Beliefs of Chilean University English Teachers: Uncovering Their Role in
the Teaching and Learning Process1
Creencias
de profesores universitarios de inglés: descubriendo su papel en el
proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje
Claudio
Díaz Larenas*
Paola
Alarcón Hernández**
Andrea
Vásquez Neira***
Boris
Pradel Suárez****
Universidad de
Concepción, Chile
Mabel
Ortiz Navarrete*****
Universidad
Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Chile
****bpradel@udec.cl
*****mortiz@ucsc.cl
This article was received on August 16, 2012, and
accepted on March 1, 2013.
Beliefs continue to be an important source to get to
know teachers’ thinking processes and pedagogical decisions. Research in
teachers’ beliefs has traditionally come from English-speaking contexts;
however, a great deal of scientific work has been written lately in Brazil,
Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina. This study elicits 30 Chilean university
teachers’ beliefs about their own role in the teaching and learning of
English in university environments. Through a qualitative research design, the
data collected from interviews and journals were analyzed, triangulated, and
categorized based on semantic content analysis. Results of the study indicate
that university teachers reveal challenging and complex views about what it is
like to teach English as a foreign language in a university context in Chile.
The article concludes with a call to reflect on the importance of beliefs unravelling in teacher education programmes.
Key words: Learning,
teachers’ beliefs, teaching of English, university level.
Las creencias
continúan siendo una fuente de importancia para conocer los procesos de
pensamiento y los estilos pedagógicos de los docentes. Los estudios
sobre las creencias docentes provienen en su mayoría de contextos
angloparlantes; sin embargo, en los últimos años se ha escrito
una gran cantidad de trabajos científicos en Brasil, México,
Colombia y Argentina. Este estudio recoge las creencias de treinta docentes
universitarios chilenos sobre su papel en la enseñanza y aprendizaje del
inglés en ambientes universitarios. A partir de un diseño de
investigación cualitativo, los datos recolectados por medio de
entrevistas y diarios personales fueron analizados, triangulados y
categorizados según el análisis de contenido semántico.
Los resultados indicaron que los docentes de educación superior tienen
visiones desafiantes y complejas sobre lo que significa enseñar
inglés como lengua extranjera en un contexto universitario en Chile. El
artículo concluye con una invitación a reflexionar sobre la importancia
de transparentar las creencias en los programas de formación inicial
docente.
Palabras clave: aprendizaje,
creencias de docentes, enseñanza del inglés, universidad.
Introduction
This research is based on the assumption that beliefs
directly affect the teaching practice and the potential success or failure of
the teaching and learning process (Borg, 2003; Kalaja
& Barcelos, 2003; Pajares,
1992; Woods, 1996). In particular, it considers factors that, both directly and
indirectly, influence the process of teaching a foreign language, besides the
fact that the teaching practice itself can rightfully be addressed from the
perspective of the cognition of a university teacher. In this context, the
concept of “beliefs” includes all mental, emotional, and reflexive
constructs that derive from personal experiences, prejudices, judgments, ideas,
and intentions (Barcelos & Kalaja,
2011). This study aims at identifying university teachers’ beliefs about
their own role in the teaching and learning of English in university
environments.
Conceptual
Framework
Although there are various international
bibliographical references regarding general pedagogical beliefs about the
teaching and learning process of teachers (Borg, 2003), there is little
research in this area in Chile, despite the several contributions from other
Latin American countries. Consequently, this study addresses the beliefs of a
group of 30 university English teachers about their own role in the teaching
and learning process at a university level.
In general, beliefs are defined as understandings,
premises, or psychological propositions an individual has about the world
(Kane, Sandretto, & Heath, 2002). Beliefs consist
of sets of integrated and generally contradictory and messy ideas that are
generated from everyday experiences. According to Díaz
and Solar (2011), beliefs are incomplete and simplified versions of reality
that have some level of internal organization, structure and consistency.
Through the study of beliefs, the frames of reference
by which teachers perceive and process information, analyze, give meaning, and focus
their educational performance are made explicit. Thus, studying the beliefs
teachers have involves exploring the hidden side of teaching (Díaz, Martínez, Roa, & Sanhueza, 2010). In
the scope of this study, beliefs are understood as individual ways a teacher
understands the students, the nature of the learning process, the classroom,
the teacher’s role in the classroom, and the pedagogical objectives (Northcote, 2009).
