The Role of English Practitioners Epistemological Beliefs in their Pedagogical Effectiveness

This study aims to better understand whether traditional and constructivist conceptions of teaching and learning mayhave any role to play in the enhancement or deterioration of L2 teachers’ pedagogical effectiveness. The populationwho participated in this study consisted of 71 English as a Foreign Language teachers to be drawn from severaluniversities and private language institutes in three cities in Iran: Torbat Jam, Mashhad, and Neyshabur. Two tests, i.e.the Teaching and Learning Conceptions Questionnaire (TLCQ) and the Teacher Effectiveness Scale (TES) were usedfor collecting data about teachers’ beliefs and effectiveness. Results from corelation analysis revealed that there is asignificant positive correlation between teachers’ total pedagogical effectiveness scores and their constructivistconceptions of learning and teaching. Furthermore, there was a significant negative correlation between teachers’ totalpedagogical effectiveness and their traditional conceptions of learning and teaching. Having found significant negativeand positive correlations among the variables, the researcher conducted the regression analysis. A regression consistingof TLSQ factors showed that teachers’ constructivist conceptions of teaching and learning could successfully predictteachers’ pedagogical effectiveness. More specifically, pedagogical effectiveness explained 37% of the total variance,using teachers’ constructivist conceptions of teaching and learning, indicating that teachers who prefer to emphasize theknowledge which is being made by learners independently, and typically reject the traditional notions of rote learningand meaningless memorization received higher scores on the pedagogical effectiveness scale. The implications of thefindings were discussed.

Keywords:

English practitioner , constructivism , epistemological beliefs , pedagogical effectiveness