The vietnamese efl teachers’ perceptions of peer observation as a tool for professional development

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY ∞0∞ NGUYEN HOANG THAO NGUYEN THE VIETNAMESE EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF PEER OBSERVATION AS A TOOL FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY ∞0∞ NGUYEN HOANG THAO NGUYEN THE VIETNAMESE EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF PEER OBSERVATION AS A TOOL FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Major code: 14 01 11 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: LE THI THUY NHUNG, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH KHOA ĐÀO TẠO SAU ĐẠI HỌC CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập – Tự – Hạnh phúc GIẤY XÁC NHẬN Tơi tên là: NGUYỄN HỒNG THẢO NGUN Ngày sinh: 11/11/1992 Nơi sinh: TP.HCM Chuyên ngành: Lý luận phương pháp dạy học môn Tiếng Anh Mã học viên: 1781401110022 Tơi đồng ý cung cấp tồn văn thơng tin luận văn tốt nghiệp hợp lệ quyền cho Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh kết nối tồn văn thơng tin luận văn tốt nghiệp vào hệ thống thông tin khoa học Sở Khoa học Công nghệ Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh Ký tên Nguyễn Hồng Thảo Ngun i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the assignment “The Vietnamese EFL teachers’ perceptions of Peer Observation as a tool for Professional Development” is my original work; it is based on my own research All sources used by me have been documented No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement This piece of work has not previously been submitted for assessment in this or any other subject or course at this University or elsewhere Ho Chi Minh City, 2022 Nguyen Hoang Thao Nguyen ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In this part, I would like to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to the people who supported me to complete my thesis First of all, I would like to thank and express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Le Thi Thuy Nhung, who provided me all with her support, guidance, expertise and meaningful feedback for my thesis development Without her advice and patience, I could not finish my study on time I really appreciate that she took her time to discuss with me and cared about my thesis Sincerely, I would like to express all my gratefulness to her Secondly, I would like to give my special thanks to my administrator who allowed me to have days off to pay attention to my thesis and my colleagues at Cao Thang technical college who spend their time taking part in my study, especially the ones who allowed me to interview them In addition, my senior colleagues also gave me the useful advice for my thesis and support me at work while I was working on my thesis Thus, I really want to express my appreciation to them Finally, I am deeply grateful to my parents and my brother for their encouragement and support, which helps me to overcome the difficulties and discouragement Ho Chi Minh City, March 2022 Nguyen Hoang Thao Nguyen iii ABSTRACT Peer Observation (PO) plays an important role in teachers’ professional development as it assists them in enhancing their skills, knowledge and experience PO has widely been researched by international scholars and many studies examine the experiences of teachers of PO in educational settings PO seems to be neglected by the local educators and researchers which is evidenced by limited research on PO in Vietnamese contexts This study examines the perception of Vietnamese EFL teachers of peer observation as the tool for professional development by looking into the current practice of PO in their institutions and their perceptions of its benefits and challenges The study employed mixed-methods to collect data First, survey questionnaires were completed online by 22 EFL teachers working in a technical college in Ho Chi Minh City; the convenience sampling was used to gain the information from this survey Then, semi- structured interviews were conducted with four of those teachers The purposive sampling was chosen to gain detailed explanation for the participants’ choice in the interview The findings show that teachers’ perceptions and experiences of PO varied among academic institutions The purposes of PO were different among different educational settings PO sessions in many institutions tended to focus more on evaluation purposes than on professional development purposes which aim to improve teaching performance of EFL teachers Also, the procedures of implementing PO were not well-organized in institutions Teachers as they were given opportunities to reflect on their own teaching; they could adopt best practices from their peers to enhance their teaching performance PO also was considered to encourage teachers to share their ideas and experience through discussions and feedback provision On the other hand, PO was found to bring more pressure, stress, anxiety and confusion to observers and their observed colleagues The findings have several implications for stakeholders to reflect on the current practices of PO in their respective academic institutions with a view to enhancing the quality of this professional development tool iv ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English foreign language LTO : Language teaching organization PD : Professional development PO : Peer Observation POT : Peer Observation of Teaching v TABLE OF CONTENT STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT .iii ABBREVIATIONS iv TABLE OF CONTENT v LIST OF FIGURES .vii LIST OF TABLES viii CHAPTER BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale for the study 1.2 Statement of Problem 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research Questions 1.5 The significance of the study 1.6 Organization of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition of terms 2.1.1 The required quality of the language teachers 2.1.2 