L2 Teachers' Pedagogical Knowledge Base: Variations across Teachers with Harmonious Passion Vs. Obsessive Passion

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

2 English Department Faculty of Humanities. Imam Khomeini International University. Qazvin, Iran

3 Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Humanities, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

L2 Teachers' Pedagogical Knowledge Base (PKB) has a prominent place in teacher cognition research. A gap that has not yet been clarified in this strand of research concerns variations in relation to individual difference variables despite indications that PKB is likely to differ as a function of individual differences. To contribute to the body of knowledge, the study investigated how teachers' PKB—conceptualized as the frequency and dominance of pedagogical thought units/categories—vary as a function of teachers’ passion. After administering the passion scale to a larger pool of teachers (N = 72), eight English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers were purposefully selected as the target participants. Based on their performance on the passion scale, four teachers had high levels of harmonious passion, whereas the other four demonstrated high levels of obsessive passion. According to Greenberger (2016), passion orientation refers to the predominant form of passion that is present for teaching by modality at the time of instruction. The gender composition of the two groups was identical: each group consisted of two male and two female teachers. Furthermore, the two groups were kept as homogeneous as possible in terms of the academic degrees (three M.A. and one B.A. degree). Both groups had almost the same teaching experience (H-HP group: M = 8.50, SD = 2.64, and H-OP group: M = 8.00, SD = 2.16).
Initially, each teacher's 90-minute classroom teaching was videotaped, resulting in 720 minutes of recorded data from the study. At the end of class, a meeting was scheduled between the teacher and one of the researchers performing the interview. While conducting the stimulated recall interview, the researcher initially showed the video in the teacher's presence and paused it after each instructional move to allow the teacher to express the thought(s) that led to that particular move. To code and segment the verbalizations into PTUs, the researcher had first to transcribe them. These PTUs were then classified into a general category of thought categories known as PTCs. Furthermore, following Akbari and Dadvand (2011), the aim of the verbal protocols and the related method was discussed with teachers to reduce the likelihood of teachers' unwarranted interpretations into their pedagogic behaviors.
The results revealed that, HP teachers produced more PTUs (an average of 3.14 per minute) than OP teachers (with an average of 2.75 thoughts per minute), as evidenced by the results. Self-reflection, Affective, Decisions, and Planning Acts were the essential thought categories that differed significantly across HP and OP teachers. The dominant thought categories for harmonious passion teachers were Language Management, Progress Review, Procedure Check, Affective, Problem Check, Self-Reflection, Beliefs, Knowledge of Students, Comprehensibility, and Decisions. However, the most frequent pedagogical thought categories for OP teachers were Language Management, Procedure Check, Progress Review, Problem Check, Comprehensibility, Beliefs, Knowledge of Students, Self-Reflection, Affective, and Planning Acts. In education, passion for teaching is an important notion to examine (Carbonneau et al., 2008). Hargreaves (1997), highlighting the connection between learning and education, contends that all pedagogical approaches would fail without classroom passion. Teachers who are passionate about their work are cognizant of the impact that passion has on student performance. The impact of passion for learning and teaching is undeniable, which is why passionate teachers are always on the lookout for methods to improve student accomplishment. Teachers who are passionate about their work are driven to participate more in teaching, and if their passion is harmonious, they experience job satisfaction, good affect, self-efficacy, strong desire, and a high level of propensity to utilize of a range of teaching techniques (Moe, 2016).
Passionate teachers exert a significant influence in the classroom. Students gain from the motivating, enthusiastic, and caring instructors (Montalvo et al., 2007). The need for passionate teachers who are devoted to their job stays critical and relevant in today's demanding public education sector. Thus, administrators and teacher educators must prioritize retaining passionate teachers in the classroom (Phelps & Benson, 2012). HP might be considered the elements to help instructors avoid stress. Indeed, passion, specifically HP, is a job-related emotional reaction that influences work commitment instead of avoidant responses, negative thinking, adverse effect, and resignation associated with OP. Based on the research conducted in this area, improvements in HP for teaching predicted increases in job satisfaction and reductions in burnout symptoms over time, but changes in OP had no effect on these outcomes. Additionally, rises in HP and OP indicated an increase in teacher-perceived adaptive as evaluated over time.
Therefore, it can be suggested that improving teacher passion contributes to teacher career development since this component will significantly contribute to implementing teachers' beliefs in their classroom practices. Consequently, it is recommended that teacher professional development initiatives focus on fostering teachers' passion. Generally, this research reveals that L2-teacher passion is an individual difference worth considering in language teacher education. Moreover, teacher preparation programs should place a greater emphasis on passion for the profession. Teacher educators should focus on passion by implementing this subject into an institution's structure and aid candidates in forming a commitment to the profession based on actual preparation experiences. According to the study's results, professional education courses focusing on L2 teachers' PKB are needed. Thus, new insights seem to have arisen about the recruitment of teachers by institutions in the field. Passion can be considered critical components of the teacher recruitment models and policies. Language teacher educators and policymakers can employ the insights obtained from this study to make language teachers aware and pave the way for them to enjoy teaching English and be passionate in their lifelong journey of learning. In the light of the findings of this study, there are some directions for future research. First, the focus of the current study was kept on the EFL teachers of language institutes. The reality that the current study results coincide with and simultaneously vary from those of previous studies indicates that further research in this area is necessary. Future studies should video-record a higher number of instructional sessions per teacher. Second, collecting more data over a more extended period will surely yield a more reliable interpretation and classification of instructors' pedagogical thoughts and any possible differences due to contextual/personal factors.

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References

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Research in Teaching
Volume 9, Issue 3
November 2021
Pages 311-282

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