Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Tez Türü: Doktora
Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Çukurova Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Yabancı Diller Eğitimi, Türkiye
Tez Danışmanı: Gülden İlin
Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2022
Tezin Dili: İngilizce
Desteklendiği Program: Diğer
Özet:
Effectiveness of teachers hinges on how they define tasks, use
strategies, realize that they can succeed and solve the problems they face that
is how agent they are (Bray-Clark & Bates, 2003). Thanks to its potential
to empower and emancipate teachers, action research is closely linked to
teacher agency. Action research can assist teachers to develop in-depth
perspectives about the process of teaching and learning making it favourable by
both scholars and teachers (Lacorte & Krastel, 2002).
When the assets of doing action research are
considered together with the dynamic relationship between teacher agency and
effectiveness, the current study aims to explore the impacts of conducting
action research on EFL instructors’ conceptualization of an effective teacher
and their teacher agency in the classroom. It is a qualitative study in nature
but in terms of data collection tools it can be identified as mixed method
study making use of both qualitative and quantitative data collecting tools.
The participants are seven EFL instructors working at a state university in
Antalya. As data gathering instruments, repertory grids (Post- and Pre-),
teacher agency scale (Post- and Pre-), semi-structured interviews (Post- and
Pre-), and lesson observation (Post- and Pre-), techniques were used. At the
beginning of the study, the participants were given teacher agency scale in
order to explore to see how agent the participants are in different phases of
teaching and learning procedure. Follow-up interviews and lesson observations
were utilized to validate the findings. Moreover, repertory grids were
administered to the participants to see their constructions of an effective
teacher. The participants were interviewed and observed to confirm the findings
obtained from repertory grids. In the second part of the study, the
participants were informed about the action research procedure and started to
conduct their studies. During their studies, the participants and the
researcher met every two weeks to share and reflect on their experiences. After the action research procedure, which
lasted for six weeks, the same teacher agency scale was administered again
followed by semi-structured interviews and classroom observations to find out
the impacts of conducting action research on their agency as a teacher.
Moreover, they completed repertory grids and they were interviewed and observed
again to validate the findings to see if there is a difference in their
constructions of an effective teacher. The data collected by rep-grids were
analysed using the Rep Plus V1.1 computer program. In addition, the
analysis of the interviews and lesson observation forms were made using content
analysis technique.
The findings of the study revealed that the participants have started to
take more action during the teaching and learning process after the action
research procedure. Moreover, it is found that although five out of seven participants’ repertory grids illustrated
significant changes, all of the participants reorganized their personal
theories on the qualities of an effective teacher at the end of the study. In
addition to producing more constructs, it was found that the grid data of the
participants illustrated more matches indicating development of their ideas
during the study which resulted in forming more links with one another.
Finally, the AR procedure was found to be beneficial in terms of realizing
their ability to take more action when there is a problem in the classroom,
doing more than what the plan says, reflecting on their teaching, learning from
others thanks to knowledge and experience sharing.
Key-words: Action research, teacher agency, effective teacher, professional
development, repertory grid, teacher agency scale