Sử dụng phương pháp phỏng vấn nghiên cứu về động lực phát triển chuyên môn của giáo viên tiếng anh tại một trường trung học phổ thông

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  ĐÀO THỊ HUYỀN SECONDARY SCHOOL EFL TEACHER’S MOTIVATION FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT – AN INTERVIEW STUDY Sử dụng phương pháp vấn nghiên cứu động lực phát triển chuyên môn giáo viên tiếng Anh trường trung học phổ thông M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  ĐÀO THỊ HUYỀN SECONDARY SCHOOL EFL TEACHER’S MOTIVATION FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT – AN INTERVIEW STUDY Sử dụng phương pháp vấn nghiên cứu động lực phát triển chuyên môn giáo viên tiếng Anh trường trung học phổ thông M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Lê Văn Canh HANOI, 2014 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is a presentation of my original research work submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, ULIS, VNU The material in the research has not been submitted anywhere for any formal course assessment or any award Whenever contributions of others are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly with appropriate acknowledgement and reference I would also like to confirm my acceptance of the University‟s requirements relating to the retention and use of my thesis deposited in the library for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan, or reproduction of the paper Ha Noi, June 2014 Dao Thi Huyen i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to send my special thanks to all of those people who contributed to this research, directly or indirectly First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest and most sincere sense of gratitude to my Supervisor, Dr Le Van Canh, who offered me continuous advice, unfailing support and encouragement throughout the study I thank him for his systematic guidance, his insightful and constructive comments, and great effort he put in training me in the research domain Moreover, I am specially grateful for his generosity in facilitating my access to precious source of materials, without which I could not have been equipped with sufficient theoretical knowledge to make this research possible Secondly, I am indebted to my colleagues for their timely assistance I owe them my thanks for their enthusiasm in sharing their materials resources and inputting inspirational ideas so as to help me conceptualize the framework of my study Last but not least, I take this opportunity to send my heartfelt thanks to all of my family for their unconditional love and care which stimulated me at every stage of my personal and academic life Their encouragement and expectation grant me more energy and determination, and in some sense, enable me to this accomplishment ii ABSTRACT The study deals with the theories of the motivation for EFL teachers in participation in PD It is important that it is carried out to investigate the case of EFL teachers at HaiAn high school The researcher uses the methods such as interviewing closely EFL teachers to understand their attitude to professional development, and the participants all have positive attitude toward PD At the same time, the researcher studies the professional development activities that EFL teachers participate In accordance with the theory mentioned in chapter one, the EFL teachers all take part in the same formal and informal PD activities, especially the reflective practice Also, the participants are asked to talk about their opportunities and challenges for their professional development The result shows that the EFL teachers have strong motivation for PD, although they have some certain obstacles in participation in this process The study also gives suggestions of measures to overcome difficulties when taking part in professional development iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv PART A: INTRODUCTION Chapter I : LITERATURE REVIEW I INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Scope of the study Research questions Methods of the study Overview of the study II DEFINITION OF TERMINOLOGIES Components of Motivation 2 Professional development III WHY IS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IMPORTANT? Why educators need professional development? Did they learn what they need to know in college? Why new educators need extra support? 10 IV PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES 11 V FACTORS AFFECTING TEACHERS‟ PARTICIPATION IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 13 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 16 CHAPTER II: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16 The setting of the study 16 2.2 Participants 16 Data collection instruments 16 2.1 Interviews 17 2.2 Procedure 18 CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19 iv Data analysis approach 19 2.1 Teachers‟ perceptions of the importance of PD 19 Teachers‟ self-reported PD activities they often participated in 20 2.2 2.2.1 Formal PD activities 20 2.2.2 Informal PD activities 22 2.2.3 Reflection on their teaching 24 2.3 Teachers‟ self-reports on the opportunities and challenges for their PD 25 Discussion 26 3.1 Factors affecting EFL teachers in PD 29 Summary of the chapter 30 PART C: CONCLUSION 32 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION 32 Recapitulation 32 Conclusions 32 Implications for teacher professional development 33 Limitations of the study 35 Suggestions for future research 36 REFERENCE 37 APPENDIX I v PART A: INTRODUCTION Chapter I : LITERATURE REVIEW I INTRODUCTION Rationale Everyone is continually developing as a person and, every day in the workplace, we are always learning Tomorrow will be different from today and we all need to be prepared for change Whether you think your role is changing or not, you need to be prepared for the next development opportunity so you don‟t miss out Professional development has become a major focus in EFL teacher education programs worldwide since it is undoubtedly beneficial and essential for professional growth and more effective teaching In the paper presented at the first General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland Annual Lecture in Belfast in March 2006, Geoff Whitty for Institute of Education, University of London states that: Contemporary education reform – including marketisation and centralization, but also a new emphasis on the involvement of a wider range of stakeholders – has resulted in a period of significant change for teachers It has also raised for new questions: for example, what is teacher professional development? How should we understand the roles of teachers? What professional development activities are available and accessible to teachers, and what are the factors affecting teacher‟s participation in those professional development activities? The purpose of this thesis isthus to refocus on our attention on teachers‟ views, especially on urgency of providing teacher professional development that change teachers behaviours in ways that lead to improvement in students‟ performance In addition to calling attention to the ongoing need for effective teacher professional development, I will describe characteristics of high quality professional development and make a case for an unconventional approach to professional development that, unlike “one-shot” workshop and inservice days, allow teacher to acquire and practice new skills over time While the end result of all education reform should be student improvement, every reform initiative, if it is to succeed, must begin with recognition of the importance of teachers in raising student performance (Ferguson, 1991; Armour-Thomas, Clay, Domanico, Bruno, & Allen, 1989) In other words, “student achievement is the product of formal study by educators” (Joyce and Showers, 2002, p.3) We cannot expect students to change what they if we are content for teachers to continue doing what they have always done As an old adage puts it, “If you what you‟ve always done, you will get the results you‟ve always gotten.” This thesis firstly presents the theoretical issues about the roles and nature of EFL teachers in professional development Chapter I – Introduction To clarify these issues, the definition of terminologies is mentioned in chapter II The next chapter is the presentation of the objectives, aims, methodology used for the research and its findings The conclusion which includes some comments and recommendations is presented in chapter IV In consideration of these problems, as an English teacher, I really want to clarify the topic here with my knowledge and my supervisor‟s guidance to analyze, understand the situation of teaching and learning English at HaiAn high school Thanks to it, I will find out lessons, experience for myself and make a small contribution to enhancing the effectiveness in teaching this subject Aims of the study The major aims of the study are: - to gain understandings of secondary school teachers‟ motivation for professional development; and define what is meant by motivation - to discuss some common professional development activities - to identify factors that affect either positively and negatively teachers‟ motivation for professional development Scope of the study Given the rationale and the aims of the study, it is necessary to limit the study to the areas which are manageable Benefits of teacher professional development create the effectiveness of students‟ learning which focuses on two factors: developing teachers‟ motivation in participation in PD and factors affecting this process The subjects under the study are at HaiAn High School Research questions The study attempts to find the answers to the following research questions: - What are EFL teachers‟ attitudes to professional development? - How motivated are they for professional development? -What are the common professional development activities secondary school teachers participate in? - What factors that affect teachers‟ motivation for professional development in the secondary school context ? Methods of the study Because the primary purpose of this study is to gain understanding of the phenomenon under investigation, the main methodology used is qualitative Specifically, data for this study were merely obtained by means of face-toface interviews Overview of the study The study is organized around three parts: observee is doing these or those teaching activities than what he/ or she is doing Observers can have the value of both observable things and unobservable ones Moreover, observing colleagues‟ lessons make them change their teaching “styles”, they realize sometimes it‟s worth changing For example, one teacher said she usually follows a reasonable teaching procedure, and she finds her lessons are quite okay However, when attending another colleague‟s lesson she realizes teacher talking time is really important If teacher talking time is too high, it takes time for the students of involving in the learning On the contrary, if it‟s too low, it‟s hard to