The Effect of Teachers’ Work Ethic Practice: A Study at a Daily School in the Kubang Pasu District

This study aims to identify the effect of Teachers’ Work Ethics (TWE) practice based on the teachers’ work ethics code outlined by the Ministry of Education (MOE). The research sample involved teachers who are teaching at one of the daily schools in the Kubang Pasu District whom were given intervention for a month. Questionnaire was used to seek the effect of intervention prescribed in the effort to develop TWE Model. The study employed inferential statistics of t-test paired sample to see the difference between pre test and post test result. The finding showed that there is an increase in ethics practice in terms of the right intention, good conduct, initiator of goodness, fulfilling promise and; disciplined and civilised. However, in the aspect of discipline and conduct, there is significant difference between pre and post test that is (p< 0.05). This difference shows that teachers focus more on practicing this particular aspect in their daily lives. Study findings give the implication that attitude, training and role of leaders are important in determining that this principle is implemented successfully.

At present, Malaysia is working hard towards achieving the status of a developed nation by 2020. This target could not be achieved if first class human capital is ignored or overlooked. Instead, the immediate surrounding of the human capital should work hand in hand in achieving the dream. We cannot deny that this human capital is a treasure that can be injected with intellect value and social capital. To produce quality human capital depends on quality education which that produces resilient individuals who are outstanding, righteous, knowledgeable and highly skilled so as to fill the needs of a developed nation.
"… as the most significant and costly resource in schools, teachers are central to school improvement efforts. Improving the efficiency and equity of schooling depends, in large measure, on ensuring that competent people want to work as teachers, that their teaching is of high quality, and that all students have access to high quality teaching." Based on the above statement, it is clear that teachers have to undertand, be indomitable, and have the determination to work hard and develop new approaches towards increasing the quality of education as stipulated in the Malaysian Education BluePrint. Three main aspects are being focused in the implementation namely the value of the teaching profesion; knowledge and understanding; teaching and learning skills.
The Royal Commisioner Report regarding West Malaysian Teaching Service has suggested that Teaching Profesion Ethics (TPE) is developed towards the development of Teachers' Conduct. All teachers who have obtained their teaching certificates should comply. However, up to this day, we still hear disconcerting news of how students are being punished and also how teachers blemish their own teaching profesion with their wrong doings. In the effort to ensure that the dignity of education is uphold and sustain despite the winds of change, the TPE has to be reviewed (Najib, 1995).
Besides the Teachers' Work Ethics (TWE) and TPE, MOE also produced Malaysian Teacher Standard (MTS) on May 16, 2009 whereby it outlines the professional competency which should be achieved by teachers and requirements which should be provided by teaching agency and teacher training institutes to help teachers to reach the stipulated competency level. MTS requires teachers to self reflect on their standard achievement level and identify self professiona development needs. MTS's role is to produce professional teachers who are effective and thus generate quality students. This study chose to employ MOE's Teachers' Work Ethics since is focuses more towards development of teachers' behaviour or conduct.

MOE's Teachers' Work Ethics (TWE)
MOE's Teachers' Work Ethics (TWE) was published in 2003. The ministry hopes that with this comprehensive work ethics being practiced, teachers will be noble, responsible, has high level of professionalisme in completing their daily tasks. MOE's TWE has three main objectives namely: first is to inculcate positive attitudes and eliminate negative attitudes in completing the given tasks so as to increase quality in their output; second is to increase self-discipline and provide excellent service to the clients and organization; and thirdly, to continuously offer positive contribution to the nation.
MOE's TWE has to be executed and embraced according to five principles and seven main values. The five principles are:

The Right Intention
Teachers must perform tasks with the right intentions as demanded by their religion. Teachers must be sincere, offer quality contribution, and constantly renew intention towards goodness concording to the National Education Philosophy (NEP) and MOE.

Good Conduct
Teachers must execute their jobs perfectly. In addition, they have to be good in their appearance, speech and conduct at all times.

Initiator of Goodness
Teachers have to be the catalyst towards goodness. Therefore they have to present themselves as dynamic, advanced, competitive, excellent workmanship and working quality; and always strive to become excellent workers.

Fulfilling Promises (Walk the Talk)
Teachers should always try to fulfil what has been promised. They should show consistency in responses, speech and actions. Do whatever that is suitable to what have been said and always fulfil whatever promised. They should display consistency in response, the utterance and action; and whatever things that they do should be concurrent with what they have voiced and always keep their words ass stipulated in the Customer's Charter.

Disciplined and Civilised
Teachers have to always maintain good manners as demanded by the religion, always abide by the rules and service directives, and; always follow the right procedures and methods.
There are numerous good values, but only seven main values will be the focus of MOE work ethics. The seven values are trustworthy, true, intelligent, thankful, dedicated, sincere and loving. Every teacher should put an effort to increase the quality of their personality and profession and treat their job as part of worshiping Allah.
The objective of this study is to identify the effects of TWE practice based on the 5 principles of MOE's TWE.

Methodology
This study employs the experimental design to seek the effect of practising the TWE, consisting of pre and post tests for the experiment group. Research subjects comprised of 40 teachers from a school in the Kubang Pasu district who were selected randomly. The school teachers were the treated group and they were given treatment for a month followed by a post test.
The researchers used a set of questionnaire as the instrument, whereby there are three sections that is Section A, consisting of personal data, Section B has the comprehension test items and Section C is related to the TWE. Statistical inference t-test paired sample was used to identify the different scores in pre and post tests of the TWE practice.

