TEACHING FACTORS THAT AFFECT STUDENTS’ LEARNING MOTIVATION: BANGLADESHI EFL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS

Research literature consistently suggests that EFL (English as a foreign language) students’ motivation is affected by some teaching factors (Falout et al., 2009; Kim et al., 2018; Lamb, 2017). The main purpose of this study is to identify exactly which teaching factors adversely affect students’ motivation to study English at higher secondary (HS) level (grade 11 and 12) in Bangladeshi EFL context. To collect qualitative data an interview protocol was developed based on the teaching factors identified in some selected studies conducted in Asian EFL contexts (Kikuchi, 2009; Sakai & Kikuchi, 2009; Trang & Baldauf, 2007; Quadir, 2017). A total number of 40 grade 12 completers were interviewed to collect students’ perceptions. Miles and Huberman’s (1994) qualitative data analysis procedure was applied to analyze the data. From the analysis five distinct factors, which adversely affect students’ motivation, are identified in descending order: teachers’ instructional styles and teaching method, private tutoring, teachers’ personality and behavior, teachers’ competence and classroom management, and teachers’ attitude and commitment. Most of these factors comprise further sub-components which detect the underlying sources of students’ disinterest. For amelioration of the situations some feasible implications are discussed addressing the identified factors.

Response to “Interpret with Caution: COPUS Instructional Styles May Not Differ in Terms of Practices That Support Student Learning,” by Melody McConnell, Jeffrey Boyer, Lisa M. Montplaisir, Jessie B. Arneson, Rachel L. S. Harding, Brian Farlow, and Erika G. Offerdahl

This letter expands on the cautions about the use of COPUS discussed in the article by McConnell and colleagues in the June 2021 issue of LSE.

Interpret with Caution: COPUS Instructional Styles May Not Differ in Terms of Practices That Support Student Learning

The Classroom Observation Protocol for Undergraduate STEM (COPUS) instructional styles reliably distinguish between frequency patterns of classroom behaviors, but do not readily discern differences in formative assessment and feedback. Given the positive relationship between formative assessment and student learning, this study highlights the limitations of the COPUS in documenting the results of STEM reform.

Prosody and ideologies of embodiment: Variation in the use of pitch and articulation rate among fitness instructors

This article discusses semiotic connections among linguistic prosody, the body, and forms of physical activity. A quantitative study of the instructional styles of bodybuilding and yoga instructors on YouTube shows that bodybuilding instructors employ faster articulation rates and higher pitch (F0) than yoga instructors. We argue that articulation rate and pitch become semiotically linked to notions of energy, and the differences in the instructors’ styles are rooted in differences in levels of embodied energy that bodybuilding and yoga are assumed to require. Instructors employ linguistic features that reflect these ideologies of their activities, and in doing so, present themselves as embodied instantiations of their respective practices. This study shows that ideologies of the body as a physically active doer of things provide an important source for the generation of iconic, energy-related meanings. Crucially, we show that ideological notions of energy and embodied iconicity can drive group-level patterns of linguistic variation. (Prosody, iconicity, style, embodiment, social meaning, ideology)*

A Multi-Institutional Analysis of Instructional Beliefs and Practices in Gateway Courses to the Sciences

This paper builds on previous studies of instructional practice in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics courses by reporting findings from a study of the relationship between instructors’ beliefs about teaching and learning and their observed classroom practices. Data collection took place across six institutions of higher education and included in-depth interviews with 71 instructors and more than 140 hours of classroom observations using the Teaching Dimensions Observation Protocol. Thematic coding of interviews identified 31 distinct beliefs that instructors held about the ways students best learn introductory concepts and skills in these courses. Cluster analysis of the observation data suggested that their observable practices could be classified into four instructional styles. Further analysis suggested that these instructional styles corresponded to disparate sets of beliefs about student learning. The results add momentum to reform efforts that simultaneously approach instructional change in introductory courses as a dynamic relationship between instructors’ subjective beliefs about teaching and learning and their strategies in the classroom.

Relationship between Math Teachers’ Instructional Styles and Their Educational Philosophical Backgrounds

The governance of a particular educational philosophy is indispensable for any developed nation in the sense of ruling and governing over its current and future political sociology. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the relationships between mathematics teachers' applied instructional styles and their identified educational philosophical backgrounds. The study was conducted on 124 math teachers working in secondary schools during the 2016-2017 education years. This study aims to use a quantitative research method through the "Philosophical Preference Rating Scale" and the "Teaching Style Scale". The evidence indicates that teachers prefer personal model the most and authoritative teaching style the least. However, it is also determined that these teachers have predominantly experimentalist philosophical backgrounds. The least preferred philosophical approach is the existentialist understanding. In addition, teachers are able to predict their teaching styles, especially from idealistic, realistic, and perennial philosophical points. These indications inform us further on how and why the means of education system has remained much the same while education policies have been reformed many times throughout the recent years in Turkey.