This study aims to investigate the perceptions of Turkish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and ESL  (English as a Second Language) teachers about the concept of research. It attempts to explore the extent that they read and do research and the factors affecting why they do so. A quantitative study was conducted with 152 English language teachers teaching at various levels in Turkey through an online survey by employing the first convenience and then snowball sampling methods. The data were collected utilizing Borg’s (2009) English Language Teachers’ Views of Research survey and it was statistically analyzed by SPSS. The results indicated that teachers conceptualized research similar to a scientific notion of inquiry. They thought that good research should include teacher objectivity, which was found as the most important feature, hypothesis, experiments, variables, statistical analysis, a large number of participants. Furthermore, teachers also reported that lacking enough time and finding doing research not practical in a classroom setting were the most dominant factors that had a negative impact on their research engagement. However, the current study revealed that teachers do research for their professional development and to enhance their teaching techniques whereas lacking time and lacking interest in research emerged as the most significant obstacles for not doing research. 

Abstract: As critical thinking is considered a conscious and mental process and also introduced in educational contexts, critical thinking skills and practices can be related to teachers’ conceptions of teaching-learning. Thus, this study firstly aimed to reveal pre-service teachers’ level of critical thinking and their teaching-learning conceptions, and then analyze the correlation between these two variables. The study was conducted at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University with Department of English Language Teaching 3rd and 4th grade pre-service teachers. On the strength of the study’s aim, it was designed as a non-experimental, mixed method with single and correlational scanning models. Therefore, the data were collected through the “California critical thinking tendency scale,” and the “Teaching-learning conceptions scale”, and finally open-ended questions prepared by the researcher related to transformational conception. For the data analysis, descriptive and correlational statistics were used via SPSS Package Program v.21.0. According to the results of the study, while pre-service teachers’ level of critical thinking is moderate, they are more inclined to the constructivist conception and there is a correlation between these two variables. The obtained data from open-ended questions reveal that most of the pre-service teachers relate transformational concepts with social development, conscious individuals and democratic values and they want to use this kind of conception during their teaching profession.

The recent pandemic (COVID-19) forced major changes in education which led institutions to shift teaching from classrooms to virtual platforms. Considering the responsibility of teachers for successful implementation of this transformation, the study aims to investigate motivational reasons of instructors working in the school of foreign languages at a non-profit university for online teaching and the differences of their incentives in terms of synchronous and asynchronous teaching. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 5 participants. Their answers were coded and categorized based on the research questions. The content analysis revealed that instructors had both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational reasons for both synchronous and asynchronous teaching. Also, the consequences of the recent pandemic were regarded as motivational factors for the participants. The changes in the society and technological advances indicated a reform in education was realized by the participants as an extrinsic motivation and it could be internalized and turned into an intrinsic motivation.