Teachers' Thinking about Their Teaching: A Critical Study on Iranian TEFL Teachers

Knowing about teachers' thinking, beliefs and attitudes toward their own teaching practice are of crucial and important factors in designing course materials, educational planning and improving educational levels. According to the literature available, unfortunately few studies have been conducted on these issues in the context of Iran. Therefore the effect of teachers' mentality on improving teaching process seems to be neglected to some extent. Taking this existing gap in planning of related educational organizations into consideration, this study aimed to go through the mind of teachers, and to find out how they think. To conduct this study, a questionnaire with high reliability of 0.89.9 was designed and implemented in 18 different cities of Iran. 267 Iranian TEFL teachers participated in the study, filling the questionnaire which was consisted of 100 closed questions and 3 major open ended questions. The participants were given enough time to fill the questionnaire in their free time. To prevent the exhaustion and boredom of the participants, the questionnaire was divided in to 2 equal parts and was implemented to teachers in two different sessions. 60 teachers were also selected randomly for interview in order to elaborate on their own thinking. The results are presented via the tables and diagrams, showing the frequency and correlations between the teachers' thinking and beliefs in their communities according to their age, experience and educational degrees. The results can be used to pave the way for adopting effective decision making, planning, and consequently progress in teachers' practice. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-YD