A Study On College English Teachers’ Competence In Organizing Classroom Instruction From The Perspective Of Constructivism

A Study on College English Teachers’ Competence in Organizing Classroom Instruction from the Perspective of ConstructivismSince1980s, all kinds of educational reforms have come up. However, constructivism educational reform is the most lasting with its wide influence, though constructivist teaching as a theory or practice has only received attention for approximately one decade. Constructivism is a psychological theory developing rapidly in recent years. Theoretically it originated from Piaget’s genetic epistemology and Vygotsky’s view of historical development of culture and thought.Constructivism theory conforms to the recent education reform which aims at achieving the goal of cultivating the innovative talent. Constructivist English teaching can help change the traditional curriculum emphasizing on passive learning and mechanical memorizing. Constructivist English teaching and learning not only focuses on students’development of language ability and application of language knowledge, but also concentrates on their holistic and life-long learning in order to cultivate their creative thinking. For the main English learning group--college students, it is very important for the college English teachers to apply constructivism to organizing the classroom instruction. Constructivist English teaching supports students’active and cooperative learning based on their prior knowledge. The goal is to develop the students’ability of thinking and problem-solving. Therefore, constructivist teaching places greater demands on college English teachers.The purpose of this study is to explore the situation of the college English teachers’classroom instruction and whether college English teachers apply the constructivism to organizing classroom instruction. The final purpose of the study is to reach an agreement that the application of constructivism in college English teaching can bring inestimable benefits, so constructivist learning becomes a natural tendency for college English teachers to try to improve their abilities of organizing classroom instruction under the guidance of constructivism.In this study, four methods are adopted, and they are questionnaire, interviews of the teachers, classroom observation and the interviews of students. Firstly,30college English teachers chosen from four colleges in Chang Chun take a questionnaire survey. Then the questionnaires are collected; the data are used to make statistical analysis to summarize to what extent college English teachers understand constructivism and apply it to organizing classroom instruction. Then the author reads the papers carefully and chooses two teachers influenced by the constructivism out of30college English teachers for interviews. By means of interviewing, their different understanding and the application of constructivism can be discovered. One of the two teachers is chosen as the object of a case study. Through the classroom observation, it can be seen that how the teacher organizes classroom instruction under the guidance of constructivism. Five students from this teacher’s class are chosen randomly for interviews. The interviews of the students are conducted to investigate the evaluation of students’for the teacher, students’learning effect, and students’ suggestions. These feedbacks should be given to the teacher in order to help them reflect on their own teaching.According to the survey data, some findings can be drawn. Most of the college English teachers have heard of the constructivism theory, but the understanding and application of it is far from enough. From the class activities they designed, it can be seen that some teaching thought and mode corresponding with constructivism has been applied to their classroom, however, they have not realized that these class activities are under guidance of constructivism. So they do not design these activities frequently.Through the interviews of the two teachers, it can be found that they have a deep understanding about the theory and they often apply the constructivism to organizing the classroom instruction. Through the classroom observation of one teacher, it can be noticed that how the teacher applies the constructivism to improving his abilities in organizing the classroom instruction. By means of interviewing the students, the teaching effect of this teacher can be seen.