Secondary Public School Teachers’ Commitment to the Code of Ethical Conduct and Its Relationship with the Quality of Their Performance: Standpoints from Principals and Assistant Principals

The aim of this study was to explore secondary school teachers’ degree of commitment to the code of ethical conduct from principals and assistant principals’ perspectives. In order to collect all-important data, a questionnaire was developed on the basis of the literature. It was consisted of 60 items distributed on five domains related to teacher’s ethical conduct towards him or herself, his or her students, colleagues and society in addition to the quality level of his or her performance. The population of the study comprised all principals and assistant principals (n = 52) in secondary public schools (n = 26) in Ain Albasha District, Amman. Out of the schools, 11 were male secondary schools and 15 were female secondary schools. Validated as well as questionnaires were administered to all members of the population. The results underlined that secondary public school teachers have a moderate level of ethical commitment. Basically, there was a significant relationship between teachers’ degree of ethical commitment and the quality of their performance from the perspective of principals and assistant principals. Hence, school management should continually provide teachers with developmental courses to strength their professional ethical behavior due to its prominent role in improving their job behavior, which in turn helps in enriching the educational outcomes.

The findings reported that 44.1% (n = 26) of the respondents have a bachelor's degree, 22% (n = 13) of the participants have a master's degree while 28.8% (n = 17) of the participants have attained a doctorate degree. Furthermore, the results in Table 1 demonstrated that 32 out of 52 participants have an area of specialization of Arts signify the highest percentage (54.2%), followed by participants (28.8%) who are specialized in psychological and educational sciences (n = 17), then the participants (11.9%) who are specialized in applied sciences (n = 7).

Measurements
Teachers' degree of commitment to the code of ethical conduct was measured using 50 items distributed on five domains related to teacher's ethical conduct towards him or herself, his or her students, colleagues and society based on previous studies. Teachers' quality of performance was evaluated using 10 items

Validity and reliability
The validity of the questionnaire was tested by means of Pearson correlation coefficient used to estimate correlations between pairs of dimensions, as portrayed in Table 2, while reliability was assessed utilizing Cronbach's alpha method (α) as depicted in the same table. The results in Table 2 indicated that all dimensions of teacher's commitment to the code of ethics were positively correlated. Correlations were ranged from 0.48 to 0.86 (P < 0.05). On the other hand, values of Cronbach's alpha ranged from 0.62 to 0.72. All over, these results clarified that the questionnaire used in the current study to collect data from participants was valid and reliable.

Teachers' commitment to the code of ethics
The first objective of this study was to explore teachers' commitment to the code of ethics from principals and assistant principals' perspective in terms of four dimensions: Teacher's ethical conduct towards himself and work, teacher's ethical conduct towards students, teacher's ethical conduct towards colleagues, and teacher's ethical conduct towards society. Table 3 shows that the overall degree of teachers' commitment to the code of ethics was moderate. Particularly, item no. 17 "Teachers are good example of students" was in the first rank (M = 4.86, SD = 1.49). Teachers were moderately rated modest and unpretentious as in item 8 (M = 2.93, SD = 1.07).
Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.11, No.31, 2020 Table 4 indicated a moderate degree of teachers' commitment (M = 3.37, SD = 1.14). Teachers' knowledge of their students' academic needs was considered the highest important out of the items (M = 4.93, SD = 1.35). However, teachers' treatment of students with respect and kindness was moderately important (M = 3.00, SD = 1.19). Teachers avoid mentioning flaws of students in front of colleagues 3.14 1.31 9 Moderate 2 Dealing with students with respect and kindness 2.57 1.19 10 Moderate -Total 3.49 1.14 -Moderate As shown in Table 5, item 13 "Teachers positively solve problems with colleagues" had the highest mean value (M = 4.13, SD = 1.14), while item 5 "Teachers avoid gossip among colleagues" was moderate in rank (M = 3.37, SD = 1.14).  Vol.11, No.31, 2020 40 The results in Table 6 underlined a high rank of item 12 "Teachers care about the environment and encourages its conservation" (M = 4.30, SD = 1.12) and a moderate degree of item "Teachers avoid accepting suspicious gifts" (M = 2.77, SD = 1.74).  Table 7 indicated that item 3 "Teachers assess their level of performance" was highly ranked first (M = 4.39, SD = 1.28) while item "Teachers used collaborative working group approach" (M = 2.44, SD = 0.94).

