FOSTERING LEARNER AUTONOMY: AN IN-SERVICE TEACHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Abstract

The main concern of the study was to prepare an in-service teacher development program for English language teachers to help them promote learner autonomy in language teaching. At the end of the program it was aimed to develop participant teachers in terms of both teacher autonomy and learner autonomy. The study was carried out with 10 English language teachers whose professional experiences were at least two years at Samsun Özel SınavKoleji. The implementation of the program and data collection procedure were between September and December 2018 and lasted for twelve weeks. The methodological approach of the study was the case study and employed action research as a research methodology. The data collection tools employed in the study were all qualitative and designed by the researcher. And the tools, a Researcher Diary, a Participant Diary, an Autonomy Perception Questionnaire and a Course Evaluation Questionnaire, were all composed of open-ended questions. In order to develop an efficient and sufficient program, the Autonomy Perception Questionnaire was applied to the participant teachers at the beginning of the program to see their perception of learner autonomy. The Participant Diary and the Researcher Diary were used to get feedback from the participants and collect the views of the researcher for each week of the program. And the Course Evaluation Questionnaire was employed at the end of the program to collect the ideas of the participant teachers regarding the teacher development program. All data was analyzed by using content analysis and NVIVO 11. According to the results, the program can be seen as successful in improving teachers’ conceptions on learner autonomy, and has contributed to various areas especially in pedagogical awareness and self-awareness for professional development and self-directed professional action for professional action. In this regard, the in-service teacher development program employed in the study can be said to have a positive impact on participant teachers’ perception and attitude towards teacher and learner autonomy.