An Exploration of Teaching Practices of Private, Public, and Public-Private EFL Teachers in Iran

Abstract

This study investigates the practices of public (high) school, private language institute, and public-private teachers. In particular, it aims at addressing the role of contextual factors, the variations teachers introduce to cope with them, and the degree of sustainable behaviour among these three groups of teachers. High school teachers consisted of those who taught only in high schools and the ones teaching both in high schools and private language institutes. For this purpose, classroom practices of 60 EFL teachers (N=20 per group) with 3 to 6 years of teaching experience and BA degree in TEF) were compared in terms of group/pair work, teacher talking time, L1 use, questioning, corrective feedback, and coverage of language skills. The findings of the study indicate that a significant difference exists among these three groups of teachers in terms of their practices. It is noteworthy that in the same teaching context of high school, the practices of teachers with and without private language teaching experience are significantly dissimilar except in the duration of pair/group work activities and the rates of repetition and explicit correction. This study suggests that high school EFL teachers with teaching experience in private language institutes subscribe more closely to the tenets of communicative language teaching and thus can act as powerful agents of sustainable language teaching in Iranian public schools.

Exploring Change in EFL Teachers’ Perceptions of Professional Development

“…The most direct contextual factor assumed to influence teachersí learning is the learning environment (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002;Gholami, Sarkhosh, & Abdi, 2016).…”

Key Stakeholders’ Attitudes towards Teacher Education Programs in TEFL: A Case Study of Farhangian University in Iran

“…Evaluation of teacher education programs can also lead to more sustainable practices and outcomes in these programs. As Gholami, Sarkhosh, and Abdi (2016) put, sustainable behavior of teachers in the classroom is considered as one of the characteristics of efficient teachers. According to Besong and Holland (2015), sustainability is something that goes on continuously and for a long period of time.…”

Learning to Be: Teachers’ Competences and Practical Solutions: A Step Towards Sustainable Development

“…The recent World Commission on Teaching pointed out that our teachers, in order to help students, not only should have the skills making teaching and examination easier, but also, more importantly, ways of thinking (creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, and learning) ways of working (communication and collaboration), tools of working (communication and information technology), skills in the domain of citizenship, life skills, occupation, and personal and social responsibility for success in modern democracy should also be discovered (OECD, 2011). Teachers beliefs, practices, and attitudes are closely related to teachersí strategies used to cope with challenges that they encounter in their profession, and they also influence learners learning environment, motivation, and achievement (Gholami, Sarkhosh, & Abedi, 2016). Utilizing educational strategies such as the formulation of purposive and smart questions, conscious selection of educational subjects, process-centered teaching methods based on studentsí meta-cognitive development, development of a questioning spirit, critical thinking, exploratory learning opportunities, valid scientific sources, comparison of ideas, discussions about the subject, and communication with students in a collaborative and cooperative environment, teachers try to increase their studentsí learning levels (Costa & Lowery, 1989;Driscoll, 2000;Hewson, 1996;Marzano, 1989;Meichenbum, 1986;Persichitte, 1993;Pintrich, 1990).…”