2nd GLOBAL CONFERENCE on LINGUISTICS and FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING, LINELT-2014, Dubai – United Arab Emirates, December 11 – 13, 2014
The Impact of Teaching Experience on Iranian EFL Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy and their Perception of English Teacher Distinctive Characteristics
Hassan Soodmand Afshara *, Ali Rahimib , Azam Ghonchehpourc , Elahe Saedpanahc
Abstract This study investigated the effect of Iranian EFL teachers' years of teaching experience on their sense of efficacy and beliefs about teachers' distinctive characteristics. To this end, 135 Iranian EFL teachers completed a validated questionnaire developed by (Borg, 2006) and Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale developed by (Tschannen and Hoy, 2001). The results of MANOVA revealed significant effect of experience on teachers’ sense of efficacy; however, it indicated no significant impact on their beliefs about characteristics that differentiated them from teachers of other subjects. Three sets of characteristics were discovered through interview; “Similarities” (also reported in Borg's study); "Differences" mentioned differently by participants of both studies, and "unique characteristics" only specified by Iranian teachers. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Research and EducationCenter. Keywords:Years of teaching experience; Teachers' sense of efficacy; English teachers' distinctive characteristics;
1. Introduction
Studies on the effectiveness of teaching practice cannot be accomplished without considering the role of people involved in it, i.e. teachers. Emergence of different approaches to language teaching led to the development of new conditions whereby specific roles and characteristics were defined for language teachers (e.g., possessing native like pronunciation, teaching L2 culture, tolerating errors, etc.). As stated by (Borg, 2006), characteristics of language teachers and language teaching cannot be separated. Distinctive features between teachers of English and other subjects, as reported by the two groups of teachers, include "the nature of the subject, the content of teaching, the teaching methodology, teacher-learner relationships, and contrasts between native and non-native speakers" (Borg, 2006, p. 3). From students' viewpoint, EFL teachers are different from other teachers due to the complex nature of the subject matter, unity of the medium and content of instruction, enhancement of communication skills and cultural knowledge along with linguistic knowledge, more learner involvement and error tolerance, and more positive attitude and enthusiasm (Lee, 2010). The point to be highlighted is that because this distinctiveness could be culture- and context-bound, proposing a global definition for L2 teachers appears to be illogical. Another teacher belief that could be affected by years of teaching experience is teachers' sense of efficacy. Any teacher who believes is capable of handling Student Engagement, Efficacy in Instructional Strategies, and Efficacy in Classroom Management is considered to possess the sense of efficacy (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). According to (Bandura, 1986), people's self-efficacy belief is associated with their judgment of what they can do with their skills rather than possessing the skills. At first, sense of efficacy may be viewed as a trait; nevertheless, during the course of actual teaching, this belief is gradually influenced by different sources such as mastery experiences, verbal persuasion, vicarious experiences, and physiological arousal (Bandura, 1997). (Hoy and Spero ,2005) identify mastery experiences as a powerful influence on teachers' efficacy development during early days of teaching. In order for this experience to be positive, novice teachers need to feel satisfied with their performance and be supported by colleagues and authorities through verbal persuasion (Moran & Hoy, 2007) before these beliefs are set and become resistant to change. (Ghaith and Yaghi, 1997) stated that higher personal teaching efficacy encourages teachers to adopt new instructional practices more frequently. As postulated in Tschannen, Hoy, and Hoy (1998), efficacy lowers in teachers who perceive their performance as a failure and this perception creates the expectation that future performances will also be inept. Thus, teachers judge their capabilities not only based on their knowledge of L2, but also according to students' achievement and motivation (Moran & Hoy, 2001).
To the best of the researchers' knowledge, there are only a few studies (e.g., Borg, 2006; Lee, 2010) that clearly concentrate on distinctive characteristics rather than effectiveness and ineffectiveness of English teachers (e.g. Bell, 2005; Brosh, 1996; Mullock, 2003; Park & Lee, 2006). Therefore, this study was an attempt to explore Iranian EFL teachers' perception of their own characteristics and how this perception and their sense of efficacy are affected by years of experience. Therefore, the following research questions were formulated:
1. Does years of teaching experience significantly affect EFL teachers' beliefs about their sense of efficacy and distinctive characteristics?