Freeman (2002) supports the importance of reflecting
on beliefs because this may lead to a number of advantages, such as revealing
the conscious thinking behind certain actions; it may make teachers choose to
teach differently from the way they were taught or want to expand their
techniques and practices; it can confirm the positive things that teachers do
in the classroom or make teachers reflect on their somewhat negative teaching
practices. Borg (2009) and Borg and Al-Busaidi (2012)
affirm that beliefs can certainly influence classroom practices, but classroom
practices can also trigger the shaping of new beliefs.
Stenberg (2011) states that major changes in the
quality of university education will not occur if the beliefs that university
teachers have about teaching itself do not change. Beliefs vary in intensity
and type, and over time, form a system. The ease with which teachers change
their beliefs is related to the intensity of those beliefs. The more intense
the belief is, the greater the resistance to change it. To reinforce this idea,
several authors argue that teachers’ beliefs are rooted in their personal
experiences and are therefore highly resistant to change (Farrell, 2006; Kasoutas & Malamitsa, 2009;
Richards & Lockhart, 1996).
There is no denying the importance beliefs have in
education in general; however, the obvious relationship between beliefs and
teaching practices cannot be ignored. Tudor (2001) highlights the importance of
researching beliefs university teachers have as a way of emphasizing the
important role they play in the teaching practice. Brown and Frazier (2001)
argue that teachers should be treated as active learners who build their own
understandings. Humans are agents that interact in their environment with a
purpose and learn from their actions and use this knowledge to plan future
actions (Levin, 2001). If teachers feel the need to improve their teaching
practice, to reflect on it and to look for alternative teaching strategies, it
indicates an improvement in their teaching practices is near. However, for this
change to be effective and permanent, this process should take place at an
early stage in order to renovate those deep-rooted and ineffective pedagogical
behaviors and criteria.
On the other hand, it is interesting to quote Gross
(2009), who argues that important possibilities exist for change, development,
and enrichment, and even conceptual changes toward epistemological positions
that could be considered more complex and richer in the teaching projection in
a more flexible and multi-perspective way. From this point of view, Brown and
Frazier (2001) raise the importance of researching the thoughts and decision
making of teachers, the nature and content of these thoughts, how these
thoughts are influenced by the organizational and curricular context in which
teachers work, how the thoughts teachers have relate to their classroom behaviour, and ultimately, to students’ thoughts and behaviours. All of this would enhance the level of
understanding of instructional processes that occur within the classroom and
the consequent improvement of the teaching practice.
The beliefs English teachers have are very closely
related to the didactic approach that dominates the discourse of the
participants interviewed for this study. That is to say, either a communicative
or traditional teaching approach greatly influenced the participants’
beliefs about their role as teachers in the classroom (i.e. the role teachers
have can be seen as the person in charge of transmitting knowledge or
facilitating the learning process).
Research
Design
This is a non-experimental and transectional
study based on an analytical and interpretive case study (Bisquerra,
2009), as it explores the beliefs 30 university English teachers have about
their own role and functions in the process of learning and teaching English as
a foreign language in higher education at two Chilean universities. In a case
study, data and analysis are deeply and thoroughly examined, and become
relevant inasmuch as the readers contextualize them to their own
psycho-pedagogical reality.
Participants
The 30 participants of this research make up a
non-probabilistic and intentional sample (Corbetta,
2003) where, taking into account specific characteristics, subjects were
selected one by one. In the case of this current study the participants should
be university teachers who teach English as a foreign language at Chilean
universities and they should have more than five years of work experience.
Research Question
What beliefs shape the cognitive dimension of a group
of 30 university English teachers about their own role in the teaching and
learning process of English in higher education?
Research Assumption
Beliefs influence the teaching practice. During the
process of teaching and learning, teachers must take a series of decisions that
are guided by their linguistic and pedagogical beliefs which define their
performance in the classroom.
Instruments
• A
semi-structured interview was used as a specific model of verbal interaction
with the objective of understanding the phenomenon of linguistic and
pedagogical beliefs of the participants about their role as teachers. The
dimensions that were taken into account for the interview were as follows:
theoretical principles of teaching English, theoretical approaches of the
teaching role and functions of teachers, the English teacher as a professional
in education, the role of students, the different learning styles, the
relationship between objectives, contents, methods, activities, context as well
as teaching resources, materials, information and communication technologies
(ICT), and assessment. This article focuses the attention on some of the most
important actors in pedagogical innovation: teachers, their role and functions
in the learning process.
• A
self-reflection interview was applied in which the participants created a time
line with the experiences they considered most relevant to their teaching
practice and then explained the reasons they considered to choose the different
experiences.
