الملخص الإنجليزي
This study aims to explore the relationship between beliefs and the implementation of the learner-centered approach among female Omani teachers in governmental schools. Assuming that teachers are following the ministerial guidelines of using learner-centeredness in ESL classrooms, learners therefore are expected to have developed autonomous learning abilities according to Borg and Albusaidi (2011). However, learners failed to develop autonomous learning capabilities, this lack of autonomy highlights the need to discover teachers' beliefs and their practices regarding learner-centeredness through an exploratory and reflective perspective and highlight the relationship between the held beliefs and the real implementation. To do so, a grounded theory research design was used.
This study followed a qualitative, inductive, iterative, comparative and simultaneous approach in data collection and analysis. Data was collected through interviews and observations. In the current study, a purposeful sampling was used where the researcher chooses participants based on their expertise on the field. Subsequently, theoretical sampling enabled the researcher to collect richer data based on the need to enrich emerging themes evoked through data analysis. The sample consisted of two Omani women teachers from two Omani governmental schools. The study revealed that teachers hold certain beliefs and perform several practices regarding the learner-centered approach. Teachers showed positive beliefs in some aspects of learner-centeredness such as critical thinking, bridging prior and new knowledge, collaborative work and intrinsic motivation. In addition, their implementation illustrated some aspects of learner-centered approach such as adaption and acceptance of learners' differences, critical thinking and building new knowledge on previous knowledge. Teachers' beliefs and implementation were found to be in congruence to some extent depending on some regulating factors such as educational policy, class size, training, course book and class population. As a theoretical contribution, findings from this study generated a working model that shows the articulation of teachers' beliefs and their implementation with relevant regulating factors represented in external and internal factors. The practical contributions are intended for the decision makers in planning the educational policy and professional development programs.
