the effect of class size on l2 teachers’ beliefsabout action research

Large second/foreign language (l2) classes are common and also a source of concern for many l2 teachers all around the world. although teachers’ beliefs about large class size have been investigated from different perspectives, no study has dealt with the effect of class size on teachers’ beliefs about action research (ar). thus, the main purpose of the present study was to find out whether there was any statistically significant difference in teachers’ beliefs about ar with respect to the size of the class in which they were teaching. in this way, the present study used the newly developed and validated inventory on teachers' beliefs about action research (itbar). the target sample of the present study consisted of 135 practicing elt teachers at different institutes, schools, and centers of higher education in iran. the participants were randomly divided into three equal groups of teachers (each consisted of 45 teachers) considering their class size (i.e., between 5-15 students, between 16-30 students, and 31 and more students). the results of the one-way anova test showed that the difference between the groups was not statistically significant, and the class size did not have any effect on teachers’ beliefs about ar. the findings might be attributed to the specific nature of ar, which is appropriate for any teaching context with any particular features.

The Effect of Class Size on L2 Teachers’ BeliefsAbout Action Research

Large second/foreign language (L2) classes are common and also a source of concern for many L2 teachers all around the world. Although teachers’ beliefs about large class size have been investigated from different perspectives, no study has dealt with the effect of class size on teachers’ beliefs about action research (AR). Thus, the main purpose of the present study was to find out whether there was any statistically significant difference in teachers’ beliefs about AR with respect to the size of the class in which they were teaching. In this way, the present study used the newly developed and validated Inventory on Teachers' Beliefs about Action Research (ITBAR). The target sample of the present study consisted of 135 practicing ELT teachers at different institutes, schools, and centers of higher education in Iran. The participants were randomly divided into three equal groups of teachers (each consisted of 45 teachers) considering their class size (i.e., between 5-15 students, between 16-30 students, and 31 and more students). The results of the one-way ANOVA test showed that the difference between the groups was not statistically significant, and the class size did not have any effect on teachers’ beliefs about AR. The findings might be attributed to the specific nature of AR, which is appropriate for any teaching context with any particular features.