M.A. Thesis:

Heterogeneous Classes: Complexity in Managing English Language Classes in Iranian public High Schools among More vs. Less Experienced English Language Teachers

Teaching in heterogeneous language classes is a real challenge to teachers. Accordingly, in the present thesis, the nature of the heterogeneity issues was investigated among English language teachers at Ministry of Education( MoE) in Sabzevar. Data collection occurred during three main stages through an exploratory research design. In the first stage, an initial assessment of the probable worries and threats of heterogeneity was made among six English teachers with more than twenty years of experience. The extracted codes were divided into several domains with three main components which included (1) the effect of heterogeneity on students’ performance, (2) the effect of heterogeneity on the performance of teachers, and (3) the causes of heterogeneity. In the second stage, 24 teachers included two cohorts of experienced (over 15 years of experience) and less experienced (under 15 years) teachers answered the open-ended questionnaire with five questions. Then, content analysis was carried out on the suggestions given by this group of teachers and the related components of the questionnaire were extracted and coded. In the third stage, an online questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale with 24 items was designed and distributed online to teachers of MoE in Iran and different provinces. The data was collected and validated among 55 volunteering teachers who answered the questionnaire. It was often believed that the negative effects of heterogeneous classes on strong students were higher than that of weak students, and teachers were discouraged because of the need to use various activities for students to learn better. The causes of heterogeneity were related to the physical and mental characteristics of students, as well as the support of their families during the educational process, and the participation of students in various educational classes including English institutes. In general, teachers in four areas had used strategies to resolve heterogeneity problems including 1) seeking help from strong students, 2) seeking help from other teachers, 3) adjusting and modifying educational programs, and 4) helping weak students individually among which only tendencies towards two strategies- seeking help from stronger students among more experienced teachers and helping weak students individually among less experienced teachers- could significantly differentiate less vs. more experienced teachers.

Keywords: Challenges, Classroom management, Heterogeneous classrooms, Less experienced teachers, More experien