An investigation into teachers’ facilitation of learners’ active learning in the classroom a case study at a rural secondary school in bac ninh province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY LINH AN INVESTIGATION IN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY LINH

AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ FACILITATION

OF LEARNERS’ ACTIVE LEARNING IN THE CLASSROOM:

A CASE STUDY AT A RURAL SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BAC

NINH PROVINCE

(Nghiên cứu về cách thức giáo viên tạo điều kiện thuận lợi cho học sinh chủ động học trong lớp học: một nghiên cứu trường hợp ở một trường trung học cơ sở ở nông thôn trên địa bàn tỉnh Bắc Ninh)

M.A MINOR THESIS (Type I)

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi – 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

NGUYỄN THỊ THÙY LINH

AN INVESTIGATION INTO TEACHERS’ FACILITATION

OF LEARNERS’ ACTIVE LEARNING IN THE CLASSROOM:

A CASE STUDY AT A RURAL SECONDARY SCHOOL IN BAC

NINH PROVINCE

(Nghiên cứu về cách thức giáo viên tạo điều kiện thuận lợi cho học sinh chủ động học trong lớp học: một nghiên cứu trường hợp ở một trường trung học cơ sở ở nông thôn trên địa bàn tỉnh Bắc Ninh)

M.A MINOR THESIS (Type I)

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Dr Lê Thị Hồng Duyên

Hanoi - 2019

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that this thesis entitled “An investigation into teachers’ facilitation

of learners’ active learning in the classroom: A case study at a rural secondary school

in Bac Ninh province ” is entirely my own work

This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university

To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other persons

Hanoi, August 2019

Signature

Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The completion of this study would not have been possible without the assistance

of many special and wonderful people

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Le Thi Hong Duyen for her valuable advice, guidance and suggestions as well as her constant support during all stages of the study

My profound thanks also go to all teacher staffs and students in Minh Dao secondary school in Bac Ninh province for their tremendous supports in the collection of data and information for my study

My appreciation also goes to my parents whose understanding, caring and sharing are invaluable to me in completing my thesis

Finally, this thesis is the product of my long-term study, so I wish to express my acknowledgement to other individuals who have indirectly contributed to the completion of this thesis

To all these people I hope that the achievement of the thesis will be favorable enough to satisfy their expectations

Hanoi, August 2019

Signature

Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh

ABSTRACT

The main objective of this study was to explore teachers’ practices and challenges in implementing active learning in teaching English for secondary students In conducting the study, the researcher employed qualitative approach

To collect the data for the study, two main research instruments were employed They are: class-room observation and semi-structured interviews conducted with two teachers of English at the secondary school Accordingly, the findings from classroom observation indicated that the teacher made an effort to facilitate her students to learn actively; however, there were some barriers that made her effort unsuccessful In their best attempt to implement the strategy, the techniques those teachers of English frequently used were question-and-answer, think-pair-share, discussion and games to solve various problems However, some motivational techniques that the observed teachers were employing in the class did not facilitate students’ active learning The results from the interviews with those teachers, revealed that most teachers had the perception that active learning was one of the significant strategies which could help students to facilitate independent learning Nevertheless, most teachers of English did not put it into practice fully due to various reasons According to the researcher’s exploration, the difficulties that were identified as major constraints affecting the implementation of active learning for students at secondary schools were content covering, preparation before class, lack of materials and equipment, class size and student factors Finally, implications and further studies were proposed

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.2.1: Information about two teachers of English ……….19

Table 3.6.2: Information about classroom observations……….22

Table 6.3: Initial codes of aspects of active learning……… 25

Table 6.4: Activities to facilitate student’s active learning……….26

Table 4.1: Number of activities that teachers used in all 8 lessons and their effectiveness……….28

TABLES OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES v

TABLES OF CONTENTS vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims and research questions of the study 2

1.3 Scope of the study 3

1.4 Significance of the study 3

1.5 Organization of the thesis 3

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 5

2.1 What is active learning? 5

2.2 Benefits of active learning 7

2.3 Activities facilitating active learning 9

2.4 Barriers to active learning 13

2.5 Previous studies about active learning 15

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18

3.1 Setting of the study 18

3.2 Participants 19

3.3 Reasons to choose methodology to the study 20

3.4 Research procedure 24

3.5 Data collection methods 21

3.5.1 Semi-structured interviews 21

3.5.2 Classroom observations 22

3.5.3 Post-class observation interviews 23

3.6 Transcription of the data 24

3.7 Data analysis 24

3.7.1 Analysis of the interview data 24

3.7.2 Analysis of the observation data 24

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 28

4.1 Teachers’ use of techniques to facilitate learners’ active learning Error! Bookmark not defined 4.2 Teachers’ failure in facilitating learners’ active learning 34