• An
autobiographical diary was used as a procedure to find out what teachers
thought about different aspects of their teaching over a period of six months.
Procedure for Data
Analysis
After validating the data generation techniques
mentioned above, we collected from the autobiographical diaries,
semi-structured interview, and self-reflection interview and then performed the
data analysis. The data analysis is a representation of the social phenomenon
and creates a vision of different social contexts and its actors. An analysis
of initial structural content was performed and then the data were submitted to
the ATLASTI qualitative analysis software, which allowed us to find coherence
as well as explicit and implicit meaning of the data through the dialectics
between text comprehension and interpretation of the different actors. The data
analysis was performed following the subsequent steps: transcription,
segmentation, codification, initial categorization, a
systematic search of the different properties of the found
categories, integration of categories, and finally the search for relationships
between the categories to establish sub-categories.
The categories and subcategories obtained were
subjected until saturation occurred, thus ensuring data reliability in
qualitative studies.
Analysis and
Discussion of the Data
This section addresses the following dimension:
“the university teacher of English in the teaching and learning process
of a language.” This dimension includes the role of teachers in the
teaching and learning of language. Nine categories were set up,
most of them divided into subcategories that emerged from the
participants’ discourse either in the semi-structured interview,
self-reflection, or autobiographical diary (see Table 1).
Sources of Beliefs About Teaching English
The teachers participating in this research stated
that the sources of their beliefs about teaching English were mostly based on
literature and their own work experience. Additionally, a significant
percentage of the participants affirmed that their professional development had
influenced their views of teaching English. It is interesting to note that a
very small group considered undergraduate university studies as a source for
their beliefs. The main sources of beliefs about teaching English identified by
the participants are shown in Figure 1.
The fact that most teachers’ beliefs come from
literature in the first place and from working experience in the second place poses a real challenge for the kind of professional development
teachers would likely need to reshape those pedagogical practices that could be
in the way of students’ effective learning. In other words, if literature
is strategic for the shaping of beliefs, teachers should be exposed to
publications and reading that can really help them to make appropriate
classroom decisions on behalf of effective language learning.
Strengths of
Teachers
In the category called Strengths of Teachers, the
participants agreed on mentioning aspects such as language proficiency (English),
their ICT expertise and their expertise in the contents of the subject they
teach. They also emphasized the good relationship teachers should have with
their students and the teachers’ planning of their classes. Certain
personal features the participants possess are said to contribute both to
establishing a good classroom environment and to an effective learning process.
In Table 2, some fragments of autobiographical diaries
are shown to support the category mentioned above.
These beliefs reflect that in order to be effective
classroom managers, teachers should possess subject-matter knowledge and
pedagogical content knowledge of conceptual, procedural, and attitudinal natures.
For the research participants, any teacher of English should know English very
well (conceptual knowledge), should be able to use the language effectively
(procedural knowledge) and should be capable of creating the necessary
affective and emotional classroom conditions for learners to learn the
language.
Figure 2 summarizes the strengths
participants considered important in their teaching practice.
Weaknesses of
Teachers
The participants’ own personal features such as
the lack of systematicity in their work, impatience,
and insecurity in some areas, among others, were some of the most referred
weaknesses. Lack of rapport with students, poor expertise of ICT, deficient
continuous professional development, poor time management, and lack of teamwork
were identified in second place. In Table 3 there are
some fragments from autobiographical diaries to support the subcategories
mentioned above.
The nature of beliefs is context oriented. Teachers of
similar socioeducational contexts tend to hold
similar beliefs. The participants of this study share a similar educational
context because all of them work in tertiary education and teach English to
students of common social backgrounds under very similar institutional
conditions. Therefore, diagnosing teachers’ beliefs
constitutes a fundamental starting point to later on identify
teachers’ professional development needs.
Figure 3 summarizes the weaknesses
that teachers claim to possess.
Personal Features
of Good English Teachers
Regarding Personal Features of Good English Teachers, most
of the participants mainly chose those traits that allowed them to create a
relaxed learning atmosphere in classes, some of which were maintaining a good
relationship with students or taking the different types of learning processes
into account. On a second level of importance, participants mentioned both the
importance of feeling confident about their language proficiency and also some
personal features among which they included the use of humour,
patience, and their own motivation. Being able to plan lessons according to new
methodologies and transmitting the foreign culture to the students were
mentioned by a smaller percentage. In Table 4, there is a
fragment selected from the semi-structured interviews to support the
abovementioned ideas.
