Iranian EFL Teachers' Perceptions Toward Teacher Training Courses

Received: 18 October 2021 Accepted: 22 November 2021 Published: 13 December 2021 DOI: 10.32996/ijllt.2021.4.12.8 The present study aimed to evaluate teacher training courses (TTCs) in several institutes in Isfahan, Iran, to explore the teachers' perspectives on the status and characteristics of this program. More specifically, this study sought language teachers' perceptions on the aspects (duration, intensity, instructors, practicum) and contents (topics covered in the program, teaching the skills, theory) of the TTC program they attended. For this purpose, 34 language teachers were required to fill out a questionnaire to explore participant teachers' attitudes toward the TTC program elements. Furthermore, the teachers were invited to an interview session in order to share their opinions about the overall usefulness of teacher training courses they had attended. The findings revealed that, overall, the teachers were satisfied with different elements of this program. From the teachers ' point of view, the most useful aspect and content of the program were "instructors" and "teaching the skills", respectively. KEYWORDS


Introduction 1
Evaluating educational programs is an emerging and noble profession. The term "program evaluation" only came into widespread use in the mid-60s, when efforts to systematically assess the quality of educational programs multiplied (Kiely & Rea-Dickins, 2005). The purpose of this kind of evaluation, according to Peacock (2009), is to make information available to decision-makers who have the responsibility of the existing or suggested educational programs. For example, program evaluation might be practical in helping decision-makers who are concerned about whether to develop a program (needs assessment), how best a program can be developed (formative evaluation), or whether to modify-and even continue-an existing program (summative evaluation) (Robinson, 2003).
As defined by Wholey, Hatry, and Newcomer (2010, p. 5), "a program is a set of resources and activities directed toward one or more common goals, typically under the direction of a single manager or management team". A program may include a specific set of activities in one agency or a complex set of activities put into practice at many sites by two or more levels of government and by a set of public, private and nonprofit providers. On the other hand, program evaluation is "the collection, analysis, and interpretation of information …for forming judgments about the value of a particular program" (Wholey, Hatry & Newcomer, 2010, p. 6). As one of the core components of any program evaluation process needs assessment is the process by which one identifies needs and decides upon priorities among them. Formative and summative evaluation refers to the process involved when the evaluator helps the program developer and the evaluation of the program after it is functioning, respectively.
Program evaluation has recently received considerable and widespread attention. Balint (2009) maintains that, compared with language-specific evaluation studies, there are plenty of publications in general educational program evaluations. The increasing and a substantial number of textbooks and journal articles published in this area reflect that language program evaluation is a serious but still unresolved issue in English language teaching. Balint further refers to two outstanding articles that greatly influenced nowadays' language program evaluation approaches. The first article carried out by Bachman (1981) supports curriculum development through administrating formative evaluation held by curriculum planners. The second one, which was conducted by Long (1984), had a noticeable impact on changing the perspectives of evaluators from product-oriented language program evaluation approaches to process-oriented ones. Cumming (1988) holds an "idealistic stance" about second language program evaluation. He asserts that the practicality and usefulness of language program evaluations is more than merely performing a service for those who are in charge of this program. In his viewpoint, evaluation studies are instructive tasks that can be useful for programs, teachers and learners' development. Cumming (1988, p. 44) has also reviewed numerous evaluation studies and developed seven "educational benefits" of program evaluation as follows:

Statement of the Problem
Over the recent decades, Teacher Education has been widely debated at several regional and annual conferences on the evaluation of the Revolution in education in Iran. However, there is a body of literature that is mostly concerned with education for schoolteachers (see, for example, Moghimi et al., 2011). From research literature, there is an urgent need to develop and explore more effective ways of educational personnel and teachers, specifically language teachers, preparation to address the challenges of changing society. In general, the ultimate responsibility of English teacher education programs in Iran should be identifying the pitfalls and drawbacks of the ongoing teacher training programs in order to create new approaches to teaching and take the needs of language learners into consideration, especially in terms of a large number of language learners longing for learning English in Iran.
There has been an absence of emphasis in language teacher preparation in Iran on the issue of updating their teaching knowledge based on recent theories and methodological development. The need for supporting EFL teachers in in-service programs is also expressed by language researchers and practitioners (see, for example, Atai, 2002a; Haddad Narafshan & Yamini, 2011). Teachers must be aware of the need to develop a sense of responsibility for educating the language learners according to the goals of language teaching in Iran and show commitments to the educational need of language learners and place them in the order of priority (Mohammadi & Rashidi, 2002). A review of the literature reveals that there is a serious gap in teacher preparatory programs in Iran, and much effort is being expended to upgrade existing programs. The review of the literature and the concern of this investigation for the improvement of teacher preparation programs in Iran have induced the problem of assessing teacher education programs in Iran. The focus of the present study is on teacher training courses evaluation in order to gather the language teachers' opinions about the content of this program, besides assessing their perceptions about the strength and weaknesses of this course.

Objectives of the Study
This research study aims to explore a group of Iranian EFL teachers' perceptions of the teacher training programs. The setting is the private English language institutes in Iran. Therefore, this study aims to address the following issues: -Determining the current status and characteristics of the teacher education programs in Iran -Pursuing the aims of teacher training programs, their organization, the methods of teaching, nature of the curriculum, techniques of evaluation, the educational agencies engaged in this program and its strengths and weaknesses -Offering recommendations for improvement of teacher education programs in Iran.

Research Questions
The present study seeks to find answers to the following questions: 1. What is the novice Iranian EFL teachers' perception of the characteristics of teacher training programs after completing a teacher training program?
2. What aspects (duration, intensity, instructors, practicum) of the TTC program did the Iranian EFL teachers find the most useful? What was the least useful?
3. What content (topics covered in the program, teaching the skills, theory) in the TTC program did the Iranian EFL teachers find the most useful? What was the least useful?

Research design
The current study adopted a quantitative design. The study used a survey method to explore the status quo of teacher training courses held for Iranian EFL teachers based on their perceptions regarding the TTC programs.

Participants
Thirty-four novice teachers enrolling in teacher training courses (TTC) agreed to participate in this project. The teachers were chosen based on their current placement as teacher-students, their teaching experience, and their willingness to participate in a research study. All of these teachers had the experience of working in private English institutes in Isfahan. They had graduated from the field of TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) or earned a master's in a TEFL-related field). Regarding their language proficiency, the teachers varied: five teachers had passed their TOFEL or IELTS in recent years, 11 teachers were enrolling in pre-IELTS and pre-TOFEL courses in other language institutes, and 18 of them recently graduated from their universities; therefore, their proficiency in English was not as high as others. Their age ranged from 22-35 years. Their teaching experience varied from 5 to 13 years. This background information was collected by distributing a bio-data questionnaire among the participants.

Setting
The program that was the focus of this study took place in Isfahan, Iran and lasted three months (from September to December 2020). The program was held two days a week and around 120 hours. The course was compulsory for all language teachers working at the English language institute. The aim of the course was to familiarize language teachers with the new curriculum goals, communicative methods, and special techniques teachers should apply in their classrooms. More specifically, the course content involved some information about the characteristics of language learners, their needs, the role of the teacher in the classroom, methods of teaching four skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening), use of innovative techniques of language teaching, learning strategies and styles. In general, the teacher education or teacher training course which was selected for this study was a compilation of the policies, provision, and procedures designed to equip (prospective) teachers with the attitudes, knowledge, behaviors, and skills they require to perform their tasks efficiently and effectively in the classroom, school, and wider community.

Data gathering Instruments 2.4.1 Questionnaire
The first data collection instrument was a questionnaire designed by Peacock (2009). Designed in a five-point scale (strongly agree, agree, uncertain, disagree, strongly disagree), the questionnaire is intended to assess student teachers' attitudes toward the TTC program elements. The questionnaire has 22 items. The questionnaire was piloted before and enjoyed the Cronbach alpha rate of .86. The questionnaire was found to enjoy a high amount of content validity (Gardner, 2009). Students were required not to write their names on the questionnaires. The questionnaire included items that were based on Peacock's reviewed literature about what constitutes appropriate training for a foreign language teacher. The questionnaire pursued teachers' opinions relating to whether the program embodied some of the important characteristics of an English language teacher education program.