4.3 Factors affect teachers’ facilitation of students’ active learning in the classroom 38

4.3.1 Content covering 39

4.3.2 Preparation before class 42

4.3.3 Lack of equipment or materials 41

4.3.4 Class size 42

4.3.5 Students’ attitude about active learning 43

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 45

5.1 Summary of the findings and discussion 46

5.2 Implications of the study 46

5.3 Limitations 47

5.4 Further studies 47

REFERENCES I APPENDICES IV

APPENDIX A IV APPENDIX B: VII APPENDIX C: VIII APPENDIX D: XIII APPENDIX E: XVV APPENDIX F: XVII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This paper is entitled “An investigation into teachers’ facilitation of learners’

active learning in the classroom: A case study at a rural secondary school in Bac Ninh province” It is divided into five chapters: introduction, literature review,

methodology, findings and discussion, and conclusion In the first chapter, rationale of the study, aims of the study, scope of the study, significance of the study, design of the study is mentioned

1.1 Rationale of the study

English has played an important role in the development of many fields such as culture, economy, and so on Strongly recognizing the importance of this global language, Vietnamese Ministry of Education has required students from the age

of 8 to at least 18 to learn English language as a compulsory subject (Vietnam education strategies 2008-2020, p.19) Besides, according to the Project

“Teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system for the period 2008 – 2020”, it is aimed at comprehensively reforming the teaching and learning of foreign languages in the national education system, and developing new language teaching and learning programs at all educational levels In particular, it is stated that “in every school, teachers have to change their teaching methods, guide students in learning so that students are more positive, active and creative Moreover, students can propose different ways to improve their learning.” (Official document 10234/BGDĐT-VP) Therefore, educators of Vietnam are attempting to find the best ways to help develop our educational system, especially focus on students’ active learning To help students learn this language more actively, the role of the teachers is very important In other words, teachers in classroom should act as a facilitator and encourage students’ active learning

In the Vietnamese context, some researchers have examined the effectiveness of teachers’ delivery of certain teaching methods in EFL classrooms (Nguyen, 2013; Tomlison & Dat, 2004), or Vietnamese student motivation in learning English (Phan, 2011) However, there are few studies investigating the ways English teachers facilitate students to learn actively, especially in secondary school contexts This research gap could be fulfilled

Another rationale for this study is from my observation over some years teaching English at a secondary school, students seem not to learn effectively and actively

as desired This raises the question of the teachers’ roles in facilitating students to learn A range of questions have been pondered in my mind: how teachers interpret the concept of active learning, what they are doing to help students learn actively, what factors hinder or support them to do that, and so on Therefore, I

am motivated to explore teachers’ facilitation of students’ active learning For all the reasons mentioned above, I desire to do the research on teachers’ facilitation of students’ active learning at a secondary school in Bac Ninh province

1.2 Aims and research questions of the study

This study is designed with the aims to

- Explore teachers’ activities to facilitate students’ active learning in the classroom

- Identify factors affecting teachers’ activities to facilitate students’ active learning in the classroom In order to meet the aforementioned aims, this study seeks to answer the following research questions:

1 How do the English teachers facilitate students’ active learning in the

classroom?

2 What factors affect those teachers' facilitation of students’ active learning?

1.3 Scope of the study

The study is about how teachers facilitate students’ active learning in the classroom at a rural secondary school in Bac Ninh province However, due to the limited scope and time, it is confined to examining the activities teachers use to facilitate students’ active learning and the factors that affect teachers’ promoting students’ active learning in the classroom

In this study, pre-interviews, class observation and post-class interviews are conducted with the two teachers to find out how they facilitate their students’ active learning in the classroom and factors affecting their instruction

1.4 Significance of the study

It is hoped that the study will make significant contributions in the teaching and learning English in Vietnamese context First, it will help to raise teachers’ awareness of the ways they facilitate students to learn actively and effectively Second, this study will contribute to the literature of Vietnamese teachers’ instruction and behaviors in the classroom Lastly, it may bring more insights into the contextual factors that affect teachers’ choice in the classroom From that, it might contribute to the policy of teaching and learning English in Vietnamese context

1.5 Organization of the thesis

There are five chapters in the study: introduction, literature review, methodology, findings and discussion, and conclusion

The first chapter is the introduction, which points out the rationale, aims, scope, and significance of the study Research questions are also specifically defined to serve as guidelines for the whole paper

The second chapter is the literature review In this part, the contents are presented related to definition of active learning, benefits and barriers of active learning, learning activities used to motivate students’ active learning and previous studies

The third chapter presents the methodology of the study It includes careful description of, , the setting of the study, the participants, the selection of research methods and methods of data collection and analysis

The next chapter is to present findings and discussion In this part, interviews and classroom observations collected from the teachers at this secondary school are analyzed to find out the teachers’ typical activities of teaching and factors affecting their facilitation of students’ active learning

The last chapter of the study is the conclusion, which summarizes the main findings of the study and offers recommendations for further studies

