Beliefs and practices of reflective teaching in the English language classroom in Jerusalem

Other Title(s)

معتقدات و ممارسات التعليم التأملي لدى مدرسي اللغة النجليزية في مدارس القدس

Dissertant

Ali, Nadin Munir Ibrahim

Thesis advisor

Nasru, Fathiyyeh Said

Comitee Members

Makkawi, Ibrahim
Qattan, Jeanne

University

Birzeit University

Faculty

Faculty of Graduate Studies

University Country

Palestine (West Bank)

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2010

English Abstract

Reflective teaching, which a process where teachers look at what they do in the classroom, think about why they do it, and think about alternative means of achieving goals or aims, is considered a means of providing learners with an opportunity to consider the teaching event thoughtfully, analytically and objectively, and one of the essential principles underlying good teaching practice and teacher education.

A limited number of studies addressed the issue of practising reflective teaching at the Palestinian schools in general and in the English language classroom in particular.

For this reason, the researcher has conducted this study, which is qualitative-quantitative in nature, aiming to assess the frequency of reflective teaching practices from the view of 10th and 11th grade teachers of English as a foreign language in the Jerusalem District and to compare them with their actual practices. The study employed varied data collection tools, including an attitude scale questionnaire, interviews in-depth, and classroom observations.

It had four questions to answer ; (1) how often do EFL teachers use reflective teaching practices as viewed by them ? (2) what are the mostly shared views on the reflective teaching practices among teachers who achieved the highest scores on the attitude scale questionnaire of the reflective teaching practices as expressed by Them ? (3) what are the mostly shared actual practices among teachers who achieved the highest scores as viewed by this researcher ? (4) how do the actual reflective teaching practices of teachers, who scored the highest, seem compared with their beliefs on how frequent they use these practices as measured by the attitude scale ? To answer the study questions, all the teachers of EFL for the 10th and the 11th grades in the Jerusalem District, which then counted 96 teachers , where asked to fill the study attitude scale questionnaire.

Consequently, an in-depth group of seven teachers was addressed for an in-depth investigation of teachers’ actual reflective teaching beliefs and practices, their classrooms were observed, they were interviewed in-depth, and their lesson plans and reports were analyzed.

Finally, beliefs were compared practices.

The findings of the study revealed that the population of the study believe they adopt before class conduct and while class conduct reflective teaching practices at high level, while they believe they adopt after class conduct reflective teaching practices at a medium level.

In real, the in-depth group teachers held positive attitudes towards reflective teaching, and their classes were basically learners centred, and rich of while class conduct reflective teaching practices which go under four categories ; (1) increasing learners’ interaction, (2) helping learners’ develop their own reflection skills, (3) encouraging a friendly motivating learning environment, and (4) managing the classroom reflectively and efficiently.

Whereas, before and after class conduct reflective teaching practices were less evident which contradicts with their views on how often they adopt such practices.

Consequently, recommendations for EFL teachers, education instructors and schools and for future research have been suggested, among which is that Palestinian EFL teachers should have adequate orientation and training in the skills, practices and strategies involved in reflective teaching, and be encouraged to use them in their career.

Since results revealed that reflective teachers’ classes can be considered successful.

Main Subjects

Educational Sciences

Topics

• Education
• Learning
• Palestine
• Jerusalem
• English language

No. of Pages

320

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-302184