Interview
The researcher used a structured interview as an instrument to gather student-teachers opinions about the components of the TTC program. All the participants were required to participate in an interview session to share their attitudes and opinions about the overall usefulness of teacher preparatory programs they were enrolling in. The interview questions were: (a) What aspects (characteristics such as duration, intensity, instructors, practicum, etc.) of the program you attended did you find the most useful? What was the least useful? (b) What content (topics covered in the program, such as grammar, teaching the skills, theory, etc.) did you find the most useful in the program you attended? What was the least useful? The focus of interview questions was mostly on teachers' perceptions about the program's strengths and weaknesses. Each interview session lasted 20 minutes. The interview enjoyed faced, content and construct validity.

Procedures
First, data collection was done through the administration of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was primarily designed to examine the teacher participants' perceptions of teaching preparedness and efficiency. In the next part, participants were asked to share their general attitudes and beliefs about the overall usefulness of teacher education program features they were enrolling in.

Data Analysis
Interview data were analyzed based on the following two stages (Baker, 2014; Woods & Fassnacht, 2009): (1) transcription of interview, (2) data segmentation and coding of the interview data. Analysis of quantitative data, i.e., data obtained from the questionnaire, was done by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics (frequency distribution, means, and standard deviations) were conducted for the data obtained from the questionnaire.

Results for the first research question
The first research question was: What is the Iranian EFL novice teachers' perception of the content of teacher training programs after completing a teacher training program?
In order to answer this research question, the teachers were invited to fill out a questionnaire (see Appendix 1) in which teachers' perceptions on different characteristics of the program were obtained. Table1 provides a summary of the frequency and percent of teachers' responses. As the table shows, teachers mostly agreed that the program gave them adequate training in improving grammar and teaching skills, encouraged them to reflect on their past experience as language learners, encouraged them to be reflective teachers, taught them how to evaluate themselves as a teacher, taught them classroom management, increased their power of self-evaluation, was relevant to their needs and overall, made them ready to teach English. Some teachers further strongly agreed that the program was up-to-date regarding the methodology, promoted flexibility in using different teaching practices for different situations, balanced teacher-centered and student-centered learning on its course, taught teachers how to teach English more efficiently and taught them classroom management skills. However, some teachers believed that the program did not give them adequate training in improving listening skills and did not help them improve their oral skills. Overall, the participants were satisfied by the different characteristics of the TTC program. What follows summarized the participants' responses to questions 1 to 7.

Figure 1: Frequency of participants' responses to Q1-Q7
As the above figure shows, participants agreed or strongly agreed that the program was helpful in improving grammar (Q1, 52.9%) and teaching skills (Q5, 52.9%); however, the participants believed that the program did not improve their listening skills (Q2, 38.2%). Some participants also were uncertain whether the program gave them adequate training for the needs of the local context.
As Figure 2 illustrates, the participants believed that the TTC program encouraged them to reflect on their past experiences as language learners (Q8, 58.8%) and encouraged them to be reflective teachers (Q9, 64.7%). Moreover, the participants strongly agreed upon the fact that the program promoted flexibility in using different teaching practices for different situations (Q10, 47.1%) and taught them classroom management skills (Q14, 20%). Some participants, however, disagreed that the program encouraged them to reflect on their past experiences as language learners (Q8, 11.8%) and promote flexibility in using different teaching practices for different situations (Q10, 44.1%). The interesting point was that the teachers were uncertain whether the program balanced teacher-centered and student-centered learning on its courses (Q11, 32.4%). The results of participants' responses to questions 15-22, which are shown in Figure 3, indicated that participants agreed that the TTC program increased their powers of self-evaluation (Q17, 55.9%) in this program. Furthermore, they believed that the program was relevant to their needs (Q19, 58.8%) and, by the end of the TTC program, they would be ready to teach English (Q22, 52.9%). However, a number of teachers strongly believed that the program taught them how to use foreign language teaching materials (Q15, 23.5%). The participants were also uncertain or disagreed that the TTC program helped them improve their oral skills (Q21, 32.4%). The results also indicated that the participants mostly agreed that the program taught the teachers how to adapt foreign language teaching materials (Q16, 47.1%), met their needs (Q18, 50%) and was homogeneous with technological improvements (Q20, 50%).