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Active learning is a core element of the 21st century classroom A lot of studies have shown that as students are allowed to play a more central role in classes, their performance can be improved This chapter explores what active learning is, its benefits in promoting learning, and some barriers that may prevent teachers from motivating students’ active learning process A number of techniques of facilitating active learning in the classroom are also demonstrated in this chapter The chapter ends with some results from previous studies, which reveal some

research gaps that the current study may fill in

2.1 What is active learning?

For many years, active learning has received considerable attention It is not a new term; however, it has appealed to teachers and researchers who seek other ways to traditional teaching methods Bonwell and Eison (1991) noted that the term “active learning” seems to lack an identifiable origin or a common definition although it is reported frequently in the literature In a classic work

“Democracy and Education”, John Dewey (1924) said that “learning is something an individual does when he studies It is an active, personally conducted affair” (p 390) Simons (1997) pointed out that students should plan and prepare the learning process themselves, engage in learning, regulate their learning, control it and persist in the learning activities Every student must prepare carefully for their learning course They should make use of all the knowledge that is instructed by their lecturers at school to do the tasks Besides, they ought to seek for other useful information from different sources to complete the exercises When someone is self-aware of the aim of learning, he will be responsible for his work

Some other scholars and authors also share some viewpoints about active learning Ryan and Martens (1989) defined that “active learning is more likely to

take place when students are doing something besides listening” (p 20) It can be implied that instead of using the traditional method in which students only hear and teacher mainly talks, students had better learn by themselves, do not depend too much on the teacher Nevertheless, it is also understood that learning is not just listening to the teachers; students have to gain knowledge from other fields

in life such as their experience, their work, their friends, etc

In a broader sense of the term, active learning is defined as:

“such learning that enables students to have a high level of autonomy and

self-monitoring, and to apply various mental strategies and specific cognitive skills to differentiate between important and unimportant information, analyze and compare, construct new knowledge on the previous experiences and think critically” (Peko & Varga, 2014, p 60)

Since studying is a process in which learners have to apply not only all their skills but also their experiences to promote the understanding of what they need

to learn Obviously, to reach the goals, learners must have the right attitude and

be serious to the subjects

When referring to active learning, it is also defined as any instructional method that engages students in the learning process Hence, active learning requires students to do effective learning activities and think about what they are doing (Prince, 2004) Similarly, Rodríguez (2018) defined active learning, understood

as an instructional method that engages students in the learning process, seems fundamental in the new teaching/learning paradigm in which teachers work as the instructors while students have to search and learn on their own The core elements of active learning are students’ activities and engagement in the learning process By that way, active learning is often contrasted to the traditional lecture where students passively receive information from the instructor

Regarding such point of view, Good & Brophy (1989) argued that active learning involves providing pupils with an opportunity in which they raise their own

questions and use teachers and other resources to pursue self-defined goals Sharing the same viewpoint, Kyriacou (1992) claimed that “active learning, in essence, can be described as the use of learning activities where pupils are given

a marked degree of ownership and control over the learning activities used, where the learning experience is open-ended rather than tightly predetermined, and where the pupil is able to actively participate and shape the learning experience” (Kyriacou, 1992, p.310)

Although there are different ways to define active learning, in this paper, active learning can be defined as something students do on their own and engage in what they are doing Therefore, teachers’ facilitation of students’ active learning can be understood as activities teachers organize in order to help students do, act and enjoy the lessons rather than passively listen to teachers’ instruction

2.2 Benefits of active learning

It seems to be widely accepted that active learning should constantly be present

in classrooms since students benefit from it in numerous ways (Kyriacou, 1992) First, active learning may support students using current knowledge to construct new knowledge by their own With traditional teaching method, the teacher talks and students listen passively; therefore, students only know the things the teacher instructs them in class In contrast, active learning enhances students’ ability to find new things by themselves They can explore numerous interesting things which their teachers have never mentioned before Kennedy (2009) stated that

“students place a higher value on learning by participating than on learning by being lectured at and receiving information passively” (pp 225-226) Lectures can be effective if used in conjunction with active learning activities In addition

to that, Cherney (2008) stressed, “active learning enhances student retention of concepts, particularly when the students are the authors of their own learning” (p.155) Students learn best when they actively participate in the learning process Therefore, by engaging students in their learning, educators can nurture

a deeper understanding of the materials and assist students to perform high-order thinking (Shin, Sok, Hyun, & Kim, 2015)

Second, students may be excited and enjoyable when taking part in an active learning lesson because active learning involves students in doing activities and engaging in learning Teachers that have implemented active learning approach generally find that students learn more, and the courses are more enjoyable (Limbach & Waugh, 2010) Since students are individuals, and each learns in a unique way, it is important for facilitators to find the key learning styles and then employ them in the classroom so as to satisfy different types of students

Third, active learning can improve productivity and ensure that students are better able to understand the content (Bonwell & Eison, 1991) The students in an active-learning classroom are able to be creative and make meaning of the class work Moreover, active learning helps foster understanding which students can then apply to diverse contexts and problems Every student learns differently, and

an active learning model will improve understanding In a study on memory and active learning, Cherney (2008) indicated, “it is important to consider presenting information in multiple modalities to accommodate different learning styles” (pp

154-155)

