Teacher Cognition Research Articles

Provoking novice teacher development: Cognition-and-emotion in learning-to-teach

Recently, increased attention has been drawn to the crucial role of emotions in developing language teacher cognition. Arguing against the secondary role of emotions in cognitive development, a Vygotskian Sociocultural Theoretical perspective views cognition-and-emotion as basic components of human consciousness, the dialectical relationship between them being captured in the concept of perezhivanie. Building on recent expansions of Vygotsky's concept of perezhivanie (Lantolf & Swain, 2019b) and distinguishing between affect, feeling, and emotion, this article explores the complex interplay between cognition-and-emotion and its link to provoking the psychological development of two novice teachers as they progress through their teaching practicum during their MA TESOL Program in North America. Utilizing multiple data sources, including each novice teacher's dialogic reflective teaching journal, professional development plan, and final reflective essay, we qualitatively analyze instances of cognitive/emotional dissonance that emerged and the working over of these instances with the responsive mediation of the practicum supervisor. Our findings reveal how the practices of second language teacher education have the potential to create mediational spaces for novice teachers to work through and make sense of their emotional experiences as well as to foreground affect, feeling, and emotion as a shared social endeavor.

Developing language awareness activities in the context of plurilingual education: two didactic models for language teaching practice

ABSTRACT Within educational research, there has been an increased interest in recent years to develop learners’ language awareness (LA) in the context of plurilingual education. Recommendations and intentions are given pointing to the benefits, but there are few concrete tools for how it can be carried out in practice. The article seeks to contribute to this field by presenting two theoretically and empirically embedded models, developed in the PE-LAL project, used as didactic tools for developing LA activities in the context of plurilingual education across educational levels. The article describes how the models were used in a collaborative work between a researcher and in-service language teachers in a primary and lower secondary school in Denmark and gives three examples of teaching activities for grades 1, 5, and 7, respectively. Based on qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews with selected teachers exploring the teachers’ experiences with and perceptions of using the models, the article problematises that despite willingness the teachers find it difficult to use the models themselves because of, e.g. the monolingual norm reflected in language curricula in Denmark and the teachers’ limited linguistic knowledge. The article concludes with linking plurilingual education to teachers’ continuing professional development and teacher cognition.

Cognition-in-interaction: A Discursive Psychological Perspective of Novice Language Teacher Cognition

Teacher cognition has been an important agenda of language teacher education in recent decades, and it has advanced the field’s understanding of L2 teachers’ work. Thus far, language teacher cognition has been understood from different epistemological perspectives and researched with different methodological approaches. Given that teacher cognition is social and situational, more research is needed from an emic perspective to understand how teachers develop and renew their cognitions in their professional context. This paper adopts a discursive psychological perspective on teacher cognition, investigating novice teacher cognition using applied conversation analysis. As part of a more extensive study, the study offers an in-depth analysis of novice Chinese EFL teachers’ thinking, knowing, understanding, conceptualising, and stance-taking regarding language teaching. The teachers were recruited through a combination of convenience and snowball sampling strategies. The dataset includes 330 minutes of classroom teaching, 217 minutes of interviews, and 605 minutes of video-based guided reflection on teaching. The data revealed the key theme in teachers’ understanding of 1) focusing on linguistic knowledge, 2) establishing teacher authority, and 3) developing practical pedagogical knowledge. The findings reveal teachers’ moment-by-moment cognition-in-interaction and multiple roles in facilitating learning. Substantial implications are put forward for teacher learning and teacher education.

Evolution of Approaches to Teacher Cognition and Teacher Identity: A Conceptual Conversation

In this paper, as two TESOL practitioners, our purpose is to capture our reflections on how conceptual approaches to teacher learning have evolved over the years to highlight the interplay between teacher cognition and teacher identity. We also seek to decrease the distance between ourselves and our academic writing, essentially emerging from behind the conventions of academic writing to discuss concepts in a conversational tone, hopefully making them more accessible to a larger audience of practitioners and scholars. In discussing our ongoing negotiation of theoretical orientations, we have been able to reflect on the influence of the language teacher cognition research base on the wider field of language teacher identity research. The main take-away is that we can better illustrate the complexity involved in the practice of language teaching and the process of becoming language teachers if we combine the two in complementary ways: teachers’ individual cognitive and metacognitive processes involved in their professional learning and their situatedness in social, cultural, political, and economic discourses.

