An Empirical Exploration on Research Conceptions of University Language Teachers --A Case Study of 20 Student Teachers

摘要

This paper examines 20 student teachers in a Master program their changes of research conceptions through a 9 week research-oriented course titled LANGUAGE TEACHING THEORIES AND PRACTICES from October to December, 2010. These student teachers vary in their educational background, teaching experiences and present position. However, they do share one similarity that they seldom read and conduct academic research. The course intends to enhance language teachers' research awareness and capabilities which has been proved to be a missing part in their previous education. The lack of it is most likely to impede teachers' sustainable professional development according to research literature. The course puts special emphasis on the value of teacher research, to be exact, action research, and its relationships with language teaching from epistemology to methodologies. Student teachers are guided to internalize the implicit conceptions into explicit operationalized strategies through a series of planned in-class and out-class activities. The author plays the role of lecturer, facilitator, organizer and assessor. This study reveals investigations on these candidates' research conceptions at the beginning of the course through a Questionnaire (designed & employed by Simon Borg with English teachers across the world). A revised questionnaire was conducted at the end of the course. Questionnaire responses supplemented by reflection writings, interviews and the author's journal are analyzed to compare and contrast these teachers' conceptions of research before and after taking the course. A positive feedback confirms the importance of research education for in-service and pre-service teachers.