A Case Study On The Relationship Between Planning Decisions And Interactive Decisions Made By Chinese University English Teachers

There are numerous conceptions of teaching in education. The process-product research paradigm has been dominant in traditional language teaching before the 80’s, which conceptualizes teaching as observable behaviors. This approach attempts to identify successful teaching behaviors, and explore the effects that teachers’ behaviors exert on learners’learning outcomes. However, a successful teaching method which applies to all teaching subjects through the approach can not be found. This is because the approach neglects the truth that teaching is essentially a cognitive process in which teachers, as rational decision-makers, make numerous decisions. With the development of cognitive psychology in the middle 70’s, researchers realize that they cannot properly understand teachers and their teaching without understanding the thought, knowledge, and beliefs that influence what teachers do. This is the key factor which promotes the growth of cognitive research. As a result, process-product research paradigm makes its way to the research on teacher cognition. The study of teacher cognition is concerned with the understanding of what teachers think, know and believe. Its primary concern, therefore, lies with the intangible dimension of teaching—teachers’mental lives.The present study explores the teacher’s thinking processes:teacher decision-making. Three outstanding EFL teachers teaching in the same university participated in the study. The purpose of the study is to explore the relationship between teachers’planning decisions and interactive decisions. In particular, it tries to answer three questions: (1)What are the factors that support teachers’planning decisions? (2)What are the factors that impact teachers’interactive decisions? (3)How do teachers’planning decisions and interactive decisions affect each other?The methodology of case study was employed. Such techniques as non-participant classroom observations, pre-and post-lesson interviews and an audio-based method of eliciting introspective data, and elicited retrospections are employed. Interviews were conducted both before and after the classroom observations.Through the investigation, the answers to the three research questions can be generated as follows:(1) The factors affecting teachers’planning decisions include: information about students, nature of the instructional task, the context of instruction, teacher learning, reflective thinking, and teachers’implicit belief and principles; (2) The factors affecting teachers’interactive decisions include:teachers’mental plan and routines, teachers’implicit belief and principles, teachers’previous teaching experience and teachers’own emotional state, students’lack of interest, motivation, and involvement, and the teaching effect. (3) Planning decisions and interactive decisions differ in the following aspects:the time when each of them is made, the influential factors, and the particular content. What is common between them is that they are generally consistent with the underlying pedagogical principles deriving from the teachers’beliefs system. Teachers’ planning decisions provide a structure and framework for interactive decisions, and planning decisions are subject to modification as teachers implement them in the classroom.What has been revealed in this study provides some important implications for developing teachers’planning decisions and interactive decisions, which is of vital importance for the improvement of foreign language teaching and professional development.It is also implied in this paper that the limitation and restrictions of the study, and it is hoped that the study can shed light on the perspectives for further exploration on teacher decision-making.