MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ----- ----- TRAN THI TOAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TEACHING JOURNALS AS A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TOOL BY EFL TEACHERS OF UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLS AT QUANG BINH PROVINCE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING HUE, 2013 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ----- ----- TRAN THI TOAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF TEACHING JOURNALS AS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TOOL BY EFL TEACHERS OF UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOLS AT QUANG BINH PROVINCE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: TRUONG VIEN, Assoc. HUE, 2013 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ----- ----- TRẦN THỊ TOAN NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC THỰC HIỆN VIẾT NHẬT KÝ DẠY-HỌC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN NHƯ LÀ MỘT CÔNG CỤ PHÁT TRIỂN NGHIỆP VỤ TẠI CÁC TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG Ở TỈNH QUẢNG BÌNH LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TRƯƠNG VIÊN, PGS. HUẾ, 2013 ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true and have not been published elsewhere.
Author Tran Thi Toan iii ABSTRACT Teaching journals are one of the useful tools for teachers‟ personal-professional development. They enable the English teachers to reflect their teaching and think about the issues they confront during their day-to-day classroom teaching. Researches into keeping journals for promoting reflective thinking and developing teachers‟ profession have been conducted. However, few studies on keeping teaching journals as a professional development tool by EFL teachers at upper secondary schools.
In fact, teaching journals have not been widely kept in order to develop teachers‟ profession. As an attempt to contribute to gaining more insights into keeping teaching journals for teachers‟ professional development, the research aims to investigate the implementation of teaching journals as a professional development tool by EFL teachers of upper secondary schools at Quang Binh province. This research was conducted with 30 teachers of English from five different upper secondary schools in Quang Binh. A multi-method approach combining quantitative and qualitative was employed to collect the data.
The data for the study were collected through questionnaires and interviews. The findings show that (1) the vast majority of the participants acknowledged the necessity and the benefits of keeping teaching journals. They could benefit from journal writing such as sharing difficulties and concerns with other colleagues, and being more aware of their own teaching; (2) high school teachers of English in Quang Binh province had rather positive attitudes towards implementing teaching journals. Teaching journals were written at least twice a week and shared with their colleagues at the meetings of English session; (3) strengths, weaknesses about teachers‟ teaching or problems faced in their teaching were main topics mentioned in their teaching journals; (4) in spite of the necessity and benefits of teaching journals, there still existed some difficulties hindering their keeping teaching journals.
Suggestions for keeping teaching journals effectively are discussed. iv This research is a milestone in all my personal and professional endeavors. I am extremely grateful to a number of people who helped to bring this project to fruition. My thanks first go to my supervisor, Assoc.
Truong Vien for constant encouragement, enthusiastic guidance, invaluable advice, detailed comments, correction, and his great insights into my thesis writing. I have been extremely lucky to have a supervisor who cared so much about my work. My gratefulness extended to all the other lectures of the MA course at Hue College of Foreign Language for imparting their knowledge and enthusiasm of their respective areas of specification. I have learnt much from them and their insights have helped in the moulding of this study.
I wish to send my appreciation to all the teachers of English of 5 upper secondary schools in Quang Binh province who participated in this study for their willingness to help me with questionnaires and interviews. I would like to show my deep gratitude to my family for their encouragement and confidence in me. Especially, the love and support, I have received from my husband during the time I was taking MA courses and conducting my thesis, cannot be expressed in words. v v TABLE OF CONTENTS SUB COVER PAGE.
i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. v TABLE OF CONTENTS. vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. ix LIST OF CHARTS.
x LIST OF TABLES. xi LIST OF CHARTS x. vi LIST OF TABLES xi. vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.
Background of the study. Rationale for the study. Aims of the study. Significance of the study.
Scope of the study. Structure of the study. 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. What is professional development?.
Why is teachers‟ PD important?. Activities for teacher professional development. Analyze a critical incident. Individual development plan.
What is a teaching journal?.5 The difference between keeping teaching journals and writing dairies. Benefits of keeping teaching journals. Problems of keeping teaching journals. Implementing teaching journals.
Suggestions for keeping a teaching diary. Types of teaching journals. An Interpersonal journal:. Dialogue or dialogic journal:.
Research participants and research sites:. Research sites and number of participants. Characteristics of participants. Gender and age.
Teaching experience and educational level. Procedures of data collection. Administering the piloting of the questionnaire. Administering the questionnaire.
Conducting the interview. Data analysis methods. 30 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. The reliability statistics of data collected from the questionnaires.
The pilot study. The official study. Findings and discussion. Teachers‟ perception on teaching journal for their PD.
Necessity of teaching journals for PD. Benefits of teaching journals. Teachers‟ teaching journal implementation. Teachers‟ perceptions on how to keep and share teaching journals.
