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An Interview Study on Elementary School English Teachers’
Experiences of Knowledge Sharing
Chih-chun Chang (張智竣) & Jong-shing Liang (梁中行)
National Pingtung University of Education
Abstract
Knowledge sharing is not a new concept for many English teachers and researchers in Taiwan; yet little empirical evidence is available so far about whether and in what ways Taiwanese elementary school English teachers would engage in knowledge sharing. This study set out to answer the questions by interviewing seven elementary school English teachers in Pingtung County to explore their knowledge sharing experiences. The interview data show that these teachers frequently engaged in knowledge sharing in four different ways, and that the benefits they have gained from such experiences manifest in these three aspects: 1) broadening personal horizons, 2) clearing up some blind spots in their lessons and 3) diversifying their teaching techniques. The study also provides implications for English teachers and school authorities.
Key words: Knowledge sharing, Elementary school English teachers, EFL
INTRODUCTION
18 2007; Yen, 2003).
Advice of this kind has been well received. As Huang (2003) noted, the top three sources for the teachers in her survey to gain new knowledge and enhance expertise are talking with their colleagues, attending school-wide workshops, and joining professional growth communities. One key element for all these means to work well to help teachers solve problems and enhance expertise is their ability and willingness to share knowledge with others. As explained by Meijer, Verloop, and Beijaard (2001), teachers’ practical knowledge is individualized and unique, usually derived from their actual teaching experience, so they should do best to share their knowledge in order for their knowledge to circulate among colleagues and thus, to maximize its value. In other words, due to knowledge sharing, both the teacher who receives the knowledge and the teacher who gives it out will benefit and grow together.
Literature has shown that knowledge sharing can not only enhance teachers’ professional growth but also affect their teaching efficacy. Shih (2006) reported that teachers who often engage in knowledge sharing tend to teach better than those who seldom do. Chiang (2008) found that teachers who are more willing to get involved in knowledge sharing tend to gain more professional growth in areas such as teaching skills, classroom management, educational knowledge, professional attitude, and interpersonal communication. However, sharing knowledge is not something that happens easily and frequently, because people tend to hide their knowledge to keep advantages for their own interest, especially when they think their knowledge is unique, important, or valuable (Bock & Kim, 2001; Lin, 2009). As Collinson and Cook (2003) noted, teachers’ knowledge sharing has long been restricted by many factors, such as professional isolation, professional autonomy, and time for sharing, so their knowledge is not widely disseminated.
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1. In what ways do a group of elementary school English teachers in Pingtung get involved in knowledge sharing?
2. What benefits do they gain from their experiences of sharing knowledge?
LITERATURE REVIEW
In this knowledge-explosive century, knowledge is not only the cornerstone of a company or organization but also an important factor to sustaining its competitive advantages (Bock & Kim, 2001; De Long, & Fahey, 2000; Lee & Kang, 2005). Knowledge can mean different things. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary (11th edition), for example, defines knowledge in the following ways: knowledge is expertise or skills acquired by a person through experience or education; it is the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject; it is what is known in a particular field; and it is the awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. According to Davenport and Prusak (1998), knowledge is composed of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight; and it also provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information to lead our decision and behavior.
Knowledge Management and Knowledge Sharing
Before discussing more about knowledge sharing, we should understand what knowledge management is about. Knowledge management is a planned, structured approach to manage the creation, sharing, obtaining, and leveraging of knowledge, which can strengthen a company’s competence, speed and effectiveness (Plessis, 2007). Gloet and Terziovski (2004) argued that knowledge management can produce superior performance, encourage innovation, and enhance customer value. According to other researchers (Bock & Kim, 2001; Chiang, 2003; Lin, 2009), the whole knowledge management process entails five steps: creating, innovating, storing, sharing, and using knowledge, among which knowledge sharing is the most crucial step because without sharing, knowledge will be constrained in individuals and its value will never be spread.
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limited. Lin (2009) claimed that unlike other properties whose value will decrease as the times of using increase, knowledge is something that the more often it is shared, the more valuable it becomes. Therefore, to maximize the effects and value of knowledge, sharing is the key.
Ways to Share Knowledge
Knowledge sharing involves at least two parties: one who owns the knowledge and the other who not only receives the knowledge but also can perceive and make sense of the knowledge (Hendriks, 1999). Roughly, formal and informal ways of knowledge have been discerned in the literature (Davenport & Prusak, 1998; Lin, 2009; Taminiau, Smit, & De Lange, 2007). Formal ways of sharing include all kinds of services or activities initiated by an organization for learning from others, for example, apprenticeship, the knowledge database, seminars, or other formal networks through which information is conveyed and transmitted. Informal ways of knowledge sharing, by contrast, refer to all kinds of activities not intentionally organized by an institution or a particular person, such as a conversation or exchange of ideas at the coffee machine, or at the dinner table. This kind of sharing can facilitate knowledge exchange without particular purposes. It may even occur when two colleagues are commuting on the same train (Taminiau et al., 2007). Generally speaking, the informal form of knowledge sharing is more common, flexible, and widely used.
