The Effects of Enhancing Time Management Strategies of Prospective EFL Teachers on Their Teaching Performance and Perceived Instructional Self-Efficacy
Dr. Abdullah Mahmoud Ismail Ammar
Assistant professor of TEFL, Riyadh Teachers’ College, King Saud University
The Effects of Enhancing Time Management Strategies of Prospective EFL Teachers on Their Teaching Performance and Perceived Instructional Self-Efficacy
Dr. Abdullah Mahmoud Ismail Ammar
Assistant professor of TEFL, Riyadh Teachers’ College, King Saud University
ABSTRACT
The current study aimed at investigating the effects of enhancing prospective EFL teachers’ time management strategies on their teaching performance and instructional self-efficacy beliefs. The sample of the study included a cohort of 36 EFL student-teachers doing their teaching practice at Saudi intermediate schools. They were equally divided into an experimental group and a control one. The experimental group students participated in action research-based training in time management strategies while the control group students did not receive such training. By the end of the experiment, both groups were post-evaluated for their teaching practices and instructional self-efficacy beliefs. Findings of the study indicated that prospective teachers who were trained in time management strategies outperformed their control peers in their teaching practices, i.e. they were more able to create learner-based classroom environments and to enhance their students’ leaning momentum. Likewise, they developed a more positive sense of instructional self-efficacy reflected in stronger beliefs in their capabilities to use more effective instructional strategies, to manage their classes in ways that maximize productive student learning and to get students engaged more efficiently in the teaching/learning encounters. Recommendations for teacher education, curriculum development and teaching practicum are provided along with suggestions for further research.
INTRODUCTION
EFL teachers work in a proficiency-based environment where they find themselves confronted with heavily loaded curricula, increasing needs and expectations of students and a very limited time frame to work within. As they are expected to boost academic achievement, they find themselves obliged to “deal with a lack of essentials they used to take for granted such as attention, responsibility, and participation” (Evans, 2002: 2). This dilemma leads them, as Darn and Aslan (2006) argue, to an inevitably hasty and overloaded delivery of requisite language patterns, skills, and strategies. Consequently, not only do their students suffer from inability to absorb information and insufficiency of consolidation time, but also conscientious teachers worry about the quality of teaching and learning occurring under such stress.
Based on the researcher’s actual classroom observations during teaching practice supervision, EFL prospective teachers were found to suffer a set of problems relevant to poor instructional time management. Disproportionate distribution of instructional time over class activities, teaching days, and weeks was rampant. This disproportionate distribution of teaching time often led to displaced focus on various class activities and tasks. For example, most teaching activities and tasks were equally focused on and given virtually equal time allocations regardless of being of different levels of significance or urgency for their students. Such indifferent pacing and inability to prioritize within available time allocations inevitably led to mechanical drills and exercises being emphasized at the expense of communicative activities and tasks. Very often, the school bell was an unwelcome alert at the latter third of their classes, a period supposedly used for language practice, consolidation, and application.
Surveying of the specifications of the educational program they have received in the Teachers’ College, the researcher of the current study found out that the prospective EFL teachers have not been taught basic time management strategies as students, nor have they been taught how to manage instructional time as part of their pre-service education program. Such a condition is more likely to develop indifferent attitudes towards the value of time on the part of those students. These attitudes, as Brown (2000) argues, often lead to decreased motivation and unsuccessful attainment in language learning situations. The problem that might ensue is that this lack of time management often carries over into their career life. When this happens, as research literature indicates, it affects their views of themselves as efficacious teachers (Macan, 1996) and has detrimental impacts on their future students’ foreign language learning outcomes (Leonard, 2001).
The problem got even worse with the introduction of the communicative approaches to foreign language instruction in the Saudi context. Concerns have been raised that the scope and width of instructional materials and activities needed for enhancing communicative potentials of students can be overwhelming particularly under such time constraints (Alhujailan, 2003, Darn & Aslan, 2006). As in typical EFL contexts, the target language is practiced only within the walls of the classroom. Few, if any, chances are available for students to practice the target language in the outside community. This shift from traditional teacher-centered approaches to more communicative student-centered ones added more demands on the instructional time available for teachers. Changing the instructional approaches and consequently the textbook contents has not been paralleled with a change in time allocations devoted to EFL instruction. This, in turn, has increased demands on EFL teachers and made the need for better management of instructional time for the benefit of both teachers and students more urgent.
