Investigation of the relationship between epistemological beliefs and teaching styles of English teachers (İzmir sample)

Relationship between English teacher's epistemological beliefs and teaching styles is investigated in terms of several variables in this study. Epistemological Belief Scale (Deryakulu ve Büyüköztürk, 2002) and Teaching Styles Scale (Sarıtaş ve Süral, 2010) were conducted in this survey. 347 English teachers were included in the study. As a result of the analysis, significant difference was found between English teacher's epistemological beliefs and teaching styles. It was found that authoritarian teaching style was the most embraced style among English teachers. It was also found that English teachers had more sophisticated belief in the dimension of the belief of learning depending on effort. There was no significant relation between English teacher's epistemological beliefs and teaching styles in terms of gender. English teachers experienced between 21 and 25 years had more sophisticated beliefs than others had. In addition, teachers graduated from foreign language based high schools had higher degree of delegator teaching style than teachers graduated from other type of schools.