“Indulge in a Little Chaos”: Assistant Language Teachers’ Cognition and Pedagogical Knowledge Development Through the Lens of Complex Dynamic System Theory

Teacher cognition has been a major topic of interest in applied linguistics as researchers have worked toward “better understanding the fullness of the work of teaching, a fullness that has proved complex and problematic” (Burns et al., 2015, p. 585). This qualitative study draws upon participant interview data in order to analyze and understand language teacher cognition and pedagogical knowledge development of an under-represented cohort—foreign assistant language teachers (ALTs) in Japan. Participants (n=35) were current or former ALTs with 1 to 19 years of experience working as team teachers in Japan. Interview data was transcribed and coded according to six common features of complex dynamic systems: initial condition, unpredictability, nested structure, non-hierarchic networks, feedback loops, and self-organization (Kiss, 2012). Findings show that ALTs’ ability to acquire and operationalize pedagogical knowledge is highly dependent on the maneuver that they must undergo in working within the local Japanese contexts—as opposed to those in their home countries—and in relation to their colleagues who have a variety of individual traits, pedagogical beliefs, and team-teaching practices. This article serves as evidence that language teacher cognition regarding pedagogical knowledge development can be aptly understood through the lens of complex systems theory.

From the Editor

[First part only] Dear Readers, And here is another great issue! We start off this “Special Issue” on “Advances in Teacher Cognition” ably edited by Mohammad N. Karimi, Seyyed Foad Behzadpour and Behzad Mansouri. See their introduction for further details. We also present 11 “regular issue” articles along with 5 book and media reviews, as well as our usual “On the Internet” feature. This August issue is outstandingly “international” with the lead authors resident in eleven countries, but with the implications of each article applicable to other contexts pursuant to TESL-EJ editorial policy. In fact, to further this policy, the editors have decided henceforth to discourage the use of country names in the titles of articles since that alone would imply that the results are not applicable elsewhere. Passages. We owed a debt of gratitude to Behzad Mansouri, one of our co-editors, who had simultaneously helped to edit the media reviews while also facilitating the special issue found herein. If any reader with experience with media use for ELT would be interested in joining the TESL-EJ media team, please contact <media@tesl-ej.org> including your relevant credentials. Board of Reviewers. Some 15 scholars have reviewed three or more submissions within the past year, and in addition, have received high scores from the editors for their contributions. We shall be inviting them to join our Board of Reviewers, as an expression of our gratitude. Thanks to recent reviewers. We thank the reviewers of all submissions that had reached a decision since our last issue – regardless of whether the paper was accepted, declined or revisions requested. We are grateful to the following scholars, some of whom have reviewed two or more papers during the current period: Abdul Syahid, Adele Connor, Akihiro Saito, Amanda Giles, Amin Pouresmaeil, Amira Albagshi, Anita Lie, Ann E. Roemer, Aránzazu García-Pinar, Barry Keith, Behrang Mohammad-Salehi, Betsy Gilliland, Burcu Gokgoz-Kurt, Cuong Huy Pham, Daisy Casipit, Dodi Mulyadi, Duy Van Vu, Ehsan Rassaei, Elise Nicole Brittain, Ender Velasco, Fahimeh Marefat, Frankie Subon, Graeme Couper, Hilda Freimuth, Holly Stiles, Hyunjin Jinna Kim, I Putu Indra Kusuma, John Evar Strid, Juland Salayo, Kathleen Eilers-crandall, Kuang Li, Lehman Heaviland, Loc Tan Nguyen, Luan Nguyen, Mandana Arfa-Kaboodvand, Matthew Nall, Megan Banerjee, Mingkun Lou, Mohammad Kazemian, Musa Nushi, Nick Daniels, Olive Nabukeera, Ranson Lege, Reza Adara, S M Akramul Kabir, Shaun Manning, Suyansah Bin Swanto, Theresa Summer, Ufuk Atas, Vijayababu Palukuri, and Vijayakumar Chintalapalli. Best, Thomas N. Robb, Ph.D. For the editorial team

Advances in Research on Language Teacher Cognition: An Introduction to the Special Issue