Factors Affecting Knowledge Sharing
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organization where asking someone for something is perceived to be shameful, or the staff are encouraged to hide valuable knowledge to maintain their competitiveness, or even no common language is available for the people to communicate with each other.
Although knowledge sharing will be hindered by many obstacles, people may still do it under certain conditions; for example, when they feel a sense of achievement for doing it, when they feel responsible to do it, or when they sense a better chance to be promoted by doing so (Hendriks, 1999). Davenport & Prusak (1998) provided an illuminating metaphor, the knowledge sharing market, to illustrate the three reasons or three kinds of payment that may cause people to share knowledge: reciprocity, reputation, and altruism. In the market, people who need knowledge are called knowledge buyers, and those who give out knowledge are knowledge sellers. Knowledge sellers “sell” their knowledge in order to receive payment. In other words, people are willing to share knowledge because they know that they could get some benefits from doing so, and such benefits, or the first kind of payment, reciprocity, are the main reason for them to share knowledge. Second, when knowledge sellers conceive their reputation will go higher or that they will be labeled as knowledgeable people if they share the valuable expertise they own, they may do so; what they earn from this “business transaction” can be called reputation. Finally, contrary to the above two, some people are born with a good heart and willing to help people without receiving any rewards; especially after certain ages, these people assume their lives will turn more meaningful if they pass on what they have known to descendants. For these people, sharing knowledge comes from a good cause, altruism.
Knowledge Sharing among Teachers in Taiwan
Essentially, knowledge sharing is not new to educators and educational researchers in Taiwan. However, in the English language teaching circle, not much research has been done to explore whether and in what ways elementary school English teachers share knowledge with their colleagues. Therefore, some studies involved elementary school teachers and junior high school English teachers will be reviewed in the following.
Hsieh (2010) found that elementary school teachers’ teaching efficacy depends largely on the effort they put to sharing knowledge; teachers who frequently involve in knowledge sharing are more likely to perform better in their teaching. Similar findings are also reported in the studies by W. L. Shih (2006) and C. H. Shih (2007). These studies support that knowledge sharing positively affects teachers’ professional growth and their teaching efficacy.
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knowledge of the following characteristics: that they can apply in their classes; that they believe can be grasped and controlled easily; that they can instantly digest; that works efficiently; that can help promote their professional growth and development, and that will strengthen their confidence in teaching. According to Lui’s (2006) findings, elementary school teachers most frequently share knowledge about teaching and learning, and next, about leisure activities and humanity discipline, but they seldom discuss political and technological issues.
As to junior high school English teachers, Shih (2008) found that they usually share professional knowledge, teaching techniques and materials, information on classroom management, and evaluation knowledge. Pan (2009) found that junior high school English teachers in Taipei most frequently share their individual knowledge and personal experience, such as the latest information of English teaching, useful skills to maintain classroom disciplines, or efficient ways to design and develop teaching materials.
Taken together, the studies reviewed above suggest that elementary and high school teachers in Taiwan do engage in knowledge sharing in one way or another. However, in light of the lack of studies exploring elementary school English teachers’ knowledge sharing, this study was designed to understand whether this group of teachers would share knowledge and in what ways they would do so.
THE STUDY
The study aimed to understand a group of elementary school English teachers’ experiences of knowledge sharing. Interviewing was adopted to collect data, because it has been suggested as a proper way to help researchers understand unobservable behavior that took place at some previous time or the experiences of the participants involved (Berg, 2009; Lichtman; 2010; McKay, 2006; Merriam, 2009).
Participants
Snowball sampling was taken to recruit interview participants for the study (Merriam, 2009; Roulston, 2010). The first author of the paper directly contacted and invited Participant A to participate in the study, who then agreed to be interviewed on October 5th, 2011. Then she introduced Participant B to be the second interviewee. The recruiting procedure went on like this until the seventh participant completed the interview on January 4th, 2012. All the participants were teaching English at elementary schools in Pingtung County during the time of interview; five of them are female, and the other two male. Table 1 details some of their relevant background.
23 Table 1: The Participants’ Background
Participant Gender Degree
held
Grade(s) taught Years of English
teaching
A female Master 4th,5th 5 years plus B female Bachelor 5th,6th 5 years plus
C male Master 6th 3-4 years
D female Master 5th,6th 1-2 years
E male Bachelor 4th,6th 5 years plus F female Master 4th,5th 5 years plus
G female Bachelor 6th 5 years plus
Data Collection
Following a semi-structured interview format, an interview guide was created, which was based on the knowledge sharing questionnaire developed by R. C. Shih (2008). The questions asked in the guide included: what information elementary school English teachers usually share, what reasons encouraging them to share knowledge, where they usually share knowledge, and so on (see Appendix for details).
Each participant was interviewed once. All interviews took place in the schools where they worked. Each interview ran about 40 to 50 minutes, including the time for the participants to read over an instruction sheet which clarified some basic concepts about knowledge management and knowledge sharing. The participants’ consent was obtained before each interview started. The interview was tape-recorded with their agreement. To member check the interview data, all participants were contacted for a second meeting to review the transcripts. But, due to some reasons, four participants were not available for a second meeting; then, an individual telephone interview was arranged with them respectively.
