Teacher Beliefs of Using Scaffolding Strategies for Enhancing Students’

Cognitive Engagement

In order to answer question 3, this section discusses the beliefs of the two participant teachers when using scaffolding strategies for enhancing students’ cognitive engagement. The results of this study showed that the scaffolding strategies used by the participant teachers were related to their teaching beliefs. That is, teaching beliefs could play an important role in teachers’ use of scaffolding strategies.

In this section, the researcher first describes Amy’s and Emily’s beliefs of cognitive engagement in general, respectively. Then, the researcher reports these two teachers’ beliefs based on the three categories of cognitive engagement (i.e., attention, memory, critical thinking) discussed earlier, followed by conditions that can result in the occurrence of these three categories of cognitive engagement. In each category, Amy’s beliefs will be examined first, followed by Emily’s.

Beliefs of Cognitive Engagement Teacher Amy

Amy believed that students’ cognitive engagement in English class was conditional and hierarchical. That is, there were some conditions for students to engage cognitively. This belief was shown in Figure 3. Amy defined cognitive engagement as a sequential concept, in which levels of engagement occur in a specific order. For Amy, cognitive engagement was distinguished into three levels, including triggering and sustaining attention, enhancing memory, and initiating critical thinking. For example, if students wanted to achieve the second level of cognitive engagement, they had to achieve the first level of cognitive engagement in advance.

Figure 3 The Priority of Cognitive Engagement in Amy’s Class

As figure 3 showed, Amy believed that the development of cognitive engagement for English learning was linear. She felt that confidence and security must be established for student attention to take place. In her perception, when students paid attention to the class, they were able to memorize vocabulary or sentences of the target language.

Moreover, she perceived that students could think critically after they had memorized vocabulary or sentences.

Pre-Conditions:

Teacher Emily

Comparing with Amy, Emily did not have a solid framework of cognitive engagement.

In other words, she did not perceive cognitive engagement as hierarchy and absolute.

Although Emily had mentioned the three categories of cognitive engagement (i.e.

attention, memory, and critical thinking), she did not further explain the relationship among these categories.

In the following sections, the two teachers’ beliefs in different categories of cognitive engagement will be discussed thoroughly. Amy’s case will be discussed first and then Emily’s beliefs will be elaborated in comparison with Amy’s.

Category 1 Trigger and sustain attention

Amy and Emily had similar definition on attention. They both believed that if students were paying attention to a teacher, it meant that students were fixing their eyes on a teacher, focusing on what a teacher said, and following a teacher’s instructions. These two teachers perceived that attentive listening was important and could lead to student achievement in better English, but they had different perceptions of conditions for student attention. Amy perceived that students’ confidence and security were two conditions for students’ attention; however, Emily did not mention that students’

attention was conditional.

Teacher Amy

Amy believed that attentive listening in class was a necessary condition for students to learn English better. She developed this belief through her observations of the students’ learning in class B. When asking why she viewed attentive listening as a condition for students’ learning, she explained:

I found that for those students in Class B who are good at English, they are not good because they were doing well at the first place. Rather, they became better because they paid attention in class.

我發現他們班(B 班)有些程度好的，不是他本來就程度好，是因為他上課認 真聽而變好的。

(Teacher Amy, Interview 4, 09/21/2007)

Amy’s observation in class B told her that some students learned English better because of attentive listening. She elaborated that those who had higher proficiency of English in her class were not necessarily those who had attended cram schools. These advanced students, according to Amy’s observation, paid greater attention in class than other students. In other words, she believed attentive listening was a condition for students to develop higher English proficiency. In Amy’s mind, “attentive listening can lead students to learn English better.” Due to this factor, Amy put lots of efforts on triggering and sustaining students’ attentive listening in her English classes.

Moreover, Amy also believed that attentive listening might lead to students’

comprehension of class materials. This belief was developed from her teaching experience. When asking why she emphasized students’ attentive listening, she reported her rationale with the use of her reflections of a student survey conducted in class B:

One day in class B, after I taught a lesson, I asked the students to tell me whether they were listening to me by raising hands. Also, I asked them to raise hands if they did not understand the material in the beginning of class, and actually understood after listening to me. Some raised their hands. Then I said: “Ok, if you did not listen to me, go to the back of classroom.” There were two-thirds of the students who went and stood in the back of classroom. I told them that the high-proficiency students were sitting on their seat. Their abilities were good enough, but they still paid attention to the teacher, that’s why they understood the material. So I said, “all right, then excuse me, I will go over it again. You bear with me.” So I apologized to the sitting students and asked them to bear with

me, and I taught the material again for the other students. I taught again and asked them to go back to their seat if they understood what I said. Then half of the students went back.