Statement of the Problem
As stated in the previous introduction, the Saudi prospective EFL teachers have real problems managing instructional time in their EFL classes. They feel overwhelmed by the scope and width of instructional demands dictated by the communicative approaches and student-centered instruction being adopted in the Saudi EFL context. This affects not only their teaching practices and consequently their students’ language learning input, but also their vision of themselves as efficacious language teachers. Promoting time management strategies of those prospective teachers may be instrumental in enhancing their foreign language teaching practices and inducing more positive instructional efficacy beliefs. Consequently, the present study is an attempt at answering these two questions:
1. What is the effect of enhancing time management strategies of the Saudi prospective EFL teachers on their teaching performance?
2. What is the effect of enhancing time management strategies of the Saudi prospective EFL teachers on their instructional self-efficacy beliefs?
Hypotheses of the Study
1. The experimental group teachers receiving training in time management strategies will significantly outscore their control peers in the post-evaluation of their teaching performance
2. The experimental group teachers receiving training in time management strategies will significantly outscore their control peers in the post-evaluation of their perceived instructional self-efficacy beliefs.
Significance of the Study
Significance of the study stems from the following set of considerations:
1. The study deals with an issue that received little attention in EFL research literature; namely, management of instructional time. Poor time management leads to a set of features counterproductive to effective foreign language learning such as rote learning techniques, and emphasis on linguistic competence rather than communicative competence. Training EFL teachers in better management of their instructional time might be a key to handling these issues, and thus, may be a key to enhancing their students’ foreign language learning.
2. EFL teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs have a determinant influence on their persistence in demanding language learning situations. Boosting these efficacy beliefs would help them persist longer, try harder, and be more creative and productive in teaching/learning situations. This, in turn, would result in better learning outcomes on the part of their students. The current study tackles the issue of instructional self-efficacy beliefs, an area left unattended in EFL research.
3. The study employs an action research methodology, which might be of significance in designing and conducting interventions for pre-service teachers as well as inservice ones. Being teacher-initiated and conducted, action research is more likely than traditional research methodologies to involve teachers in diagnosing and tackling their problems and thus may be more responsive to their needs.
Definition of Terms
The following definitions were adopted in the current study:
Time management is the process of arranging, organizing, scheduling, and budgeting one’s time for the purpose of generating more effective work and productivity (Garcia-Ros, et al., 2004: 168).
Action research is defined by Richards et al (1992) as “Teacher-initiated classroom research which seeks to increase the teacher's understanding of classroom teaching and learning and to bring about improvements in classroom practices”.
Perceived self-efficacy is defined by Bandura (1997) as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the course of action required to produce given attainment” (P.3).
Perceived instructional self-efficacy is defined by Tschannen-Moran and Hoy (2001) as “teachers’ judgments of their capabilities to bring about desired outcomes of student engagement and learning, even among those students who may be difficult or unmotivated” (P.783).
Delimitations of the Study
1. The study was delimited to the prospective teachers doing their teaching practice at Al-Sharq District schools in Riyadh.
2. It was also delimited to student-teachers with no prior teaching experience. Students-teachers joining the English Department for a post-diploma degree (who were basically inservice teachers pursuing higher education degree) were excluded from the experiment of the study.
3. Because of gender segregation in Saudi educational settings, the current study was delimited to male teachers only.
4. Examples and activities used in training were drawn from EFL textbooks for first and second grade students only, as those are the two levels prospective teachers usually teach at.
Assumptions of the Study
1. Self-efficacy beliefs influence EFL teachers’ thoughts, emotions, and actions.
2. Effective foreign language instruction is a key to productive student learning outcomes.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Effective time management, especially as it pertains to academic pursuits, has been the focus of much research lately. Time has been called one of the scarcest commodities in a teacher’s professional life (Macan, 1996; Smith, 2000; Wood, 2002). As stated by Leonard (2001), learning to use instructional time well is critical for students and professionals alike. It means effective learning for students and effective teaching for faculty. According to the 1993 NCES report on the use of classroom time, effective use of instructional time was found to be the singularly greatest influence on student learning opportunities and outcomes.