Data Analysis
Data analysis was based on the interview transcripts. After each interview, the tapes were transcribed verbatim. After several times of reading, different categories were created for coding and analysis; for example, knowledge shared by them, ways to share knowledge, factors affecting their willingness to share knowledge, what benefits they gained from their experiences, and the like.
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findings of the interview data near the end of the study. Their comments and feedback were taken as references in reshaping the final analysis of the study.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Overall, the analysis shows that all these seven teachers have engaged in knowledge sharing in some way. In the following paragraphs, two themes are discussed: 1) the ways in which they frequently engaged in knowledge sharing and 2) the benefits they have gained from such sharing experiences.
Ways to Share Knowledge
Based on the data, the participants frequently shared knowledge in the following ways: 1) chatting in an informal meeting, such as having meals or shopping together, or occasional encounters with colleagues; 2) using various Internet resources like MSN messengers, email, Face Book, or blogs; 3) attending workshops or seminars; and 4) participating in formal conferences inside the schools.
Informal chatting with other teachers
For these participants, knowledge sharing occurs most frequently when they chat with others face-to-face in a casual manner. As they reported, it is because such casual encounters provide them a more relaxed atmosphere to share all kinds of information, be it related to teaching or not. As Participant A recounted,
通常我覺得最多都是跟同事在閒聊的時候。對，面對面聊天的時候，常常就 會有機會跟大家討論教學上的問題。<Normally I think (knowledge sharing)
occurs during the informal chatting between my colleagues and me. Yep, when we talk to each other face to face, we would have the chance to share what is going on and the problems we have encountered in our teaching.>
Participant D echoed a similar view,
某些時候是老師們私下的聊天中可能剛好有碰到甚麼樣的需求或主題，而我 剛好有，就會問對方要不要；像她們前陣子在講學生問題，我剛好有那種主 題的繪本，就會問有沒有需要。然後我就會去找出來給她。這種聊天就比較 不是刻意的分享。<Sometimes when we teachers meet together, some needs or
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Similar experiences were also recounted by the other participants. In the interviews, these teachers also spoke of their opinions about this way of sharing knowledge. As Participant A said,
聊天的時候就是最自然，就是最沒有壓力的；你想說什麼就可以說什麼。所 以這會是我最想分享的時候。我認為就是在聊天的時候就是最…最真誠的時 候，而且是沒有壓力的。 < Chatting is the most natural and least stressful
moment; you can say anything you want to say. So I think it is during this time, that people are most sincere and feel least pressure.>
Participant C added, 透過聊天的方式來分享知識的話，我個人的動機是比較強烈的。因為有些東 西是你去聊天，聊一聊，聊出來的，又不是說一定要在很正式的場合。不管 跟教學有沒關係，聊天會比較容易帶到自己感興趣的主題，因為有興趣才有 可能成為共同的話題。那因為聊天不一定是完全聊教學上的，取得的東西內 容會比較廣，所以比起正式的場合像研習啊，我是比較偏好私底下聊天的方 式。 <Personally I have a stronger motivation to share knowledge by chatting.
Because I think some information can be gained through chatting and knowledge sharing is not always supposed to be done in formal occasions. No matter
related to teaching or not, the topics shared in chatting are usually the ones that you would concern, because only when people are interested in the topics will the topics become their sharing issues. In addition, the issues shared in informal chatting are not always related to teaching, and thus the knowledge we gain would be broad. Therefore, I prefer chatting with colleagues than participating in seminars or workshops.>
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quick fix to any problems that suddenly occur to them at that moment. Therefore, they displayed the best preference of this kind of knowledge sharing.
Utilizing the Internet resources
The second most common way for these participants to share knowledge is through the Internet resources, such as MSN messenger, emails, blogs, and even Face Book, the currently hottest community website. The following extracts illustrate how they used these resources to share knowledge.
目前我最頻繁的分享管道就是 Face Book，我猜我已經把 Face Book 用到一 個極致了吧。<So far the way through which I share my knowledge the most is
Face Book. I would say that I’ve pushed the use of Face Book to the limit.>
(Participant E)
我會在 FB 的社群，只是我那是封閉的；有時有什麼新東西就會 po 上去跟 同事分享。…網路的部份大概三管齊下啦；部落格、FB、email 都會同步這 樣子。<I would post some new information on my Face Book community to
share it with my colleagues.… But the community is not open to the public, but just for certain restricted members. As to the Internet, I tend to share what I know through my blog, the Face Book, and the email; the information on the three tools is synchronized.> (Participant F)
我還滿常透過網路資源去分享或者是得到一些資訊耶；比如說像 blog 或
Face Book 啊。我本身就會寫部落格來分享一些東西，也會去逛逛其他老師
的部落格得到一些資訊。<I usually utilize the Internet resources like blogs or
Face Book to give out or obtain some information. I would put what I know on my blog and seek information on other teachers’ blogs.> (Participant G)
These extracts show that Internet tools have become a common communication tool for these teachers to share knowledge, and that the Internet resources favored by them included MSN messenger, emails, blogs, and community website such as Face Book. A similar trend is also found among the teachers studied by Shih (2008).