create an exciting atmosphere Also, reading books is what EFL teachers in their PD but not much In general, the EFL teachers have not really spent much time reading books; they only read when they need to look for something Mainly they exploit the material for his teaching through the internet; the books they read are mostly related to practical grammar with exercises In other word, they just only focus on teaching grammar, they have not developed the theoretical methodology to have long term improvement in their careers This leads to a big problem, because students need developing their English skills to communicate in the real world, not only to “circle the best answer” in their test papers As a result, our students (with many years of learning English ) fail to use English in their work 3.1 Factors affecting EFL teachers in PD Firstly, teachers all agreed that they received assistance from colleagues in improving their professionals Twice a month, they have group meetings in which they can share their difficulties both in professional and in class controlling And, they are young teachers so they can exploit a lot of useful resources on the internet 29 Thirdly, the encouragement and support rom the management is also very important: seminars and lecture festivals are annually organized by interschools and the department of education and training for teachers to exchange knowledge and experience to and from each other However, The teachers in this study seemed to conflict themselves regarding their opinions about the administrators‟ support and encouragement On the one hand, they appreciated the organization of workshops or seminars But on the other hand, they stated that support was not enough for them to participate in PD These include the lack of research funding and the support for them to pursue higher degree in their study The participants all agreed that management affected them a lot Not many managers weregood at English so they don‟t share anything with EFL teachers, on the contrary, they put more pressure on EFL teachers than teachers of the other subjects All EFL teachers have to sit in the very intensive capacity survey test held by the organization of the project 2020, which leads to many comment dimensions and more or less EFL teachers suffer Teachers did not seem to be aware of action research as a tool for their PD Although a couple of teachers did mention the word „ research‟ in the interviews‟, research to them was just an attempt to understand students‟ attitudes and learning preference They did not mention research for the purpose of changes in their practice Summary of the chapter This chapter investigates the current situation of EFL teachers‟ professional development at Hai An high school through interviews and questionnaires, then carries out data analysis, comparison, findings and discussion Obviously,student learning will be transformed only if teachers‟ 30 classroom practices reflect high standard That is the best way to raise the academic achievement of our students Professional development plays a key role in teacher preparation to meet the students‟ needs, a key focus of Vietnam efforts to improve education The PD of EFL teachers brings motivation and effectiveness to the students at Hai An high school In conclusion, in the process of participation in PD, EFL teachers have many advantages as well as disadvantages from their insights and also from the work environment factors To be successful in their teaching, EFL teachers must be creative to strengthen their insights so that they will outweigh the difficulties 31 PART C: CONCLUSION CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION This concluding part will present some concluding remarks related to the research questions and discuss some implications of the study It will also draw attention to the limitations of the study and make suggestions for how future research could build on the findings of this study Recapitulation In summary, the study deals with the theories of the motivation for EFL teachers in participation in PD It is important that it is carried out to investigate the case of EFL teachers at Hai An high school The researcher uses the methods such as interviewing closely EFL teachers to understand their attitude to professional development, and the participants all have positive attitude toward PD At the same time, the researcher studies the professional development activities that EFL teachers participate In accordance with the theory mentioned in chapter one, the EFL teachers all take part in the same formal and informal PD activities, especially the reflective practice Also, the participants are asked to talk about their opportunities and challenges for their professional development The result shows that the EFL teachers have strong motivation for PD, although they have some certain obstacles in participation in this process The study also gives suggestions of measures to overcome difficulties when taking part in professional development Conclusions While the teachers participating in this study were highly motivated for professional development, their understanding of the concept of „professional development‟ seems to be limited For them, PD just means searching 32 supplementary materials on the internet, peer-observation, attending the training workshops or seminars organized externally and peer-observation These are also professional activities that, according to their self-reports, are available to them Other activities such as teacher