The Relationship among EFL Teachers’ Critical Thinking, Professional Identity and Teaching Experience
Abstract
The present study aimed at investigating the relationship among EFL teachers’ critical thinking, professional identity and teaching experience. To this end, 120 EFL teachers teaching at different language institutes and public schools in Mashhad took part in the study by completing the Critical Thinking Scale developed by Honey (2000) and the Teacher Professional Identity Questionnaire developed by Liou (2008). The sampling strategy for selection of the participants was convenience sampling and the participants’ teaching experience varied from 4-23 years. The results of three separate Pearson correlations revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between EFL teachers’: (a) critical thinking and teaching experience, (b) professional identity and teaching experience, and (c) critical thinking and professional identity. Moreover, the results of a multiple regression showed that EFL teachers’ teaching experience was a better predictor of their professional identity. In the light of the findings of the study, EFL policy makers and teachers are thus recommended to introduce ways to improve EFL teachers’ critical thinking and professional identity. The results of the study are discussed in more details in the paper.
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