In the interview, these teachers explained why they relied so much on the Internet resources for knowledge sharing. Participant A had this to say,
有時候跟導師們談學生的問題，如果說不方便碰面，偶爾還是透過 MSN。而 且透過這樣的管道，也不需要支出額外的費用向電話費啊之類的。
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And using such internet resources does not cost extra money like paying the phone bill.>
Participant A noted that Internet resources are really like a good substitute to face-to-face chatting with other teachers. Since the access to the Internet is easily available for them and having conversations on the Internet costs them nothing, they would naturally get their teaching problems solved through the Internet resources, especially when it is inconvenient for them to go outside their house to meet other teachers.
Another reason for using the Internet resources is their open-to-public feature. Participant E explained this point in this way,
因為 FB 是公開的。越來越多人加入，就會知道說同一個 topic 可以玩出什 麼不同的花樣。我覺得網路這種東西是值得大家好好去利用。 <Because
Face Book is open to the public, the more people join it, the more ideas can be generated. In this case, teachers will be able to know what different teaching methods can be used to run the same topic of the lesson. >
Obviously, through the Internet, teaches are able to interact with one another at different places and their communication would not be constrained by physical or distance barriers. In fact, they can also collect new and more diversified information through this way, as explained by Participants E and G,
我覺得 FB 好處是說，不斷有新東西 po 上去，然後有人會來看，加入好友 後，他們會有點子也會跟我分享。<I think that one of the advantages of Face
Book is that on FB, we would constantly post the latest information; then people would come and may become one of the friends in your friend list, and they would share some information or ideas with me.> (Participant E)
我覺得透過 FB 或一些網路資源像部落格的話，跟你分享的人可能是來自全 球的。獲得的資訊一定會比較多元。而且其實 FB 上面好多知識可以看，也 看不完。<We can get diversified information by sharing with the Internet
resources like Face Book or blogs because the people who we share knowledge with could be from other countries. There is just too much information on Face Book for us to absorb.> (Participant G)
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the Internet, more knowledge may be generated and thus, more benefits may be brought to those who use it.
In addition, convenience and promptness provided by the Internet resources also attracted these teachers to use them to share knowledge. As Participant E explained,
比較起來我還是比較喜歡 FB。因為 workshop 畢竟不是常態性的，那如果是 私人機構的又要繳錢；如果是免費的你會想說看看這個講師 O 不 OK，所以， 有太多不確定因素。可是 FB 是隨時，比如哪個老師今天辦了甚麼活動，大 家都放在網路上，可以點進去直接看他的說明、照片、學生作品，甚至看他 的影片。我覺得這是非常的即時的。而且你對這個有疑問，你想知道後續細 節怎樣處理的話，你還可以寫私訊給那個作者、朋友。那他如果樂意分享的 話，你就可以知道更多的東西。所以這一來一往非常便利和即時。
<I prefer Face Book to workshops, because workshops are not commonly held; on the contrary, Face Book is always there. In addition, too much uncertainty exists in participating in workshops; for example, workshops held by private organizations cost money, and we can not be certain about the quality of the lecturers of those free workshops. However, we can log on our Face Book anytime we want; just by several clicks can we get access to the details of the activities conducted by other teachers and posted on Face Book. We can
understand the activities from the illustration, photos, students’ works, and even videos, which is of high promptness. Furthermore, we can contact the authors by sending immediate messages if interested in more details, and from their sharing, we can learn lots more. The interaction on Face Book is very convenient and instantaneous. >
Participant E pointed to two more advantages of using Face Book -- convenience and promptness. Through the Internet English teachers can easily reach the information posted by other teachers that they need, and they can also immediately respond to and receive feedback from the person who originally posted the information. Such a fast-speed give-and-take can also efficiently create and spread new knowledge. This view was supported by Participant F, shown in the following statement,
那因為老師都是面對面碰到才能做分享；所以其實在網路上還是最快的 啦。我會在 FB 的社群…有時有什麼新東西就會 po 上去跟同事分享。那是 最快最迅速的。<Our knowledge sharing usually occurs when meeting other
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Taken together, this group of elementary school English teachers would choose the Internet resources to share knowledge because of the following reasons; 1) Internet resources are convenient, and sometimes they serve as a good substitute for meeting face to face; 2) the Internet resources, with their open-to-public feature, can facilitate knowledge creation and make knowledge generation faster than before; 3) the Internet resources enable English teachers to walk beyond the hindrance of regional distance to interact with more people and share their knowledge as well; 4) Face Book, quipped with several functions, can satisfy English teachers’ diverse needs for teaching; and 5) Internet resources, featured by its promptness, provide English teachers with instantaneous chances to learn information from other teachers.
Attending formal workshops or seminars
Thirdly, workshops and seminars can also be a common site for these teachers to share knowledge. The following two participants recounted their experiences of attending a seminar and their reasons for sharing knowledge in such formal occasions.
