Teachers’ reflections on the practicality of English in-service courses in Iran

As professional development is essential for teacher quality, many countries have made investments in designing teacher education programs. The study explores the efficacy of in-service courses in Iran from the perspective of English language teachers. Interviews were conducted to examine teachers...

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Main Authors:	Baniasad-Azad, Somayeh, Tavakoli, Mansoor, Ketabi, Saeed
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2017
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12845/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12845/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12845/1/17378-59958-1-PB.pdf

id	ukm-12845
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-128452019-05-02T13:04:01Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12845/ Teachers’ reflections on the practicality of English in-service courses in Iran Baniasad-Azad, Somayeh Tavakoli, Mansoor Ketabi, Saeed As professional development is essential for teacher quality, many countries have made investments in designing teacher education programs. The study explores the efficacy of in-service courses in Iran from the perspective of English language teachers. Interviews were conducted to examine teachers’ beliefs about the efficacy of in-service courses, their involvement in program development, the application of program material by teachers, and their preferences about teacher education programs. The findings showed that program designers adopted a traditional transmissive model to transfer pre-determined knowledge to the teachers without involving teachers in the decision making process. Teachers, in turn, did not apply the program materials in their teaching practices because they believed program materials were idealistic, impractical, generalized, and decontextualized. Moreover, what teachers considered beneficial for their development was different from what was presented to them in the in-service courses. The reason for such inconsistencies is a lack of communication and effective feedback channel between teachers and planners. The findings suggest that as teachers are the final decision makers based on the realities of their teaching situation, involving them in planning and program development process can decrease the existing gap and make program materials more realistic and consequently applicable. Implications for language planning and teacher education programs are discussed. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2017 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12845/1/17378-59958-1-PB.pdf Baniasad-Azad, Somayeh and Tavakoli, Mansoor and Ketabi, Saeed (2017) Teachers’ reflections on the practicality of English in-service courses in Iran. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 23 (3). pp. 97-106. ISSN 0128-5157 http://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1027
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	As professional development is essential for teacher quality, many countries have made investments in designing teacher education programs. The study explores the efficacy of in-service courses in Iran from the perspective of English language teachers. Interviews were conducted to examine teachers’ beliefs about the efficacy of in-service courses, their involvement in program development, the application of program material by teachers, and their preferences about teacher education programs. The findings showed that program designers adopted a traditional transmissive model to transfer pre-determined knowledge to the teachers without involving teachers in the decision making process. Teachers, in turn, did not apply the program materials in their teaching practices because they believed program materials were idealistic, impractical, generalized, and decontextualized. Moreover, what teachers considered beneficial for their development was different from what was presented to them in the in-service courses. The reason for such inconsistencies is a lack of communication and effective feedback channel between teachers and planners. The findings suggest that as teachers are the final decision makers based on the realities of their teaching situation, involving them in planning and program development process can decrease the existing gap and make program materials more realistic and consequently applicable. Implications for language planning and teacher education programs are discussed.
format	Article
author	Baniasad-Azad, Somayeh Tavakoli, Mansoor Ketabi, Saeed
spellingShingle	Baniasad-Azad, Somayeh Tavakoli, Mansoor Ketabi, Saeed Teachers’ reflections on the practicality of English in-service courses in Iran
author_facet	Baniasad-Azad, Somayeh Tavakoli, Mansoor Ketabi, Saeed
author_sort	Baniasad-Azad, Somayeh
title	Teachers’ reflections on the practicality of English in-service courses in Iran
title_short	Teachers’ reflections on the practicality of English in-service courses in Iran
title_full	Teachers’ reflections on the practicality of English in-service courses in Iran
title_fullStr	Teachers’ reflections on the practicality of English in-service courses in Iran
title_full_unstemmed	Teachers’ reflections on the practicality of English in-service courses in Iran
title_sort	teachers’ reflections on the practicality of english in-service courses in iran
publisher	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate	2017
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12845/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12845/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/12845/1/17378-59958-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:03:31Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:03:31Z
_version_	1777407005724508160

Teachers’ reflections on the practicality of English in-service courses in Iran

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