Abstract
This case study, the framework of which is provided by Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory, investigates how a female novice ELT teacher structures her constructs on the qualities of an effective teacher. Repertory grid, a cognitive mapping approach, based on Kelly’s theory was used as an elicitation technique in the study. The study focused on four main questions. These are how the participant conceptualized an effective teacher, the meanings she attached to the constructs through which she portrayed an effective teacher, the participant’s view of “Self” as a teacher, to what she attributed the evolution of these constructs and finally the probable role the program played on these changes, if any. The findings of the study reveal that although the participant’s educational repertoire played a major role on the evolution of her theories, we find that theoretical knowledge does suffice to make a teacher an effective one. The study results indicate a need for improvement and change in teacher education at graduate and undergraduate teacher education programs. Key words: Teacher education, teacher thinking, personal theories, professional development, change.
Highlights
Teachers’ professional learning, development and conceptual change have long been the focus of research at global level
The study focused on four main questions. These are how the participant conceptualized an effective teacher, the meanings she attached to the constructs through which she portrayed an effective teacher, the participant’s view of “Self” as a teacher, to what she attributed the evolution of these constructs and the probable role the program played on these changes, if any
As the answer to our first research question, the findings of the study revealed that the participant’s conceptualization of the qualities of an effective teacher and her view of Self as a teacher went through changes
Summary
Teachers’ professional learning, development and conceptual change have long been the focus of research at global level. These studies shed light to various aspects of pre and in-service teacher education in various contexts. With the results they reached Labone and Long (2014) validated the importance of focus, learning components, feedback, collaborative practices, temporal elements and coherence in teacher learning activities. Celik (2011) explored the consequences of putting explicit standards for teacher educators by means of a comparison between the currently present systems in three countries; contexts with defined standards for teacher educators in U. Hsiao et al (2015), on the other hand, conducted their study in a secondary school context and investigated the effectiveness of peer tutors trained through two different approaches. Cheatham et al (2014) examined preservice teachers’ presumptions about language learners
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