MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY -------- ∞0∞-------- NGUYEN HOANG THAO NGUYEN THE VIETNAMESE EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF PEER OBSERVATION AS A TOOL FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY -------- ∞0∞-------- NGUYEN HOANG THAO NGUYEN THE VIETNAMESE EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF PEER OBSERVATION AS A TOOL FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Major code: 8 14 01 11 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: LE THI THUY NHUNG, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc KHOA ĐÀO TẠO SAU ĐẠI HỌC GIẤY XÁC NHẬN Tôi tên là: NGUYỄN HOÀNG THẢO NGUYÊN Ngày sinh: 11/11/1992 Nơi sinh: TP.HCM Chuyên ngành: Lý luận và phương pháp dạy học bộ môn Tiếng Anh Mã học viên: 1781401110022 Tôi đồng ý cung cấp toàn văn thông tin luận văn tốt nghiệp hợp lệ về bản quyền cho Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh sẽ kết nối toàn văn thông tin luận văn tốt nghiệp vào hệ thống thông tin khoa học của Sở Khoa học và Công nghệ Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Ký tên Nguyễn Hoàng Thảo Nguyên i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the assignment “The Vietnamese EFL teachers’ perceptions of Peer Observation as a tool for Professional Development” is my original work; it is based on my own research.
All sources used by me have been documented. No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement. This piece of work has not previously been submitted for assessment in this or any other subject or course at this University or elsewhere. Ho Chi Minh City, 2022 Nguyen Hoang Thao Nguyen ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In this part, I would like to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to the people who supported me to complete my thesis.
First of all, I would like to thank and express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Le Thi Thuy Nhung, who provided me all with her support, guidance, expertise and meaningful feedback for my thesis development. Without her advice and patience, I could not finish my study on time. I really appreciate that she took her time to discuss with me and cared about my thesis.
Sincerely, I would like to express all my gratefulness to her. Secondly, I would like to give my special thanks to my administrator who allowed me to have days off to pay attention to my thesis and my colleagues at Cao Thang technical college who spend their time taking part in my study, especially the ones who allowed me to interview them. In addition, my senior colleagues also gave me the useful advice for my thesis and support me at work while I was working on my thesis. Thus, I really want to express my appreciation to them.
Finally, I am deeply grateful to my parents and my brother for their encouragement and support, which helps me to overcome the difficulties and discouragement. Ho Chi Minh City, March 2022 Nguyen Hoang Thao Nguyen iii ABSTRACT Peer Observation (PO) plays an important role in teachers’ professional development as it assists them in enhancing their skills, knowledge and experience. PO has widely been researched by international scholars and many studies examine the experiences of teachers of PO in educational settings. PO seems to be neglected by the local educators and researchers which is evidenced by limited research on PO in Vietnamese contexts.
This study examines the perception of Vietnamese EFL teachers of peer observation as the tool for professional development by looking into the current practice of PO in their institutions and their perceptions of its benefits and challenges. The study employed mixed-methods to collect data. First, survey questionnaires were completed online by 22 EFL teachers working in a technical college in Ho Chi Minh City; the convenience sampling was used to gain the information from this survey. Then, semi- structured interviews were conducted with four of those teachers.
The purposive sampling was chosen to gain detailed explanation for the participants’ choice in the interview. The findings show that teachers’ perceptions and experiences of PO varied among academic institutions. The purposes of PO were different among different educational settings. PO sessions in many institutions tended to focus more on evaluation purposes than on professional development purposes which aim to improve teaching performance of EFL teachers.
Also, the procedures of implementing PO were not well-organized in institutions. Teachers as they were given opportunities to reflect on their own teaching; they could adopt best practices from their peers to enhance their teaching performance. PO also was considered to encourage teachers to share their ideas and experience through discussions and feedback provision. On the other hand, PO was found to bring more pressure, stress, anxiety and confusion to observers and their observed colleagues.
The findings have several implications for stakeholders to reflect on the current practices of PO in their respective academic institutions with a view to enhancing the quality of this professional development tool. iv ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English foreign language LTO : Language teaching organization PD : Professional development PO : Peer Observation POT : Peer Observation of Teaching v TABLE OF CONTENT STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iv TABLE OF CONTENT. v LIST OF FIGURES .vii LIST OF TABLES.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY. Rationale for the study. Statement of Problem. Aims of the study.
The significance of the study. Organization of the study. Definition of terms. The required quality of the language teachers.
Peer observation (PO) and its developmental aspects. Functions and models of Peer Observation. The benefit of Peer Observation. The challenges of Peer Observation.
The Procedure of Successful Peer Observation. Feedback: An important element of peer observation process. Implementing peer observation in Vietnamese context. The previous studies.
Summary of literature review. The theoretical framework of the study. Research setting and participants. Closed-ended Questionnaire.
