Investigation of systemic change at a university preparatory language department: the northview case

Date

2017

Author

İpek, Ömer Faruk

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

191
views

0
downloads

This qualitative explanatory case study provides insight into the self-initiated prescriptive and planned systemic change process at a university preparatory department called ‘Northview’ situated in the western part of Turkey. Although English is taught worldwide and there are many English language institutions, few studies have been conducted on the systemic aspect of English language teaching. Therefore, by using a conceptual framework and related literature, this study examined the reasons, components, the roles of the people involved in it and results of the systemic change process. Two years of data, including documents that regulated Northview since its foundation, observation and field notes, and focus group interviews with both alumni and semi-structured interviews with instructors and administrative staff, were analyzed using systems and systemic change perspectives. The interviews were all audio-recorded and then transcribed. After employing descriptive coding procedures using a software for qualitative data analysis, four requirements and five themes emerged. Findings showed that the system requires powerful reasons for change. Then, there needs to be change in the components of the system such as organization, curriculum, communication and assessment. Third, people play a crucial role in the systemic change process. Finally, transformational results should be obtained at the end of the systemic change process. These four requirements are analyzed under five themes; motivation, standards, structural change, whole school involvement and leadership. At the end of the study, a model, ‘Integrated-Contents Systemic Change (I-CSC)’ is constructed that would guide the systemic change initiatives in English.

Subject Keywords

English language, English language, Teaching, Educational evaluation., Educational change.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12621091/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/26457

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Internal and external alignment of the material adaptation and development education given by an EFL teacher education program in Turkey / Tekir, Serpil; Akar, Hanife; Department of Educational Sciences (2016) The aim of the study was two-fold: first, to investigate to what extent the instructional materials education given by an EFL Teacher Education program at a state university in central Turkey is aligned to the explicit policies and standards set at macro level; second, to analyse the internal alignment among the written, taught, learned and tested curricula of the teacher education program with respect to the instructional materials education being given. With these purposes, the study adopted a multi-phase...
Perceptions of students towards English medium instruction at tertiary level: the case of a Turkish private university Atik, Evrim; Enginarlar, Hüsnü; Department of English Language Teaching (2010) This study aimed to examine and describe the perceptions of English-medium instruction of tertiary –level students in a private university in Turkey. The scale which consists of a demographic inventory, a questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview were used by the researcher. The results of the questionnaire were analyzed through SPSS 15.0. This data gathering instrument was implemented on 233 students studying at three different faculties at Atılım University which offer English-medium instruction. In ...
Evaluation of the writing component of an english language teaching program at a public university: a case study Coşkun, Abdullah; Enginarlar, Hüsnü; Department of Foreign Language Education (2011) This study has the main objective of evaluating the effectiveness of the writing component of the program applied at the Department of Basic English (DBE) and the Department of Modern Languages (DML) at Middle East Technical University (METU) in the 2010-2011 academic year in terms of program objectives, materials and content, teaching-learning process and the assessment of the writing skills. The opinions of the DBE and DML instructors, program coordinators and students as well as the content course instru...
Native and nonnative English-speaking teachers in Turkey: teacher perceptions and student attitudes Skliar, Olga; Eröz Tuğa, Betil; Department of English Language Teaching (2014) This study is aimed at investigating the existence of preferential attitudes towards native English speakers in the field of ELT, resulting in depreciation of nonnative English language teachers in the case of two high-ranking English-medium universities in Ankara, Turkey. The study involves detailed analysis of data collected from teachers and students of English through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The goal of the study is twofold: 1) Teachers’ self-perceptions regarding their identities...
Exploring technology integration approaches and practices of preservice and in-service english language teachers Akcaoğlu, Mete; Eröz Tuğa, Betil; Department of English Literature (2008) In this study, three aspects of technology integration in English Language Teaching within the context of private universities in Ankara, Turkey were investigated. Firstly, preservice and in-service teachers’ computer usage frequencies/types, computer competence levels, perceived barriers to technology integration and attitudes toward computers were explored. Then, factors (age, gender, work experience, institutional factors being preservice or in-service) that might potentially affect the findings of the f...

Citation Formats

Ö. F. İpek, “Investigation of systemic change at a university preparatory language department: the northview case,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2017.