A Comparison of EFL Teachers and EFL Students’ Understandings of ‘Highly Effective Teaching’

Abstract

In an attempt to identify the extent to which differences in understandings and expectations of ‘effective teaching’ might impede students successful integration into academic life, the following article offers a comparative analysis of the ways in which teachers and students define effective teaching. Language specialists and teacher educators have recognized that what can be of much help in professional development of teachers are efforts on the recognition of good teachers characteristics so as to equip language teachers with those characteristics However, most of the research conducted on the effective teaching has mainly focused on teachers perceptions and there has been little work of comparative nature where the views of teachers’ and learners have been compared. As such the present study has investigated teachers and students’ perception of a highly effective English teacher. The characteristics of an effective teacher perceived by 34 teachers and 122 students, with a tailor made questionnaire consisting of five categories: Content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, Communication skills, managing skills and teaching experience. Results indicate that teachers and students appear to share some similar views and, despite some differences in emphasis, pedagogical knowledge emerges as most important, while teaching experience appears to favor a much lower priority. Potential explanations for the degree of commonality in student thinking, teacher thinking and prioritization are investigated, and a number of conclusions are considered. The significant discrepancies between teacher and student beliefs in several relevant areas point to the need for FL teachers to seek out their students’ perspectives actively. The findings of the current study suggest that language specialists and teacher educators should be aware of learners’ beliefs of effective teaching as well as recognition of good teachers’ characteristics so as to equip language teachers with those characteristics in order to assist less successful language learners to become successful.