Correlation between teachers' commitment to ethics and quality of performance
Pearson correlation matrix as illustrated in Table 8 showed statistically significant correlations between domains of teachers' degree of commitment to the code of ethics and the quality of their performance. Teacher's ethical conduct towards him or herself (r = 0.76, P < 0.05), teacher's ethical conduct towards his or her students (r = 0.86, P < 0.05), teacher's ethical conduct towards his or her colleagues (r = 0.73, P < 0.05), and teacher's ethical conduct towards his or her society (r = 0.72, P < 0.05) were positively correlated to teachers' quality of performance.

Discussion and conclusion
The aim of this study was twofold. First, it tries to identify the degree of teachers' degree of commitment to the code of ethics. Second, to explore the relationship between teachers' commitment to ethics and their quality level of performance. Teachers' degree of commitment to the code of ethics was evaluated in terms of their ethical conduct towards themselves, their students, their colleagues and towards their society. The results pointed out that the degree of teachers' commitment to the code of ethics was generally moderate from the perspectives of principals and assistant principals. It was revealed that all dimensions of teachers' commitment to the code of ethics were moderate. The results of the present study were in agreement with Nazzal (2001) and Mardhi (2015). Perhaps the reason for this is the Ministry of Education's approval of the Code of Ethics and Public Service Ethics. In accordance with the provisions of paragraph (a) of Article 67 of the Civil Service Law No. 82 of 2013.
According to the results, teachers' ethical conduct towards their colleagues was ranked first (M = 3.52). The first item in this domain indicated that the teacher is positive in solving problems with colleagues. This result can be explained by the role of schools managers in providing a positive atmosphere between teachers and work to solve problems together. The last item in the domain indicates that the teacher avoids gossip, and the reason for this, of course, is the style of democratic leadership prevailing in the school, and the religious and moral education of the teacher, which regarded these acts as unacceptable.
Teacher's ethical conduct towards her or himself and his or her work was moderate (M = 3.50). The first paragraph in this area is the item that shows that the teacher is a good role model for students, and this is due to social reasons and the teacher's desire to obtain a good reputation, the result also reflects the religious education received by the teacher. The last paragraph in the field has shown that the teacher is modest, and of course an inherent characteristic of the person who is a good example. Then, teacher's ethical conduct towards his or her students was ranked third (M = 3.49). The reason behind this result is the age group of students in high school, their treatment is based on respect and at the same time requires a bit of firmness, noting that the most important features of this stage the student's tendency to independence and express opinion and self-assertion.
Finally, the results highlighted that teacher's ethical conduct towards society was moderate (M = 3.48). The results indicated that the paragraph that expresses teacher's interest in the environment and the promotion of its conservation has come in first place. This can be justified by the initiatives of the Ministry of Education and the Queen Rania Academy of Excellence that promote the achievement of a green school environment. The item that shows that the teacher refuses to accept the suspicious gifts came in the last rank, and perhaps the reason is the religious education of the teacher. On the other hand, the results showed a positive correlative relationship from the point of view of the study sample members towards the moral commitment of the teachers in secondary government schools and the quality of their performance. This result is logically reasonable in that increasing the degree of ethical commitment leads to increased quality of performance.

Limitations, recommendations and future research directions
One of the most important determinants of the study is that it was a cross-sectional study conducted in the general secondary schools in Ain al-Basha, which limits the possibility of generalizing its results to the rest of the schools in different regions. In the light of its findings, the study recommends that courses on the ethics of the teaching profession should be offered to undergraduate students and not only to higher education students, in addition to holding training courses for teachers on the ethics of education, and to promote the moral behaviors of teachers. Future studies should be conducted on the extent of teachers' commitment in the different directorates of education and their relationship to other variables in order to increase understanding of the subject