每個禮拜三下午會有工作坊，工作坊的時候你就必須要表達你自己的意見。 然後所以這種時候就是被迫，也會做知識分享。<We have workshops every
Wednesday afternoon; we have to express our opinions in these workshops. In these occasions, it is more like “you have to share what you have” way of knowledge sharing.> (Participant A)
知識分享的話，研習當然就是最常的一種。但是研習通常都是去聽人家分 享，比較不是自己主動去…嗯…對啊。但在那種場合，還是可以有機會可以 跟其他人互動、有一些知識或經驗上的交流啦。<Attending seminars is of
course one of the most frequent ways for knowledge sharing; however, we are more likely to be a listener than a knowledge disseminator in this context. Even so, in that kind of occasions, we can still have chances to interact with other teachers and share some knowledge or experience with them.> (Participant B)
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When asked how they felt about this way of knowledge sharing, the participants voiced different opinions. For example, Participant A felt somewhat “forced” to do so, although she quickly justified her “forced” feeling by saying the following in the interview: 我所謂的被迫就是，就是最後當然你有可能被問到「那你們這組討論的結果 是什麼？」 所以就是你必須要有一些產出。當然就算是一種產出型的工作 坊。其實還是有它的效果。因為它雖然算是一個正式的場合，但是其實你在 這樣子的情況下也是可以激發出一些想法。因為如果像聊天的話是比較漫無 目的地聊，但是如果說它有給你一個主旨，就要你做出什麼來，那或許你會 比較有方向。然後集思廣益。這樣的知識分享，我想一定還是有它的效用。
<What I meant by saying “we were forced to share” is that in such occasions, we were certainly to be asked, “what conclusion does your group have?”, so that we have to come up with something to report about the topic. It’s more likely to be an output-oriented workshop. Of course this kind of formal workshops functioned well, because we could be stimulated to generate some ideas. Compared to chatting, chatting is more likely to be done without specific purposes; however, in formal workshops or seminars, the participants can easily follow the direction led by a designated topic, and contribute their thoughts. This kind of knowledge sharing, to some extent, has certain effectiveness.>
Clearly, though Participant A sometimes felt obliged to share something in a formal workshop, knowledge sharing occurring in this occasion was still of some help to her. In other words, though paying extra time and energy for preparation to share might make her nervous or under stress, Participant A still acknowledged the gaining through “being forced to share knowledge” in such a formal setting. Similar viewpoint was reported by Participant F, too. As she indicated in the interview, the reason for her to get engaged in knowledge sharing via formal settings like workshops or seminars was that the information obtained in such occasions tended to be fresh and fast and of good quality. As she explained:
網路上是有這種知識分享的管道啦，有一個叫國教社群網，它會把該通告的 訊息 po 在上面。但實際上我覺得真正獲得一些資訊還是要去參與座談會； 比如說像一些跨縣市的工作坊、還有一些研習活動。因為其實那種訊息是最 新最快，而且品質也是偏比較好一些。<We actually have some avenues for
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beneficial to attend meetings such as some cross-county workshops and some seminars if we really want to know something informative, because the information obtained in that kind of settings would be the latest, fastest, and better in quality.>
For Participant F, to attend seminars or workshops is indeed a fast way to learn something new and good. In other words, her willingness to attend workshops or seminars stems from a belief that she can really learn something from this formal way of knowledge sharing.
In the following, Participant B pointed to another reason why she attended a seminar or workshop, namely, whether the topic is interesting and appealing or not.
像我參加研習，主要就是因為它的主題吸引我。如果我對這個主題不太有興 趣，就不太會有意願想參加。就算去了可能就是會做些自己的事情像改考卷 或看書之類的。<The major reason for me to participate in a seminar was
mainly because its topic attracted my. I would feel reluctant to participate if I am not interested in the issue discussed in the seminar. If I have no choice but to attend the seminar that I am not interested in, I would probably just do my own things like grading test sheets or doing some other reading.>
As Participant B clearly shows, “personal interest” plays a crucial factor in drawing her to attend a seminar. If the topic of the seminar did not appeal to her, she would rather do something else during the seminar, which of course will limit the effect of showing up in the seminar. A similar view was revealed by Participant C,
很多時候研習是因為被逼的。公文強迫說一定要去；各校都要參加。所以主 任給你時，他會把「務必」畫起來。但說實話有些正式場合的東西可能不是 你需要的。就像研討會。你就被強迫要坐在那三個小時。<I would say that
many times we were forced to attend a seminar. The government paper requires our attendance to the seminars; every school has to send a person to the meeting. In this case, the director would point at the characters, must attend, written on the official document. However, to be frank, everything provided in this kind of formal meetings is usually not what we need, but we have to be there, being forced, for three hours.>
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and even if he had to, he would feel strongly that he was obliged to do so. Here, Participants B and C send a clear message that to a large degree, a willingness to attend a seminar or workshop for knowledge sharing depends on whether and how much the topic of the meeting is interesting or not.
In brief, these English teachers attend formal settings, such as seminars and workshops, basically due to two reasons. First, these seminars or workshops could help them gather and generate more knowledge for use, although they sometimes felt obliged or reluctant to attend. Second, whether they feel the topic of a workshop or seminar is a big concern for them to decide whether to attend it or not.
