Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Research at Palawan State University – Puerto Princesa

Abstract

The university teachers’ attitudes towards research may affect their research productivity, and in turn, influence the university research production. This cross-sectional explanatory study sought to assess the attitudes towards research of teachers at Palawan State University – Puerto Princesa (PSU) and determine how their attitude factors might vary across demographic variables age, gender, academic degree earned, teaching experience, tenure status, and rank. It also aimed to determine how their attitudes predict their research productivity. The Attitudes towards Research (ATR) Scale for university teachers developed by Shafqat, Manzoor, & Tariq (2018) was adopted to determine the attitudes of 155 teachers from the different colleges of the University. For analyses, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, MANOVA, and multiple linear regression were used. Results showed that, generally, PSU teachers have a positive attitude towards research in terms of research orientation, rewards influence, personal interests about research, mission of the university, and research use, but a negative attitude in terms of research anxiety. The PSU teachers’ attitudes towards research did not significantly vary across gender, tenure status, and professional rank. However, significant differences were obtained in terms of age, academic degree earned, and teaching experience. PSU teachers had very low research productivity in the past five years, particularly in terms of research projects they authored or co-authored, published refereed articles, published books, chapters in edited books, and refereed presentations. Their attitudes towards research account for 20 percent of their research productivity, with their research orientation being the most important predictor-attitude factor. Provision of research opportunities such as having professional development programs on research, standardized research activities, publication facilities, and graduate scholarships among teachers were recommended. Other factors that affect teachers’ research productivity were also recommended to be explored.