An oft-cited conceptualization of teacher cognition couches it as “the unobservable cognitive dimension of teaching—what teachers know, believe and think” (Borg, 2003, p. 81). While the term “unobservable” in Borg’s definition implies, or even emphatically states, that a hidden body of knowledge, beliefs, and thoughts informs teacher behavior, this hidden dimension was “un-observable” in early conceptualizations of teaching (Borg, 2019; Burns, et al., 2015). Dominated for long by the process-product interpretation (Dunkin & Biddle, 1974), teaching was primarily viewed in terms of observable instructional behaviors (e.g., wait time practices, patterns of questioning) that were judged with regard to how effectively they influenced student achievement outcomes (Verloop, et al., 2001). Language teacher education also followed suit and as posited by Gatbonton (1999), formerly a major share of the theoretical base for language teacher education came from studies of overt classroom behaviors. However, teaching was subsequently recognized as cognition-backed and knowledge-informed performance. As best reflected in Borg’s (2019, p. 2) words, although teaching involves observable behaviors, it “is not a purely behavioral enterprise; in the same way that icebergs have an exposed surface beneath which lies a significant hidden mass, teachers’ behaviors are also powerfully shaped by a complex range of unseen influences”. [First Paragraph]

Emily Is an Egg: An Example of a Narrative Analysis Approach to Identifying the Antecedents of Critical Language Teacher Cognition

This article presents a theoretically grounded methodological approach to investigate the interplay between language teacher cognition and critical language teacher identity development. To answer the question as to what social, cultural, historical, and political aspects lead teachers to position themselves as language teachers for social justice, positioning analysis (Bamberg, 1997) is used to identify the antecedents of a critical language teacher’s cognition in discourses vis-a-vis their development of critical consciousness. Positioning analysis can help us better understand critical language teacher cognition, their processes of becoming critical language teachers, and their development of critical language teacher identity and social positionings because it comprises not only the analysis of the content of a narrative, but also the interaction, as well as the social, cultural, political, and economic context in which such a narrative is constructed. To account for the long-term aspects of critical language teacher cognition, the analysis focuses on the narratives from the period before formal teacher training and how teachers position themselves and others within the story world, the storytelling world, and amidst dominant discourses. Followed by its report, I address a key pedagogical implication for the development of critical language teachers.

Pedagogical Reasoning for Speaking Instruction: A Longitudinal Study of Novice Language Teachers’ Cognition

Pedagogical reasoning, as one of the major components of teacher knowledge base, is crucially important in teacher education. Motivated by the dearth of research in this area, this study investigated the pedagogical reasoning of four novice language teachers in relation to speaking instruction in order to further our understanding of language teacher cognition. For this purpose, a qualitative approach was adopted and classroom observations and post-observation stimulated recall interviews were conducted over a period of eight months. The analysis of the data related to pedagogical reasoning episodes and reasoning complexity indicated that novice teachers employed varied pedagogical arguments for different aspects of teaching speaking to justify their pedagogical decisions, which included instruction-based, students-based, teacher-based, and context-based arguments. The findings also pointed to the developmental changes in terms of the complexity and comprehensiveness of novice teachers’ pedagogical reasoning. Although they initially tended to focus primarily on the subject matter and instructional activities, their reasoning gradually expanded to include students’ cognitive and affective characteristics. The findings of this study contribute to the research on the teacher knowledge base and cognition. Having a clear understanding of novice teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and how they utilize it to explain their classroom practices provides us with valuable insights into the process of learning to teach.

Dialogic Restorying: A Novel Methodology for Provoking Second Language Teacher Development Across the Career Span

Grounded in Vygotskian sociocultural theory, we propose a novel methodology for second language teacher cognition research called dialogic restorying. We exemplify this methodological innovation by presenting a qualitative longitudinal project in which we prompted L2 teachers to revisit and restory what Veresov (2017) calls “dramatic moments” extracted from reflections they wrote throughout their learning-to-teach experiences in a 2-year MA TESL program (see Johnson, Verity, & Childs, 2020; 2023). These practicing teachers engaged in dialogic restorying with the interviewer by reflecting on the importance of these dramatic moments and their continuing influence on how they orient to teaching in their current instructional contexts two to three years after graduation. Mutual engagement in dialogic restorying not only allowed access into these L2 teachers’ perceptions of the significance of their learning-to-teach experiences but also opened up the potential for these interviews to be meaningful encounters that continued to have developmental value for the teacher-participants. We contend that dialogic restorying yields important longitudinal insights into L2 teachers’ developmental trajectories while also bringing to the surface the importance of recognizing the mediational influence that research methodology can, and from our perspective, should have on participants in investigations of L2 teacher development across the career span.