Semi-structured Interview. Data Collection Procedures. Validity and reliability. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Results from the questionnaire. Participants’ background information and their experience of peer observation……………………………………………………………………33 4. Teachers’ perceptions of benefits of peer observation. Teachers’ perceptions of challenges of peer observation.
Results from the interview. Teachers’ experiences of the current practice of PO. The benefits and challenges of peer observation. Discussion of the findings.
Findings on research question 1: What are the teachers' experiences of the current practice of PO in their institutions?. Findings on research question 2: What are the teachers' perceptions of benefits and challenges of PO?. The summary of main findings. Implications of the study.
Limitations of the study and recommendation for further study. 56 APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE – ENGLISH VERSION. 63 APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS – ENGLISH VERSION. 67 APPENDIX C: QUESTIONNAIRE – VIETNAMESE VERSION.
68 APPENDIX D: INTERVIEW – VIETNAMESE VERSION. 72 APPENDIX E: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE. 73 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2: The theoretical framework of the study. 23 Figure 3: Explanatory Sequential Design.
25 Figure 4: teaching experience. 30 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Education is defined as a process of acquiring knowledge through teaching and learning activities. Undeniably, teachers play an important role in this process (Krashen, 1982); their capacity or their teaching effectiveness can affect the learners’ outcomes as well as the quality of the education system (Klingelhutz, 2017; Aghabarari & Rahimi, 2020).
Besides, EFL teachers need to keep up with the changes in learners’ need, tests, curriculum and teaching methods because of the innovation and the development in the field of language teaching for years (Kasapogluk, 2002; Ahmed, 2018). Therefore, it is necessary for the teachers to continue with their professional development (PD), which is known as an ongoing process that develop the teachers’ skills, knowledge and expertise (OECD, 2009) although the pre-service training is over. Lange (1990) describes PD as the process of building up teachers’ experience, intellection and improving their attitude. According to Richards and Farrell (2005), language teachers should engage themselves in self-reflection, develop their pedagogical skills and enlarge their specialized knowledge.
As Tosriadi, Asib, Marmanto and Azizah (2018) states, language teachers should not stop learning during their professional lives to meet the demand of their learners as well as the quality education. As the result, the numerous effective strategies supported the teaching practices are employed. Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman and Yoon (2001) divides them into two groups. First, the professional development activities that take place after school including workshops, seminars and conferences, etc.
The other activities take place during school days such as action research, team teaching, study groups, peer coaching, peer observation, mentoring, teaching portfolios and presentation of research paper, etc. Among these strategies have mentioned, this research will mainly investigate peer observation, one of an effective approach implemented in many institutes and LTOs. 2 Hockley (2014) emphasizes that Peer Observation is a useful tool for professional development. Peer observation allows the teachers to watch each other’s performance in order to understand some aspects of teaching, learning and classroom interaction (Richards & Farrell, 2005).
Moreover, the teacher can receive the comments from their peers after classroom observation for self-improvement. According to Richards and Lockhart (1992), PO can not only support teacher effectiveness but also help the administrator promote staff development, which is known as the important resources of each institute. The peer observation is generally classified into three models: evaluation, development and peer review model (Gosling, 2002). Freire (1998) has highlighted that the evaluative observation is not an effective way to improve the teacher’s teaching practice.
This model mainly allows the academic managers to achieve the administrative purposes. The teacher’ peer may be an institute supervisor or administrator; the feedback is only given from one side. In the other word, the process is lack of the collaboration. Moreover, the evaluative function also encourages the negative reaction of the teachers because of their anxiety of being judged and the stress of receiving the critical feedback.
Hammersley-Fletcher and Orsmond (2005) stresses that feedback should be constructive to help improve teaching practice and perceive new things; on the contrary, the appraisal may prevent teachers from getting these benefits. When the PO is considered as a means of developing knowledge and skills related to the English teaching fields, it can abundantly facilitate EFL teachers’ teaching practice. As Cosh (1999) states, in order to avoid the passive role of the teacher in evaluation model, PO should be regarded as a self-reflection and self- development strategies for both observers and observed teacher. Richards and Farrell’s study (2005) also supports that the development model of PO can provide the good opportunity for teachers to observe other teaching style, discuss teaching problems and share their ideas together.
Rationale for the study The motivation of doing the study about Peer Observation comes from the real situation that the researcher experience in teaching. As a teacher of the college’s English language center, the researcher has observed and been observed by the colleagues and the supervisors several times. Because the observation followed the evaluation model, it caused the researcher’s anxiety when being observed and the bad impression toward this teaching support strategy. Not only the researcher but also the colleagues were uncomfortable when other teachers observe their teaching.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, few teachers in our English center shared the records of their online session despite of the suggestion from the supervisor. The viewpoint of the researcher changed after taking part in the peer observation project with the current supervisor and the team.