is considered reliable. And in the testing the values were all high than 0.6. After obtaining feedback from the questionnaire, the researcher used the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) program to test the reliability by using the Alpha model in December VI. HYPOTHESES TESTING Pearson s Coefficient is the most popular technique that is able to indicate the relationship between two variables that are suggested by [37] Zikmund (1997). It is a statistical technique which used to analysis whether and how strong the relationships of the variables or not. If r value is -1.00, there is perfect negative correlation and if r value is 1.00 there is perfect positive correlation. When r value is 0.00, there is no correlation. For this research, H1: Training & Development and Teacher Satisfaction is 0.799, H2: Reward & Recognition and Teacher Satisfaction is 0.830, H3: Teamwork and Teacher Satisfaction is 0.843, H4: Stress and Teacher Satisfaction is , H5: Interest and Teacher Satisfaction is 0.668, H6: Education Quality and Cognitive Outcome is 0.806, H7: Resource Quality and Cognitive Outcome is 0.872, H8: Student Involvement and Cognitive Outcome is 0.560, H9: Cognitive Outcomes and Student Satisfaction is 0.799, H10: Teacher Satisfaction and Student Satisfaction is So the Reward & Recognition and Teamwork are the main factors affecting teacher satisfaction, Education Quality and Resource Quality are the key factors affecting cognitive outcome. Both of them are the factors affecting student satisfaction. VII. DISCUSSION OF MAJOR FINDINGS The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship of students satisfaction in Nanzhan primary school. This study find that teachers satisfaction also very import for the students satisfaction even they are two different group of people. They are very strong relationship between each other. So if only focus on improve students satisfaction and ignore the teachers satisfaction is difficult to get a expect result. VIII. IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS Based on the Hypotheses testing results, the school has to seriously consider teachers training and development to increase teacher satisfaction. It also has to work on reward and recognition to increase teacher satisfaction. Nanzhan primary school still need to make great effort in this regard in Kunming city, as the teachers from that school seek feeling of success and satisfaction in their job. In order to create a good teaching environment, the school can start team building to increase team spirit. Regarding this, China education system has to be improved in order to increase student graduate ratio from the scores of single class to the total score of the whole school. School has to mention about stress to decrease the teacher satisfaction. So this research suggests that Nanzhan primary school take measures for teachers to be less stressful in the school, as the teacher performance is already shown by strong graduate ratio. So, pushing them too much will be detrimental is both the teachers and the school. In order to increase teacher satisfaction, the school should engage in ways and meaning to realize it. That people prefer job that be interesting and it is obvious in their respect. So, it advised that the school HR Department provide more 19

4 rewarding opportunities worth working for the incoming teachers. Students care about education quality to increase students satisfaction. The research indicated that education quality is still a very important element for students to choose this school. In order to increase the students satisfaction Nanzhan primary school should improve to upgrade education quality as it is the main objective of the school. About resource quality, research indicated that education quality still a very important element for students to choose this school. In order to increase the students satisfaction Nanzhan primary school is suggested to improve existing school facilities and provide new ones so that students satisfaction enhance. Students do not much care about student involvement. The researcher if of the opinion this is because students, who are influenced by Asiatic culture that willingly or openly expressive. They think student involvement not that important for them. But this situation may change s time goes on and in the future. Some students may think otherwise, so it is advised that the school ready itself for this challenge. In order to increase student satisfaction the school must also include this aspect in its development of student satisfaction. It is necessary for the school to ensure satisfaction for both teachers and students, the two mainstay parties for the success of the whole establishment. This showed that education is made up by two parts and they are inseparable. So school should do more effort on improving teacher satisfaction that means increase students satisfaction. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to all key commentators who have contributed and sacrificed their time to provide guidance, recommendations, and support. This study would not have been completed without their supports. 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