Speaker
Description
This study investigates the EFL teachers’ perceptions of the significance and difficulties of participating in the interactions in the Communities of Practice (CoPs). The study employed a mixed-method survey design. The participants of the study were 100 EFL secondary school teachers chosen randomly from nearly 500 EFL secondary school teachers in Tien Giang Province, the Mekong Delta chosen randomly. An online 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was used to gather data from 100 teachers. Semi-structured interviews with four randomly chosen participants were also done to supplement the data. Thematic analysis was used to look at qualitative responses, while SPSS was used to analyze quantitative data for descriptive statistics. The results show that the participants value the participation in the interactions in CoPs for improving their pedagogical understanding, resolving critical issues in the classroom, and seeking professional growth. However, time restraints, information overload, and the restricted applicability of common knowledge are some of the major challenges they also encounter. Even though participants had positive perceptions of CoPs, resolving these issues is crucial to utilizing CoP interactions to their full potential for teacher professional development.
Keywords: perceptions, EFL secondary school teachers, Communities of Practice (CoPs), interactions, professional development
Biography
Tran Hong Canh is an English teacher at Le Ngoc Han Lower Secondary School, My Tho City, Tien Giang Province for over twenty years. He gained his master degree in TESOL from Ho Chi Minh City University of Education in 2023, currently in pursuit of his doctoral course at Can Tho University. His major research interests are accommodated to English language teaching methodology, technology integration in education and teachers’ professional development.
