Abstract
The changes in society raised the need to change the teaching methodologies in school. Therefore, the traditional teaching methodologies with teacher in the center were not anymore able to meet the needs of these changes. Focusing on promoting critical thinking, modern teaching methodologies, with the student in the center, are being implemented all over the world. The aim of this study was to investigate teachers’ attitudes toward traditional and modern teaching methodologies such as RWCT, in terms of which one is more successful, more interesting for students and what are the main challenges for Kosovar teachers to practice RWCT techniques in their daily activities with students. This study used mixed methods of data collection (quantitative and qualitative methods). Questionnaire was used for collection of the quantitative data, while focus groups discussions with teachers were organized for qualitative data collection. 473 school teachers of primary and lower secondary schools in Kosovo were randomly selected to participate in this study. Additionally, four focus groups discussions were organized with school teachers to obtain in depth understanding of the issues. More than half of school teachers did not agree that “traditional teaching methodologies are more successful than modern teaching methodologies such as RWCT which one third of teachers agreeing with the above statement, with more than half of the teachers declaring that they prefer to use modern teaching techniques rather than traditional teaching techniques during their daily work with students. However, high numbers of students per teacher, overcrowded classrooms, environment, classroom organization, lack of trainings for teacher are some of the challenges that teachers face in using modern teaching methodologies in their daily work with students. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n2s2p311
Highlights
According to Richards (2008), traditional teaching methodology was explained as learning that was mostly seen as under teacher’s control
The data presented below shows that only 9% of primary and school teachers in Kosovo totally agree with the statement indicating that traditional teaching methodology is more successful than modern teaching methodology and almost one third of teachers (35%) somewhat agreeing with the above mentioned statement
More than 30% of primary and lower secondary school teachers totally disagree with the above statement indicating that traditional teaching methodology is not more successful than modern teaching methodology and 24% somewhat disagreeing with the statement
Summary
According to Richards (2008), traditional teaching methodology was explained as learning that was mostly seen as under teacher’s control In this regard, the traditional classrooms were seen like ceremonial places where students sat in rows like spectators, while the teacher sat in front of them as a mayor or a priest (Crawford et al, 2005). The biggest problem facing teachers today is the lack of ability of most students to think critically. This could be due to the fact that critical thinking was not effectively promoted within traditional teaching environment which is mostly based on memorization (Nickerson, 1987; Kennedy, 1991; Paul, 1993)
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