English Language Teachers’ Maxims in Evaluating Materials: A Case Study from Iran

While research on second language teacher cognition (SLTC) has significantly developed over the past three decades, this line of inquiry has not paid adequate attention to material development/evaluation as compared to the key role that materials play in teachers’ daily practice. In response to this gap, in this study we adopted the theoretical stance of teacher maxims as part of SLTC, and explored eight Iranian English language teachers’ maxims in relation to material evaluation. Data were collected from a researcher-adapted questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, and analyzed based on content analysis. Data analyses revealed that the teachers evaluated their implemented material in light of both positive and negative aspects, with the positive sides being more pedagogical and the negative dimensions being more institutional and sociocultural. Additionally, the teachers’ maxims indicated that materials should not only serve pedagogical issues, but they should also embrace emotions and sociocultural particularities so that educational stakeholders, especially students, develop socio-educational capitals. Based on the findings, we provide implications for teacher educators to run professional development courses that embrace personal, interpersonal, and sociocultural particularities in the courses to enhance teachers’ awareness of the role materials play in their SLTC growth

Research on the Cognitive Degree of Pre-service Junior High School Mathematics Teachers for Geometric Intuition Literacy in China

Currently, geometric intuition literacy has attracted extensive attention from all walks of life. Many relevant problems about it have been studied except the cognitive degree of geometric intuition literacy of pre-service junior high school mathematics teachers. In this study, 40 pre-service junior high school mathematics teachers in China are surveyed using an open-ended interview method. The analysis of the data reveals that: (1) The accuracy of the cognition about geometric intuition literacy is not high. (2) The cognitive scope of pre-service high school mathematics teachers about geometric intuition literacy is not extensive and pre-service teachers' knowledge of geometric intuition literacy is focused on the more generalized elements. (3) The cognition of many pre-service teachers is not deep or comprehensive and concentrates at a lower level. (4) The cognition of many pre-service teachers for many aspects of geometric intuition literacy is not very clear. Therefore, it is suggested that: Teacher training schools should reform their curricula and pay attention to teacher trainees' learning and education on geometric intuition literacy. Special training and education on core literacy should be strengthened in pre-service teacher training so that geometric intuition literacy can be valued. Pre-service junior high school mathematics teachers should actively learn and study core literacy to improve their understanding of geometric intuition literacy.

Pengajaran Bahasa Berbasis Tugas (Task-Based Language Teaching) Studi Kasus Guru Bahasa Inggris SMP

Like many methodological innovations, Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) has been applied to many English curricula throughout Asia. However, little research has been conducted to explore what teachers know and believe about these method reforms in the specific context of their profession. This research originates from an in-depth study of teacher cognition in Junior High Schools in Tebo District, Indonesia using multi-methods of data collection. In this study, the findings will be reviewed and explained from one of the methods used to obtain teacher knowledge and attitudes towards narrative inquiry. In detail, teachers were asked to write reflective comments in Indonesian about their attitudes towards TBLT, and the experiences they had after implementing TBLT in class. After explaining some of the findings, the approach to data collection and the relevant context can be used as a reference for further research.

Teachers’ Beliefs and Practice on Providing EFL Written Corrective Feedback

<p class="05IsiAbstrak"><span>This study analyzes how and why writing instructors provide written corrective feedback (WCF) on academic writing tasks. It was an ethnography study conducted by the Department of English Education at University in Semarang, Indonesia. This study investigated and analyzed the attitudes of teachers to get insight into classroom methods for delivering written corrective feedback (CF) on student writing. The major objective of the study was to evaluate instructors' beliefs and practices. Therefore, the teachers' perspectives on providing written corrective feedback (WCF) were required to determine the true answers and provide corrective feedback. The conceptual basis for this study was developed from Borg's (2003) concept of teacher cognition (beliefs) and practices, as well as the impediments to written CF reported by several writers. This recent study conducted interviews with three English Education Department instructors who instructed writing classes. This investigation utilized classroom observation, the think-aloud technique, and in-depth interviews. The data was examined using Spradley's technique (1979, 1980). The study of the data revealed both congruence and discord between the beliefs and actions of lecturers. For instance, the instructors' focus and number of writing CF were consistent. In addition, it was demonstrated that extraneous influences affected the lecturers' application of their theories.</span></p>

