scholarly journals Explorations of Beliefs about EFL Teachers’ Roles from Both Teachers’ and Students’ Perspectives through Metaphor Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (29) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharihan Shawkat Azeez
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Teachers Experiences ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The University

Metaphor acts as a window into comprehending teachers’ experiences through providing insights into complex concepts of teaching and learning. As a result, it plays a crucial role in exploring beliefs about teachers’ roles in the teaching and learning process. To elicit ideas and beliefs which both teachers and students held about the role of English teachers, questionnaires were given to 30 teachers and 85 students in the University of Duhok, English Department. The questionnaire asked the subjects to provide their beliefs about English teachers’ roles by using a sentence completion task “An English teacher is…. because….”. Eight conceptual categories are introduced from the linguistic metaphors and example metaphors for each category are given in the results tables. The eight conceptual categories include: teacher as devotee, teacher as nurturer, teachers as provider / source of knowledge, teacher as cultural transmitter, teacher as authority, teacher as guider, teacher as a friend, and teacher as a nice beautiful soul. All participants expressed the same conceptual categories, but still they use different metaphors to express their views. An interesting feature of these results is that there are some parallel and overlaps of metaphors among different subjects. The findings of this study suggested subtle differences between students’ and teachers’ beliefs. This study will benefit teachers, curriculum designers, and researchers. Researchers may carry out comprehensive studies using metaphor as an investigating tool to better understand both students and teachers’ perceptions of the teachers’ roles. The results will help develop comprehensive and inclusive methods of teaching. Larger samples with variables such as gender, age, different locations, and proficiency of participants should be taken into consideration during future studies.

scholarly journals The Development Of Expert Learners In The Classroom

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Saemah Rahman ◽  
Zuria Mahmud ◽  
Siti Fatimah Mohd Yassin ◽  
Ruslin Amir ◽  
Khadijah Wan Ilias
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning To Learn ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Literature Reviews ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Role Of Teachers ◽  
Learn Approach

The term ‘expert learner’ refers to students who are actively engaged with the materials learned and take responsibility for their own learning. Literature reviews suggested the use of metacognitive approach to help develop students to become expert learners. Research on development of expert learners can be traced from movements that focused on the importance of learning strategies and “learning how to learn” approach. Some researchers combined the role of teachers and students in formulating a framework on how to develop expert learners. This study aimed to identify issues related to the development of expert learners in the classroom. Data were collected from focus group with students and teachers in Malaysia.  Findings were reduced into thematic categories representing students’ and teachers’ perceptions on the issues. Results of the study showed that the use of metacognitive strategies among students is very minimal and many teachers did not aware the benefit of making the learning process visible to students. The implementation of “learning to learn” approach in the teaching and learning process remain one of the key problem need to be address in order to help students learn effectively in the classroom.

scholarly journals Exploring Perception of EFL Teachers towards Use of Media in Teaching English

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-44
Author(s):  
Nany Soengkono Madayani ◽  
Muhassin Muhassin
Keyword(s):  
English Teachers ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Positive Perception ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Efl Teacher ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
The City

This Research is against the backdrop of demand in mastering English. EFL teacher becomes one of the main important parts of teaching-learning English to handle a certain role in maximal the students’ achievement. The students’ achievement here means not only someone that has a lot of knowledge and high value but also someone that can give a positive contribution to other people. Because of that, the teachers have a big responsibility to facilitate students in learning. One of the facilitation of teaching-learning that has to be prepared by teachers is media. This study aims to investigate the teachers’ perceptions of ELT media. This study is classified into three main dimensions of perception proposed by Vernon (1987) namely understanding, outlook and action. By conducting a survey study, the researcher collected, analyzed, elaborated and eventually drew conclusions dealing with the teachers’ perceptions of ELT media. The main data of this study were collected with an interview and a questionnaire, which was distributed to 29 English teachers in the city of Tulungagung. The findings showed that Media is able to be a benefit for both teachers and students, be applicable to every class. To select criteria of Media is based on Media Mastery or flexibility due to different reference and less facility. Besides that, The teachers have positive responses towards the two of the dimensions, understanding, and view. The teachers, however, do not show positive responses toward the action. However, in general, the English teachers’ perceptions of ELT media in this study were categorized as a good perception. In other words, all the teachers have a positive perception of ELT media.   

scholarly journals Appropriate and relevant humour in the university classroom: insights from teachers and students

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhana Abu Bakar
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
University Teaching ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Learning Content ◽  
Daily Experiences ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The University