他們班有一天我講完課以後，我說剛剛有聽的舉手，你剛剛不懂的，可是你 因為聽了懂得，有幾個舉手。我說好，所以剛你沒有聽的全部給我站到後面 去，三分之二就給我站到後面去。我說你看這些人，程度都很好，都坐在底 下，程度這麼好還要聽課，所以人家都會啊，我說好，那不好意思喔，我就 再講一次，你們就再忍耐一下，我就跟坐在下面的說你再忍耐一下，我就重 講，我就說好，聽得懂得回來，就回來了一半。

(Teacher Amy, Interview 4, 09/21/2007)

Amy’s survey suggested to her that attentive listening might be a condition for students’ comprehension. In this mini survey, Amy intended to find out how many students paid attention, and also, how many students understood the class materials because of paying attention. From the result of this survey, she discovered that some of the students could comprehend her materials because they listened attentively. Amy reinforced her belief that student’ attentive listening could lead to their comprehension of class materials

The above two examples showed Amy’s belief that attentive listening played an important role for students to comprehend class materials and then learn English better. Based on this belief, Amy focused on alerting and directing students’ attention in class. According to the observations, Amy used various kinds of scaffolding strategies (e.g., walk around, stop talking…etc) to trigger and sustain students’

attention in class.

Conditions Required for Student Attention

Amy also believed that the students needed to be confident and felt secure and then they could pay attention to class. This was what we had mentioned in Figure 1 that there was a pre-stage before developing the students’ attention.

Confidence

Amy believed that students’ self-confidence could be a crucial condition for attentive listening in English class. Such belief was developed through her teaching experiences and observations of student changes. When asking why she placed students’ self-confidence as the priority of teaching, she reported her rationale by using one example:

I had taught a girl who was confused with English alphabets. Gradually, I found that she was more familiar with English alphabets. Later, I found that she caught up with phonics as well. She probably found the difference. When she became confident, I could categorize her into the group of intermediate proficiency students rather than low proficiency students. Because she had confidence, I do not have to worry about her. Moreover, she had become to listen attentively in class.

(Teacher Amy, Interview 1, 08/30/2007)

In addition, an observation of the change of student behaviors hinted her that self-confidence was a condition for students’ attentive listening. She noted:

In class A, there was a boy who had really low proficiency in English. I asked others to teach him. He made progress and felt a sense of achievement. He discovered by himself that he could comprehend what I said, so he was willing to listen attentively and liked to raise his hand to answer questions.

A 班有一個男生啊，他本來英文都不會喔，就是那種程度很不好的那種，後 來我就請大家教他，他真的就進步了耶，後來他上課就變得很有成就感，因 為他自己發現他開始聽得懂我在上什麼了，所以他就願意認真聽，而且超愛 舉手回答問題的。

(Teacher Amy, Interview 1, 08/30/2007)

These two interview excerpts showed that Amy had firm belief in conditions for attentive listening. In her mind, self-confidence could lead to attentive listening and active participation, and if students were confident about their English proficiency, the feeling of the self-improvement could, in turn, call their willingness to pay attention in class. In this situation, the student had become “active learners” who required little external force for English learning from the teacher. Thus, attentive listening could be achieved autonomously by students when they had confidence.

For Amy, confidence and attentive listening was interrelated. Amy perceived that the behavior of attentive listening could be used as a sign to confirm students’

confidence. This belief was developed from the observation of a low-proficiency boy in class A, while asking other peers to help teach him English. Amy observed that the boy started to pay attention in class and liked to answer the teacher’s questions because he became confident and could understand the class materials. Therefore, she believed that having confidence in learning English served as one reason for the boy to pay attention in class. Therefore, Amy used the behavior of attentive listening as a sign to identify whether the students who had developed a sufficient level of confidence. It seems that in Amy’s point of view, the relationship between attentive listening and confidence was interactive (See figure 4.).

Figure 4 Amy’s Beliefs of Confidence and Attentive Listening

She perceived that students’ confidence could lead to attentive listening, and the behavior of attentive listening could be used as a sign to confirm students’ confidence.

Confidence Attentive listening

Security

Amy believed that security might be another condition for students to be an attentive listener in class. Amy’s teaching experience suggested her that students would listen attentively in class if they had security of learning English. When asking why she emphasized comforting students in class, she explained:

Students have to practice repeatedly and cultivate security in class. When student make a mistake, I would say, “It is all right, I will teach you; we can start from beginning.” For example, when you ask questions and the student answers that he does not know the answer, I will be calm. I prefer to know where the student’s problem is rather than blame the student. When the student has this sense of security, he would be willing to listen attentively in class. He knows that the teacher would not scold him even when he does not know the answer.