Finally, active learning fosters students’ learning and their autonomy, giving them greater involvement and control over their learning and giving them skills

to foster lifelong learning in the future It is closely associated with learning how

to learn (Bonwell and Eison, 1991) Active learning enables students to act autonomously and have control over the classroom activities It plays a significant role in student motivation since it links problem-based teaching to innate curiosity and the need for exploration of every child It gives a new kind

of quality to the school experience It has greater influence on students' everyday lives The experience of active learning has a strong impact on personality and it makes school more similar to real life (Bonwell and Eison, 1991)

As it can be seen, there are a lot of advantages when teachers employ active learning approach in the classroom However, it is also noted that “the benefits of active learning in lectures are maximized when tasks are authentic and reflect how knowledge is used in real life” (Cavanaugh, 2011, p.24)

2.3 Teaching activities foster active learning

In order to help students develop their learning especially active learning, numerous active learning strategies should be applied in the teaching process The use of these techniques in the classroom is vital because of their powerful impact upon students’ learning Several studies have shown that students prefer strategies promoting active learning to traditional lectures

There are plenty of strategies of active learning that can be applied in the classroom However, in this paper, some of them are mentioned in terms of individual and collaborative activities

In terms of individual activities, such techniques as question-and-answer, mapping, think-pair-share and one-minute paper are often used in the class

mind-Question-and-answer is considered as one of the most common techniques used

to enhance student’s active learning (Bonwell & Eison, 1991) It is also easy to apply because the teachers can ask students many things related to the lesson from easy level to difficult one The teachers can know the knowledge their students have achieved through specific questions

Mind-mapping

A mind map is considered an easy way to brainstorm thoughts systematically It lets students visually structure their ideas to foster students’ analysis and recall First, in order to do this technique, the students need to identify and place the central topic at the center of mind map It will act as the central image or the main point of the map Second, the main themes of the central topic are developed from the central image This method is a great way for students to categorize and organize the ideas they brainstormed and identify the relationships

among those By using a single page or space students can already place a huge amount of information and check its connections This will enhance students’ active thinking in connecting prior knowledge with the new one

Think-pair-share

This technique sometimes is similar to pair-work, it can be applied for both individual and collaborative form of activities The teachers bring out the problem and get students to work on it individually for a short time; then have them form pairs, discuss and improve their solutions; and finally call on several individuals or pairs to share their responses This structure takes a bit more time than a simple group activity, but it includes individual thinking and leads to greater learning

One-minute paper

Originally mentioned by Angelo and Cross (1993), this technique has been adapted for use in every discipline It is a highly effective method for checking student progress and for providing a consistent means of communicating with students In order to implement this method, the instructor simply stops class a few minutes early or at some point during a lecture, ask a specific question and give students one minute to respond Students’ responses will tell the instructor whether their students understand the lesson or not Besides, it is a quick way to collect all the ideas from all students in the class This technique can help the

teachers to save time but still activate students’ active learning

In terms of collaborative activities, strategies promoting active learning can also

be applied in class such as discussion, debates, drama, role play, games and brainstorming

Discussion

Discussion is considered the most common way for teachers to engage students

in active learning; however, the technique is not universally admired In order to achieve a good discussion, except for careful planning and thoughtful implementation, supporting learning environment and enthusiastic instructions

from teacher are very necessary Also, discussion topics are very important since they are the core element so that students can think over what they need to investigate First, teachers ask students to work individually in two or three minutes to answer one question and then exchange it to their small group Next, ask one of the members in group talks before class Teachers can divide the classroom into bigger groups after they get used to with this technique

Debate

Debate is not only used in high school or college but it is really comfortable to apply in the classroom from grade 6 to 9 at secondary school For grade 6 and 7, simple topics had better be used, meanwhile more complicated ones ought to be applied for grade 8 and 9 depending on their learning course Schroeder and Ebert (1983) noted some benefits for students when they debate such as forcing students to deal with their own biases; enhancing students’ skills in doing research; promote logical thinking, increasing skills in oral communication However, when organizing this activity, the teachers must consider the ideas from the two sides conveniently To have a good debate, students also prepare their ideas very carefully and logically based on the instruction of the teachers

Drama

It is said that drama is rarely used in a class because of limited time However, if possible, teachers can guide students to prepare a very short drama depending on the content of the lesson Sometimes, using the plays in the classroom will make students more enthusiastic and interested in the lesson Because of the limitation

of time and based on the content of the lesson, teachers can choose the right topics for students to act before class The meaning of the play should be related

to the topic of the lesson In short, it is an interesting technique to help teachers facilitate students’ active learning

Role-play

Role-play has been very familiar to students for many years It is also an easy way to attract students to the lessons It helps students experience “stressful,

unfamiliar, complex, or controversial situations” by creating circumstances that are close to real-life situations, thereby letting students develop and practise those necessary skills (Davison 1984, p 91) It also strengthens group-work, generate motivation and enthusiasm Role-playing has been used in different settings from elementary schools to graduate and professional training It is often short or sometimes long but it helps to practise structures and sentence patterns effectively

