Speaker
Description
Identifying the attributes of teacher effectiveness is increasingly important in pedagogical research. While an extensive body of literature has grown up around this theme globally, current understanding of the issue remains limited within the Vietnamese setting, where perceptions of teacher effectiveness are often context-bounded. The present study responds to this gap by exploring the perceptions held by both students and EFL teachers in a high school in Haiphong city. A mixed-method approach was adopted, utilizing questionnaires to gather both quantitative and qualitative data, with analysis based on the conceptual framework proposed by Shulman (1987) regarding the teacher's knowledge base. The findings revealed several points of agreement alongside significant mismatches in the perceptions held by both groups. Both learners and teachers ranked pedagogical content knowledge as the most salient feature in comparison with subject matter content knowledge and teachers’ identity and interactions with students. Both groups also agreed that teachers’ ability to give clear and effective instructions and explanations is the most important pedagogical feature of effective teachers. However, the results showed that while the teachers placed a greater emphasis on the instructor’s proficiency in classroom management, and the ability to foster student engagement, the students expressed a greater desire for qualities such as the willingness to provide support, empathy, and fair treatment for all learners. These results provide a solid foundation for further attempts to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in Vietnamese context.
Key words: Teachers’ effectiveness; English as a Foreign Language; teachers’ knowledge base; teachers’ perceptions, learners’ perceptions