Exploring English language teachers’ beliefs about future readiness: Developing pedagogical practices for the 21st century

Cognitions, and specifically beliefs, play a critical role in the practices teachers are willing to implement. Beliefs become particularly impactful when teachers are called upon to adapt, adjust and innovate, as is characteristic of language teaching in the 21st century and teaching during a health crisis such as a pandemic. Anchored in the field of language teacher cognition, this article presents a qualitatively driven mixed methods study of English language teachers’ beliefs about language teaching and learning in the 21st century. We explored the beliefs of 74 secondary-level English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in an attempt to better understand beliefs that were shared among study participants. These teachers had all elected to take part in a new English language program in Israel that seeks to promote 21st century practices. Three categories of beliefs were identified. These include: (1) employing multiple and varied teaching methods; (2) demonstrating adaptability alongside digital literacy; and (3) collaborating and employing interdisciplinary practices. We have defined these categories as ‘precursor beliefs to willingness’. We present their manifestation in the collected data and discuss suggestions for how they can be cultivated at the initial teacher education level and through ongoing professional development.

The indispensable role of the goal construct in understanding and improving teaching practice

ABSTRACT Teacher research tends to focus on either teacher cognition or actions, or both. However, an understanding of cognition or behaviour that does not take multiple goals into account is incomplete. We integrate insights from self-regulation research in a goal system model and a methodology for eliciting teachers’ goal systems representations (GSRs). GSRs are personal constructs that show how people connect hierarchies of goals to actions in pursuit of tasks. The insight that multiple goals mediate the influence of cognition and context also has consequences for developing support for teacher learning. To illustrate the use of GSRs, we use the case of a biology student teacher who taught practicals in a cookbook manner and was supported to redesign her cookbook practical into a more open scientific inquiry practical. The case illustrates how GSRs can be used to understand a teacher’s practice and to develop support that bridges for the teacher the gap between current and target practices. Such support shows the teacher how they can adapt their practice to make it more in line with the target practice, and how this contributes to attaining their goals better. Additionally, we describe practical variants of the bridging approach for groups of (student) teachers.

A Case Study of the Impacts of Teaching Practicum on the Self-Efficacy among Pre-service English Teachers

Teachers’ self-efficacy refers to the subjective evaluation and cognition of teachers on whether they can successfully achieve their teaching aims in specific teaching situations, including effectively complete teaching tasks, and promote the improvement of students’ learning compacity as well as their adherence to teaching beliefs. Teachers with elevated sense of self-efficacy are more likely to be conscientious about their students’ education. Teaching practicum is a crucial part of pre-service English teacher education, which is also deemed to be helpful in improving pre-service teachers’ eligibility to be qualified teachers. For pre-service English teachers, their teaching practicum experience is very vital to form and impact their self-efficacy. The past studies mainly focused on the effects of in-service teachers’ self-efficacy on language levels and teaching ability, this study takes pre-service English teachers as the research participants, through the ways of questionnaire and interview to collect the data and tries to figure out how to improve pre-service English teachers’ self-efficacy during the teaching practicum.

