Exploring Contradictions Between English Teachers’ Teaching approach and their Self—evaluation

罗曦

Abstract：Throughout the history， influenced by traditional teaching theories， teaching approaches which teachers use in class can be generalized into deep-rooted simple thinking. That is to say， teachers transmit knowledge in class and students are forced to accept and memorize it passively without taking students ability to explore and analyze into consideration. Teachers self-evaluation is not only regarded as important link of school management and the accelerator of teachers specified development， but it can raise teachers awareness to promote self-reflection and self-perfection. Therefore， the author conducts research between teaching method and self-evaluation of teacher， and come to conclusion that there exists the tension between teaching method and self-evaluation of teacher.

Keywords： Teaching approach； Self-evaluation； Assessment

1. Introduction

Teaching approach， a familiar term for educators and students， is considered as a series of activities adopted by teachers to achieve concrete teaching objective. Besides， teaching method is of paramount importance in guiding and regularizing teaching process as a core element of teaching. Despite of the importance of the two subjects， teaching approaches and teachers self-evaluation， there exists tension between teaching approaches and self-evaluation. Similarly， teachers are unaware that their descriptions and assessments of what teaching methods they use in the class are unfit with what they do in class. As a result， this research aims to explore the tension and explain the reasons for its existence.

2. Methodology

Of all the several questions in the larger study， here we address the following two：

What is the relationship between teachers teaching approach and self-evaluation？

What kinds of tensions does this relationship highlight？

2.1 participants

Participants were a volunteer sample of three experienced EFL teachers working at one senior school in Chong Qing. Based on voluntary principle， we conduct interviews， class observation， and follow-up interviews in three months. The personal information of participants are presented in table1.

2.2 data collection and analysis

The findings of this study have clear implications for both research methodology and teacher education. We would argue that it is not enough for language teachers cognition research to identity differences， or tensions between teachers teaching approach and their self-evaluation； rather attempts need to be made to explore， acknowledge and understand the underlying reasons behind such tensions. Collaborative exploration of any tensions which emerge is also desirable and the teacher learning that ensues from such dialogic exploration of teachers teaching approach and self-assessment has， we believe， the potential to be more meaningful and lasting.

References：

[1]Karavas-Doukas， E.， 1996. Using attitude scales to investigate teachers attitudes to the communicative approach. ELT Journal50， 187-198.

[2]王紅艳. 大学英语教师的教学信念和教学方法的个案研究[J]. 哈尔滨学院学报，2009（1）： 134-139.

[3]钟启泉. 教学方法：概念的诠释[J]. 教育研究，2017（1）： 95-105.