Beliefs also mirror the kind of classroom practices
teachers declare to be conducting. Hence, the analysis of teachers’
beliefs also represents a strategy to identify effective and ineffective
classroom practices that either foster or hinder students’ language
learning. The beliefs held by these research participants reveal interesting
communication-oriented teaching practices that match with what empirical
research claims to work for the development of communication.
Figure 4 summarizes the opinions
of the participants about the features of a good English teacher.
The Role of English
Teachers
To inquire about the role teachers often have in the
classroom, the participants were asked to identify with one or more
alternatives from a list proposed by Brown and Frazier (2001). Most identified
with the premise that teachers should be a source of information, a role in
which they take a back seat to allow students to be in charge of their language
development, but are always available to give suggestions when students ask for
any kind of help.
The second most frequent role mentioned was that of
facilitator of the learning process; teachers help students to overcome
difficulties and find their own paths to communication. The third most stated
opinion was that, depending on the activity or the type of students, the roles
teachers have change or become intertwined. A smaller group of the participants
believe their role is to plan lessons and then allow students to be creative
within the established parameters. Finally, a minority of the participants
mentioned the role of controlling teachers that do not give many opportunities
for the different learning processes to develop. Table 5
contains a fragment selected from the semi-structured inter views to support
the subcategories mentioned above.
These research participants hold beliefs that align
with communicative teaching regarding the different roles teachers assume in
the classroom in order to promote negotiation and communication. This way the
language classroom becomes a dynamic space for learners’ interaction, in
which teachers assume a wide variety of roles based on what they encounter in
the complexity of the teaching and learning process.
Figure 5 illustrates the beliefs
teachers have about their roles within the classroom.
Most Common
Functions Performed by the English Teacher
With reference to the different strategies used by
teachers, the participants claimed not to have a lot of knowledge about this issue
thus they are reluctant to use these strategies overtly in the teaching and
learning process. Regarding classroom management, the participants stated that
teaching university level students does not present any problems requiring this
function. Table 6 shows excerpts taken from the
autobiographical diaries and semi-structured interviews to support the
categories mentioned above.
Figure 6 shows the most common
functions performed by English teachers as stated by the participants.
An effective language teacher should be able to
demonstrate a wide array of classroom management strategies that obviously will
be activated by the learners’ language needs and the requirements of the
tasks. Teachers should be able to turn to the appropriate classroom management
strategies based on their position of active and critical classroom
decision-makers.
Learning Strategies
Promoted in English Classes
When being asked about the category called Learning
Strategies Promoted in English Classes, most of the participants answered they
did not teach learning strategies either because of their ignorance on the
topic or their lack of knowledge to distinguish the appropriate strategies for
the different skills. Just a small number of participants stated they not only
taught some kind of linguistic strategies but also some other strategies that
were useful in the learning process itself. They also
declared that in order to teach a language, it was essential not only to know
the learning strategies and use them during class, but also to explicitly teach
them so that students are able to apply these strategies in other contexts. Table 7 shows a fragment selected from the semi-structured
interview to illustrate the abovementioned opinions.
The use of the current research instruments helped us
to identify which teaching strategies were at a disadvantage for these research
participants. For learners to be effective language users, they should be
explicitly exposed to the teaching of learning strategies that can help them to
consciously use resources to overcome any language problem that could interfere
with communication. These research participants’ beliefs reveal that
their knowledge and use of strategic teaching is weak; therefore, this is an
area of their teaching that requires reinforcement through reflection and
professional development.
In Figure 7 the learning
strategies that teachers claim to promote are shown.
Suggested Changes for
Teachers of English in Chile
This category emerged when participants were asked
whether they considered it necessary to make changes in the way English is taught
in Chile. In first place, issues related to changes in attitude, such as self-development,
teamwork and greater autonomy were mentioned. The second place is shared by
methodological and administrative issues such as reduce the number of hours a
teacher has to be in front of a class, diminish the number of students per
room, and the professional development teachers can obtain within their own
schools. It has to be said that there was only a small number of participants
suggesting changes in the initial training of teachers. Table
8 contains a fragment of semi-structured interviews to illustrate this last
aspect.
Figure 8 illustrates the changes
suggested in the teaching of English in Chile.
Regarding the type of professional development
suggested for teachers of English in Chile, the participants primarily
manifested the need to update their knowledge on new methods of teaching
languages, ICT and different learning styles, new learning strategies, the
capacity for reflection, and the evaluation process. Secondly, importance was
given to the improvement of language skills and classroom management. Finally,
in the subcategory called Areas of Interest, the following aspects were
mentioned: the neurosciences (set of sciences which researches the nervous
system with particular interest in the way that the brain activity relates to behaviour and learning) and also internships for teachers,
defined as a set of practical activities carried out by teachers that will
allow them to apply knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values in the educational
field in an integrated and selective way (see Table 9).
