Özlem UTKU

How Can a Teacher Become the Better Version of Oneself?

In order to improve professionally, teachers need to question themselves throughout theirteaching because one can get feedback from oneself as well instead of listening to others’comments, suggestions or questions. On the other hand, getting feedback from colleagues andlearners is invaluable for professional improvement. This study was conducted as a self-study by anovice teacher. It was aimed at exploring the teaching practice of the teacher by focusing on themotivation issue specifically. Two critical friends actively participated in the study whereas thestudents of the teacher were passively involved in this self-study, too. The data were collectedthrough weekly diaries, Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale, Student Trust in Teacher Survey andwritten reflections of critical friends. Content analysis was utilized to analyses qualitative data andquantitative data were analyzed through SPSS, descriptive statistics were computed to revealquantitative results. The findings showed that teacher self-efficacy is crucial to sustaining aproductive teaching environment and a healthy teacher-student relationship. In addition, it wasfound out that teachers have various roles and responsibilities, which may sometimes overlap, bothin and outside the classroom. Regarding the self-study methodology and critical friendship, it wasconcluded that conducting a self-study is extremely helpful for professional development of ateacher because evaluation and criticism allow teachers to question themselves in a critical mannerand investigate what has been done and what could have been done for the betterment of theirteaching and professional being.

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