When used for the purpose of teaching and learning, humour must be relevant and appropriate to the context. However, what constitutes appropriate and relevant humour is unclear. Past studies have focussed mostly on classifying appropriate and relevant types of humour. Additionally, students’ and teachers’ perceptions of what constitutes appropriate and relevant humour are likely to differ, meaning that the effectiveness of teachers’ humour use may vary depending on the context. With this in mind, it is important to consider teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the appropriateness and relevance of humour. For this paper, five award-winning teachers and 10 students were interviewed regarding their perceptions and experiences of the use of humour in university teaching. Four themes were identified that relate to teachers’ and students’ perceptions regarding the appropriateness of humour: Appropriate humour is relevant humour; Appropriate humour happens at a suitable time and in a suitable manner; Appropriate humour enhances teachers’ credibility; and Inappropriate humour is disrespectful humour. Three themes were identified related to the relevance of humour: Relevant humour is related to the learning content; Relevant humour is related to daily experiences in life; and Irrelevant humour is humour that students do not understand. On the basis of this study, this paper offers pedagogical suggestions for teachers who wish to use humour effectively by taking into consideration what humour is considered appropriate/inappropriate and relevant/irrelevant.

scholarly journals The Role of EFL Teachers’ Praise and Love in Preventing Students’ Hopelessness

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fengzhen Liu
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Psychological Variables ◽  
Teacher Praise ◽  
Psychological Constructs ◽  
Emotional Dimension ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Practical Implications

The emotional dimension of language teaching and learning has recently gained momentum among researchers after pioneering works in positive psychology. Now, teachers’ and students’ emotions play an important role in learning process. Despite the growing body of research on many psychological constructs in L2 education, the role of teacher praise and love in precluding students’ sense of hopelessness about their future and efforts has been largely ignored. Addressing such problems, the present study aimed to examine the definitions, conceptualizations, influencing factors, causes, and outcomes of these three psychological variables in EFL contexts. Moreover, to position the study, this article took a quick glance at the affective trend in education referring to positive outcomes of a loving pedagogy. Finally, different practical implications, research gaps, and future lines of research were provided for passionate researchers.

scholarly journals LEARNER AUTONOMY: PRACTICES USED AND CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED BY EFL TEACHERS IN FOSTERING LEARNER AUTONOMY AT TERTIARY LEVEL

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Le Van Tuyen ◽  
Huynh Thi An
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
First Year ◽  
Tertiary Level ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Teachers And Students

It is undoubted that teacher autonomy (TA) and learner autonomy (LA) are among the factors that affect the effectiveness of English teaching and learning in non-native English speaking contexts like Vietnam.  Investigating how teachers and students perceive TA and LA may be considered a valuable addition to the literature. This study, therefore, aimed to explore students’ perceptions of teachers’ practices used to foster LA and teachers’ perceptions of challenges they may encounter in fostering LA in EFL classes at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH)-Vietnam. Two instruments were employed to collect both qualitative and quantitative data, namely the questionnaire and interview with the participation of 12 EFL teachers and 160 first-year English majored students. The findings of the study revealed that most of the EFL teachers who taught the first-year students used practices through responsibility-informing and in-class activities to foster LA. However, the findings also indicated that the teachers encountered several challenges related to students, teachers and the context. It is expected that the findings of the study would partly contribute to the enhancement of TA and LA in English language education at HUTECH in particular and at the Vietnamese tertiary level in general.

scholarly journals Exploring Change in EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of Professional Development

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Mohammadi ◽  
Khaled Moradi
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Development Framework ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Professional Development Programs

AbstractContinuous professional development (CPD) is important for teachers in attaining sustainable education. Accordingly, exploring teachers’ perceptions could be a significant endeavor as teachers’ beliefs impact their classroom practices, thereby, impacting student learning and, thus have educational implications. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate this fundamental issue via establishing professional development workshops to train teachers in order to promote sustainable professional growth. It examined 86 EFL teachers’ beliefs and attitudes toward CPD before and after attending workshops for professional development. The data were collected through a questionnaire and a follow-up interview. Paired-samples t-tests were run to measure differences between responses of pre and post surveys. Moreover, raw frequencies and percentages were calculated in order to prioritize the items the teachers selected in each variable. The findings demonstrate that beliefs about CPD can change. Survey data collected before and after professional development workshops revealed a statistical significant shift in EFL teachers’ beliefs. This finding was also supported by semi-structured interviews. In addition, the results also revealed that the participants perceived customized professional development programs with professional development framework as a beneficial tool to be included in the professional development programs. The study may have some pedagogical implications to be utilized in the educational process directed at sustainable professional development.