Games

Games are known as one of the most interesting techniques to apply in the classroom There are so many types of games teachers can use depending on the content needed transferring With secondary students, simple games are

suggested such as clapping the board, crosswords, magic wheels, who is the

millionaire, and so on However, teachers should not use games rationally so that

the lesson is effective and helps to activate students’ learning

Brainstorming

Brainstorming enhances students’ reaction and thinking speed When given a topic, students have to think as quickly as possible to finish the task This technique requires students to draw on prior knowledge and experience Besides, teachers can examine students’ understanding for a short time Moreover, this strategy helps students to develop their logical thinking and fast reaction to the problem To implement this technique, it is necessary to get one topic Then teachers can divide the class into small groups, and ask them to write everything related to the topic as quickly as possible After that, teachers call some groups to report the results Finally, teachers give feedback and guide them more if possible By that way, students are given opportunities to work on their own and

be engaged in learning

To sum up, there are a lot of activities which can be used to foster learners’ active learning However, not all activities are effective to facilitate students’ active learning It may depends on the teachers who conduct those activities

2.4 Barriers to active learning

Bonwell and Eison (1991, pp 59-64) noted five of the commonly mentioned

barriers to using active learning strategies: (1) one cannot cover as much content

in class; (2) active learning requires too much time in preparation for class; (3) it

seems impossible to use active learning approaches in large classes; (4) materials

and resources are lacking; and (5) there are many risks to be considered,

including how colleagues will perceive the legitimacy of the approaches, how

student evaluations might be influenced, and how promotion and tenure might be

affected

The first difficulty is content covering In order to make students concentrate on

the lecture, the teachers have to use many strategies especially active learning

techniques However, those strategies often take lots of time, as a consequence,

the whole content of the lesson cannot be transmitted to students.However, some

research stated that the teachers do not need to cover all the content in one lesson,

they can focus on the important knowledge To overcome this barrier, teachers

should keep in mind that:

In terms of content, there is little a lecturer can say (that) she or he cannot

write more concisely What makes a course more than the sum of the

readings on which it is based is the social experience: the sets of

relationships between teacher and students and students with one another

(Eisenberg 1987, p 18)

Due to the lack of time, many teachers try to find other ways to ensure that

students can gain knowledge One way to help promote students’ success in such

efforts is to provide explicit, discipline-special training in study skills in the

context of ongoing activities (Davies 1983; Eison 1988) Another helpful strategy

involves the preparation of self-instructional materials for students’ use (Bedient,

Garoian, and Englert 1984) When students manage to achieve knowledge, a

large number of studies report that they do not want their teachers to teach the

same materials in class

Comment [WU1]: Chỗ này không nên nói về

thực trạng của VN vì mình đang review bối cảnh chung, trong tổng quan tài liệu, phần nói

về bối cảnh Việt Nam sẽ được nói ở phần Discussion sau này  không được lẫn lộn ý

The second barrier is the preparation before class Many teachers believe that to apply active learning in a lecture, they will spend a lot of time to prepare the lesson carefully And many teachers fear that the use of active learning requires the immediate and total revision of all class notes for every class they teach One helpful suggestion is to “select a single course to work with, perhaps beginning with the course one teaches most often and is most familiar with, rather than attempting to change several courses simultaneously” (Bonwell & Eison, 1991,

p 61)

The third barrier is the class size Large classes might preclude the use of some strategies promoting active learning However, they cannot prevent the use of all possibilities Sometimes, the quality of a class does not depend on the class size but concerns the teachers’ instruction

The lack of materials or equipment needed for implementing active learning in the class can be another barrier to the use of strategies promoting active learning

in the classroom However, that is not all the things we can use in the class If teachers have difficulties in finding suitable materials or equipment, they can seek for other simple and effective ways to help student study For example, asking students to summarize or writing the material they have read or forming pairs to evaluate statements or assertions requires no equipment (Bonwell & Eison, 1991)

Student factors are also difficulties that teacher have to face with Active learning

in the classroom can result from students themselves For example, some students will always resist the use of active learning because it provides a strange and dramatic contrast to the familiar passive listening role to which they have become accustomed Although listening is sometimes not what they want to do but they consider listening easier than working in the class (Bonwell& Eison, 1992)

Last but not least, it is the “risk to try to implement new method” (Bonwell& Eison, 1992 “To understand the adoption and transformation of innovative ideas

in the classroom, one must also understand the phenomenology of the teacher's world” (House 1974, p 79) This view is divided into two sides: one is the students’ reaction to active learning; another is the teachers’ attitudes about their ways of teaching With regard to the first, the risk is that students will not take part in the lesson actively togain enough knowledge or use high-order thinking skills One question is “What if my students don’t want to participate actively?” Perhaps the answer depends on the teachers’ ways of teaching and many other factors