Empirical research literature indicates that success of schooling is contingent upon wise use of instructional time since it affects various aspects of student learning. For example, Bruton (1996) found out that time management affects foreign language classroom dynamics. Similarly, Levin and Nolan (1996) found a statistically positive relationship between time devoted to learning and students’ scores on achievement tests. Trueman and Hartley’s study (1995) indicated that a significant relationship did exist between students’ time management skills and their scores on coursework, examination results, and end-of-year assessments. According to Metzker (2003), ineffective ways of time management diminished learning time and consequently affected student learning. Teaching students time management skills, according to Mayers (1999), increased their organizational skills, communication, adapting and coping with change, problem solving, and critical thinking. Similar conclusions were made by Farmer-Hinton (2002), Fredrick et al. (2002), and Smith (1998).
As well, research literature indicates that effective time management can be a more valid predictor or students’ achievement and long-run learning outcomes than traditional measures. For example, Britton and Tesser (1991) conducted a study to assess short and long-term benefits of time management skills. They developed a time management scale and administered it to 90 students. Four years later they obtained these students’ grade point average scores. Findings of the study indicated that students’ time management skills were significant predictors of the grade point average scores and accounted for more variance than did the SAT scores (collected before the students entered college). Similar results were reached by Garcia-Ros et al. (2004) who investigated the predictive power of time management skills of Spanish high school students on their academic achievement. They concluded that all the three factors of time management (short-term planning, long-term planning, and time attitudes) were powerful predictors of academic achievement of high school students.
Similarly, research literature argues for a positive correlation between poor time management and learning disabilities. For example, Peniston (1994) sees that most college students, particularly those with learning disabilities, experience numerous difficulties in time management. They become easily distracted, do not set priorities, and tend to underestimate the amount of time required for learning tasks. Similarly, in a study to identify coping resources that differentiate academically high achieving college students from their less academically successful peers, Kaminski et al (2006) concluded that academic success was positively correlated with time management skills. Less academically successful students spent more time using coping mechanisms and therefore had less time to study.
Recently, effective time management has been depicted as an important aspect of metacognitive awareness and successful self-regulated learning. According to Bidjerano, (2005) and Zimmerman (2002), students with effective time management behaviors have more control over their learning. They can organize, prioritize and budget their time according to the requirements of the learning situations, and thus are better learners than those who depend on others’ regulation of their time and learning. In a study by Van-Den-Hurt (2006) to assess self-regulated learning strategies of students and how they relate to cognitive engagement and achievement, results showed that students who were better time-planners and who had better self-monitoring skills were more efficient in allocating their individual study time, prepared more appropriately for learning and achieved higher scores on cognitive tests. Similarly, Son and Sethi (2006) related metacognitive learning optimality with time availability.
Affectively, empirical research has related poor time management to increased stress, anxiety, and school-related tensions on the part of teachers and students alike. For example, poor time management has been correlated with school-related tensions and feelings that one is less in control of time than is desired (Macan, 1996). Similarly, Esters and Castellanos (1998) related poor time management of teachers to increased levels of apprehension leading to loss of self-confidence, which in turn, affected their teaching practices and consequently their students’ learning. As well, Edwards (2006) found a relationship between school superintendents’ time management skills and their reported levels of job-related stress.
Fuelled by these research findings, calls for boosting time management skills of both teachers and students have been increasing (Adamson et al., 2004; Forsyth, 2003; Gump, 2006; Leonard 1999; Wood, 2002). Such research on time management in the realm of education has generated a set of terms including allocated time, engaged time and productive learning time (Aronson et al., 1999). According to Aronson et al. (1999), school time can be conceived as an inverted pyramid. Allocated time, on the upper widest tier, consists of the total time in the school day or school year. In the middle tier is engaged time, or the time actually spent in learning activities (sometimes called time-on-task). At the bottom, and therefore the narrowest part of the inverted pyramid, is productive learning time, or the period during which an instructional activity correlates with a student’s readiness to learn and results in actual learning.