title: Teacher Cognition and Coursebook Use: A Case Study of Chinese University Teachers’ Decision making Processes in English-speaking Classrooms
Creators: name: Ji, Li
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2028

description: This thesis explores in-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ use of curriculum coursebooks at a typical Chinese public university in current College English (CE) reforms. Taking language teacher cognition as the conceptual framework, it joins the ongoing discussion of teachers’ decision-making processes and the relationship with coursebook use, particularly in teaching English-speaking skills. The study employed a qualitative case study design to explore how Chinese university EFL teachers use curriculum coursebooks to develop students’ English-speaking skills over the course of a semester and how their teacher cognition influences their pedagogical decision-making on coursebook use. Data were collected through documents, interviews, and classroom observations from four College English (CE) teachers in a typical public university located in central China over 16 weeks. First, background interviews were leveraged to explore the teachers’ English learning/teaching experience, professional training/development, and values, beliefs, and knowledge that might influence their instructional use of coursebooks. Second, documents, including the department syllabus, curriculum coursebooks, and teaching plans, were collected to investigate the implied use of coursebooks. Furthermore, classroom observations (including field notes) and pre-and post-lesson interviews were utilised to shed light on how the teachers used coursebooks to develop English speaking skills and their underlying decision-making processes. Finally, stimulated-recall interviews were conducted with the teachers to reveal their thoughts on using the coursebooks to develop English-speaking skills throughout the teaching semester. The findings indicated that the language teachers’ prior learning, training, and teaching experiences significantly shaped their teacher cognition, consequently influencing their coursebook use. It was found that the teachers held an amalgam of sometimes compatible and often conflicting values and beliefs concerning different curriculum domains, including speaking, some of which supported a student-centred approach, while some supported a more teacher-centred approach to learning. Some of these beliefs might have been shaped during their formative years of education, while others were added when they were trained or entered their careers. These mental constructs dynamically and interactively worked with the context to influence the teachers’ delivery of coursebooks. The macro-, mezzo-, and micro-level contextual factors that influenced teacher cognition and pedagogical practices were also unravelled. The study is significant for theory, research methodology, and pedagogical implications. Theoretically, while teacher cognition has been used to understand language teachers and teaching, the current study provides evidence on how it helps to explore the relationship between teachers’ decision-making processes and coursebook use. Second, based on the findings, this study advances the teacher cognition model. It expands the concept of schooling experience to include a broader socialisation process that influences the formation of teacher cognition and pedagogical practices. In addition, it distinguishes values and beliefs as slightly different terms, exerting different degrees of impact on teachers’ decision-making processes and pedagogical practices. Moreover, this study presents a new conceptualisation model for understanding and researching the complex, dynamic, and interactive relationship between teacher cognition, coursebook use, and context. This study also has implications for curriculum development, teacher education, coursebook design, development, and use.