This paper examines the research self-efficacy beliefs, research motivation, and perceptions of research importance and research obstacles of 100 professors and lecturers of foreign languages at three Mexican universities. Survey results show that faculty hold moderate to high research self-efficacy beliefs, are highly motivated to conduct research, think research in the area is very important, and perceive that lack of time is the main obstacle to conducting research. The lack of fit between most participants' relatively high self-efficacy and limited research engagement suggests the possibility that faculty overestimate their research abilities. The implications of these findings are also discussed.Key words: Foreign language faculty, research conditions, research motivation, research self-efficacy.Este artículo examina las creencias de autoeficacia para la investigación, la motivación, las percepciones sobre la importancia de esta actividad y los obstáculos que enfrentan 100 profesores de lenguas extranjeras de tres universidades mexicanas para realizarla. Los resultados de una encuesta mostraron que los profesores albergan creencias sobre su eficacia en investigación que van de moderadas a altas. Igualmente, éstos se dicen muy motivados para realizar investigación y la consideran una actividad importante para el área. El obstáculo más recurrentemente mencionado fue la falta de tiempo. La poca consistencia entre el sentido alto de autoeficacia de la mayoría de los participantes y su limitado compromiso para la investigación sugieren la posibilidad de que los profesores hayan sobrevalorado sus habilidades investigativas. Finalmente, se discuten las implicaciones de estos hallazgos.Palabras clave: condiciones para la investigación, creencias de autoeficacia para la investigación, motivación para investigar, profesores de lenguas extranjeras.
This study explores, from a pragmatist perspective, the conceptions of research of undergraduate pre-service teachers from an English Language Major at a public Mexican university. A survey design was used. The informants were 108 pre-service EFL teachers from the second, sixth and tenth semesters. The conceptions of research showed similar percentages among the pre-service teachers from those semesters. Only a slight variation was found in the factor “misconceptions about research”. The factor “research about problem solution” was the only one that showed a significant but weak correlation with the semester in which undergraduate pre-service EFL teachers were. Slight differences were also found between age range and conceptions of research. The lack of differences among the research conceptions of these undergraduate pre-service EFL teachers is opposed to the findings of previous studies. This can be explained by the fact that those studies were done in varied contexts and with post graduate students from disciplines different from the foreign language teaching area. It is suggested to correct students’ misconceptions and promote research activities during the bachelor degree.
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