There were 146 teachers participating in the survey session (response rate of approximately 97%). However, 15 of them had to be excluded since they are teachers in provinces and cities other than Ho Chi Minh. So as not to affect the survey outcomes, data provided by the mentioned individuals were rejected. Therefore, the overall participants were 131 (response rate of about 87%), with the number of females outweighing that of males, 40 and 91 respectively.
Figure 3. 1
Gender of participants
Gender
40. 31%
91. 69%
Male Female
As seen from Figure 3.1, the demographic data for the survey was not normally distributed. Among 131 respondents, a majority of them obtain bachelor’s and master’s degrees with 65.7 % and 28.2%, in turn. This ratio concurred well with that of Pham (2018). On the other hand, a mere 6.1% of the survey participants have a college or doctoral degree.
Figure 3. 2
Education level of participants
Education Level
2. 1% 6. 5%
37, 28%
86. 66%
College Degree
Master's degree
Bachelor's degree
Doctoral Degree
As for teaching experience, which is illustrated in Figure 3.2, there was a significant figure for 1 - 3 years in both general teaching experience and IELTS training experience, at roughly 42%. Except for a minority of teachers who have been teaching for 6 months
- 1 year or more than 7 years (approximately 15% and 17% respectively), it seems that most respondents have 1 - 6 years of experience, which accounts for 68.2%. Coincidently, 68.2% of respondents have 6 months - 3 years of working as IELTS trainers, and those with less than 6 months and 4 - 6 years only generated 15.5% and 14.7%, in turn. The percentage for 7 - 10 years with IELTS training was only 2%, and there were no teachers have their experience exceeded 10 years.
Figure 3. 3
Teaching experience
less than 6 months
6 months - 1 year
1-3 years
4-6 years
7-10 years
over 10 years
Ye a r s o f t e a c h i n g
Experience with IE LTS training
43.40%
24.80%
25.60%
42.60%
Teaching experience of participants
3.90%
10.90%
10.10%
7%
15.50%
14.70%
2%
In the qualitative phase, purposive sampling was adopted to recruit 12 teachers having taken the self-report questionnaire for the interview. According to Cohen et al. (2018), this technique is “the key feature of qualitative research” (p. 220). The aim of purposive sampling, in this case, is to provide the depth in comparison with the breadth of a study (Campbell et al., 2020, p. 2). Creswell and Creswell (2018) maintain that the qualitative sample size is undoubtedly smaller than that of quantitative one because the
aim of qualitative data is to collect extensive information (p. 351). Additionally, participants in the qualitative phases are necessarily drawn from the larger quantitative sample as it is advantageous in terms of comparison between two data base and enhancement of the research findings’ reliability and validity (Hesse-Biber, 2010, p. 465; Creswell & Creswell, 2018, p. 351). The sample for the interview was purposively selected regarding genders and teaching experiences. The aim is to obtain as much diverse data as possible. Similar to the survey phase, the number of male and female participants was unequal. The table below illustrates the demographic information of the interviewees.
Table 3. 1
Demographic Characteristics of Participants in the Interview
Center | Gender | Degree | Teaching experience | Experience with IELTS training | |
P1 | A | Female | BA. | 4-6 years | 1-3 years |
P2 | A | Female | BA. | 4-6 years | 1-3 years |
P3 | B | Female | BA. | 1-3 years | 1-3 years |
P4 | B | Female | MA. | 4-6 years | 1-3 years |
P5 | C | Female | BA. | 1-3 years | 6 months - 1 year |
P6 | D | Female | BA. | 1-3 years | 1-3 years |
P7 | E | Female | BA. | 4-6 years | 1-3 years |
P8 | F | Female | BA. | 1-3 years | 1-3 years |
P9 | G | Female | MA. | 7-10 years | 4-6 years |
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H | Male | BA. | 4-6 years | 4-6 years | |
P11 | I | Male | BA. | 6 months - 1 year | 6 months - 1 year |
P12 | J | Male | BA. | 6 months - 1 year | 6 months - 1 year |
In order to maintain the anonymity of the participants and their working places, pseudonyms were used instead of real names. The codes for interviewees’ names were featured as “P1”, “P3”, “P5”, etc., and for language centers as letters in the Roman alphabet. The 12 participants came from 10 different language centers in Ho Chi Minh City as there are two pairs of teachers who work in the same place (P1 - P2; and P3 - P4). The reason for such similarity is to examine whether shared contexts have any influence on teachers’ beliefs.
3.5. Data collection methods
As teachers’ beliefs are influenced by subjective factors (experiences as learners, teaching background, personality, and knowledge – understanding of educationally- based or research-based principles) and objective factors (contextual factors as institutions’ policies and practices), both of them will be regarded as indicators for teacher beliefs in this thesis. On the other hand, dependent variables are labeled as teachers’ practice of selection, adaptation, and design of supplementary materials.
To date, various methods have been developed and introduced to measure beliefs and correspondence between them and practice in the educational field. As for the belief, Kagan (1990) critiques five approaches to measuring beliefs:
direct and non-inferential ways (e.g., practical argument and short-answer tests),
contextual analyses of teachers' descriptive language (e.g., metaphors),
taxonomies of metacognitive and self-reflection,
multimethod evaluations of content knowledge,
concept mapping techniques.
