Knowledge Sharing through WhatsApp: Does It Promote EFL Teachers' Reflective Practice?

Autor/inn/en	Farahian, Majid; Parhamnia, Farshad
Titel	Knowledge Sharing through WhatsApp: Does It Promote EFL Teachers' Reflective Practice?
Quelle	In: Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, 14 (2022) 1, S.332-346 (15 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Farahian, Majid)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2050-7003
DOI	10.1108/JARHE-12-2020-0456
Schlagwörter	Knowledge Management; Computer Mediated Communication; English (Second Language); Language Teachers; Second Language Instruction; Reflective Teaching; Foreign Countries; Faculty Development; Iran + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Wissensmanagement; Computerkonferenz; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Language teacher; Sprachunterricht; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Ausland
Abstract	Purpose: Reflective practice can greatly improve teachers' professional development, and various studies have demonstrated that teachers' knowledge sharing has a positive impact on their reflection. Accordingly, the present study was conducted to examine the effect of knowledge sharing in a popular online forum -- WhatsApp -- on English as foreign language (EFL) teachers' reflective practice. It was also aimed to probe the challenges the teachers faced to share information in their daily practice. Design/methodology/approach: The experimental study was pretest and posttest. To do so, 60 available EFL teachers were chosen as the participants. They were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Both groups received the English language teaching (ELT) reflection inventory as the pretest and posttest. In addition, to find the difficulties EFL teachers encounter to share information in their daily practice, a week after the treatment, a semi-structured interview with 21 volunteer EFL teachers from the experimental group was carried out. As the treatment, the online discussion among the teachers regarding their daily practice took around 1 h and lasted two weeks. Findings: The result of the posttest revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in their reflective practice. The results of the interview revealed that among other factors, the EFL teachers' lack of awareness regarding the importance of knowledge sharing, sticking to conventional methods of teaching and considering authorities' views as more trustworthy were the barriers which impede their knowledge sharing. Social implications: The findings could inspire reconsideration of the role social media plays in Iranian EFL teacher education and its role in contributing to teachers' professional development as well as their social interaction with colleagues. The results also call for taking measures to eliminate barriers to EFL teachers' knowledge sharing, which are partly rooted in the socio-educational context. Originality/value: Some studies have argued that knowledge sharing may contribute to the promotion of EFL teachers' reflectivity. There are also studies that have reported that teachers' involvement in sharing of knowledge does not have a significant effect on their reflective practice. Accordingly, contradictory results have been reported regarding the effectiveness of knowledge sharing in promoting teachers' reflection. In addition, exploring the impact of knowledge sharing on EFL teachers' reflectivity via WhatsApp deserves more attention. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01