IRANIAN EFL TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE USE OF LESSON PLANS AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL

A lesson plan is a logical description of the course of education; furthermore, it is a teacher’s detailed documentation of learner's course of instruction. Many teachers employ lesson plans to give directions to their classes. This paper aimed to investigate Iranian EFL teachers’ attitudes towards the use of lesson plans. To this end, through a descriptive, non-experimental research design, ۴۰ Iranian teachers were randomly selected from among the well-experienced teachers at Payam-e-Noor University, Isfahan, Iran, during the academic year ۲۰۲۰. To collect the required data, a ۱۲-item attitude questionnaire was distributed among the teacher participants. Moreover, to increase the study's validity, a semi-structured interview was conducted with ۱۵ volunteer teachers. The collected data were analyzed in the form of frequency and percentage and through a descriptive statistical procedure. The findings suggested that teachers considered lesson planning the most appropriate skill that a teacher could use to create a successful class and an organized learning environment. They also take this matter into consideration that an appropriate lesson plan is a vital step in teaching and learning that fulfill students' needs. Moreover, most of the English teachers had very positive attitudes towards employing a lesson plan. They believed that a suitable, detailed, flexible lesson plan can control their time, effort, and increase class and materials management. Therefore, this study's findings could have implications for teachers and teacher trainers to educate more prospective teachers and increase the efficiency of lesson plans in the EFL classes.

Keywords:

attitudes , experienced teachers , Iranian EFL students , lesson plan