Each of the approaches stems from “different epistemological traditions.” For instance, Likert scales originate from psychometric test theory, textual analyses in theories associate language to cognitive, self-reflection hierarchies in cognitive mediation, and concept mapping in schema theory (ibid., p. 451). Kagan’s approaches appear to be realized in Erkmen (2012) about ways to uncover beliefs. In the article, the author introduced seven instruments: interviews, written credos, observations, post- lesson reflection forms, stimulated recall interviews, diaries, and a metaphor stem completion task
With respect to the correspondence between beliefs and practice, Fang (1996) lists the three most common tools for eliciting teachers’ beliefs and practice. They include policy capturing to study teachers’ judgment process, repertory grid technique to explore personal constructs impacting on behaviors, and process tracing to discover teachers’ decisions and judgments about a task through think-aloud, retrospective interview, stimulated recall, and journal keeping. In the same vein, Basturkmen (2012) found that a majority of previous studies used observational techniques to explore teachers’ practice and questionnaires or interviews to investigate their beliefs. However, most of these studies focus on behaviors in classrooms rather than planning stages, as in this thesis which is much more challenging.
For this study, Likert scales and textual analyses were used to gain insight into teachers’ beliefs which are pertinent to psychological and cognitive ground. The interview was also an apparatus to understand teachers’ practice of supplementary materials development. Despite its controversy regarding the validity of investigating
practice compared to observation, interviews have been proved as a fruitful strategy in the field and used in previous studies such as Tibebu (2017); Bai and Yuan (2018). The setup employed can be found in Borg and Al-Busaidi (2011); Nguyen (2013); Kim (2014); Nguyen (2016).
Following the discussion in the previous section, a two-part questionnaire was first sent to the participants. This self-report inventory comprised 32 close-ended questions. The purpose was to make a survey of intangibles – in this case, teachers’ beliefs. All items in the questionnaire were selected and designed based on three factors – concept, reasons, criteria. A majority of items were closed-ended questions with Likert scale as such scale helps to clarify if teachers support or oppose “a particular group, institution, concept, or social object” (Ary et al., 2010). The information collected in the questionnaire contributed to the answer to research question number one about teachers’ beliefs regarding the development of supplementary materials for IELTS classrooms.
Regarding the first part, it aimed at collecting teachers’ demographic information. Prior research about teachers’ beliefs has proved that teachers’ education attainment (Brown et al., 2008) and experience (Breen, 2001) may influence their beliefs. Cheng (2018), additionally, argues that the gender factor and teacher training generate diversity in teachers’ beliefs. Therefore, this part of the questionnaire includes items about gender, qualifications, years of IELTS training, materials development training.
The second part focuses on the teachers’ beliefs about developing supplementary materials. The items of this section were designed based on the themes and results of previous belief researches. Basturkmen (2004) discovers that the notion of what communicative language teaching entails is affiliated with the beliefs system of teachers. Meanwhile, case studies of Mandasari (2016); Rusmawaty, Atmowardoyo, Hamra, and Noni (2018) revealed teachers' beliefs about authentic materials in terms of definition, reasons to use, selecting criteria, teacher preference, challenges of using, and their roles.
As for the purpose of the current study, three main themes are identified as 1) the concept of supplementary materials, 2) the reasons to develop supplementary material, and 3) the criteria for developing IELTS supplementary materials. The statements measuring those variables were designed based on the theory of supplementary materials of Spratt, Pulverness, and Williams (2011); McGrath (2013), criteria of IELTS material in Terry (2003); Wilson (2010), and the questionnaire of Lee and Bathmaker (2007) in the study of teachers’ beliefs about incidental focus on form and their classroom practice. All the items of teachers’ beliefs about supplementary materials had four-point Likert scale questions from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. The four-point scale was chosen as it facilitated data analysis by eliminating safe middle choices of respondents. Futhermore, the Likert scale is an apprach to construct multi-item rating scales which, in the words of Johnson and Christensen (2014), “provide more reliable (i.e., more consistent or stable) scores and they produce more variability, which helps the researcher make finer distinctions among the respondents” (p. 293). Some examples of survey question include “Supplementary materials are books and other materials we can use in addition to core materials”, “Supplementary materials are useful because they provide materials missing from the coursebooks” and “Practice activities reflecting the requirement of the test” etc.
In addition to the questionnaire, data were also collected from semi-structured interviews to explore and have deep insight into teachers’ beliefs and practices. It was because a number of closed-ended questions lack “insight into whether respondents really have any information or any clearly formulated opinions about an issue” (Ary et al., 2010). Prior researchers who studied teachers’ beliefs argued that a questionnaire survey is not the most effective method. Basturkmen (2004) warns that ready-made statements only depict researchers’ perspectives rather than teachers’. She also echoes Kagan (1990) that “standardized statements may mask or misrepresent a particular teacher's highly personalized perceptions and definitions” (p. 426).