2. Are there any other context-specific characteristics of Iranian EFL teachers than those specified by Borg (2006)?
2.Methodology
2.1.Participants
Participants of the study were 135 EFL teachers selected randomly from three western cities in Iran. Their teaching experience ranged from a few months to 30 years. They were categorized in three groups of Low (with less than 2 years of teaching experience, n=44), Mid (with 2 to 5 years, n=45), and High (with 6 years of experience and above, n=46). Twenty teachers from among the above were randomly selected and sat an open-ended interview in addition.
2.2.Instruments
The instruments used in this study included two questionnaires and an open-ended interview. The first questionnaire was Teachers' Distinctive Characteristics adopted from Borg (2006) and validated in Iran by Kasraee (2014). It is a five-point Likert scale questionnaire, ranging from strongly agree (=5) to strongly disagree (=1). An item about years of teaching experience was included in the demographic section of this questionnaire. The second questionnaire employed was Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale developed by Tschannen and Hoy (2001), the reliability of which was reported to be .94. It contains 24 items and lies on a nine-point scale ranging from 'nothing' (1) to 'a great deal' (9). An open-ended interview on teachers' distinctive characteristics in the context of Iran was the last instrument used.
2.3.Procedure
135 Iranian EFL teachers selected randomly from western Iran were administered the two questionnaires of Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale and Teachers' Distinctive Characteristics. 20 of these teachers were also interviewed on their perception of English teacher characteristics in the context of Iran.
3.Results
Table 1. To explore whether teachers’ sense of efficacy and their beliefs about English teachers’ distinctive characteristics were influenced by years of experience, a MANOVA was run
Years of experience, as illustrated in Table 1, significantly affected teachers' sense of efficacy (.000); while, their perception of English teachers' distinctive characteristics was not influenced by this experience (.149). The results of effect of levels of experience on three subcomponents of sense of efficacy are shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Multiple comparisons of effect of experience levels on subcomponents of sense of efficacy
As revealed in Table 2, except for Classroom Management between Low and Mid groups (.087), the significant effect of experience on the three subcomponents is observable for Low, Mid, and High groups. After content analysis of the open-ended interview, characteristics were compared with those mentioned in Borg (2006) and were categorized into three groups. Table 3 represents the first set called "similarities" that were mentioned by participants of both studies.
Table 3. Main themes of distinctive characteristics mentioned by participants of the study similar to those of Borg
As suggested in Table 3, the characteristic of relevance to real life is the most frequently referred by participants. Table 4 demonstrates the "Differences" i.e. characteristics stated in a different way by participants of the study compared to those of Borg (2006).
Table 4. Main themes of distinctive characteristics mentioned by participants (different from Borg's)
As Table 4 shows, the same features of EFL teaching are analyzed from different viewpoints by Iranian teachers compared to Borg's participants. However, some characteristics were reported to be context-specific as illustrated in Table 5, which are those not specified in Borg (2006).
Table 5. Main themes of context-specific distinctive characteristics mentioned only by Iranian participants
As Table 5 shows, the list of characteristics is limited only to Iranian EFL teachers' beliefs.
3.Discussion
The first part of the results highlighted the role of teaching experience in EFL teachers' sense of efficacy. Regarding experience, the "Low" group are those with less than two years of teaching experience who are mainly pre-service or student teachers that are known as novice teachers in studies of teachers' sense of efficacy (Hoy, 2000; Hoy &Spero, 2005; Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2007). Their lower efficacy belief is attributed to stress and commitment to teaching (Hoy, 2000). Therefore, they need support and preparation to overcome unexpected classroom issues. Teachers in the "Mid" group (i.e. those with two to five years of experience) have been exposed to some aspects of practical teaching and its challenges. Although, this experience has improved their general sense of efficacy, their ability in Classroom Management seems to be still underdeveloped. It is concluded that Classroom Management is a