Date of Graduation

2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

College/School

School of Education

Department

Learning and Instruction

Program

Learning & Instruction EdD

First Advisor

Patricia Busk

Second Advisor

Kevin Oh

Third Advisor

Sarah Capitelli

Abstract

This study investigated the long-term effects of a learner-centered-oriented-teacher training on teaching styles of foreign-language instructors at a multilanguage institute to assess the relationship between the training and the teaching practice. A mixed-method design was employed, and the data were collected from 165 participants who took the Principles of Adult Learning Style (Conti, 1978, 2004) and who provided their written reflections on the training, in addition to follow-up interviews with 12 language instructors. Results of one-sample t tests showed statistically significant differences between the teaching styles of language instructors at the institute and the general population of adult educators indicating that the overall teaching approach of foreign-language instructors falls on the teacher-centered side of the scale. On the subscales, the instructors also reported more teacher-centered approach on learner-centered activities, personalizing instruction, climate building, and flexibility for personal development, but they showed more learner-centered practice on relating to experience, assessing student needs, and participation in the learning process. Kendall's Tau-b rank correlations revealed that the teaching style is associated with some demographic variables, and ordinal-logistic-regression suggested that teaching style could be predicted from the time when the instructor took the training, satisfaction with the training, education, gender, age group, and the language category. Analysis of instructors’ reflections and the interviews supported the instructors’ self-reporting about their teaching practices, and thematic analysis resulted in several factors that are accounted for the teacher-centered practice such as the preassigned curriculum, lack of preparation time, lack of inschool support, lack of motivation to use the learner-centered approach, lack of conviction in classroom applicability of the training, resistance to change, influence of native culture and teacher-centered schooling, explanation of language form, and the achievement-oriented teaching. The instructors acknowledged that the teacher training helped them with language-teaching methods, experiential setting for construction of knowledge, and formulation of teaching vision. The study concluded that there is a need to strengthen the association between the learner-centered-oriented-teacher training and the instructors’ classroom practices, and recommendations are made to address the intervening factors that tip the teaching practice toward teacher-centered approach. Also, possible areas of future research are suggested to corroborate the findings from this study.

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