EFFECTIVE USE OF THE EPOSTL BY STUDENT TEACHERS OF ENGLISH – EFUESTE 10-15 APRIL 2015, ANTALYA, TURKEY STUDENT TEACHERS’ AND ACADEMICS’ VIEWPOINTS ON THE.

EFFECTIVE USE OF THE EPOSTL BY STUDENT TEACHERS OF ENGLISH – EFUESTE

10-15 APRIL 2015, ANTALYA, TURKEY

STUDENT TEACHERS’ AND ACADEMICS’ VIEWPOINTS ON

THE USE OF EPOSTL IN ELT

Funda ÖLMEZKadriye AKSOYElif AYBEREce AFŞARLI

CONTENT

• Introduction• Literature Review• Methodology• Findings• Conclusion

1. Introduction

• Curriculum change in Education Faculties in 2006 (Ozoğlu, 2010).

- the increase of the general courses, - the possibility of choosing 25% of the whole

program

• The new program was designed in line with:- Common European Framework of Reference

(CEFR) (European Council, 2002)- European Portfolio of Student Language

Teachers (EPOSTL), - The criteria of foreign language teacher

education programs- Education faculties (Hismanoglu, 2012).

• Assessment (Hismanoglu, 2012).

• According to the new program, performance-based assessment should be used, and this is best accomplished by using “portfolio”

• Teacher educators:• never used portfolio assessment (31.9%) • rarely used (61.1%) • always used (6.9%) according to 72 student

teachers of foreign language education departments.

2. Literature Review• Cakir and Balcikanli (2012)to understand the views of ELT student teachers’ and

teacher trainers’ views on the use of the EPOSTL in Turkey

the EPOSTL was implemented as a reflection tool for the second semester of 2010.

25 student teachers and 4 teacher trainers

RESULTS: EPOSTL beneficial in terms of reflection, self-assessment and awareness.

• Okumus and Akalın (2015)

to determine the pre-service teachers’ views on the role of the EPOSTL in increasing the effectiveness of methodology course

a pilot study in which the EPOSTL was used in Methodology course for 16 weeks.

semi-structured interviews with 8 student teachers

RESULTS: EPOSTL increased the effectiveness of the Methodology course since it provided more feedback, self-assessment and reflection.

Aim of the study• To find out the views of student teachers and academics on the use of

EPOSTL in Turkey

• Research Questions1. What are the attitudes of student teachers towards the use of

EPOSTL?2. What are the attitudes of academics towards the use of EPOSTL?3. Is there a significant difference between the attitudes of student

teachers and academics towards the use of EPOSTL?4. What are the attitudes of student teachers towards self-assessment?5. What are the attitudes of academics towards self-assessment?6. Is there a significant difference between the attitudes of student

teachers and academics towards self assessment?

3. Methodology

a. Participants• 27 student teachers • 21 academics

3. Methodology b. Instrument: A questionnaire

A. Demographic information 7 items

B. General views on self-assessment19 items

C. General views on the EPOSTL21 items

D. Descriptors in the EPOSTL 26 items

c. Data CollectionQuestionnaire: administered onlined. Data Analysis • Statistical analysis via SPSS 20• Descriptive analysis and Mann-Whitney U Test

4. Findings

R.Q. 1. What are the attitudes of student teachers towards the use of EPOSTL?

Section Student Teachers’ Viewpoints on the EPOSTL

  n M SD

Content 7 3.71 .61

Use and Practicality 5 3.80 .24

Assessment 5 4.05 .54

Self Reflection 5 4.05 .44

Dossier 5 4.00 .46

Descriptors 5 4.51 .31       

• R.Q.2. What are the attitudes of academics towards the use of EPOSTL?

Section Academics’ Viewpoints on the EPOSTL

  n M SD

Content 10 4.34 .53

Use and Practicality 10 4.12 .64

Assessment 10 4.02 .64

Self Reflection 10 4.47 .41

Dossier 10 4.52 .43

Descriptors 10 4.48 .36       

R.Q.3. Is there a significant difference between the attitudes of student teachers and academics towards the use of EPOSTL?

Section Student Teachers Academics

U p

n Mean RankSum of Ranks n Mean Rank

Sum of Ranks

Content 6 4.42 26.50 9 10.39 93.50 5.500 .01

Use and Practicality 5 6.40 32.00 10 8.80 88.00 17.000 .318

Assessment 5 8.30 41.50 10 7.85 78.50 23.500 .852

Self Reflection 5 5.70 28.50 10 9.15 91.50 13.500 .15

Dossier 5 6.20 31.00 10 8.90 89.00 16.000 .26

Descriptors 5 8.10 40.50 10 7.95 79.50 24.500 .951                 

A significant difference between STs’ and As’ viewpoints only in terms of content according to the results of Mann-Whitney U test (p < .05).

R.Q.4. What are the attitudes of student teachers towards self-assessment?

• R. Q. 5. What are the attitudes of academics towards self-assessment?

Section Academics’ Viewpoints

 n M SD

Self Assessment 13 4.12 .60

• R.Q.6. Is there a significant difference between the attitudes of student teachers and academics towards the use of EPOSTL?

Section Student Teachers Academics

U p

nMean Rank

Sum of Ranks n

Mean Rank

Sum of Ranks

Self Assessment 23 19.28 443.50 13 17.12 222.50 .131.50

0

.553

5. Conclusion

1) EPOSTL: not examined by most of the participants

2) Both STs and As: positive attitudes towards the use of the EPOSTL in Turkey-No significant difference between STs and As except for the content of the EPOSTL

3) Both STs and As: positive attitudes towards self-assessment-No significant difference between STs and As

5. Conclusion

• Viewpoints: POSITIVE• Yet, the implementation of the EPOSTL needs

to be promoted.• For those who are not familiar with the

EPOSTL:-a need to introduce the EPOSTL to STs and As-a need to implement the EPOSTL effectively for self-assesment

References

• Cakir, A., & Balcikanli, C. (2012). The Use of the EPOSTL to Foster Teacher Autonomy: ELT Student Teachers’ and Teacher Trainers’ Views. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37(3), 1-16.

• Hismanoglu, S. (2012). Prospective EFL teachers’ views on English language teacher training program. Journal of Research in Education and Teaching, 1(2), 330-341.

• Okumus, K. & Akalın, S. (2015). Incorporating EPOSTL (European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages) into methodology course. International Journal on New Trends in Education and Their Implication. 6(1), 76-83.

• Özoğlu, M. (2010). Türkiye’de Öğretmen Yetiştirme Sisteminin Sorunları. Seta Analiz, 17, 1- 37.

Thank you!