Taking part in school meetings
In elementary schools, meetings for teachers to attend are basically divided into two kinds; one requires all the teachers to be present, and the other is called on for the teachers of a particular subject. According to the participants, school meetings also serve them a good chance to share knowledge. Participants B and D recounted their experiences of sharing knowledge in meetings like,
領域會議就會有一個主要是召集人吧。他會把今天要先討論的東西都列出 來，然後都討論出來後就是看大家彼此之間教學有沒有甚麼問題。因為其實 剛好同一個領域，遇到自然都會講說：ㄟ，我最近遇到甚麼事情或有甚麼問 題。大家會拿出來討論。<In the academic domain meetings for English teachers,
the sponsor would first list the issues to be discussed. After discussion, we would move on to talk about the problems which every teacher encountered in his or her teaching. We belong to the same teaching domain, so it is natural for us to bring up our problems or difficulties, and discussion would be made on them.>
(Participant B)
有些時候會在晨會上做一些分享，跟私下聊天比起來當然是比較刻意的。
<Sometimes I would share what I know in the morning conferences. Of course the sharing in this occasion is more purposeful when compared to the sharing
through chatting.> (Participant D)
Three participants explained that knowledge sharing could also occur in such formal settings like school meetings led by particular teachers or directors. Participant D herself is one of the school directors, so she was usually the one who led the meetings.
33
其實透過會議來分享知識也滿不錯的，因為其實大家都各教各的，也很少有 機會會湊在一起。所以剛好可以藉這個機會互通有無一下。或是說我剛好這 邊有甚麼學習單啊，你有沒有要用這樣子；這樣還蠻好的。<In fact, it is not
a bad idea to share knowledge in conferences like this. Because we teachers are usually occupied by our own teaching, we seldom have chance to get together, so meeting with others in conferences provides us a good chance to give out what we have and receive what we lack. For example, I may share my student learning sheets with other teachers. It feels good to do things like that.>
For Participant B, school meetings like the above provided teachers a nice chance to get together and interact with one another, assisting them to exchange what they have known and to take in what they have not. While supporting this view, Participant E provided another benefit of attending school meetings,
還有像是專業成長的會議；聊一聊也會產生一些不錯的點子。<In some
conferences for professional growth, some great ideas may be generated in our discussion.>
The benefit that Participant E mentioned to have gained from school meetings was that some practical ideas might be created through the interactions among the conference attendees.
On the other hand, Participant D revealed that how well knowledge could be shared among teachers in a conference might be determined by their attitude toward the information to be shared; that is, whether or how much the information was needed by the teachers involved. As she explained,
會議中的分享 … 不一定是比較有效，因為那樣子的分享可能不是每個人當 下都需要的東西，所以會來拿資料的人可能會是一半，因為不見得每個人都 會有需求。<What we share in the meetings …is not always effective because the
information shared in the meetings does not always meet every teacher’s needs; therefore, teachers coming for relevant resources may be just half of the
conference participants because not every one of them needs the information.>
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From the extracts presented above, we may infer that this group of English teachers’ knowledge sharing experiences occurred in formal settings like conferences or meetings due to the following reasons. First, meeting with other teachers in conferences provides them convenience to share knowledge with colleagues. Second, in the conferences, some useful ideas may be gained through the discussion among the conference participants. Third, the participants, to some extent, are required to show up in the conferences, so the knowledge sharing observed in the conferences is more like “the product under coercion”; even so, they can still learn something that they need to or want to know.
So far, the four ways in which these participants most frequently shared knowledge are discussed. However, another way of knowledge sharing also deserves some of our attention, because it was commonly mentioned by the participants but usually, followed up with comments like, “I seldom used the way” or “I am not used to using the way”; that was, using the school-wide information platform or database. Normally, in order to provide teachers with a convenient way to exchange thoughts or share knowledge, schools are usually generous to spend extra money to establish database in school systems or acquire the right to access to the information platforms set and monitored by organizations outside the school. However, based on the participants’ experiences, this kind of sharing seemed not appealing enough to them. For example, Participants B reported:
那個學校是有做這個平台，可是大家好像不常用。我記得那時候是有說每個 領域會有一個平台，可是好像大家都沒有習慣上去耶。也沒有習慣把東西放 上去。<Our school actually has such a platform for teachers to upload their
documents or information to share with other teachers, but it seems that the teachers make little use of the platform. I remember that it was once announced that the information platform was set for each subject domain; however, teachers are not accustomed to logging on and putting information on it.>
Participants C, E, and F, shared a similar view,
我們有這樣的平台，可是沒有人去用。除非他有硬性規定說要把甚麼東西放 上去。變成大家繳作業或法定規定的一個報告的一個平台。不會有老師會主 動把自己的東西放上去，像自編教材啊等等的。<We have similar platform for
35 (Participant C)
我們也有網路平台，但我很少會用那個東西。因為我絕得那個太靜態了，而 且有時後連線會不穩。<We have facility like knowledge sharing platform, but I
seldom make use of it. It is too static, and sometimes the connection to the server is unstable.> (Participant E)
我們學校的平台是有，但是我不認為大家有把這些事情弄好。我們學校有網 路資料庫是學校買的，很大的資料庫。學校教職員都可以丟資料上去。可是 我覺得這種東西最後是流於行政類在放資料的空間。教學部分能看得到的不 多。<My school has such a platform, which is a large database purchased by
school. The faculty and staff members can put documents or information on it; however, I do not think that our teachers have made good use of the database; it finally becomes a platform for the staff members to store their files; materials regarding teaching can hardly be seen.> (Participant F)
The above extracts suggest that these English teachers seldom used the database or platform prepared by their schools. That they did not frequently use this facility may be caused by two reasons. First, it is not promoted by the school staff members, and second, it requires teachers to spend additional time and effort for this, as proposed by Participant F:
不常使用的原因，因為第一個，沒有推廣，有些人可能不太清楚如何去使用； 第二個，說實話，你要把東西放上去，是需要時間跟工程的，沒有那個時間 跟精力啊。<We seldom use the platform because first, the platform was not
effectively promoted, and therefore some teachers have no idea about how to use it; second, it takes time and effort to arrange and put things on it, but we actually do not have the time and energy.>
As a result, no matter how helpful this kind of platforms is claimed to be, it may eventually turn out to be a waste of money simply because it is seldom used. Hence, how to effectively induce teachers to access to such platforms or database is a serious issue for the school authority to think through.