Results for the second research question
As mentioned before, the second research question was: What aspects of the TTC program did the teachers find the most useful? What aspects of the TTC program did the teachers find the least useful?
In order to answer this research question, teachers were required to participate in the interview sessions. All the teachers who agreed to take part in this project expressed their opinions on different aspects of the TTC program, including duration, intensity, instructors, practicum, all of these aspects and none of them. The following table shows the teachers' responses to the most useful aspects.  As the above table presents, teachers who participated in TTC programs believed that the most useful aspects of these programs were instructors (41.2%). However, some believed that practicum (17.6%) and course duration (4%) were also helpful in obtaining adequate teaching skills. Some teachers, though, felt that all of the aspects of the TTC program were practical, while a number of them had the idea that none of the aspects was useful (11.8%). One teacher had a feeling that the "intensity" of the program was the most useful aspect of it. The following figure illustrates the teachers' responses to this R.Q.

Figure 4: Participants' responses to most useful aspects of TTC program
Additionally, the second R.Q. sought the participants' perceptions of the least useful aspects of the TTC program. Table 3 provides a summary of the results.  The answers the teachers gave to this R.Q. revealed that most of them (29.4%) believed that the program did not have any nonpractical and non-useful aspects. The results appropriately correspond to the findings obtained from teachers' perceptions about the different characteristics of the program. As the table shows, participants selected "duration" (23.5%) and "intensity" (23.5%) as the least useful aspect of this program. "Practicum" (11.8%), "all aspects" (8.8%) and "instructors" (2.9%) were other least useful aspects from the teachers' viewpoints. The following figure shows the distributions of results obtained from participants.

Results for the third research question
The third R.Q. was as follows: What content in the TTC program the teachers attended did they find the most useful? What content in the TTC program the teachers attended did they find the least useful?
The third research question tried to gather teachers' opinions about the most and the least useful content, including topics covered in the program, teaching the skills, theory) in the teacher training courses. As Table 4.4 and Figure 4.6 clearly shows, teachers selected teaching the skills (52.9%) as the most practical and functional part of the TTC program they attended. The teachers' second selection about the most useful content of the program was the topics covered in the program. Aligned with the previous results, the findings revealed that a number of five teachers believed the course did not have any non-practical content. The "theory" was selected as the fourth most useful content of the course (5.9%), while only one teacher selected "all the content" as the most helpful content of the program.   The second part of this research question asked for the participants' opinions about the least useful content of the TTC program. Table 5 and the following figure illustrate the findings.  The least useful content from the teachers' vantage point was "theory" (41.2%). A number of eight and six teachers selected "none of the contents" and "all of the contents" as the least practical content of the program. "Topics covered in the program" was chosen as the next least practical content of the program, while only one teacher selected "teaching the skills" as the least useful content of the TTC course.

Teachers' perception about the TTC program characteristics
After the questionnaire analysis, it was found that the teachers mostly agreed that the program gave them adequate training on different aspects of TEFL. More specifically, the teachers believed that there was an appropriate atmosphere in which they could improve their grammar and teaching skills, the atmosphere which taught them how to evaluate themselves as a language teacher and also taught them classroom management, encouraged them to reflect upon their past experience, making them ready to be a language teacher and all in all, was directly related to their needs. Some items of the questionnaire were selected as "strongly agreed" by the teachers. These items were whether the course was up-dated regarding the methodology, or whether the program promoted flexibility in using different teaching practices for different situations, whether the teachers believed that the TTC program balanced teacher-centered and student-centered learning on its course and finally if the course taught teachers how to teach English more efficiently. Generally, a consensus existed among the teachers that the program was helpful and practical for them.
These results directly mirrored what Shahmohammadi (2012) found about the status, aims, nature of curriculum and organization, the teaching methods and techniques of evaluation, educational agencies brought, and the strengths and weaknesses of teacher's pre-service and in-service programs in Iran. After a couple of interview sessions, Shahmohammadi concluded that recent innovations in the perspectives towards student-centered learning and qualitative assessment have brought teaching closer to the ideal status in our context.
The findings also contradicted Birjandi and Derakhshan Hesari's (2010), whose study concluded that though most teachers were generally satisfied with the status of the TTC program, they hold the view that these programs cannot increase their level of proficiency regarding listening, reading, and oral skills.

