Peer- Coaching, EFL Teacher’s Professional Identity Development and Students' Academic Achievements

• Published in: Theory and practice in language studies 2018-01, Vol.8 (1), p.150-163
• Main Authors: Abbasian, Gholam-Reza, Matin Esmailee, Karbalaee
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Classroom observation; Collaboration; Control Groups; Curricula; English as a second language instruction; English teachers; Language teachers; Methods; No Child Left Behind Act 2001-US; Peer teaching; Peer tutoring; Practice; Professional development; Second language teachers; Social aspects; Students; Teacher education; Teacher-student relations; Teaching; Teaching Methods
• ISSN: 1799-2591; 2053-0692
• DOI: 10.17507/tpls.0801.19

The purpose of this study was two-fold: examining the effect of peer coaching on EFL teachers’ professional identity and learners’ academic achievement. To this end, this very mixed-methods research was designed to see the extent to which the least investigated variable in the Iranian EFL setting. Five high school RFL teachers were triangularly coached and achievements of their classes including those of 307 EFL students were investigated. The teachers received questionnaire both before and after a 12-session coaching process while being both observed and attended a think-aloud protocol reporting. Moreover, the standardized Classroom Observation Sheet was employed whilst the coaching process. The students’ entry and exit academic behaviours in terms of achievements were measured prior to and after the treatment.  Analyses of each set of data collected from each group indicated that peer coaching entailed statistically significant developments in many categories teachers’ professional identity as well as in the students’ academic achievements.Pedagogically, the findings suggest feasibility and effectiveness of conducting peer-coaching and internalizing it in our EFL educational system.