From the Editor

[First part only] Dear Readers, As a journal with an international readership, this issue offers perspectives from many cultural contexts, including Australia, China, Iran, Korea, Thailand, the U.S.A. and Vietnam. As usual, the articles that we accept for publication must offer findings that can be applied to other educational contexts so we hope many of the articles will be useful for your own teaching or research. Look forward to our next special issue on Advances in Research on Language Teacher Cognition to be published as part of our August 2023 issue. Another special issue, Between Indisposition and Perseverance: Disrupted Language Teacher Identities in Times of Uncertainty is scheduled for May 2024. Maggie Sokolik, Founder and Publisher of TESL-EJ has announced the intention to create a series of books each featuring a collection of articles from TESL-EJ on specific topics. The first such volume will feature a collection of articles by the late Vance Stevens drawn from his work on the “On the Internet” series as well as other sources. Vance’s family has endorsed the project. Income from the volume will be split evenly between the TESOL Scholarship Fund for Vance Stevens and TESL-EJ, which now requires more funds to support our online platform and the registration of DOIs for our articles. Passages. With this volume, we welcome three new co-editors, Clara Vaz Bauler (Adelphi University, New York), Clayton Lehman (Freelance) and Burcu Gökgöz Kurt (Dumlupınar University, Turkey). All three scholars have distinguished themselves by the quality and timeliness of the articles which they had peer reviewed, which led us to ask them to come aboard as editors. We also thank William S. Pearson (University of Exeter) who has been forced to step down as a co-editor due to his commitments at the university. Thanks to recent reviewers. We thank the reviewers of all submissions that had reached a decision since our last issue – regardless of whether the paper was accepted, declined or revisions requested. We are grateful to the following scholars, some of whom have reviewed two or more papers during the current period: Abdul Syahid, Akihiro Saito, Ali Asiri, Amira Albagshi, Anh Ton-Nu, Anita Lie, Ann E. Roemer, Aránzazu García-Pinar, Arezou Maleki, Aurelio Vilbar, Aydan Irgatoğlu, Azran Azmee Kafia, Azran Azmee Kafia, Behrang Mohammad-Salehi, Betsy Gilliland, Chahrazed Mirza, Clayton Lehman, Colin William Campbell, Cuong Huy Pham, Daisy Casipit, Davey Young, David Imamyartha, Duy Van Vu, Eli Hinkel, Ella Alhudithi, Erhan Aslan, Erin Singer, Evi Puspitasari, Hamid Allami, Hamid Bahador, Hoang Nguyen, Holden Kenneth Alcazaren, Hülya Ipek, Intissar Yahia, Ismail Xodabande, Jardel Coutinho Dos Santos, John Chun Yin Wong, Khusnul Khotimah, Kuang Li, Lee Hughes, Lee Hughes, Manfred Man-Fat Wu, Mariana A. Ricklefs, Marta Halaczkiewicz, Marzieh Bagherkazemi, Matthew Nall, Mehmet Bardakçi, Miriam Faine, Mohammad Kazemian, Mohammad N. Karimi, Monica Gonzalez Smith, Nobuhiro Kamiya, Noraini Zulkepli, Onur Ergunay, Özgehan Uştuk, Peter Ilic, Ryan Spring, Semahat Aysu, Sibel Söğüt, Siti Tamah, Sophia Skoufaki, Ufuk Atas, Vijayakumar Chintalapalli, W.S. Pearson, Xirui Cai, and Yuri Yarin. Best, Thomas N. Robb, Ph.D. For the editorial team

“The Nail That Sticks Out Gets Hammered down”: The Influence Of EFL Context On The Teacher Beliefs Of A Native English-Speaking Teacher

The 1970s witnessed a paradigm shift in research into language learning and teaching with focus moving away from process-product approach to the study of teachers and their cognitions. This shift in research led teaching to be viewed as a cognitive process not merely in terms of behavior, and teachers as decision makers in the classroom not as merely implementers of external theories. In the same decade, teacher cognition emerged as a separate domain of research that investigates what teachers know, think and believe. Teaching context is one of the factors that influence the formation of teacher beliefs and the enactment of these beliefs. The present study is an attempt at understanding the influence of EFL setting on teacher beliefs of a native English-speaking teacher. To this end, a single native speaker English teacher was selected and data were collected through a number of tools. The data were analyzed using grounded theory data analysis steps. The current study found that context has certain influence on teachers’ beliefs and teachers’ pedagogical practices. It also found that the changes that occurred in the participant teacher’s beliefs were behavioral rather than cognitive and that the context’s influence on which beliefs teachers enact in practice is relatively more marked.

Reinforcement and Punishment: The Concepts Teachers Need to be Carefully Watched

Abstract: Numerous acts done by teachers without proper consideration were impactful to students. This study determines the level of teacher cognition to reinforcement and punishment concept in the learning process at school. In addition, this study also aims to assign the accuracy of applying these concepts to students. Mixed-method using embedded design was implemented to address the goals. As 49 teachers responded from several schools in the District of Kepulauan Pongok, South Bangka. Besides, in-depth interviews were also conducted with five teachers who were selected. The research sample was set based on purposive sampling. The data collection techniques were a questionnaire in the form of a rating scale and an in-depth interview form with a feasibility test previously performed using the Content Validity Index. Likewise, the data obtained were processed using the calculation of the average, standard deviation, percentage as well as content analysis. The results indicated that 2.86 out of 5 or 57.2% of the teachers had good understanding towards the two concepts. Meanwhile, 3.15 or 63% of the teachers were familiar to reinforcement. Besides, 2.44 or 4.88% of the teachers were familiar to give punishment. In other words, the comprehension as well as it application are classified very moderate and needed to be carefully watched.