Professional Development of Teachers

Nandprasar, S. D. (2002). A qualitative study of six primary school English language teachers as they reflect on their teaching of reading (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from http://libris.nie.edu.sg/

Background

The researcher believed that there was a need to investigate the scope, nature and role of reflective practice in the professional development of teachers involved in the teaching of reading.

Aims

This study investigated the beliefs of six Primary 1 teachers about the teaching of Reading, their actual classroom practices, and the differences between their beliefs and actual classroom practices.

Sample

Six teachers teaching English at Primary 1 level in a Singapore government school participated in the study. All the teachers except one had taught for 4 to 5 years in the participating school.

Method

Field notes were taken during classroom observations of each teacher. Open-ended interviews were conducted before and after the series of classroom observations. Weekly focus group discussions were conducted during which the participants were free to discuss matters related to the study. The teachers recorded their thoughts in a journal. A questionnaire was given to the teachers to gather feedback on their perceptions of their experiences in the study.

Findings

Analysis of data revealed that that all teachers had very similar beliefs on teaching resources. They all believed that the provision of interesting materials – stories that were short and predictable, vocabulary that was controlled for frequency and difficulty, and books that were attractive and well-illustrated – helped to motivate the students.

The author also found that half of the teachers believed that vocabulary instruction was essential to help pupils to read. The rest believed that pupils needed to be taught phonemic awareness strategies and that collaborative learning strategies helped create a safe environment for learning to read.

On the whole, there was a high level of alignment between the teachers’ beliefs and actual practice. In terms of resources used for teaching, all the beliefs mentioned by the teachers were put into practice. In fact, the range of practices actually adopted by all the teachers exceeded the variety of beliefs they subscribed to. The teachers deliberately tried to introduce variations into their practice, which they attributed to the sharing and learning that took place during the weekly focus group sessions.

Implications

The author concluded that critical reflection during the weekly focus group discussions helped improve teachers’ teaching of reading, and should be incorporated into school culture.

Original article retrieved from NIE Digital Repository ↗ (opens in new tab).