Factor 3: Contextual factors including the Administrator,

The most major factors were contextual factors, which interwove teachers‟

cognition and further shaped what the teacher did in class. In Olivia‟s case, the administrator, colleagues, and students in the remedial course mainly influence her teaching.

In this remedial program, Olivia relied heavily on the administrator‟s assistance in her teaching goals and teaching practices. Since Olivia was a novice teacher in the

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remedial program, she still got herself accustomed to the new environment and to the students. At the beginning of the semester, she did not get acquainted with students and struggled a lot with the classroom management. As a result, she usually discussed her classroom management and students‟ learning conditions with the administrator after the class. She hoped to find some solutions and support from the administrator.

Most of time, the administrator shared her belief about teaching and disciplines. For example, the administrator often told Olivia not to use the same standard to teach students. For some students, attending class punctually and regularly was difficult, not to mention the fact that they needed to pay attention to her teaching. For some

students, sitting in the classroom quietly was a hard task for them, not to mention the fact that they needed to get high scores on tests. Receiving the advices, Olivia started to use different aspects to request students‟ academic performances and behaviors.

In addition, she received emotional support from the administrator in the remedial program. For example, sometimes students got noisy throughout the class and were hard to control, Olivia started to doubt her way of classroom management, lost faith in her teaching, and then got exhausted after class. Then, the administrator would express her concerns to her and encourage her to think positively and to look at the students‟ advantages. After the communication, Olivia got comfort from the administrator, reflected her teaching, further detected both students‟ and her teaching problems, and was more well prepared for the next class.

Another factor that influenced Olivia‟s concepts of teaching was from her interaction with other teachers in the remedial program. Given that teaching aboriginal students in the remedial program was not an easy task for teachers, the administrator would hold meetings regularly for teachers to share their teaching experiences, discuss difficulties they encountered, and brainstorm better solutions for teaching. Olivia said that she benefited a lot from the sharing. During the meetings,

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most teachers said that their class was very noisy and students could not pay attention to their teaching. Olivia had the same feelings and felt better when others shared their teaching experiences. Also, they shared some teaching methods, which could draw students‟ attention. For example, keeping students busy in class could reduce their noises and force them to pay attention to the class. Later, she tried to implement others‟ teaching strategies, such as fill-in-the-blank or asking students to write down answers on the blackboard in class. As she said, “I found that some instructions

worked but some did not, so after the class, I tried to find the suitable teaching to meet my students‟ needs in the next class.” (Informal Interview, April 7^th, 2010). However, from the classroom observations, Olivia did modify her teaching materials based on her colleagues‟ suggestions at the beginning of the semester but later her teaching practices were mainly influenced by students‟ opinions and then stuck on the same pattern until the end of the semester.

In addition to the administrator and other colleagues‟ influences, Olivia also took students‟ needs and ideas into consideration when teaching. Through the whole semester, Olivia was easily influenced by students‟ suggestions and emotions. Since students though that Olivia was not an authoritative teacher, they were willing to express their thoughts to her. For example, students recommended Olivia not to have a quiz on vocabulary with three different versions of textbooks because school teachers did not teach those words and school exams did not include those words. It would be a burden for them to memorize new words in the different textbooks.

Accepting students‟ suggestions, Olivia gave up her insistence and finally adopted their opinions. Another example was that students showed no interest when she gave vocabulary instruction. After that, she decided to focus on grammar only in her class, which was against her prior belief that both grammar and vocabulary were equally important.

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In terms of students‟ emotions, Olivia tried to build a warm and happy learning environment, which could enhance students‟ learning motivations and interests. As a result, she liked to distribute candies to each student and allow them to eat it in class which violated the regulation in the remedial program. As she claimed,

Since students were not allowed to eat or drink in the classroom; as a result, once they could eat candies here, they would be very happy. It was easier for me to attract their attention. Thus, I would not mind violating the rule. I would ask students to clean up the classroom, so it would not cause a big problem.

(Formal Interview 3, June 24^th, 2010)

To create an interesting learning place, Olivia tried to implement different teaching strategies to arouse students‟ learning motivations. Moreover, Olivia found that her students were willing to answer her questions even though they did not know the answers, because of her encouragement. Her students were not afraid of answering questions. Students‟ positive responses reinforced Olivia‟s belief in loose disciplines and a happy learning atmosphere.

4.2.2.4 Summary of Various Factors Formed Olivia’s Teaching Cognition