In order for language teachers to meet the challenges of autonomy, we claim it is essential that they know what they believe about teaching and learning. Language teacher education programmes, therefore, should create opportunities for participants to examine and develop their personal theories of teaching. This conclusion was reached through conducting a study in which an inductive qualitative approach, based on a constructionist perspective of knowledge and learning, was used to investigate the personal theories of 20 language teachers. We wanted to discover how their experience over one course in their programme of education may have influenced their cognition. To do this we examined their own analyses of a series of personal reflective journal entries each of them had written during the course. Through inductive analysis we were able to identify a number of salient categories; that is, individual articulations yet one collective articulation of the teachers’ experiences. The articulations revealed that over the course the vast majority of teachers gained further understanding of their personal theories, that the reflective process was central to their experience and that engaging in reflection itself generated confidence for many teachers toward their personal cognition. Furthermore, their articulations support our belief that reflection continues to play a valuable role in teacher education, particularly as it pertains to teachers’ developing personal theories. The teachers’ analyses also reveal that confidence in their own theories may be gained directly from engaging in reflection. We conclude that the mental space afforded teachers in courses of education promotes such reflection and thus prepares them to be effective autonomous teachers.
2023. The Value of Service-Learning in Chinese Language Teacher Preparation. In Co-Constructing and Sustaining Service Learning in Graduate Programs [Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development, ], ► pp. 104 ff.
Bergström, Denise, Cathrine Norberg & Marie Nordlund
2022. “Words are picked up along the way” – Swedish EFL teachers’ conceptualizations of vocabulary knowledge and learning. Language Awareness 31:4 ► pp. 393 ff.
Chinpakdee, Muthita
2022. Understanding Teacher Autonomy Through EFL Teachers’ Online Teaching Experiences. rEFLections 29:3 ► pp. 586 ff.
Yolcu, Okan & Ruken Akar-Vural
2021. An Examination of Instructional Autonomy Practices of Science Teachers. International Journal of Educational Methodology 7:1 ► pp. 79 ff.
Nagai, Noriko, Gregory C. Birch, Jack V. Bower & Maria Gabriela Schmidt
2020. Teacher Autonomy. In CEFR-informed Learning, Teaching and Assessment [Springer Texts in Education, ], ► pp. 241 ff.
Moayeri, Mahnaz & Ramin Rahimiy
2019. The Significance of Promoting Teacher Reflection: A Review Article. Latin American Journal of Content & Language Integrated Learning 12:1 ► pp. 128 ff.
Jackson, Daniel O.
2018. Teacher Autonomy. In The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching, ► pp. 1 ff.
Valdez, Paolo Nino, Jocelyn Amor Navera & Jerico Juan Esteron
2018. What is Reflective Teaching? Lessons Learned from ELT Teachers from the Philippines. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher 27:2 ► pp. 91 ff.
Juntunen, Marja-Leena
2017. National assessment meets teacher autonomy: national assessment of learning outcomes in music in Finnish basic education. Music Education Research 19:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Kitchen, Margaret & Susan Gray
2013. Meeting the needs of English language learners in Aotearoa New Zealand schools. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 7:2 ► pp. 93 ff.
Ding, Alex
2009. Tensions and struggles in fostering collaborative teacher autonomy online. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 3:1 ► pp. 65 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.