Faranak Shapouran; Roya Ranjbar Mohammadi Bonab; Mohammad Hossein Yousefi; Hassan Asadollahfam
Abstract
Teachers' professional learning plays an important role in their attempt to change their teaching practices; however, few studies have been conducted on how teachers prepare themselves for the vast initiatives in ameliorating students' outcomes. This study aimed to explore EFL teachers’ perceptions ...
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Teachers' professional learning plays an important role in their attempt to change their teaching practices; however, few studies have been conducted on how teachers prepare themselves for the vast initiatives in ameliorating students' outcomes. This study aimed to explore EFL teachers’ perceptions toward their professional learning practices and their professional developmental orientations that contribute to the process of their professional learning. To this end, 30 Iranian EFL teachers selected through purposive sampling participated in this qualitative phenomenological study. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, and narrative inquiries to ensure the trustworthiness criteria of the data. The thematic analysis of the data revealed three themes of professional development programs, collaborative learning and experience-based learning. The result showed that only a few teachers were satisfied with the school-based professional learning programs, indicating that revision in the educational system was required to develop teachers’ professional learning. Meanwhile, effective learning occurred through collaboration among the teachers and the mutual learning between teachers and students, hence, leading to participative decision-making and teachers' reflective practice. Overall, participants mentioned students' outcomes as a key level of teachers' professional learning. This study has important implications for policymakers, school administrators, and teacher educators.
Edita Bekteshi; Melihate Shala; Brikena Xhaferi
Abstract
The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate English teaching and its impact on students from the engineering faculty in bilingual CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) application. It was conducted in a public Higher Education Institution (HEI) in Kosovo, at the Faculty of Mechanical ...
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The purpose of this experimental study was to investigate English teaching and its impact on students from the engineering faculty in bilingual CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) application. It was conducted in a public Higher Education Institution (HEI) in Kosovo, at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Computing in which data were collected from 180 students. There were 56 students involved in the experimental group, whereas the control groups comprised of 68 students following conventional Technical Drawing with Descriptive Geometry class in native /Albanian language, and 56 students followed conventional English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classes as the second control group. Two teachers, one in engineering field, and one ESP teacher were involved in this study throughout the semester, i.e. fifteen weeks. The study incorporated parallel teaching, the same content in two different languages in the experimental group: Albanian/native language by the engineering practitioner, and English by the ESP teacher. The results of three test terms for all the three groups were analyzed by applying SPSS statistical package, and revealed that the experimental group achieved higher success in learning. The study concluded that if there is no teacher available to offer CLIL to future engineers, then teaching engineering courses with the engineering practitioner can be conducted in parallel fashion with the ESP teacher, who can contribute to positive effect in terms of certain engineering subcategories and English professional vocabulary. As such, this study may be considered as a potential example in offering new professional engineering courses which include bilingual paired teaching, of English and a professional course.
