EFFECTIVE USE OF THE EPOSTL BY STUDENT TEACHERS OF ENGLISH – EFUESTE APRIL 2015, ANTALYA, TURKEY STUDENT TEACHERS’ AND ACADEMICS’ VIEWPOINTS ON THE USE OF EPOSTL IN ELT Funda ÖLMEZ Kadriye AKSOY Elif AYBER Ece AFŞARLI

CONTENT Introduction Literature Review Methodology Findings Conclusion

1. Introduction Curriculum change in Education Faculties in 2006 (Ozoğlu, 2010). -the increase of the general courses, -the possibility of choosing 25% of the whole program

The new program was designed in line with: -Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) (European Council, 2002) -European Portfolio of Student Language Teachers (EPOSTL), -The criteria of foreign language teacher education programs -Education faculties (Hismanoglu, 2012).

Assessment (Hismanoglu, 2012). According to the new program, performance- based assessment should be used, and this is best accomplished by using “portfolio” Teacher educators: never used portfolio assessment (31.9%) rarely used (61.1%) always used (6.9%) according to 72 student teachers of foreign language education departments.

2. Literature Review Cakir and Balcikanli (2012) to understand the views of ELT student teachers’ and teacher trainers’ views on the use of the EPOSTL in Turkey the EPOSTL was implemented as a reflection tool for the second semester of student teachers and 4 teacher trainers RESULTS: EPOSTL beneficial in terms of reflection, self-assessment and awareness.

Okumus and Akalın (2015) to determine the pre-service teachers’ views on the role of the EPOSTL in increasing the effectiveness of methodology course a pilot study in which the EPOSTL was used in Methodology course for 16 weeks. semi-structured interviews with 8 student teachers RESULTS: EPOSTL increased the effectiveness of the Methodology course since it provided more feedback, self-assessment and reflection.

Aim of th e study To find out the views of student teachers and academics on the use of EPOSTL in Turkey Research Questions 1.What are the attitudes of student teachers towards the use of EPOSTL? 2.What are the attitudes of academics towards the use of EPOSTL? 3.Is there a significant difference between the attitudes of student teachers and academics towards the use of EPOSTL? 4.What are the attitudes of student teachers towards self-assessment? 5.What are the attitudes of academics towards self-assessment? 6.Is there a significant difference between the attitudes of student teachers and academics towards self assessment?

3. Methodology a. Participants 27 student teachers 21 academics

3. Methodology b. Instrument: A questionnaire A.Demographic information 7 items B.General views on self-assessment 19 items C.General views on the EPOSTL 21 items D.Descriptors in the EPOSTL 26 items

c. Data Collection Questionnaire: administered online d. Data Analysis Statistical analysis via SPSS 20 Descriptive analysis and Mann-Whitney U Test

4. Findings R.Q. 1. What are the attitudes of student teachers towards the use of EPOSTL? Section Student Teachers’ Viewpoints on the EPOSTL n MSD Content Use and Practicality Assessment Self Reflection Dossier Descriptors

R.Q.2. What are the attitudes of academics towards the use of EPOSTL? Section Academics’ Viewpoints on the EPOSTL n MSD Content Use and Practicality Assessment Self Reflection Dossier Descriptors

R.Q.3. Is there a significant difference between the attitudes of student teachers and academics towards the use of EPOSTL? Section Student Teachers Academics Up n Mean Rank Sum of Ranks n Mean Rank Sum of Ranks Content Use and Practicality Assessment Self Reflection Dossier Descriptors A significant difference between STs’ and As’ viewpoints only in terms of content according to the results of Mann-Whitney U test (p <.05).

R.Q.4. What are the attitudes of student teachers towards self-assessment?

R. Q. 5. What are the attitudes of academics towards self-assessment? Section Academics’ Viewpoints n MSD Self Assessment

R.Q.6. Is there a significant difference between the attitudes of student teachers and academics towards the use of EPOSTL? Section Student Teachers Academics Up n Mean Rank Sum of Ranks n Mean Rank Sum of Ranks Self Assessment

5. Conclusion 1) EPOSTL: not examined by most of the participants 2) Both STs and As: positive attitudes towards the use of the EPOSTL in Turkey -No significant difference between STs and As except for the content of the EPOSTL 3) Both STs and As: positive attitudes towards self-assessment -No significant difference between STs and As

5. Conclusion Viewpoints: POSITIVE Yet, the implementation of the EPOSTL needs to be promoted. For those who are not familiar with the EPOSTL: -a need to introduce the EPOSTL to STs and As -a need to implement the EPOSTL effectively for self-assesment

References Cakir, A., & Balcikanli, C. (2012). The Use of the EPOSTL to Foster Teacher Autonomy: ELT Student Teachers’ and Teacher Trainers’ Views. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37(3), Hismanoglu, S. (2012). Prospective EFL teachers’ views on English language teacher training program. Journal of Research in Education and Teaching, 1(2), Okumus, K. & Akalın, S. (2015). Incorporating EPOSTL (European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages) into methodology course. International Journal on New Trends in Education and Their Implication. 6(1), Özoğlu, M. (2010). Türkiye’de Öğretmen Yetiştirme Sisteminin Sorunları. Seta Analiz, 17, 1-37.

Thank you!