scholarly journals Classroom Discourse and Teachers’ Experience: A Cognitive View

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1308-1317
Author(s):  
Bibi Malihe Vamagh Shahi
Keyword(s):  
Novice Teachers ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Classroom Discourse ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Experienced Teachers ◽  
Years Of Experience ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Action Verbs

In this article, we intend to investigate the role of experience in EFL teachers’ discourse using a cognitive taxonomy. In this line, we are going to examine whether there any significant differences between novice and inexperienced groups of teacher in their discourse with regard to a cognitive taxonomy. The selected sample comprises twenty-seven English teachers engaged in EFL classes. Totally, six categories of cognitive processes were introduced. The categories are from the most concrete to the most abstract: (1) knowledge; (2) comprehension; (3) application; (4) analysis; (5) synthesis; and (6) evaluation. According to the results, it was revealed that experienced teachers used more action verbs in all the categories of this taxonomy (428 action verbs out of 805), whereas novice teachers (teachers which has less than 4 years of experience) used 377 action verbs. It can be concluded that experienced teachers teach in more fruitful and meaningful way. Novice teachers can learn and construct meaning from their experiences when they are actively engaged in authentic activity that will help them to learn to think and act in a community of practice.

scholarly journals A new approach to understanding teachers’ classroom practices

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyla Alsalim
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Classroom Practices ◽  
Teacher Practices ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Reform Initiatives ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Recent Reform

Teaching is generally considered a complex practice that involves the constant and dynamic interaction between the teacher, the students and the subject matter. One of the main goals of most education reform initiatives has been to change teachers’ classroom practices. Most recent reform curricula focus on highlighting teacher practices that promote and evoke students’ understanding alongside the changes in content (Tirosh & Graeber, 2003). Changes to a teacher’s role that are included in the education reform movement call for more research in order to understand and theorise teachers’ classroom practices. In this paper, I will present patterns-of-participation (PoP) as a promising framework that aims to understand the role of the teacher for emerging classroom practices. Instead of relying on a traditional approach to understanding classroom practices by analysing teachers’ beliefs, this framework applies a participatory approach to look for patterns in the participation of individual teachers in many social practices at the school and in the classroom. Some of these practices are directly related to the teaching and learning of mathematics while others are not. And some of them relate to communities that are not actually present in the classroom or at the school. PoP views teachers’ social interaction in a certain community as a piece which is influenced by other pieces of social interactions. In every interaction, the ‘pieces’ shape a ‘fluctuating pattern' that shows the shifting impact of different, previous practices and the dynamic relations between them (Skott, 2010; 2011; 2013).

The Occupational Background of Intending Teachers

1973 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Owen McKevitt ◽  
Graham Douglas
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Secondary Teachers ◽  
Western Australia ◽  
Teachers College ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Dental Practitioners ◽  
Professional Workers ◽  
Occupational Background ◽  
The University

Knowledge of occupational origins from which teachers are recruited may influence decision-making by recruitment officers. For administrators, it may provide guidelines to understanding teachers' perceptions of their role, of students and the school. The authors examined occupational origins of bonded students proceeding, in 1970 and 1971, to the University of Western Australia through Secondary Teachers' College. Data show that teaching attracts, especially, sons and daughters of teachers, along with those of a limited number of other workers also categorized by the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics as ‘professional, technical and related workers’. Teaching apparently fails to attract even moderate numbers from homes of other important professional workers, including medical and dental practitioners, lawyers, non-pharmaceutical chemists, physicists, geologists, biologists, veterinarians and agronomists.

“A Gay Agenda”: Troubling Compulsory Heterosexuality in a South African University Classroom

2021 ◽  
pp. 0092055X2110224
Author(s):  
Dennis A. Francis
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Critical Incidents ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Compulsory Heterosexuality ◽  
Teachers And Students

Not only does teaching about gender and sexuality diversity lead to some very interesting and often emotionally evocative, pedagogical exchanges; it can also create challenging issues for teachers and students alike. This article focuses on what happens when a module that addresses compulsory heterosexuality and schooling is broached in an undergraduate sociology class. More importantly, it offers an analysis of the critical incidents and tensions that pay specific attention to how power, knowledge, and emotion feature in teaching and learning. Using antioppressive and affect theories, this article offers an analysis of how we might understand pedagogical practice, especially as it relates to addressing the power of normative heterosexuality in a university classroom. With reflections emerging from the module, I argue for more sociological theorization and analysis of the role of affect in pedagogies that seek to advance liberatory teaching and learning in the area of anti-heterosexism education.

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