Figure 9 illustrates the type of
professional development suggested.
Diagnosing the changes and type of professional development
required by teachers of English at a university level through belief
identification is an inductive approach for determining teachers’
professional development needs. Very often organizations and institutions tend
to have a deductive approach as far as professional development is concerned.
Institutions frequently determine in advance what kind of training teachers need, which obviously creates resistance and
reluctance on the teachers’ part to participate in pedagogical change and
innovation. Beliefs strongly reflect what someone truly accepts as truths that
guide their actions.
Teacher Assessment
As for Teacher Assessment, all participants were fully
in agreement of this process. In the next category, the best ways to assess
teachers, most of the participants suggested direct classroom observation
because it allows an immediate and accurate view of the various phenomena that
occur within the classroom. The second most noted opinion was the importance of
the teacher assessment process to be carried by a specialist who can provide
specific ways to overcome weak areas observed. A third group suggested that
this process should take into account the participation of different actors in
the educational field, such as area coordinators, fellow teachers, and/or
students (see Table 10).
Teacher assessment is a sensitive and context bound
issue because just the mere suggestion of any kind of assessment or appraisal
generates resistance on the part of teachers. For this matter, belief
identification on teacher assessment before conducting this process constitutes
a key step for the implementation of a robust system of teacher assessment.
Figure 10 summarizes the
suggested format for teacher assessment.
Conclusions
and Implications
Research on beliefs of teachers is becoming important
because there are theoretical and empirical reasons suggesting they affect the
teaching practice. The present study explored the cognitive dimension of a
group of 30 university teachers of English. The number of participants allowed
a snapshot of what teachers think, know, and believe regarding what they do in
the classroom and of the learning process in general. It seems interesting to
note that the participants readily expressed their beliefs about the various
issues raised and recognized that these beliefs are generated mainly from
theory or from their own professional experience.
Revealing the beliefs of a group of university
teachers contributes valuable information to the constant concern about
instances of teacher training designed to meet the needs and interests of
teachers in such a way that it is meaningful for them so it can contribute to
the improvement of their teaching practice and the achievement of effective
learning by students.
The use of an interview and an autobiographical diary
as instruments for collecting qualitative data from the respondents is very
useful for maintaining the richness and necessary subjectivity of
teachers’ discourse. Beliefs anchor themselves in people’s long
term semantic memory and can probably be reshaped when they are confronted
against evidence that does not fit in people’s cognitive framework. The
responses from both the interview and the diary really depict teachers’
inner classroom world; teachers reveal their strengths, weaknesses, personal
characteristics, classroom roles, and views on the teaching and learning of
English.
In brief, belief identification encourages teachers to
self-reflect on their own views and classroom practices and contrast their
views with those of other teachers. Besides, teachers are seen as active
decision-makers and not just as mechanical implementers of the prescribed
language curriculum. The beliefs held by the research participants filter new
information and experiences and are very much influenced by their own
experience as learners.
1 The research
findings are part of a government-funded grant entitled FONDECYT REGULAR (Nº 1120247)
“Investigación del conocimiento profesional, las creencias
implícitas y el desempeño en aula de estudiantes de
Pedagogía en Inglés como estrategia de generación de
indicadores de monitoreo de su proceso formativo.”
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About the
Authors
Claudio Díaz Larenas, PhD in Education and Master of Arts in Linguistics. He works at Facultad de Educación and Dirección
de Docencia de la Universidad de Concepción
(Chile), where he teaches English, discourse analysis, and efl
methodology and assessment. He has researched in the field of teacher cognition
and language assessment.
Paola Alarcón Hernández, PhD and Master of Arts in Linguistics. She teaches Spanish grammar and Latin at Universidad
de Concepción (Chile).
Andrea Vásquez Neira, Master of Arts in Linguistics. She teaches English
Language at Universidad de Concepción (Chile).
Boris Pradel Suárez, Master of Arts in Linguistics. He teaches English
Language and Phonetics at Universidad de Concepción (Chile).
Mabel Ortiz Navarrete, PhD candidate in Linguistics and Master of Arts in
Information and Communication Technologies. She teaches English, discourse analysis, and ICT at Universidad Católica de la Santísima
Concepción (Chile).