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Simon Borg Centre for Language Education Research School of Education University of Leeds

‘Great idea but just no time’: Teachers’ views of research and its role in their professional lives. Simon Borg Centre for Language Education Research School of Education University of Leeds Workshop given at IH Barcelona, Spain, 29 March 2006. Insights from Education.

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Simon Borg Centre for Language Education Research School of Education University of Leeds

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  1. ‘Great idea but just no time’:Teachers’ views of research and its role in their professional lives Simon Borg Centre for Language Education Research School of Education University of Leeds Workshop given at IH Barcelona, Spain, 29 March 2006

  2. Insights from Education • In UK, large investment in research on teachers’ involvement in research. • Studies of teachers’ views of research suggest these equate with ‘scientific’ models. • Teachers acknowledge the value of doing research. • Teachers do not feel that their working conditions support their involvement in research.

  3. Insights from Education • More recent work has focused on research-engaged schools rather than individual teachers. • Institutional conditions which support teacher research have been proposed: • organisational commitment • research-oriented culture • desire to improve quality of teaching & learning • collaborative working patterns

  4. Teacher Research in ELT Theoretical Debate Empirical Research

  5. What We Don’t Know How much teacher research takes place? Where? What are the characteristics of the teachers who do it? What motivates them? What conditions support or hinder their efforts?

  6. Discuss • Have you ever been advised or advised teachers that doing research is ‘good’ or ‘desirable’? • To what extent has this advice been taken up in practice? • What conditions do you feel facilitate or hinder teachers’ efforts to do research?

  7. Awareness Choice Mentoring Motivation Resources Community Recognition Knowledge & Skills Dissemination Potential Expectations 10 Conditions for Research Engagement

  8. Investigating Research Engagement in ELT Why? To understand teachers’ views about research and its role in their professional lives. Yes, but WHY? To obtain evidence which can inform attempts to increase teacher engagement in research.

  9. Four Questions • What conceptions of research do EFL teachers hold? • How do they rate the research culture of their institution? • To what extent do teachers say they do research? • What reasons do they give for doing or not doing research?

  10. The Questionnaire Please spend 10 minutes completing the questionnaire. If you would prefer not to or have already done so, feel free to stretch your legs for a few minutes.

  11. Conceptions of Research 98% of the teachers said this was research A university lecturer gave a questionnaire about the use of computers in language teaching to 500 teachers. Statistics were used to analyse the questionnaires. The lecturer wrote an article about the work in an academic journal.

  12. Conceptions of Research 73.5% of the teachers said this was not research. Mid-way through a course, a teacher gave a class of 30 students a feedback form. The next day, five students handed in their completed forms. The teacher read these and used the information to decide what to do in the second part of the course.

  13. Conceptions of Research 68% of the teachers said this was not research A teacher noticed that an activity she used in class did not work well. She thought about this after the lesson and made some notes in her diary. She tried something different in her next lesson. This time the activity was more successful.

  14. Conceptions of Research Teachers also asked to identify characteristics of ‘good’ research:

  15. Research Culture

  16. Doing Research Teachers reporting more favourable perceptions of the institutional research culture said they did research more often.

  17. Reasons for Doing Research

  18. Reasons for Not Doing Research

  19. Time “As a teacher-researcher I've found it extremely difficult to carry out research projects and publish. I just don't have the time. I teach 32.5 hours / week and need to prepare for those classes in addition to work with the teachers' union and our technology committee. It's a shame”.

  20. Some Conclusions • Teachers held a ‘standard’ view of scientific research. • 61% said they did research at least sometimes. • 34% agreed that teachers feel that doing research is an important part of their work. • 80% disagreed that time for research is built into their workload. • There was a significant relationship between views of the institutional research culture and reported levels of doing research.

  21. And Questions How ‘typical’ are these findings? What kinds of research do teachers do? What do ‘sometimes’ and ‘often’ mean? What are the management’s perspectives?

  22. ‘Great idea but just no time’:Teachers’ views of research and its role in their professional lives Simon Borg Centre for Language Education Research School of Education University of Leeds

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