The Effect of Teacher Portfolio Writing on the Enhancement of Iranian EFL Teachers’ Self-efficacy

This study investigated the impact of Iranian EFL teachers’ portfolio writing on their self-efficacy. The present study also sought to investigate which of the four chosen elements of teachers’ self-efficacy is most affected by portfolio writing. To fulfill such goals, the researchers used two types of instruments: a questionnaire and a portfolio. Bandura s Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy served as the questionnaire and Imhof and Picard’s (2009) served as the model of teachers’ portfolio writing. The participants were 60 EFL teachers from 2 English Language Institutes in Karaj, Iran. After selecting the participants and randomly assigning them into two groups: a control group and an experimental group, a pretest (questionnaire) was administered then; the procedure of portfolio writing was clearly explained to the teachers of experimental group. After eighteen sessions of portfolio writing practice of the experimental group participants, the questionnaire of pretest as the posttest questionnaire was used for both groups. The findings indicated that keeping a reflective teaching portfolio enhances teachers’ self-efficacy significantly. Moreover, using portfolio as a reflective tool for learning turned out to improve Instructional self-efficacy more than other elements.

Keywords:

Portfolio Writing , Teacher Education , EFL Teacher , Teacher Self- Efficacy