Therefore, a number of developing instructional strategies to help students learn

to think creatively and critically has become recognized They are considered as one of the most pressing educational challenges facing educators today Besides, teachers also risk not feeling control of the class, not processing the essential skills or being viewed by others For example, for some active learning activities, teachers have prepared a lesson very carefully with the right objectives, good organization of presentation, some jokes or interesting questions, selection of materials to write on the whiteboard When using active learning, teachers might have to change the usual class rules, which might bring about some risks for teachers

2.5 Previous studies about active learning

There are a lot of studies which may be related to active learning topic (Peko & Varga, 2013, Nguyen-Phuong-Mai, Cees Terlouw & Albert Pilot 2012, Tran,

2012, Phan, 2018) However, most of them were conducted at colleges and universities or some at primary schools Besides, little research has been done with teaching English but with other subjects Peko and Varga (2013) did a research about active learning focusing on teaching Croatian language in lower and higher primary schools The aim of the study was to explore how frequent was the use of certain active learning strategies in contemporary classroom The result revealed that there was more active learning among younger students

compared to the older ones, the teachers should be trained more to have good

qualification Although the authors mentioned specific activities to promote

students’ active learning, they seemed not find out the contextual factors that

might affect teachers’ delivery of active learning

In Vietnam, Phan (2018) also took a research about effective EFL instruction in

Vietnamese university context and the teachers’ belief and their actual practices

The result of the research showed us that there were many factors affecting

teachers’ EFL instruction in the classroom Although the teachers were

experienced, they preferred to use teacher-centered method due to some reasons

such as traditional educational values and norms, physical working constraints,

family roles and from themselves, e.g emotion, came into play in affecting the

belief-practice relationship

Tran (2012) worked out on cooperative learning in An Giang University The

research claimed that “frequent reciprocal interaction among participants in the

treatment group stimulated cognitive activities, promoted higher levels of

achievement and retention, and enhanced positive attitudes toward learning” (p

94) Cooperative learning is a type of learning, which also helps develop

students’ learning Nguyen-Phuong-Mai, Cees Terlouw and Albert Pilot (2012)

also conducted a research about cooperative learning but the study compared

cooperative learning in Vietnam versus West-East educational transfer The study

indicated that in Vietnamese cultures, students simply perceive a need to work

together outside the classroom It is noted that Vietnamese educational leaders

have failed to recognize that the foundation of authentic cooperative learning

already exists within the educational traditions The opportunities to develop and

research a cooperative learning method that has its own uniqueness and is

culturally appropriate for Vietnamese students are missed

As it can be seen, previous research was conducted in different context but not

English language or teaching English language but not in secondary context

especially in rural area That is why I decided to conduct this research to

Comment [WU2]: Chỗ này nghĩa là gì? Em

lưu ý nên viết theo ý hiểu của mình chứ không nên chép y nguyên ý của tác giả mà bản thân mình chưa hiểu rõ ý của họ Thêm vào đó, cần liên hệ với câu hỏi nghiên cứu của mình xem kết quả họ tìm ra như vậy có liên quan gì đến nghiên cứu của mình không

Comment [WU3]: Nêu 1 vài ví dụ ở đây,

còn nếu không có thì bỏ hẳn câu này đi, mà chỉ nói chung chung thôi

investigate the implementation of active learning strategies of the teachers in

teaching English and the factors affect teachers’ facilitation of students’ active

learning in the secondary context I chose to do this study at a rural secondary in

Vietnam to fulfill that gap

It seems that with older learners, there are some advantages when teachers guide

their students to learn actively since they have good awareness On the other

hands, teaching youngers is more difficult because they may not develop their

thinking absolutely Therefore, it is a big challenge when teachers facilitate

students at secondary schools Especially in a modern society as it is today, there

are many interesting things attracting them than studying such as computer

games, social network, online activities, and so on However, for all of the

benefits it might bring, active learning should be used in the classroom That is

why more attention should be placed on the enhancement of students’ active

learning from early stages

As far as I concluded, other studies were conducted in different context;

therefore, the results were also various My research was conducted in a rural

secondary school where there is still lack of many things that is essential to

support the teaching and learning I chose this context due to some reasons as

mentioned in the first part I hoped the result would be valuable for further

studies in the future

Comment [WU4]: Nêu dẫn chứng, không

nêu quan điểm cá nhân

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents justifications regarding the selection of methodology to the

study along with the choice of research approach as well as the rationale for the

research design of the study It then describes the setting of the study including

research sites After that, research procedure is displayed detailing data collection

process, instrumentation and data analysis methods

3.1 Setting of the study

In order to help teachers to have good facilities to teach English, most schools in

