There has been much research into teacher beliefs about teaching and learning as seen in the general teacher education literature. In the field of language teacher education, this line of research has been evolving, with the recent trend being streamlined into “teacher cognition” as a generic or umbrella term. Despite increasing amounts of research output so far, research into foreign language teachers’ cognitions about their own teaching and decision-making is still insufficient, particularly with regard to university-level English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers in China. Drawing on Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory, this qualitative research focused on EFL teachers’ cognitions about form-focused instruction in Chinese university settings. It intended to discover how teachers’ cognitions changed when they were expected to teach in actual classrooms and what factors contributed to these changes. Data collected from four teacher-participants through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and follow-up stimulated recall interviews showed participants’ support for focus-on-form instruction, which means they not only paid attention to the grammatical form of the language but also to the meaning it is intended to convey. However, data also showed that the teacher-participants shifted from focus-on-form to focus-on-formS instruction in actual teaching, which suggests that they might have realized the challenges of carrying out teaching activities surrounding focus-on-form and would like to take an easier approach by only teaching the grammar of the language by focusing on formS. Such incongruences are interpreted with reference to a plethora of sociocultural factors including traditional Chinese thinking and institutional expectations. The implications of the findings for stakeholders in universities, including faculty members, students, and curriculum developers in similar contexts, are also discussed.
According to the damage evolution model of rock mass under stress-seepage coupling effect, the representative element theory is employed to describe the change law of rock mesostructure. Based on the theory of elasticity and Weibull distribution, the statistical damage constitutive model of rock mass and the finite element numerical algorithm are established, by adopting the COMSOL Multiphysics numerical software and MATLAB program. Besides, the validity of the statistical damage constitutive model of rock mass is verified by the triaxial compression test. Besides, the hydraulic fracturing processes of rock mass under equal and unequal in situ stresses are numerically simulated, and the mechanical behavior of rock mass during hydraulic fracturing in complex underground environment is also studied. Under the condition of equal in situ stress, the stress distribution of surrounding rock of circular hole is annular, which is similar to the elastic stress distribution of surrounding rock. Under the condition of unequal in situ stress, the stress distribution tends to be circular with the increase of lateral pressure coefficient, and the stress distribution along the diagonal decreases. The simulation results are in good agreement with the theoretical results, which indicates that the damage mechanical model and the numerical model have correlation and certain accuracy. By analyzing the size and direction of horizontal in situ stress, the shape and extension direction of cracks are judged, which provides an important theoretical basis for water inrush prediction and engineering protection.
Framed in Complexity Theory, this paper presents a multi-case study of Chinese university English teachers’ cognitions and practices about form-focused instruction in English language teaching. Four teachers, including two novice teachers and two experienced ones, were involved in the study. A triangulation method, including semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and stimulated recall interviews, was used to examine and compare their cognitions and practices. Research findings reveal that all teachers favoured focus on form instruction rather than focus on forms instruction in English teaching in their cognitions; however, the two novice teachers failed to implement focus on form instruction in practices, whereas the two experienced teachers carried it out consistently. The result calls for effective teacher education programmes for sustainable teacher development, particularly in sustaining the development of novice teachers’ knowledge about how to implement focus on form instruction in pedagogical practice. The implications arising from this study for L2 teacher education in China and similar L2 contexts are also discussed.
It is well-acknowledged that teachers play a significant role in enhancing student learning and that investigating teachers’ cognitions about teaching is a first and important step to understanding the phenomenon. Although much research into teachers’ cognitions about grammar teaching has been conducted in various socio-cultural contexts, little has been reported on cognitions of Chinese teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) so far. Such understanding is of primary importance to student success in language learning given the sociocultural context where grammar takes a lion’s share in high-stakes examinations. In order to address this research gap, we developed and validated the Chinese EFL Teachers’ Cognitions about Grammar Teaching Questionnaire (TCAGTQ). Two subsamples (n1 = 314, n2 = 215) were randomly invited to respond to the TCAGTQ and the data were then subjected to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the validity and reliability of the instrument. The EFA excluded eight items from the TCAGTQ and generated six factors with 27 items. The CFA result from the other subsample supported a six-factor model with a good model fit. Moderate correlations between the six factors also supported the predictive validity of the questionnaire, showing that the TCAGTQ is a valid and reliable inventory for measuring Chinese university EFL teachers’ cognitions about grammar teaching. Our findings suggest that the TCAGTQ can be used as a useful tool for teachers to self-assess their professional practice for improving teaching.
As an important part of university management and the basis of performance system, university teacher evaluation has become a research hotspot recently. However, there exist many questions in this area such as excessive subjectivity, inundate formalism and so on. All of this does not suit to the development of existing situation. Starting with the professional features of university teacher and considering the overall developing aims of university the paper design HR indexes evaluation system of university teachers from four aspects: basic quality, teaching capacity, scientific achievements and develop potential. And using information entropy-weighted method the paper constructs a human resources evaluation model of university teacher. According to the comprehensive testing coefficient we can get quantitative conclusion clearly which indicates each teacher's HR condition. Lastly combining with the demonstration of HR evaluation of management school teachers belonging to one certain university we validate the practicability and reliability of the evaluation model. The construction of evaluation model can not only help school managers evaluate teachers, but also help teachers take this as a benchmark, constantly study and explore, improve their comprehensive ability, and become excellent teachers with high quality and strong teaching and scientific research ability.
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