1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Saemeh Arabahmadi; Omid Mazandarani; Seyyed Hassan Seyyedrezaei; Zari Sadat Seyyedrezaie
Abstract
Despite the abundance of research on language teacher education, there is a dearth of ecologically informed instruments for measuring teacher agency. To this end, this study aims to fill this gap by designing and validating a questionnaire for assessing the agency of student teachers. Thirteen facets ...
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Despite the abundance of research on language teacher education, there is a dearth of ecologically informed instruments for measuring teacher agency. To this end, this study aims to fill this gap by designing and validating a questionnaire for assessing the agency of student teachers. Thirteen facets were identified and developed, including instructional beliefs, supportive beliefs, collaborative learning, and competence, which represent an iterational dimension. The practical-evaluative dimension is represented by opportunity to make choice, opportunity to influence, support, equality, trust, institutional context, and professional community. Long- and short-term purposes manifest projective dimension. A 22-item questionnaire on a 7-point Likert scale was developed and administered. Altogether, 210 EFL student teachers from four branches of Farhangian University through convenience sampling participated in the survey research design study. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis was employed through AMOS 22 to examine the validity of the theoretical model. In doing so, an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were administered, and the ecological framework of student teacher agency was confirmed. The results revealed that the questionnaire had an acceptable fit with the empirical set of data, suggesting that this scale has the potential to be useful in assessing student teachers’ agency and raising their awareness of the agency construct. The study has implications for policymakers regarding how the ecology of professional education may influence teachers’ practices, actions, and decision-making processes.
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Jalil Yazdankhah; Bahram Behin; Mohammad Hossein Yousefi; Hassan Asadollahfam
Abstract
Adopting a qualitative design, the present study investigated Iranian EFL teachers’ attitudes toward critical thinking as well as its role in language teaching. To meet these objectives, 36 EFL teachers were selected through purposeful sampling as the participants of the study. For the purpose ...
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Adopting a qualitative design, the present study investigated Iranian EFL teachers’ attitudes toward critical thinking as well as its role in language teaching. To meet these objectives, 36 EFL teachers were selected through purposeful sampling as the participants of the study. For the purpose of the data collection, in-depth interviews, focus group interviews, and teachers’ narratives were utilized. To assure the trustworthiness of the data, several measures have been taken. The lead author conducted the in-depth as well as focus group interviews and elicited teachers’ narratives. The interviews were conducted in Persian language and the whole procedures were audiotaped. The data were transcribed verbatim and after member checking the data with the participants, they were translated into English. The data were analyzed through thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). To assure inter coder reliability, coding the data was done by the second and third authors independently. The third and fourth authors were involved in finding the potential themes and sub-themes. Finally, five themes of efficiency, intelligence, change, success and initiation were generated as a result of the data analysis. The present study revealed that the participants emphasized some fundamental building blocks of critical thinking. The participant teachers also advocated critical thinking - focused programs in teacher education as well as its application in language teaching. The study has a number of implications for language pedagogy, teacher education and policy makers.
Foad Behzadpoor
Abstract
Second language (L2) teacher education has witnessed a substantial shift of attention and orientation with regard to the way it looks at teaching, teachers, and various teacher-related factors. This consequential drift began to occur in the 1970s, a decade branded by Freeman (2002) as the decade of change ...
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Second language (L2) teacher education has witnessed a substantial shift of attention and orientation with regard to the way it looks at teaching, teachers, and various teacher-related factors. This consequential drift began to occur in the 1970s, a decade branded by Freeman (2002) as the decade of change where teacher education was in the van of the quest for a cognitive paradigm, in lieu of the behaviorist tradition, in which the mental lives of teachers were also taken into account. The shift has continued in an evolutionary fashion, and teachers, couched within the new tradition, are deemed to be both cognitive actors and reflective practitioners. As a reflective being, a teacher is also viewed as “an agentic social ‘subject’: individuals with identities, knowledges, and experiences who are themselves engaged in an evolving trajectory of professional development” (Cross, 2020, p. 38). As a corollary of this teacher repositioning, the notions of agency and, by implication, language teacher agency (LTA) have become a regular fixture of inquiry in both mainstream and L2 teacher education. To be sure, in terms of theorization, the construct is still in need of clarification as there is no univocal consensus on what exactly constitutes agency (Mansouri, et al., 2021). Moreover, it is sensible to consider whether agency is merely another fashionable concept in the language teaching enterprise with no positive and useful contribution to the realities of the teaching practice, or whether teachers’ involvement with agency will lead to the betterment of their professional development practices. Language Teacher Agency is a well-timed publication making a crucial contribution to these concerns.
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Farzad Rostami; Mohammad Hossein Yousefi; Davoud Amini
Abstract
There have been some researches on the way teacher identities are (re)constructed; however, the study which investigatesthe improvement of the identity through the shift in language teaching has not been conducted. Thus the present qualitative study set out to investigate Iranian EFL teachers’ ...
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There have been some researches on the way teacher identities are (re)constructed; however, the study which investigatesthe improvement of the identity through the shift in language teaching has not been conducted. Thus the present qualitative study set out to investigate Iranian EFL teachers’ professional development who had been teaching either Arabic or Persian languages for more than six years prior to entering the English language teaching profession. Eleven Iranian in-service teachers took part in the study through purposeful sampling. For the purpose of the data collection, in-depth interviews, teachers’ narratives, and focus group interviews were used. The thematic analysis of the data through the Identity Theory (Burke & Stets, 2009) perspective revealedthree main themes: identity shift,identity development, and productive identity. The results indicate that teachers' professional learning requires rebuilding identity perception, and constructing a new identity will lead, in turn, to the professional development of teachers and their constructive learning. The present study contributes to the existing knowledge of teachers’ professional identity in that changes in the languages teachers teach will lead to reconstructing their professional identity in a positive wayand happen as a result of opportunities for professional development. The results have a number of implications for policymakers, teacher educators, and language teachers.
1. Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching and Learning)
Naser Abbasi; Simin Navahi Khosrowshahi
Abstract
The short-term in-service EFL teacher education programs are assumed to be of crucial importance in upgrading teachers' methodologies and gearing their teaching more closely to the students' needs. Therefore, a dynamic in-service program for EFL teachers is needed to keep abreast of the time.The present ...
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The short-term in-service EFL teacher education programs are assumed to be of crucial importance in upgrading teachers' methodologies and gearing their teaching more closely to the students' needs. Therefore, a dynamic in-service program for EFL teachers is needed to keep abreast of the time.The present study aims to investigate the role of experience in EFL teachers' satisfaction of the in-service teacher education programs in Zanjan city. 200 EFL teachers from Zanjan province (1 &2 districts) were participated in this study.The data collected through the Course-evaluation questionnaire with “five-level Likert scale”. The results were analyzed through both descriptive and inferential statistics.The findings showed that There is a significant difference between teachers’ experience and their satisfaction of in-service programs.Thus novice teachers and experienced teachers have different expectation of the in-service teacher education programs.This production of significant difference about the relationship between the EFL teachers' experience and their satisfaction of the in-service teacher education programs can be contributed to different perceptions of the teachers on the relationship between the EFL teachers' experience and their satisfaction of the in-service teacher education programs