Bac Ninh province are equipped with projectors, computers, cassette players,

pictures for illustrations, even each secondary school in the rural area has a

listening lab The school in this study also has quite a lot of modern facilities in

most of the classrooms Of twelve classrooms, there are eight classrooms which

have smart board or projectors This is a good condition and environment for

teaching and learning

In fact, there are a lot of problems that make teachers and students demotivated

in teaching and learning English in this school Firstly, since students are in the

rural area, they seem not to be aware of the importance of learning English

Many of them say that they only need to finish secondary school, then they will

find a job in a factory and earn money Because their parents also work in

factories, they have little time to take care of their children Therefore, some

students seem not to have positive attitudes about their learning and life

Although teachers have tried their best to help these students learn better they

find it hard to change their students’ awareness and attitudes Hence this seems to

be the most challenging task for teachers of English here In addition to that, in

this selected school, there are only two English teachers who have to take charge

of all English classes of the school

Comment [WU5]: TUYỆT ĐỐI KHÔNG BAO GIỜ ĐƯỢC COPY CỦA NGƯỜI KHÁC KHI KHÔNG HIỂU NÓ LÀ CÁI GÌ!!!! VÀ BẢN THÂN BÀI CỦA MÌNH KHÔNG SỬ DỤNG ĐẾN!!!

Comment [WU6]: Không được viết những

câu mang tính khẳng định và định kiến như thế này khi mình chưa có số liệu để chứng minh cho điều đó

3.2 Participants

3.2.1 The teachers of English and the students at the selected secondary school

In the secondary school in Bac Ninh province where I conducted the survey,

there are only two teachers of English Both of them are experienced with more

than 10 years of teaching They also get used to the traditional methodology that

they have been teaching for a long time The application of the new textbook

with a new teaching method may be a big challenge for those teachers Here is

the detailed information about two teachers of English at this school

Table 3.2.1: Information about two teachers of English

Teacher Age Gender Qualification Service (years)

3.2.2 The students

All students at this secondary school live in the countryside Their proficiency in

English language is quite low; many students find themselves unable to use

English for communicative purposes even in the simplest ways Because of the

low living-standard, they have some difficulties in learning English at home in

terms of lack of Internet, computer, finance and other modern facilities Almost

their parents are farmers, workers; therefore, it is quite hard for them to afford to

buy a computer or use the Internet Moreover, finance is a serious problem that

prevents their parents from hiring a tutor to teach their children to learn English

at home Students mainly study English at school All information they get from

the teacher of English and the textbook Rarely does a student have an

English-Vietnamese dictionary at this school Thus, students have to ask teachers for new

words if they do not know them According to the results of all exams at this

school, the percentage of students acquiring over 8 marks accounting for about

2%, from 6 marks to 7 marks accounts for 12 %, under 4 marks accounts for over

Comment [WU7]: Không nhận xét khi

không có dẫn chứng cụ thể

60% (Statistics of the school year 2018) As we can see, the condition of students learning English here isquite poor Besides the facilities and other problems, the awareness of students about English is another concern Even many students said that they only needed a diploma of finishing secondary school so that they could find a job as a worker in the industrial zone and earned money for their life English seems to be unnecessary in students’ thought in this area

Inside the classroom, students sit in rows with 2 students being in one desk, thus becoming very immobile for communicative activities while the teacher is under pressure to cover the allocated syllabus in the time allowed

3.3 Reasons to choose methodology to the study

For the purpose of the study established from the beginning, a qualitative case study is needed because the researcher means to investigate teachers’ facilitation

of students’ active learning in their contexts The use of case study facilitates the

“detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their relationships” (Dooley, 2002, p 335) In addition, the characteristics of case study also fit into the current research aims As for Merriam (1998), case study holds three main features which are particularistic, descriptive and heuristic The first feature (particularistic) refers to the focus of the study on a particular individual, group, event, program or phenomenon This feature is seen in this study because the focus is on teachers who facilitate their students’ active learning in the classroom Next, the study reflects “descriptive” feature in the way it illustrates the complexities of a situation, in this case, a number of factors affecting teachers’ choice has been explored

3.4 Research procedure

First, each teacher was interviewed for the first time to find out some information about their teaching and their understanding of active learning Then I observed the classes of four grades Each grade I chose two classes randomly to observe

In total, I observed 8 classes During observing, I took notes and raised the question of “why” so that after one period I could ask them and work out the reasons why they chose the activities Then I transcribed all the recording files and analyzed the data based on the research questions

3.5 Data collection methods

3.5.1 Semi-structured interviews

In qualitative research, interviews are considered as a major data collection method It enables participants “to discuss their interpretations of the world in which they live and to express how they regard situations from their own points

of views” (Cohen et al., 2007, p.349) In this study, one-to-one semi-structured interviews was chosen for some reasons First, it allowed me to elicit the voices and perceptions of teachers individually without any intervention of others as in group interviews Moreover, it helps me to build the mutual trust with the teachers to make them feel more secure when being observed later

The semi-structured interview in this study was designed in Vietnamese version

in order to facilitate the ease of communication and to make sure that the teachers would feel comfortable and say exactly what they meant to say Most questions

in the interview were open-ended to allow teachers to express their thoughts in open manner I asked the two teachers quite a lot of questions Those questions were designed depending on some areas such as: teachers’ background knowledge, teaching condition, objectives of teaching and teaching methods The questions were arranged from easy to difficult, general to specific From their sharing, I could understand more about their thinking and other factors affected them in teaching process

