English language teachers becoming more efficacious through research engagement at their Turkish university

Abstract

While it is generally recognized that teacher research can be a very beneficial form of continuing professional development (CPD), there is still relatively limited research available on the impact this activity has on teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, which are of interest to educational psychologists because, while being open to constant change, these beliefs influence the way in which knowledge is transformed into action. There is also a relative lack of available research into how teachers develop as researchers; the processes whereby they gain practical knowledge and more positive self-efficacy beliefs in planning, conducting, analysing, presenting and writing up research require further exploration. This qualitative multi-case study addresses these issues, exploring the development of three in-service teachers of English on a foundation programme at a Turkish university. Findings reveal that engaging in CPD which directly benefited their learners helped all three teachers develop positive teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and deeper practical knowledge in relation to the specific tasks that concerned them. Furthermore, from a starting point of having low self-efficacy beliefs in conducting practical research, which reflected their lack of prior knowledge in this area, they all became more efficacious as they gained research experience and developed practical knowledge of research. This study highlights the benefits, then, of helping teachers become more efficacious through CPD that engages them as knowledge-generators. Enthusiastic mentoring, autonomy support and the opportunity to present their research more widely all helped the teachers in this Turkish context to develop

Language Teachers’ Self-efficacy Beliefs: A Review of the Literature (2005-2016)

“…Regarding the latter, Wyatt (2016) highlights how focusing on self-directed action research tasks helped Omani English teachers, reflecting and experimenting, grow in practical knowledge and LTSE beliefs longitudinally. Engaging in teacher research as continuing professional development helped Turkish English teachers in Wyatt and Dikilitaş (2016) become more efficacious with regard to the specific tasks that concerned them.…”

Towards Understanding EFL Teachers’ Conceptions of Research: Findings From Argentina

“…Teacher research can encompass action research (Burns, 2010;Dikilitaş & Griffiths, 2017) and exploratory practice (Allwright & Hanks, 2009;Hanks, 2017) and it is used as continuing professional development in Latin American countries such as Argentina (Banegas, Pavese, Velázquez, & Vélez, 2013), Brazil (Seixas Vial & Kurtz de Souza Welp, 2015, Chile (Burns, Westmacott, & Hidalgo Ferrer, 2016;Smith, Connelly, & Rebolledo, 2014), Mexico (Roux & Mendoza Valladares, 2014) and in other countries, for example Australia (Edwards & Burns, 2016b), China (Wang & Zhang, 2014;Yuan et al, 2016), or Turkey (Wyatt & Dikilitaş, 2015). Previous research reports how future teachers (Villacañas de Castro, 2014) and practising teachers engage in action research to bridge the so-called gap between theory and practice and produce context-responsive answers to their classroom concerns (Edwards & Burns, 2015).…”

Teacher to Researcher: Reflections on a New Action Research Program for University EFL Teachers

“…For example: [You] have the opportunity to look at the things you do in order to improve them, but also to realise…that sometimes, you could do better…things that you do not consider, you can include in your The participants' first presentations of their projects to the university community in September 2016 was a valuable experience for some of them: having the opportunity to reflect on their data as part of developing their presentations was helpful for the writing stage, and it was encouraging to hear other teachers comment on the importance of their topics. Other authors have also noted that in-house presentations can contribute to teacher researchers' sense of identity as researchers (e.g., Edwards & Burns, 2016b;Wyatt & Dikilitaş, 2015). However, the feedback received by one of the participants from her colleagues was rather negative, and she felt that, despite the relatively underdeveloped research culture at the university, her colleagues would have given more credit to more academic, formal presentations.…”

“…Yuan and Lee (2014), noting the impact of facilitative teacher-university researcher partnerships in this process, found that the teachers they worked with in Hong Kong gradually changed their preconceptions about research as they learned more about action research and learned to cope with challenging contextual constraints, which led to professional learning and development. Wyatt and Dikilitaş (2015) found that the three teacher-researchers they studied in Turkey, who all began with low self-beliefs about their abilities to do research, became more efficacious as they engaged in continuing professional development that involved doing research. Mentoring, encouraging, and supporting their autonomy, and providing opportunities for them to present their research all contributed to their development as researchers.…”