support group, keeping a teaching journal, teaching portfolios, peer coaching, analyzing critical incidents (Richards & Farrell, 2005) were not mentioned by any of the participant teachers The greatest challenge to their PD, in their opinion, was related to the management such as the policy for them to study for the Master‟s Degree and the professional expertise of the managers with whom they could share their concerns and from whom they could seek professional help Implications for teacher professional development Vietnam government regards the high level proficiency in English for its students as being vital to its effective participation in the global economy Towards that goal, the country needs to have competent EFL teachers It‟s necessary that EFL teachers should have motivation for PD and participate in its process including all formal and informal activities Teachers, as mentioned above, may have positive attitudes towards the professional development but they need to improve their understanding of what PD means and what is involved in PD Also, their self-reports on the importance of PD does not guarantee their full actual participation in PD and their application of what they gain from PD to their classroom teaching The most prominent factors in this study that influence teachers‟ participation in PD identified in this study namely lack of managerial supports; technical supports; lack of professional training forms; lack of teachers‟ positive attitudes and confidence Besides, regimes and policy were also a comparatively big problem that also discouraged the teachers from their professional development 33 In accordance with the findings, some suggestions for educational authorities and for the teachers are offered to ensure a smooth and successful implementation of EFL teachers‟ motivation for professional development For educational authorities: Educational administrators and teachers educators need to help teachers have a better understanding of PD and common PD activities, especially those that are available locally Establishing teacher support group, training the peer-observation skills, skills in doing action research are all effective PD activities that not cost much The first thing is to invest and improve the quality of classroom facilities and technology equipment The most urgent demand is that a Hi-tech room should be available so that teachers can adopt new software in their teaching and students can enjoy E-learning The second is the number of students in each class should be urgently narrowed The current number is too big, which is very hard for a language teaching and learning to be effective The third is to implement and provide better professional training courses to help EFL teachers gain further knowledge of their professional fields, of IT and familiarize with some applications of IT such as Violet, Hot Potatoes, Adobe Audition, and website designing… in their daily jobs Another suggestion is to make PD compulsory Even though it is for their own profession and should derive from teachers‟ willingness to implement, it is a good idea to provide an urge for them, especially at the early stage of the practice Taking teachers‟ burden of huge loads of work and lack of motivation, this idea may help them maintain the activity and gradually form a habit Finally, regime and policy should be constant and focused on teachers 34 realistically so that EFL teachers don‟t have too much other concerns which take their time of professional development For teachers: As Thomas Guskey (2000, p4) states “One constant finding in the research literature is that notable improvements in education almost never take place in the absence of professional development” Professional development is key to meeting today‟s demand, so EFL teachers should be aware of this importance And each of them has his/ her own way to this activity Research and experience help us recognize that high-quality ongoing professional development deepens EFL teachers‟ content knowledge and pedagogical skills; provides opportunities for practice, research, and reflection; and includes efforts that are jog-embedded, sustained and collaborative will assist in the goal to remain up-to-date (Spark, 2000) Research by Joyce and Shower (1988) concludes that levels of teachers learning and strategy use are greatly increased when coaching, study team, and peer support are provided Thus, EFL teachers should confidently taking part in their professional development events held by the city, the school, interschool, especially their professional group Furthermore, each EFL teacher should strengthen their inners to get over the personal difficulties as well as environment obstacles for their own professional development for their own sake Limitations of the study It should be pointed out that there are certain limitations to this study First of all, the population of the study is rather small, which is hard to generate the findings in this study for EFL teachers in general Secondly, the research duration is quite short, thus possibly making it difficult to clarify the responses of the participants Finally, the study only use interview as the main 35 means to collect data which has some certain disadvantages such as: it takes time to use the content analysis technique to analyze the varied nature of the responses from the interviewees.And open questions used in this unstructured interview approach can cause confusion either because of the lack of understanding of the question by the informant