上課就是要讓學生不斷的練習，培養安全感，學生做錯的時候，你就說沒關 係，我教你，我們從頭慢慢來。比如說，你上課問問題，然後學生回答你說 老師我還不會，我會比較平和，因為我會先想知道你的問題在哪，而不是罵 你，當學生有這個安全感的時候，他會比較認真去聽，他知道就算他不會，

老師也不會罵他。

(Teacher Amy, Interview 1, 08/30/2007)

Amy’s teaching experience told her that security is another condition for students to be willing to listen attentively in class. From the excerpt above, Amy believed that students’ insecurity usually rose from making mistakes and not knowing how to answer her questions in class. To help develop security in students, she used several ways to interact with the students in class. Amy often comforted her students rather than blamed them when students did not know how to answer her questions in class.

When students did not respond to her questions, she would use a calm voice to guide her students through the course material again. In this way, she also showed patience.

Through this method, she believed that students could establish a secure relationship with her and become attentive listeners in class.

To sum up, confidence and security were required conditions for students to be

attentive listening in Amy’s class. Amy had a firm belief that establishing students’

confidence and security of learning English could not be ignored or the students could not be attentive listeners in class.

Category 1 Trigger and sustain attention Teacher Emily

Emily had the same belief as Amy’s in that attention was a condition for students to learn English better. Emily developed this belief through her observation of one student’s learning. When asking Emily’s view about attention for students’ learning, she reported:

Attentive listening makes a difference in learning. Take Lucy for example, in every class she focuses her eyes on the teacher. If there are some questions which she does not understand, she would still focus on the teacher and wait for the teacher’s answer. Although she does not go to cram schools, she still learns English well.

上課有沒有認真聽當然有差啊，像那個 Lucy，她每次上課那個眼神都很專

注，就會一直看著你，然後就算她不會的問題，她還是會看著你然後等你的 答案，她雖然不是那種在外面一直補習的那種，可是她還是學的不錯。

(Teacher Emily, Interview 7, 10/16/2007)

Through this observation, Emily was convinced that going to cram schools was not the only way to improve students’ English. As long as students could pay attention to class, as what Lucy did in her class, their English level could sill be improved to some extend.

Conditions Required for Student Attention

Emily believed that students’ attention span was short. External force was a condition

to expand students’ attention span.

External Force

Emily perceived external force, such as a stimulus and a positive award, as a condition to extend students’ attention span. This belief was developed based on her teaching experience. When presenting her opinions regarding the issue of students’

attention, Emily recalled her teaching experience of a vocabulary lesson:

I think that students have short attention. For example, if I taught vocabulary for a longer while, some students began to feel bored and some became absent-minded. So stimuli are often provided to them. For example, after I have taught several words, I will let them play a game. I don’t know…Every time we mention “game,” students become excited and high-spirited. So I would let students know that they should attentively learn several words and then I would allow them to play games.

我覺得小朋友的專注力都很短，像之前我如果單字教的久一點，學生就會開 始覺得很無聊，然後有些人就會開始發呆，所以就要常常給他們刺激，像我 教完幾個單字以後，就會讓他們玩遊戲，不知道耶，每次講到要玩遊戲他們

都很high，精神就會變得特別好。所以我都會讓他們知道，你就先認真的學

幾個單字，之後我就會讓你們玩遊戲。

(Teacher Emily, Interview 2, 09/19/2007)

Emily felt that the students’ attention span was short, and she observed that providing stimuli (e.g., playing games) was a way to help the students become excited and high-spirited; this, in turn, could extend their attention span on English learning.

Therefore, Emily felt that stimulus was one of external forces and that using various types of tasks or games in class was a way for the teacher to grab students’ attention.

Based on this belief, Emily usually used different types of games or activities to trigger and sustain students’ attention in class.

In addition to stimulus, Emily believed that positive awards might be another

external force for triggering students’ attentive listening. The belief was developed from her teaching experience. In Emily’s class, providing bonus points was a kind of positive feedback for students because she told her students that they could accumulate their points and then they might get a big award at the end of the semester.

The researcher asked her beliefs of the use of this strategy, she explained her rationale:

I found that providing bonus points is convenient. If I give bonus points to one group, I found that the other groups become more concentrated and attentively listen to what I say or what I ask because they want to have bonus points, too.

我發現加分還滿好用的，因為只要我ㄧ加分，我發現其他組看到就會變得比

我發現加分還滿好用的，因為只要我ㄧ加分，我發現其他組看到就會變得比