THE IMPACT OF OUTCOME-BASED PHILOSOPHY AND PRACTICE ON A GROUP OF EFL TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND ACTIONS

Abstract

This case study aims at identifying the beliefs and actions held by a group of teacher teaching English in a context with particular outcome-based philosophy and practices, high demands from stakeholders and standardized procedures of quality assurance. Questionnaire, semi-structured and stimulated recall interviews were employed to collect data from a group of 35 lecturers teaching different courses in a Bachelor of English language program accredited by AUN-QA. Microsoft Excel was employed to analyze the quantitative data; Semantic content analysis and the NVIVO software were used to transcribe, code, and segment the qualitative data to then establish categories depicted what participants believed and performed regarding teaching and learning. Different form previous studies, two groups of beliefs were generated namely beliefs about contextual factors that formulate the teaching and beliefs about contextual factors that affect the teaching. The results showed that the strongest factors that shaped the teachers’ beliefs and action in a course were the teaching philosophy of the institution and the expected learning outcomes of the course they taught. Meanwhile, the contextual factors that previously-believed to significantly affect teachers actions were much less influential. Moreover, a teacher in an outcome-based teaching context also performed the role of a quality assurance manager at course level and acting actively to contribute to the achievement of the organizational objectives and missions.