or by the lack of understanding of the respondent's answer by the interviewer Suggestions for future research As the result of the findings from the research and the limitations of the study, several issues are worth considering for future research Firstly, a similar investigation should be implemented with a large number of participants or in longer duration so that the result will be more reliable Secondly, the research can be carried out with some other means such as questionnaires, observation to investigate the changes in teaching practice in reality Finally, it is hoped that the implications in this study will be applied to assess the EFL teachers‟ motivation in professional development 36 REFERENCE Beatrice F Birman, Laura Desimone, Andrew C Porter, and Micheal S Garet Designing Professional Development that works Borko, H (2008) Professional development and teacher learning: Mapping the terrain Educational Research, 33(8), 3-15 Desimone, L Porter, A Garet, M., Yoon, K.S., &Birman, B (2002) Effects of professional development on teachers’ instruction: results from longitudinal study Educational evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24 (81), 81 – 112 Foddy, William Constructing Questions forInterviews, Cambridge University Press, 1993 Geoff Whitty (2006) Institute of education, University of London Guskey, T (2000) Evaluating professional development Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press Guskey, T R (1988) Teacher efficacy, self – concept and attitudes towards the implementation of instructional innovation Teaching and Teacher Education, 4(1), 63 – 69 Ingvarson, L., Meier, M., & Beavis, A (2005) Factors affecting the impact of professional development programs on teachers’ knowledge, practice, student outcomes &efficacy Joyce, B.,& Shower, B (1988) Student achievement through staff development New York Longman 10.Kvale, Steinar Interviews An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing, Sage Publication, 1996 37 11.McNamara, Carter, PhD General Guidelines for Conducting interviews, Minnesota, 1999 12 Richards, J C., & Farrell, T S C (2005) Professional development for language teachers: Strategies for teacher learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 13 Sandra H Harwell, Ph.D Teachers’ professional development It’s NOT an event It’s a process 14.Schone, D A (1983) The reflective practitioner New York: Basic Books 15.Spark, D (2002) Designing powerful professional development for teachers and principals Oxford HO: National Staff Development Council 16.Watson, S., & Evans.S (2012) Observing changes in teachers’ practice as a consequence of taking part in professional development: developing a protocol for the observation of lessons 17.https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/ /research.pdf? 18.www Learningforward.org 19.http// Psychology.about.com 38 APPENDIX INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (in English) According to you, how is professional development important for teachers? According to him (her), there are other forms of professional development for teachers? Do you regularly attend professional training courses or not? Why you attend such training courses? In addition to teacher training courses, which form of training you selfstudy to improve your pedagogy?Why you use those activities? I Do you often attend your colleagues‟lessons or not? Why and Why not? If yes, you learn anything through your fellows‟ classes? Do you often think of the lessons you‟ve taught? Why and why not? Did you learn something after thinking of your previous lessons again? Do you often read professional books? If so, why? What kind of books you often read? Why you often read those kinds of books? Have you ever conducted research on students or improved your teaching hours? Why and why not? If so, how often? Please give an example? Do you have any advantages and disadvantages of improving your professionals? II INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (in Vietnamese) Theo anh (chị) việc phát triển nghiệp vụ có tầm quan trọng giáo viên? Theo anh (chị) có hình thức phát triển nghiệp vụ cho giáo viên? Anh (chị) có thường xuyên dự lớp bồi dưỡng nghiệp vụ không? Vì anh (chị) tham gia lớp bồi dưỡng đó? Ngoài lớp bồi dưỡng giáo viên tập trung anh (chị) tự học để nâng cao lực sư phạm hình thức nào? Vì anh chị lại sử dụng hoạt động đó? III Anh chị có thường xuyên dự đồng nghiệp khơng? Vì có? Vì khơng? Nếu có anh (chị) học hỏi qua việc dự đồng nghiệp? Anh (chị) có thường xuyên suy ngẫm lại dạy sau tiết dạy khơng? Vì có? Vì khơng? Nếu có anh (chị) học lần chiêm nghiệm hay suy ngẫm lại dạy mình? Anh chị có thường xun đọc sách chun mơn khơng? Nếu có sao? Những loại sách anh chị thường đọc? Vì thường đọc sách đó? Anh chị tiến hành nghiên cứu học sinh cải tiến dạy khơng? Vì có? Vì khơng? Nếu có có thường xun khơng? Hãy cho ví dụ? IV Anh (chị) có khó khăn thuận lợi việc bồi dưỡng tự bồi dưỡng chuyên môn? V ... PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT – AN INTERVIEW STUDY Sử dụng phương pháp vấn nghiên cứu động lực phát triển chuyên môn giáo viên tiếng Anh trường trung học phổ thông M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: Language... Vietnamese) Theo anh (chị) việc phát triển nghiệp vụ có tầm quan trọng giáo viên? Theo anh (chị) có hình thức phát triển nghiệp vụ cho giáo viên? ... giáo viên tập trung anh (chị) tự học để nâng cao lực sư phạm hình thức nào? Vì anh chị lại sử dụng hoạt động đó? III Anh chị có thường xun dự đồng nghiệp