Learning
Maryam Azizi; Hossein Heidari Tabrizi; Ahmadreza Lotfi
Abstract
The hidden constructs underlying teachers’ professional identity at a given point of teaching life are presumed to account for their practical qualities. The current study explored the cognitive skills of three groups of Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers with scant, moderate, ...
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The hidden constructs underlying teachers’ professional identity at a given point of teaching life are presumed to account for their practical qualities. The current study explored the cognitive skills of three groups of Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers with scant, moderate, and considerable teaching experience. To this end, a convenience sample, including 382 Iranian EFL teachers from 660 branches of five countrywide English language institutions, participated in a sequential explanatory mixed-method study. In the quantitative phase, a multivariate approach to comparison was adopted, and the three groups were compared in terms of a linear combination of nine subscales representing teachers’ pedagogical knowledge base. As shown by the results, the between-group differences in four of the nine sub-domains yielded a significant between-group gap in the overall level of teacher cognition. These differentiating knowledge areas included knowledge of learning, teaching, classroom management, and professional self. A qualitative follow-up phase was then launched in which a 95-member sample of the participants attended a retrospective interview to delve deeply into the nature of the four differentiating subdomains. The qualitative results divulged the processes and reasons underlying the four differentiating knowledge areas. The findings may have new insights into the exact nature of Iranian EFL teachers’ intellectual peculiarities at different stages of a teaching career.
Rasool Kornoghabi; Maryam Asoudeh
Abstract
Wisdom is a concept which has been extensively studied in many researches during recent years. On the other hand, occupational burnout is an issue that has affected teachers’ activities for many years. Occupational burnout is caused by increasing responsibility of teachers over the years. To study ...
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Wisdom is a concept which has been extensively studied in many researches during recent years. On the other hand, occupational burnout is an issue that has affected teachers’ activities for many years. Occupational burnout is caused by increasing responsibility of teachers over the years. To study the effect of wisdom-therapy on teachers’ occupational burnout, 34 EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers who worked in Hamedan high schools were selected using convenience sampling method and assigned randomly into two groups of experimental and control, each including 17 teachers. Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educator’s Survey developed by Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter (1996) was used for examining teachers’ occupational burnout and using one of wisdom-therapy techniques, teachers of the experimental group received training in ten sessions. Finally, using the mentioned inventory, teachers’ occupational burnout was examined again. The results of ANCOVA revealed that wisdom-therapy had a significant effect in reducing the level of occupational burnout, depersonalization and emotional exhaustion among Iranian EFL teachers. In addition, the results also showed that wisdom-therapy had a significant effect in improving the level of personal accomplishment. Thus, it is suggested that wisdom-therapy techniques be used in education and be part of teachers’ training.
Roya Saniani; Mahnaz Azad
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of using motivation strategies on EFL teachers’ motivation and reflective teaching. In order to do this, 30 Iranian female EFL teachers who were the researcher’s colleagues and expressed their willingness to participate in this study ...
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The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of using motivation strategies on EFL teachers’ motivation and reflective teaching. In order to do this, 30 Iranian female EFL teachers who were the researcher’s colleagues and expressed their willingness to participate in this study were selected. The group filled out a reflective teaching questionnaire by Akbari, Behzadpour, and Dadvand (2010) and motivation strategies questionnairre by Chastain (1988) as the pretest at the outset of the study and subsequently sat for a workshop where the researcher introduced motivation strategies and techniques to them. Following the end of the workshop, the teachers went back to their routine teaching program for 15 sessions and the researcher administered the reflectivity questionnaire and motivation strategies questionnaire as the posttest to the 30 teachers after those 15 sessions. In order to test the null hypotheses, that is to check any significant difference in the degree of the reflective teaching and motivation of the group prior to and after the treatment, a paired samples t-test was conducted in this research. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between the participants’ scores on the motivation pretest and posttest; favoring the posttest. Also, there was a significant difference between the participants’ scores on the reflective teaching pretest and posttest, favoring the posttest. Therefore, the results showed that motivation strategies significantly affect the teachers’ motivation and reflective teaching.