Each interview was audio-recorded by an MP3 device and transcribed according

to the exact minute of the interviewer and interviewees’ turns of speech These data then were used to compare and combine with the subsequent data obtained from the observation in order to see deeply inside teachers’ facilitation and their

reported instructional behaviors Also, influential factors to teachers’ facilitation and their practices were identified from this source of data, besides the post-class interviews

3.5.2 Classroom observations

Besides semi-structured interviews, classroom observations were employed to the study It provides researchers a “reality check” (Robson, 2002) of what are going on in the real context Moreover, the use of classroom observations enabled me “to see things that might otherwise be unconsciously missed, to discover things that participants might not freely talk about in interview situations” (Cohen at al., 2007, p.396) In every lesson, I observed the activities teachers used to foster students’ active learning and the attitude of students to those activities

I planned to observe each teacher four times, in which each time included two lessons of 40 to 45 minutes Altogether, I observed 8 classes The observations were arranged after the individual interviews and based on the teachers’ consent form as well as their teaching schedule In each class observation, I observed the activities teachers used and how students reacted to those activities The following table provides information of such observations:

Table 3.6.2: Information about classroom observations

Teachers Times of Class

Observations

Grade Observed lessons

Teacher 1 CO1 7 Unit 5: Lesson 1

Teacher 2 CO3 9 Unit 5: Lesson 1

CO4 6 Unit 5: Lesson 6

To make the teachers feel secure, I only used some MP3 devices to record together with my handwriting The purpose of the class observation was not for evaluating the lessons in detail but for identifying teachers’ activities to facilitate students’ active learning in the classroom Furthermore, while I was observing the teachers, I took notes as well as raised questions about “Why does the teacher

do that?” on my observation sheets, which were then taken as discussing points

in the post-lesson interviews Therefore, I could explore the underlying factors behind their practices (see Appendix E for sample of class observation transcript)

3.5.3 Post-class observation interviews

In order to confirm and elicit more information about participants’ choices of behaviors during the observation session, I also employed semi-structured interviews

Those interviews were around 5 to 10 minutes Most of the post-class observation interviews were about what active learning activities are used in their lessons; why they behaved the way they did in their class However, depending on teachers’ instructional purpose, questions were not the same for every post-class interview Questions were raised on the basis of teachers’ choice of behavior and arisen situations during the lessons As noted above, in order to facilitate teachers’ communication, all of the post-class discussion was delivered in Vietnamese

3.6 Transcription of the data

All of the interview and audio recordings of class observations were transcribed and were checked again with the original recordings to ensure the accuracy of the

data The format of data tracking in this study was formed as type of data collection instrument – teacher number – minutes in the recordings For example, Pre.I.1.T1.22.09 means the first interview with Teacher 1 at the minute 22nd, 09 seconds in the transcript; PO.I.1.T2.03.10 means post-class observation interview after the first class observation with Teacher 2 at the minute 3rd, 10 seconds in the transcript

To assist readers’ understanding of the extracted classroom transcripts displayed

in the analysis of teachers’ activities, the following conventions are employed:

# 1, # 2 number of the extract

<> the researcher’s added comment

Italics translation of original speech

Bold the researcher’s emphasis for analysis purpose S1, S2 particular student

3.7 Data analysis

In this study, two main types of data were collected namely interview data and observational data In order to analyze those data, thematic analysis method was employed

3.7.1 Analysis of the interview data

Based on the identified concepts related to active learning as mentioned in chapter 2, there are four aspects that should be put into consideration in this study: teachers’ understanding of active learning, activities to facilitate active learning, benefits and barriers of implementing active learning in the classroom For each aspect, I use an initial code The codes were based on the literature review and then I compared them with what teachers said in the pre-interview or post-interview to explore how teachers facilitate their students and what hinders them from doing that This table below presents the initial codes:

Table 6.3: Initial codes of aspects of active learning

No Aspects to explore Detailed content Code

1 Teachers’ understanding

of active learning

What students do on their own and engage them in the lesson

2 Benefits of active

learning

Construct new knowledge / Enhance students to find new things

qqconstruct

Engage students and make students enjoy the lesson

qqauto

3 Barriers to implementing

active learning

Content covering Qqcontent

Preparation before class Qqprepare

Lack of material or equipment

3.7.2 Analysis of the observation data

When I observed the class naturally, I also took note in my handwriting I named recording files, for example, CO1.T1, which means that class observation 1 with Teacher 1 Then I analyzed the data based on each activity which teachers used

in a lesson I myself made a checklist to check and follow the teachers’ activities more easily I also made codes for the activities that teacher actually did in their classes

Table 6.4: Activities to facilitate student’s active learning

No Aspects Detailed content Code

1 Strategies/Activities to

facilitate active learning

Question and answer qqanswer

Then, I printed all the transcription files and read them very carefully I

underlined the key points I needed for my study and named them with “qq- ”

codes so that I could find the key word more easily

All of the codes were then extracted to separate Excel sheets for further analysis