Study Findings
To analyse the effect of TWE built by the researcher, paired-sample t-test was used to test the hypotheses. The level of significance was set at .05 atau 5%, which means if p value is less than .05 atau 5%, the null hypotheses will be rejected and alternative hypotheses will be accepted. Ho1: There is no significant difference in the mean scores of the pre and the post tests for the right intention variable  Table 1 above shows the analysis of pre and post paired-sample t-test for the good intention variable. The comparison of results between pre and post test showed that t (34) = -1.181, p>0.05. Therefore, the researchers accepted Ho1 and rejected Ha. This means that there is no significant difference in having the right intention after intervention. However, it is found that the mean value for post test (mean = 27.71, SD = 2.25) is higher than the mean value for the pre test (min = 27.00, SD = 2.26) for the right intention variable. Ho 2: There is no significant difference in the mean scores of pre and post tests for good conduct variable  Table 2 above shows the analysis of pre and post paired-sample t-test for the good conduct variable. The comparison of results between pre and post test showed that t (34) = -1.380, p>0.05. Therefore, the researchers accepted Ho1 and rejected Ha. This means that there is no significant difference in having a good conduct after intervention. However, it is found that the mean value for post test (mean = 31.74, SD = 2.77) is higher than the mean value for the pre test (mean = 30.80, SD = 2.74) for good conduct variable. Ho 3: There is no significant difference in the mean scores of pre and post tests for initiator of goodness variable.  Table 3 above shows the analysis of pre and post paired-sample t-test for the initiator for goodness variable. The comparison of results between pre and post test showed that t (34) = -.892, p>0.05. Therefore, the researchers accepted Ho1 and rejected Ha. This means that there is no significant difference in being the initiator of goodness after intervention. However, it is found that the mean value for post test (mean = 22.45, SD = 2.00) is higher than the mean value for the pre test (mean = 22.00, SD = 1.98) for the initiator of goodness variable. Ho 4: There is no significant difference in the mean scores of pre and post tests for fulfilling promises variable.  Table 4 above shows the analysis of pre and post paired-sample t-test for the fulfilling promises variable. The comparison of results between pre and post test showed that t (34) = -1.059, p > 0.05. Therefore, the researchers accepted Ho1 and rejected Ha. This means that there is no significant difference in fulfilling promises after intervention. However, it is found that the mean value for post test (mean = 22.22, SD = 2.10) is higher than the mean value for the pre test (mean = 21.00, SD = 1.65) for the fulfilling promises variable. Ho 5: There is no significant difference in the mean scores of pre and post tests for the disciplined and civilised variable  Table 5 above shows the analysis of pre and post paired-sample t-test for the disciplined and civilised variable. The comparison of results between pre and post test showed that t (34) = 2.283, p < 0.05. Therefore, the researchers accepted Ho1 and rejected Ha. This means that there is no significant difference in being disciplined and civilised after intervention. However, it is found that the mean value for post test (mean = 26.85, SD = 2.15) is higher than the mean value for the pre test (mean = 25.60, SD = 2.15) for the disciplined and civilised variable.

Discussion
Result finding through analysis using t-test showed that there were four variables that did not show significant difference beyond the significant level (p> 0.05) after treatment, such as right intention (p=2.46), good conduct (p= 1.77), initiator of goodness ( p=.379), and fulfilling promises ( p=.297). Researchers concluded that the four variables were influenced by the respondents' environment or surroundings such as teachers' work load to undergo constant treatment and teachers' emotional level during the post test due to time constraint to complete the post test.
However, for the disciplined and civilised aspect, result showed significant difference (p<0.05) that is p=0.029. This difference proved that teachers focus on and practice this aspect in their daily lives. In addition, significant difference in this aspect also is influenced by the eastern culture practiced in Malaysia which prioritises the act of being disciplined and civilised. Furthermore, the overall mean for all the variables showed increase after treatment. For the right intention, the pre test (M = 27.00) increased to (M = 27.71) in the post test. For the good conduct variable, the pre test score (M = 30.80) increased to (M = 31.74). For the initiator to goodness, the pre test (M = 22.00) increased to (M = 22.45).
Moreover, the pre test result for fulfilling promises variable showed (M = 21.71) and the post test result as (M = 22.22). The increase was also seen for the disciplined and civilised variable which was (M = 25.60) for pre test and (M = 26.85) for post test. Therefore, overall findings showed that teachers are aware of the teacher work ethics (TWE) but the concept of practice portrayed through the mean value proved that treatment administered based on ethical leadership model has helped teachers to increase their knowledge and understanding of the work ethics outlined by the Ministry of Education (MOE).

Conclusion
The research findings conclude that the TWE model introduced has managed to shape teachers to become excellent in their jobs. This can be seen clearly from the increase after the intervention done. However, factors such as attitude, training and role of administration are important in ensuring that this model is implemented successfully and effectively. Without support in these areas, the TWE model would not be implemented successfully. Therefore, TWE has to be the main line teachers hold on to and subscribe to it closely. Indeed, teachers who are ethically sound and have good moral values and conduct will breed generation who would also have the same qualities and this will catapult the nation education image in the international arena.