TEACHER EDUCATORS' VIEWS ON THE USE OF MEDIATION THEORY IN POST-GRADUATE PROGRAMS

Year 2015, Volume: 3 Issue: 3, 319 - 332, 30.12.2015

Mehmet Asmalı

Abstract

This study investigated teacher educators' perspectives of having a mediator role in master and doctorate programs in ELT department and their perspectives regarding three universal aspects of mediation theory. In order to gather data, semi-structured personal interviews were conducted with four teacher educators. This study employed a qualitative approach and interpretive-descriptive analysis technique in qualitative research tradition. The results showed that teacher educators mostly considered themselves experienced colleagues of the students in post-graduate programs who also guided, facilitated and moderated students' learning. In addition, experience of the teacher educators in post-graduate programs was found to be an important factor in using the 'significance' aspect. Regarding 'purpose beyond the here and now', while some teacher educators emphasized the importance of showing the relation between the current and future topics, for some of them, post-graduate students already had this skill and there was no need for explicit instruction. Concerning ‘shared intention’, teacher educators agreed on the fact that providing a detailed course syllabus at the beginning of the term was suitable for establishing a mutual understanding between teacher educators and students.

Keywords

Mediation Theory, Post-graduate Program, Teacher Educator, English Language Teaching

References

• Xiongyong, C., Samuel, M. & Hua, H. (2012). Evaluation on EFL teacher roles from the perspective of mediation: case studies of China’s secondary school classroom practices. International Review of Social Sciences and Humanities, 3(1), 117-134 Yavuz, A. & Topkaya, Z. E. (2013). Teacher educators’ evaluation of the English language teaching program: A Turkish case. Novitas-royal (research on youth and language), 7(1), 64-83.