Impact of in-service training on English teachers classroom practice at primary level
Abstract
This study focused on the impact of in-service training (cluster meeting) on English teachers’ classroom practice at the English in Action (EIA) intervention schools. This research was qualitative in nature. For the convenience of the research and conducting this study, the researcher mainly collected open-ended data from the respondents through observation schedule for cluster meeting and classroom observation, a semi-structured interview schedule for teachers and a focus group discussion guideline for students. The cluster meetings had multifaceted objectives which provided them with ideas for warming up, reviewing and reflecting, micro teaching and extending activities for improving teaching and learning capacities of teachers. The meetings fulfilled approximately 80% of their needs, especially in terms of solving classroom problems through sharing practical experiences and disseminating knowledge. Respondent teachers learnt many new things in the cluster meetings like, giving instruction in English, playing games, using of teaching aids and writing paragraph by mind mapping. After being trained in cluster meetings, respondents applied and implemented new ideas and methods in their classrooms. Now they use audio and posters, which help students learn quickly and speak English without difficulty. In general, teachers and students like almost the same activities in English classes like, audio. But in some cases, it was found that the instructions given by the teachers, were not clear to students. A majority of the respondent teachers faced some problems in introducing EIA techniques in the classroom especially while using audio.
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