Postmethod Pedagogy and reflective practice: current stance of Turkish EFL teachers

Abstract

Current discussions about the methods in English language teaching show the dissatisfaction with the outcomes of the implementations of the conventional teaching methods. The postmethod pedagogy argues that traditional methods have limiting and limited effects on both language learners and teachers. In this sense, postmethod pedagogy, which highlights the importance of location specific, contextsensitive and teacher-generated educational settings, values teachers’ decisions during teaching and highlights the importance of actual practices of teachers. One of the overarching features of postmethod pedagogy is that it highly emphasizes the role of the teachers as decision-makers. Teacher reflection is seen as a major component as teachers with the help of self-observation, self-analysis and self-evaluation can shape and reshape classroom learning and teaching. This process can only occur with teachers who have a sense of plausibility, which means subjective understanding of the teaching they do”. It is claimed that one of the consequences of the postmethod era can be regarded as the rise of reflective practice in language teaching. In this sense, a reflective teacher is defined as a critical examiner of classroom practices who comes up with different ideas to enhance students’ learning and be able to put these ideas into practice. This quantitative study, with the participation of 347 Turkish EFL teachers, investigated their perceptions of postmethod pedagogy and reflective practices. The data was collected in Turkey via a nation-wide online survey consisting of two separate sets of questionnaires focusing on postmethod pedagogy and reflective practice. The survey also includes a set of questions to obtain demographic data. The data gathered via this survey was also analyzed to see whether there is a relationship between teachers’ perceptions of postmethod pedagogy and their reflective practices. The results of the quantitative data revealed that Turkish EFL teachers do not have resistant attitudes towards the postmethod condition and they also seem to be open to changes with regard to altering the current methods in line with the needs of the students. Moreover, when Turkish EFL teachers’ responses to the five elements of reflective practice were considered, it was seen that most of the reflective activities are sometimes engaged in. The analysis of the relationship between postmethod pedagogy and reflective practice revealed that the principles of postmethod pedagogy and elements of reflective practice interrelated with each other specifically with regards to local needs, critical reflections on teaching and sociopolitical issues in teaching/learning environment.