Journal

The impact of HOU written assignments on student teachers’ practices within the IFLC framework: exploring attitudes and beliefs (pp. 343-368), Maria GLAVA & Christina STAVRAKI

 

The impact of HOU written assignments on student teachers’ practices within the IFLC framework: exploring attitudes and beliefs
Maria GLAVA & Christina STAVRAKI

 

This paper reports on the findings of a small-scale research which, based on a mixed methods approach, consisted of a qualitative and a quantitative phase and had a twofold aim. First, it intended to explore the attitudes of M.Ed. students/graduates who participated in the programme with the title “The Teaching of English as a Foreign/International Language” (TEF/IL) of the Hellenic Open University (HOU). The research actually focused on their beliefs about the written assignments of the compulsory modules of the M.Ed. in TEF/IL course, namely, the ‘Language Learning Skills and Materials – Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking’ (AGG52) and the ‘Course design, implementation, and evaluation in English language teaching’ (AGG53). Another aim of the paper was to discover participants’ perceptions concerning the impact of the aforementioned assignments on the way they implement the Integrated Foreign Languages Curriculum (IFLC), the official curriculum of the public schools. The research results suggested that while the AGG52 module assignments seem to assist the participants in combining theory with practice by promoting reflection and help them to challenge their teaching practices within the IFLC framework, the AGG53 module assignments did not meet the students/graduates’ expectations regarding the applicability of the studied theory in their teaching context.


Key words: HOU assignments, IFLC, theory-practice integration, Mixed Methods Research