Benefits gained from knowledge sharing
36
see and clear up the blind spots hidden in the teaching process; and 3) innovating teaching
Broadening personal horizon
When asked how she felt about her experience of knowledge sharing, Participant A replied,
我覺得這很好啊，因為每個學校有各種不同專長的老師嘛，所以說如果大家 可以組成教學團隊，那這個教學團隊間是互相知識分享的，然後進而又可以 到其他學校去進行分享的話，那當然對於比較偏遠地方或比較孤立的老師會 很有幫助。<I think it’s good to share our knowledge. Every school has teachers
with different expertise, and if the teachers get together to form a teaching group where knowledge is shared, the team will be really useful. Especially when the team members go to other remote schools to share what they know, it will be very helpful for the teachers working in those remote areas. >
Participant A clearly stated that through knowledge sharing, she could not only gain new knowledge from other English teachers, but can also learn something different from the teachers with different expertise than hers. Gains of this kind seem especially helpful for teachers who work in a remote area and lack enough teaching resources, as elaborated by Participant D:
加上這邊可能因為是鄉下的學校，所以我們一直感覺城鄉差距很大。就會一 直希望跟音樂老師合作，看是不是我們可以做其他英文的加深加廣的東西。 老師會把她的想法跟我們做溝通跟對話之後才實際去做。 <We strongly
sense the rural-urban disparity in students’ English ability because our school is located in a rural area. I’ve been hoping to cooperate with the music teacher to see whether English can be combined with musical curriculum to further promote English in our school. Then the music teacher would discuss with us about her ideas before putting the thoughts into practice.>
If working well with teachers of other expertise, in other words, English teachers can gather new ideas outside the English teaching field and integrate these ideas into their own English classes.
Besides obtaining new knowledge from other teachers, another benefit that could be gained through knowledge sharing was that their original thoughts would be refined with the new knowledge they gained, as revealed by Participants E,
37
想法阿。如果自己有新鮮的點子也很樂意可以跟大家分享。…我覺得更需
要，因為英語算是一門較新的科目，如果說一個禮拜選一個時間大家沒課的 時候坐下來聊，我覺得可以知道每個人的獨特想法。大家聊天也可以撞擊出 火花，蠻不錯的。<I think it is great to share our knowledge. It is better to know
other people’s thoughts than secluding ourselves from current trend and being satisfied with stale teaching methods and materials which have existed for a long time. It is awesome to share innovative ideas with others. Especially since English is a relatively new subject, it would be great if we can, maybe once a week, sit down and talk about each other’s unique ideas. Something great may thus occur.>
According to Participant E, if English teachers engage in knowledge sharing, they would get the chance to keep abreast of the current trend of teaching and at the same time, keep them away from using the same teaching methods and materials repetitively. Participant G added a similar view:
我是還滿喜歡分享我個人所知道的東西。當你在分享時，你也可以獲得別人 的回應。別人可能可以給你更多的建議，可以修正你原來的東西。你所獲得 的東西讓你的知識不僅僅是這樣。<Personally I am very fond of sharing what
I know. When I am sharing, I may obtain responses from others. The responses include many suggestions by which I can make some modification to what I have known; thus, my horizon will be broadened.>
As Participant G illustrated, sharing knowledge with others can not only feed her with the knowledge that she originally did not think of, but also strengthen what she already has.
In these days, few would disagree that the current teaching environment has been more complicated than before due to the rapid developments in the society, so unexpected problems may occur easily and commonly in any classroom. To tackle well such problems, teachers must expand their knowledge base (Chang, 2010; Chen, 2009; Yang, 2007). According to these teachers’ experiences, knowledge sharing seems to be the key in this regard.
