Teachers in institutions of higher education have a very high degree of freedom when designing curricula. They make decisions on learning objectives, content, content organization, teaching arrangement, and assessment. Teachers' beliefs regarding curriculum design affect decisionmaking and planning processes, teaching approaches, and their relationships with students. This study aimed to examine the role beliefs played in influencing an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher's curriculum design. The teacher's beliefs, their origins, and their impact on curriculum design were investigated through the analysis of in-depth interview transcripts, course outlines, teaching and learning materials, and teaching reflection notes. The results of the analysis revealed that the ESL teacher believed that an ESL curriculum should be balanced, authentic, and enjoyable. While teaching experiences, article reading, and personal interests were shown to have shaped the ESL teacher's beliefs, the most significant influencer was his personal experiences in a postgraduate Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages teacher education programme. This finding underscores that quality curricula will bring about positive learning experiences, which, in turn, will lead to better curriculum design.

Instructional settings (English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL)) may provide different opportunities for learners’ meaningful language use. This qualitative study was designed to shed light on this issue. The data included multiple sources collected from a sustained content gastronomy language course taught in an American ESL and a Taiwanese EFL context. Findings revealed that various factors (e.g., themes, environment, and learners) contributed to learners from both contexts meeting course goals. The findings further indicate that it is not the ESL/EFL context but instead using a sustained content language teaching approach that incorporates theme-based instruction and dynamic units that ensures learners are provided opportunities for meaningful and purposeful language use.

No abstract

Teacher educators drive preservice teachers' learning about teaching particularly through feedback. The learning materials produced by preservice teachers also play a crucial role in English language teacher training but may not be receiving the necessary attention in teacher education programs. Preservice teachers lack formal teaching experiences, which may result in their overemphasizing material delivery while underemphasizing material suitability. Providing teacher educators with criteria for evaluating learning materials developed by preservice teachers could aid in their providing quality formative feedback. Therefore, this study was designed to construct a research‐based contextualized evaluation checklist for learning materials. Adopting a systematic yet flexible design‐based method allowed for the integration of design and intervention to develop a solution for this targeted educational problem. The researchers adopted a three‐phase process for this study: analysis and exploration of a teacher educator's needs and extant literature on learning materials; design and construction; and evaluation and reflection. Learning materials designed by a preservice teacher were used to pilot the checklist. The results showed a need for refinement to form the final evaluation checklist. The checklist can be used by teacher educators for preservice teacher evaluation purposes or by preservice teachers as a quality check.

This qualitative case study explores a language teacher educator’s beliefs and practices regarding pre-primary English teacher education in Macau. The focal participant was an experienced English language teacher (20 years) and teacher educator who is a native speaker of American English. The data were collected over five years, and include written reflections, classroom observations, course syllabi, and interviews. The findings reveal that the teacher educator held six main beliefs regarding various aspects of language teacher education for the pre-primary level, namely, beliefs about (1) the purpose of pre-primary English teacher education, (2) being a teacher educator, (3) the nature of the teaching methodology course, (4) the students, (5) pre-school learners and learning, and (6) the development of the teaching methodology course. The educator’s beliefs were largely reflected in practice, as revealed in the course design, material selection, teaching, and the design of student assignments and other forms of assessment. The educator adjusted his/her practice over time in response to students’ needs, self-awareness, and the university policies. The teacher educator’s beliefs and practices were shown to be mutually informing.