Competence of Professional Media Staff as a Predictor of Instructional Use of Library Media Programs in Selected Public Schools.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to address the questions: (1) What is the overall competence level of professionals responsible for school media programs in selected Michigan schools? (2) Is media professionals' competence a predictor of frequency of use of media programs for instruction? (3) What differences exist in correlation with frequency among the seven competency areas in the Behavioral Requirements Analysis Checklist (BRAC)? Surveys sent to media professionals in 127 schools asked them to rate their competence in 164 tasks selected from the BRAC on a five-point scale. Three r and omly-selected teachers in each school were sent instruments to report their frequency of use of 27 media program items and perception of the media professional's competence in any of 25 BRAC tasks from the media professionals' instrument. Items also gathered data on intervening variables: media program budget per child, items per child, media staff training, administrative priority, and teacher proficiency in library/media use. Media staff and teachers responded from 85 schools. Factor analysis showed the importance of each competency area to perceived competence on both teacher and media staff responses. Multiple regression was used to show correlation between competence and use while nullifying the influence of intervening variables. Results showed that (1) competence reported by media staff averaged 82 percent of the maximum while teacher reports averaged 61 per cent; (2) teacher reports of media staff competence showed significant correlation with frequency of use while media staff reports did not; (3) teacher reports of media and management competence were more highly correlated with use than other BRAC area scores; (4) teachers and media staff showed little differentiation in level of competence in the BRAC areas; and (5) in most cases, teacher proficiency had the highest correlation with use. Major conclusions were that (1) mean competence perceived by media staff was higher than that perceived by teachers; (2) only teacher-reported competence is a predictor of use; (3) media and management areas are better predictors than other BRAC areas; and (4) teacher proficiency is the most important factor in determining use.