Tertiary EFL Practitioners’ Beliefs and Attitudes Towards Professional Development in the Area of Assessment and Testing–An Exploratory Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 17-32
Author(s):  
Muhammad Wasim Latif ◽  
Arzoo Wasim
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Teacher Beliefs ◽  
Teacher Practices ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Educational Institute ◽  
Assessment And Testing ◽  
Teachers Training ◽  
Beliefs And Attitudes ◽  
Insight Into

Professional development of teachers, the greatest strength of any educational institute, implies advancement of pedagogical, assessment and success standards. All teacher education activities whether during the pre-or/and in-service phases, should aim to bring about teacher change which refers to the procedures targeting reform in teacher beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, self-awareness, skills and practices. Since teacher beliefs and attitudes serve as an integral part of the process to comprehend how teachers conceptualise, approach and practice their work, change in teacher practices generally precede a change in teacher beliefs and attitudes. In the background of the paucity of scholarship about tertiary EFL practitioners’ beliefs and attitudes about their professional development, in general, and in assessment, testing and evaluation, in particular, the present study mainly based on interview data collected from 10 tertiary EFL teachers working in three tertiary educational institutes in Saudi Arabia aimed at exploring tertiary EFL practitioners’ philosophies and attitudes towards their PD in assessment and testing to get better insight into language teachers’ training needs. It is hoped that the findings of the study will create awareness among novice as well as experienced teachers and help their respective institutions in having better understanding about the various dynamics of teacher PD in assessment and testing.

scholarly journals Exploring tertiary EFL practitioners’ knowledge base component of assessment literacy: implications for teacher professional development

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Wasim Latif
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
School Level ◽  
Assessment Literacy ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Assessment And Testing

AbstractLanguage teachers’ assessment literacy has been a much debated subject in the educational arena recently. Teachers’ assessment knowledge base and skills, important aspects of their assessment literacy, have been extensively investigated at the school level; however, the research on this subject in the tertiary EFL context remains underdeveloped. This study reports findings of tertiary EFL teachers’ assessment literacy in terms of their assessment knowledge base in the context of Saudi Arabia. The study is informed by sociocultural theoretical background, with pragmatism as the philosophical underpinning. It uses an adapted instrument called Classroom Assessment Literacy Questionnaire, and the data are obtained from 80 questionnaire respondents. The statistical analysis of the data revealed that tertiary EFL teachers’ current assessment knowledge base is very limited and not consistent with the contemporary trends and approaches to educational assessment in terms of their preparation and readiness for the continuously mounting challenges posed by classroom-based assessments. These results indicating gaps and inadequacies in tertiary EFL practitioners’ assessment literacy have strong implications for teacher development in the area of assessment and testing at the level of policy, practice and professional development programmes.

THE STUDENS’ DIFFICULTIES IN PRESENTING THE ACADEMIC SPEAKING PRESENTATION

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ikhfi Imaniah
Keyword(s):  
English Education ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Supportive Relationships ◽  
Essential Point ◽  
Study Program ◽  
Training And Education ◽  
Good Communication ◽  
Teachers Training

AbstractThe aim of the research is to observe the activities of the students in academic speaking classroom, to analyze the student’s problem in presenting the academic speaking presentation and to identify the student’s special needs in academic speaking presentation.The method used in this research is field research that is qualitative, while the analysis of the data used descriptive analysis. The focus of the research is on the student’s difficulties in presenting academic speaking presentation.In sum up, most of the students of English Education Study Program of Teachers Training and Education Faculty of Muhammadiyah University are lack of: 1) Goal setting on their academic speaking presentation, 2) Prioritization on what the essential point need to be presented, 3) Self-awareness on themselves, while they present the presentation in front of the audience, 4) Self-motivation while presenting the materials, it connects with self-awareness; if students have improved their self-awareness so they will have a great deal of the information that they need to motivate themselves. In short, the students need to be able to motivate themselves to take action; 5) Planning, most of students are not planning the materials well so they are not able to manage their time to present the academic presentation; and 6) Communication skill, strong communication skills will enable the students to build supportive relationships with the audience while presenting the materials, in fact not all the students have good communication skill.In short, the student’s preparation well made their presentation is good and it also established good communication between the presenter and the audiences.Keywords: Academic Speaking, Presentation, Communication

Reflection of the Editorial Process of an Academic Journal

Relay Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 100-109
Author(s):  
Phillip A. Bennett ◽  
Maria Giovanna Tassinari ◽  
Ena Hollinshead ◽  
Fergal Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Reflective Practice ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
Editorial Process ◽  
Academic Journal ◽  
Editing Process ◽  
Insight Into

This paper is a reflection on our experiences as managing editors and layout editors of volume 2, issue 2 of Relay Journal. In accordance with the developmental aims of Relay Journal, via this reflective practice, our motivations are not only to foster each others’ learner autonomy and grow our professional development, but additionally to encourage others to also share reflections of their editing responsibilities, practices, and realisations. We also believe this will provide insight into the process for those who do not have the experience in such roles, yet wish to pursue them. With that in mind, we will briefly detail the journal-editing process and our roles in such; then follow with our individual reflections upon our experiences. Our reflections will focus on our responsibilities and roles, our feelings, and what we learned through the experience.

Gender Differences in Empathy During Adolescence: Does Emotional Self-Awareness Matter?