Seeing and clearing up blind spots
38
我覺得很有啊，很有效。就是說因為自己在自己的教室上課，有時候會有盲 點。所以，常常跟同事之間互相聊，或是去參加研習也是一種知識分享；對 解決這些問題其實都是有幫助的。<I think knowledge sharing is useful and
effective. What I mean is that, in our teaching, blind spots sometimes do exist. So, talking with colleagues, or participating in seminars is also part of knowledge sharing, and both are helpful in taking care of the problems. > (Participant B)
知識分享喔，我覺得很好。因為有時候你自己課堂上你看不到自己的盲點， 但是你提出來分享之後，會因為同儕的老師大概四、五個，甚至一、兩個都 沒有關係，他們會給你一點建議啦，就算只有一、兩點。你可能做些調整之 後，會發現有些東西是有改善的。 <For knowledge sharing, I think it is good
because sometimes we can hardly see our own blind spots in class. However, when we get involved in knowledge sharing, some colleagues, maybe four or five people, even one or two people, they may provide some suggestions for us to make improvement, and after that we might find out that something has really been improving.> (Participant C)
Here, these two participants seem to support, with their personal experiences, that knowledge sharing can assist them to see what they failed to see and what they failed to do previously, which is very likely to cause difficulties to their teaching. In addition, knowledge sharing can help them gain useful suggestions or measures to use in tackling the blind spots and thus, to improve their teaching efficacy.
Innovating teaching
The third benefit that the participants believed to have gained from knowledge sharing is that their teaching expertise could be innovated. As Participant E reported in the following extract, he could share some of his ideas or teaching strategies to other teachers and see whether these ideas could run effectively in those teacher’s classes. If the ideas proved applicable and practical, he could make further innovations from their experimentations to the original ideas he has to improve his own teaching. As he said,
我自己有新鮮的點子也很樂意可以跟大家分享，可以知道說是我的個人特質 才有辦法在我的班級使用成功還是這個東西每個老師都可以用得著。其實最 終目的還是希望可以用在教學上面。順便可以知道我的東西，別人可以用的 話，我可以多多的發展；就是多寫類似這樣的教材。<When I have new ideas,
39
would guess that the ideas work effectively in my class is probably because they match my personality. In fact, the ultimate purpose is still for teaching; I can innovate the ideas and further develop similar kinds of teaching materials if I find the ideas practical for other teachers.>
Furthermore, Participant F mentioned,
如果教學上要再成長的話，知識分享是一個必要的東西。因為在教學過程中 一定會遇到一些…不見得是瓶頸，會遇到那種混沌的狀態。教久了好像就這 樣子。好像就不再有創新，或者是連自己都疲憊不堪。<I think sharing
knowledge with others is necessary for personal growth. During teaching process, we would certainly meet some…I won’t put it “bottleneck”, but it’s a kind of chaos; you see no innovation or even feel exhausted after teaching for a period of time.>
According to Participant F, after teaching for a period of time, English teachers would be short of innovative ideas to diversify their teaching, which will cause bad effect to both teachers and students. So, both giving out individual knowledge and receiving other teachers’ knowledge serve as good ways to freshen up their minds and improve their professional growth; this point is in line with the finding that knowledge sharing can positively affect teachers’ professional growth and teaching efficacy (Cheng, 2005; Chiang, 2008; Hsieh, 2010).
To sum up, the benefits resulting from these participants’ knowledge sharing are threefold: broadening their personal horizon, helping them to see and solve some blind spots in teaching, and finally innovating their teaching. Probably due to these benefits, all the participants of the study showed a favorable attitude toward knowledge sharing.
CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS
40 teaching efficacy and professional growth.
Some implications can be drawn from these two findings. First, to improve their teaching performance, English teachers should seriously consider to get involved in knowledge sharing in a more active and aggressive manner. As shown by the teachers’ experiences, knowledge is really something that the more it is shared, the more benefits it will bring to those who are involved.
Second, English teachers should be more aware of the importance of knowledge sharing and avail themselves to sharing knowledge, because doing so helps them gain more knowledge and know-how to increase their repertoire of teaching skills.
Third, English teachers must make good use of the Internet resources due to their convenience and other advantages illustrated previously. As technology advances rapidly and impacts greatly on modern people’s lives, being able to use the Internet technology can better English teachers’ teaching because they can not only garner lots of information through the Internet resources, but also get their problems solved through the instantaneous interaction with other teachers on the Internet.
Finally, as the participants reported, their schools do have set up information database for them to share what they know; however, this kind of platforms seems nearly “abandoned”. This kind of facility was established with good intention but ended up becoming a waste of both money and resources. For this reason, school authorities should take some measures to promote this kind of platforms and set relevant policies to encourage their teachers to make full use of them; in this way, the advantages of such information platforms can be attained.
This study has some limitations as well. First, in this small scale study only seven elementary school teachers were invited to be interviewed. Every participant has his or her unique experience, which makes it difficult to generalize the study’s outcomes to other teachers. Second, this study employed snowball sampling to recruit interview participants, and this has led to the fact that the participants come from only three districts of Pingtung County, which leaves unheard the voices of the teachers teaching in the other school districts of the county.
41
the knowledge sharing experiences reported in this study might be different than that of junior or senior high school English teachers. To make the literature more complete, studies on English teachers at different levels should also be done.
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Appendix: The Interview Questions
