Exploring the fit between the EFL teachers’ beliefs and classroom practice in Cyprus Turkish secondary state schools regarding constructivist and traditional perspectives

This study investigated the EFL teachers’ beliefs and practice in the Cyprus Turkish secondary state schools context. The data was collected through quantitative and qualitative means. The questionnaire findings were compared with the qualitative data which were obtained from 10 EFL teacher interviews and the observation of these teachers’ lessons. The quantitative findings revealed that the teachers’ beliefs seemed to be congruent with their perceived practice. Their beliefs and perceived practice also seemed to be in line with the ideas of the new curriculum which was a blend of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Constructivist framework. The analysis of the influence of gender on teachers’ beliefs and practice showed that the male teachers were more consistent in their beliefs as compared to their confessed classroom practice than the female teachers. Regarding the impact of gender differences on teachers’ beliefs and practice, it was found that female and male teachers differed only in two belief items and only in one practice item. Regarding experience and beliefs, it was found that more experienced teachers were more likely to favour Constructivist beliefs than less experienced teachers. Similarly, more qualified and more experienced teachers seemed more likely to implement Constructivist practices when the teachers’ practices were considered. The male and female teachers’ were more similar in their practices than in their beliefs. The quantitative findings of the study indicated that there were discrepancies among the participant teachers’ beliefs, perceived practice and actual classroom practice most of the time. The discrepancy between the teachers’ beliefs and actual classroom practices might have been because of the contextual constraints the teachers face in their school context and culture as it was the case mentioned by the teachers in this study that most of the participant teachers complained that the contextual factors were impediments to the implementation of their beliefs in their instructional context.