2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412097663
Author(s):  
Cristina Trentini ◽  
Renata Tambelli ◽  
Silvia Maiorani ◽  
Marco Lauriola
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Reactivity Index ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Personal Distress ◽  
Full Knowledge ◽  
Emotional Concern ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Tas 20

Empathy refers to the capacity to experience emotions similar to those observed or imagined in another person, with the full knowledge that the other person is the source of these emotions. Awareness of one's own emotional states is a prerequisite for self-other differentiation to develop. This study investigated gender differences in empathy during adolescence and tested whether emotional self-awareness explained these differences. Two-hundred-eleven adolescents (108 girls and 103 boys) between 14 and 19 years completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) to assess empathy and emotional self-awareness, respectively. Overall, girls obtained higher scores than boys on IRI subscales like emotional concern, personal distress, and fantasy. Regarding emotional self-awareness, we found gender differences in TAS-20 scores, with girls reporting greater difficulty identifying feelings and less externally oriented thinking than boys. Difficulty identifying feelings explained the greatest personal distress experienced by girls. Lower externally oriented thinking accounted for girls’ greater emotional concern and fantasy. These findings offer an insight into the role of emotional self-awareness–which is essential for self-other differentiation–as an account for gender differences in empathic abilities during adolescence. In girls, difficulty identifying feelings can impair the ability to differentiate between ones’ and others’ emotions, leading them to experience self-focused and aversive responses when confronted with others’ suffering. Conversely, in boys, externally oriented thinking can mitigate personal distress when faced with others’ discomfort.

Chemistry instructors’ intentions toward developing, teaching, and assessing student representational competence skills

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maia Popova ◽  
Tamera Jones
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Coding Theory ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Information Processing Model ◽  
Representational Competence ◽  
Evidence Based Practices ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
The Us

Representational competence is one's ability to use disciplinary representations for learning, communicating, and problem-solving. These skills are at the heart of engagement in scientific practices and were recognized by the ACS Examinations Institute as one of ten anchoring concepts. Despite the important role that representational competence plays in student success in chemistry and the considerable number of investigations into students’ ability to reason with representations, very few studies have examined chemistry instructors’ approaches toward developing student representational competence. This study interviewed thirteen chemistry instructors from eleven different universities across the US about their intentions to develop, teach, and assess student representational competence skills. We found that most instructors do not aim to help students develop any representational competence skills. At the same time, participants’ descriptions of their instructional and assessment practices revealed that, without realizing it, most are likely to teach and assess several representational competence skills in their courses. A closer examination of these skills revealed a focus on lower-level representational competence skills (e.g., the ability to interpret and generate representations) and a lack of a focus on higher-level meta-representational competence skills (e.g., the ability to describe affordances and limitations of representations). Finally, some instructors reported self-awareness about their lack of knowledge about effective teaching about representations and the majority expressed a desire for professional development opportunities to learn about differences in how experts and novices conceptualize representations, about evidence-based practices for teaching about representations, and about how to assess student mastery of representational competence skills. This study holds clear implications for informing chemistry instructors’ professional development initiatives. Such training needs to help instructors take cognizance of relevant theories of learning (e.g., constructivism, dual-coding theory, information processing model, Johnstone's triangle), and the key factors affecting students’ ability to reason with representations, as well as foster awareness of representational competence skills and how to support students in learning with representations.

scholarly journals Female English Teachers Perceptions and Experience of Continuing Professional Development in Qatar

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 160
Author(s):  
Saba Qadhi ◽  
Alan Floyd
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
English Language ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
English Language Teaching

The Qatari government views English language learning as crucial to the country’s future success. Anecdotal evidence suggests, however, that English language teachers (ELTs) employed in Qatar may not necessarily have the appropriate training, qualifications, and experience to enable them to teach successfully. Despite growing research and interest in the continuing professional development (CPD) experiences and needs of ELTs in Western contexts, there remains a lack of research in Middle Eastern countries in general and in Qatar in particular. The aim of this study was to address this gap by exploring female ELTs’ perceptions and experiences of CPD in Qatar in order to develop new practical and theoretical insights into our understanding of this area. The study draws on data from life history interviews undertaken with 16 female ELTs with at least 3 years of teaching experience in Qatari schools. The study found that the participants had very different experiences of CPD based on their personal and professional characteristics. This suggests that for it to be perceived as a positive experience, the current model of professional development for ELTs may need revising. We propose a paradigm shift from a traditional “one size fits all” CPD model towards a more dynamic and interactive style of teacher development that facilitates both personal reflection and professional discourse among teachers. It is argued that such a shift would prove a considerable step forward for English language teaching in this country.

scholarly journals Implications of Lesson Study for Tertiary-Level EFL Teachers’ Professional Development: A Case Study From Turkey

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402110237
Author(s):  
İlknur Bayram ◽  
Fatma Bıkmaz
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
English Language ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Teaching Style ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Student Thinking ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Starting Point

This qualitative case study carried out at a Turkish university with four English language teachers aims to explore what teachers experience in the planning, implementation, analysis, and reporting phases of the lessons study process and what the implications of lesson study for teacher professional development can be. Data in this four-month study were gathered through observations, interviews, whole group discussions, and reflective reports. Findings revealed that lesson study had potential challenges and benefits for the professional development of teachers. The model poses challenges in finding a topic and research question, determining the lesson design and teaching style, making student thinking observable and analyzing qualitative data. On the other hand, it benefited teachers in terms of increasing their pedagogical content knowledge, reflectivity, research skills, collaboration, and collegiality. This study suggests that lesson study might be a good starting point for institutions wishing to adopt a more teacher-led, inquiry-driven and collaborative perspective for professional development.

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