Teacher engagement in second language (L2) classrooms : teacher-as-researcher

Abstract

This study is about student and teacher engagement. It is about a teacher from China learning how to become a more engaging teacher while teaching Australian school students Mandarin. The study addresses the relationship between student engagement and teacher engagement. Specifically, how increased student engagement interacts with and influences teacher engagement and promotes teacher learning so that the teacher becomes a better teacher. The main research question addressed by this study is: How does a teacher of Mandarin engage with learning how to successfully interest and engage students to learn Mandarin? The subsidiary research questions are: How does a teacher engage students in learning Mandarin? How does a teacher improve his or her teaching proficiency as a language teacher? This study uses the MeE Framework (Munns and Martin, 2005) to position student engagement. The MeE Framework shows the interactive relationship between motivation and engagement from both psychological and sociological perspectives. There are two levels of engagement: small 'e' engagement which is classroom level engagement and big 'E' engagement which is school level engagement. This study is limited to the classroom component within this theoretical framework. The REAL Framework (Munns and Woodward, 2003) is used to provide student feedback to the teacher on student classroom engagement. This feedback provided a basis for the teacher to learn how to teach in a more engaging way. The research design used the teacher-as-researcher as a theoretical basis for the research methodology with an action research component. Field notes, including observations and informal discussions, and interviews were used to collect contributory data while the main data source was the volunteer teacher-researcher's reflective journal which was analysed using content analysis. There were two timeframes employed for the data analysis of reflective journal. The first was lesson cycle by lesson cycle and the second was a timeframe over the entire period of data collection. Multiple data sources provided a way to continually improve the selection of teaching resources and teaching strategies and so enhance the volunteer teacher-researcher's ability to engage students. The study showed that the teacher improved her ability to engage students using student-centred teaching strategies, such as hands-on activities, group work, a variety of Chinese and Australian cultural artefacts and so on. The engaging teaching resources developed used technology, music and audiovisual media. Student-centred teaching approaches were consistent with constructivism and the Quality Teaching Framework (NSW Department of Education and Training, 2003). The volunteer teacher-researcher increased in teaching confidence throughout the study and was shown to follow a beginning teacher model (Leask and Moorhouse, 2005; Allen and Toplis, 2009) of teacher development. Teacher engagement was shown to be promoted by the teacher learning how to teach well using student-centred teaching approaches. The overall study was shown to be consistent with an interactive, constructivist view of teaching and learning. The teacher learning component of the study also followed a constructivist process where teacher learning built on previous experiences. The study showed that it was impossible for the volunteer teacher-researcher to discount the way she had been taught and experienced teaching in China. The study showed that the volunteer teacher-researcher built on her life and educational experiences in China and linked them to her learning about how to engage students in Australia. The study concluded by presenting what became the main argument of the study which was that there is an interactive relationship between student engagement and the teacher. Student engagement promoted teacher engagement which, in turn, promoted further student engagement. Importantly, the study suggested that the relationship between student engagement and the teacher in the classroom was strong and indicated that the MeE Framework, as outlined by Munns and Martin (2005), may need to show this close and powerful connection more clearly.

Date of Award	2010
Original language	English