Professional development (PD) 2.1.3 Peer observation 2.1.4 Perception 2.2 Peer observation (PO) and its developmental aspects 2.2.1 Functions and models of Peer Observation 2.2.2 The benefit of Peer Observation 12 2.2.3 The challenges of Peer Observation 13 2.3 The Procedure of Successful Peer Observation 15 2.4 Feedback: An important element of peer observation process 18 2.5 Implementing peer observation in Vietnamese context 19 2.6 The previous studies 20 2.7 Summary of literature review 21 2.8 The theoretical framework of the study 23 vi CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 24 3.1 Study design 24 3.2 Research setting and participants 25 3.3 Instruments 26 3.3.1 Closed-ended Questionnaire 27 3.3.2 Semi-structured Interview 28 3.4 Data Collection Procedures 30 3.5 Data Analysis 31 3.6 Validity and reliability 31 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 33 4.1 Results 33 4.1.1 Results from the questionnaire 33 4.1.1.1 Participants’ background information and their experience of peer observation……………………………………………………………………33 4.1.1.2 Teachers’ perceptions of benefits of peer observation 38 4.1.1.3 Teachers’ perceptions of challenges of peer observation 40 4.1.2 Results from the interview 43 4.1.2.1 Teachers’ experiences of the current practice of PO 44 4.1.2.2 The benefits and challenges of peer observation 46 4.2 Discussion of the findings 49 4.2.1 Findings on research question 1: What are the teachers' experiences of the current practice of PO in their institutions? 49 4.2.2 Findings on research question 2: What are the teachers' perceptions of benefits and challenges of PO? 51 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 53 5.1 The summary of main findings 53 5.2 Implications of the study 54 5.3 Limitations of the study and recommendation for further study 55 REFERENCES 56 APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE – ENGLISH VERSION 63 APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS – ENGLISH VERSION 67 APPENDIX C: QUESTIONNAIRE – VIETNAMESE VERSION 68 APPENDIX D: INTERVIEW – VIETNAMESE VERSION 72 APPENDIX E: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE 73 THESIS REVIEW FORM Thesis title: Vietnamese EFL teachers’ perception of peer observation as a tool for professional development Student name:Nguyễn Hoàng Thảo Nguyên Thesis examiner 1: Bui Thi Thuc Quyen Examiner’s report The thesis explored teacher’s perception of peer observation as a tool for professional development; the topic is practical However, due to the quality of the work, its contribution to the field of language teaching is unsure Other comments and questions are as follows: In terms of format, the report conforms to an MA’s thesis Nonetheless, its should be revise in terms of language use and paragraph length as well as in-text citaion references style The title showed the focus of the study The abstract: In this part, readers can find a brief summary of the study, including the research aims, design, the method, the instruments Points to work on: +Add sampling method for each instrument +The description of the participants should be related to the main resaerch setting Chapter 1: The Introduction Chapter tried to provide the necessary information: the background of study, the rationale of the study, the statement of the study, the aims of the study, the research questions, the significance of the study Points to work on: +Research question 1: the pharse “their institutions” does not fit the research setting: Cao Thang English Teaching Center (this name sounds weird) +The scope of the study should be added +Significance of study: contribution of the study should be clearly stated in terms of theory and practice to the field of language teacher development Chapter presents a review of theories, yet it is not thorough because the candidate failed to synthesize the discussed points and there is no information about the required quality of a language teacher or perception - two important concepts of the study Besides, previous studies related to the topic could not be found and he framework of study is not what it is supposed to be Points to work on: +Add the required quality of a language teacher +Add “perception” and explain why it should be explored +Expalian the differences of the three modes suggested by Gostling +Synthesize the points in each subsection +Add previous studies related to the topic +Rewrite the framework of study Chapter - Methodology provides information about the research design, research instruments, the participants, data collection procedure and data analysis This part failed to show the candidate understanding about reliability and validity The questionnaire carry some double barrel items More importantly, because the framework is not clearly described, there are questions about the quality of the instruments Points to work on: +Add research setting +Present the participants’ characteristics in relation with the topic of the study +Show detailed information on the sampling methods for the questionnaire and interview +Revise reliability and validity sub-section Chapter 4: The Findings and Discussion Chapter provides the answers to each question However, the information, specifically the tables was inappropriately presented Also, there are questions about this section Moreover, the candidate need to make sure the answers are discussed with reference to the literature review Points to work on: +Explain the meaning of the mean to reason the findings +Cronbach’s Alpha index should be moved to Methodology Chapter +Explain the use of One-way ANOVA(p.44) The analysis does not make sense +Why was age mentioned (p.51) Chapter 5: Chapter completes all the parts required for this chapter However, irrelevant information is found in summary of the study and limitations and recommendations for further study In short, the thesis needs major revision in order to be qualified for a Master’s degree Signature TS Bùi Thị Thục Quyên