Teachers‟ perceptions on time to keep teaching journals. The content of teaching journals. Procedures and approaches used in their lesson. Evaluating their teaching.
Activities in the class and questions about teaching. Difficulties in keeping teaching journals. Summary of the findings and discussion. 53 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS.
Summary of the key findings. For teachers of English. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further research.
64 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviation Full version 1 EFL English as a foreign language 2 ELT English Language Teaching 3 MOET Ministry of Education and Training 4 PD Professional Development 5 SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Science 6 TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages 7 TJ Teaching Journal ix LIST OF CHARTS Chart 3.1: Participants by gender .2: Participants by age .1: The mean scores of teachers‟ perception on necessity of TJ .2: The mean scores of benefits of teaching journals .3: The mean scores of teachers‟ perceptions on how to keep and share teaching journals .4: The mean scores of teachers‟ perceptions on time to keep TJ .5: The mean scores of teachers‟ evaluations of their teaching. 48 x LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Research sites and number of participants for questionnaire .2: Participants‟ teaching experience and educational level .3: Summary of the questionnaire .1: The reliability of the pilot questionnaire.2: The reliability of the official study .3: The mean scores of teachers‟ perception on TJ for their PD .4: The mean scores of teachers‟ teaching journal implementation .5: Percentages of teachers‟ perception on time and frequency to keep TJ .6: Mean scores of the content of teaching journals .7: Percentages of the procedures and approaches used in their teaching .8: Percentages of activities in the class and questions about teaching .9: Mean scores of teachers‟ perceptions on difficulties in keeping TJ .10: Percentages of teachers‟ perceptions on difficulties in keeping TJ. 51 xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter describes the background, the rationale, aim of the study, scope and significance of the research. The chapter ends with organization of the thesis.
Background of the study English has been considered as the official international language spoken in many countries throughout the world. In Vietnam, English has become one of the most important subjects in educational curricula. It has been offered an important role in both regional and global economic participation. It is really vital in our integration into the world because it is the key that helps us to enter the world in many fields.
Especially, the National Project for Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages 2008- 2020 puts a noticeable emphasis on innovating in teaching and learning English. Hence, the teaching and learning English has also demanded a lot of changes. Teachers‟ professional development is an important and popular tendency in educational reform as well as a main topic of teachers‟ education practice. The quality of education not only focuses on learners but also demands continuous improvement in teaching and teachers‟ professional development.
Therefore, ongoing professional development becomes a vital component in teachers‟ lives. It requires teachers who are creative and flexible to change and improve their way of teaching as well as their methodology in order to meet the needs of education reform. Teachers need to be continually going ahead and equipped themselves with the knowledge and skills that can increase their ability to provide improved opportunities to learn for all their students. Moreover, it is teachers who themselves are aware of the importance of professional development and consider professional development as a daily and usual work in their teaching life.
Teachers of English may enhance their professional competence by participating in professional development programmers such as workshops, conference. In 2009 a survey was conducted in Ninh Thuan by Doan with the title “Teachers‟ perceptions on ELT workshops as a tool for professional development in Ninh Thuan”. In this survey, the teachers and administrators believed that organizing workshops was very necessary for teachers‟ professional development. Nonetheless, workshops are not daily, weekly or 1 monthly activities for professional growth in teachers‟ job as teachers of English.
Not all of teachers of English get opportunity to participate in these academic events to share their experience or the difficulties in their teaching. Meanwhile with both language and language teaching changing (Brock, 2006), the role of teachers is heightened. Besides, the fact that the teachers implement their teaching as “teaching machines” and they have put under pressures of not only family and other employment responsibilities but also extra classes makes them lack opportunities to look back what they have done for their better teaching. Effective professional development tools make it possible to generate “teaching awareness and discover new directions for our new development” (Head and Taylor, 1997, p.
It means that teachers themselves are aware of what is being done well, of the result of the lesson why a particular lesson was successful or why one was not. By doing these, teachers themselves will improve their teaching. In order to make it effective, teacher diaries are recognized as useful introspective methods that assist in the professional development of teachers (McDonough, 1994). Hence, journal keeping involving making reflection through writing is one of the most useful strategies.
According to McDonough (1994), diary writing in an educational context is a useful tool for both classroom research and personal- professional development. It enables English teachers to think about the issues they confront during their day- to- day classroom teaching, and helps to develop reflective and critical thinking skills (Lakshmi, 2009). With this background, this study aims at investigating teachers‟ perceptions into the implementation of teaching journal as a professional development tool at upper secondary schools in Quang Binh, and how they are aware of the importance of teaching journal as a tool for their professional development.