Teachers' perception about the TTC program aspects
The other part of this study examined the general perceptions of language teachers about different aspects of TTC programs. This study particularly aimed to evaluate the status of TTC programs as regards the duration, intensity, instructors and practicum. The major finding of this study component was that teachers considered instructors the most useful aspects of the program. Aligned with the teachers' responses toward the first research question, teachers generally believed that the program they attended did not have any non-useful aspect. The results of this part were consistent with the results obtained by Soontornwipast (2008), whose study revealed that the program stakeholders who took part in pre-service teacher courses had positive views towards their language instructors. The results further showed that the program significantly impacted teachers' preparation to be English teachers.
The results were in accordance with Abbasian and Imani (2012), who evaluated the modular EFL program from the perspectives of both teachers and students in Iran. The teachers' perspectives were examined based on five fundamental criteria: admission requirements, program content, program resources, program instruction/evaluation methods, and graduation requirements/employment requirements. Regarding the program content, the teachers mostly found the pre-requisite courses, topics teaching the skills theory all of them none of them sequencing of training, the objectives of every individual course, the time or number of credits, and the balance between theory and practice to be properly covered.

Teachers' perception about the TTC program contents
The findings also released that the most and the least useful content in the TTC program, from the teachers' viewpoints, were "teaching the skills" and "theory", respectively. The findings contradicted with Richards and Farrel (2005), whose findings revealed that most novice teachers felt they were not made ready to deal with the teaching context in classes. The teacher participants in their study had the impression that the pre-service courses they participated in were mostly broad and unfocused, relatively theoretical, and not directly related to their teaching responsibilities. Thus, much of what they need to know has to be learned after entering the job.
However, the results were aligned with Güllü's (2007), who tried to investigate the effectiveness of an English program. The participants in Güllü's study highlighted several course-related problems, including the difficulty of course content, non-relevance course materials, lack of attractiveness, and lack of motivation and interest. Quite contrary to the current study, findings also indicated that the program did not address the students' expectations and needs. As a sequence, a major revision and program improvement were suggested.

Conclusion
The main focus of the present study was to determine the current status and characteristics of the teacher education programs in Iran. More specially, the current piece of research aimed to explore the teachers' perception about the most practical aspects and content of the teacher preparation course. Due to some methodological limitations, which were imposed on this study, generalization cannot be made. However, the present study revealed that teachers agreed-upon of the fact that the TTC program improved their teaching skills and made them ready to be language teachers. As discussed in previous parts, teachers' opinions varied about the most practical aspects and contents of the program.

Implications of the Study
Based on the results of the study and the points discussed, it seems that the program requires some revisions to make better use of existing opportunities. The following suggestions and recommendations might result in some improvements and/or revisions in the aspects and content of the program.
This study revealed that the teacher participants expressed dissatisfaction about the duration and intensity of the program. More specifically, the teachers believed that the time allotted to the program, the materials and the activities teachers were required to do, added to the program's weaknesses. In order to overcome this problem, it is suggested that TTC courses be longer than their current time duration. Moreover, as some teachers suggested, the number of class participants could be fewer so as to increase the participants' efficiency and their chances to take part in classroom discussions.
The results of questionnaire data analysis revealed that teachers were mostly dissatisfied with the inclusion theory in TTC programs. Though they believed that theory is one supporting pillar of language teaching, they complained about the course's long time devoted to theoretical parts. Therefore, it is recommended that the theoretical sections of the program be lessened and limited to the main issues. Furthermore, teacher participants could be provided with relevant electronic and non-electronic sources in order to equip themselves with the theoretical aspects of TEFL.