Investigating Teachers’ and Students’ Attitudes Towards the Student- Centered Approach: Case Study of Teachers and Students of the English Department at MouloudMammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou

Abstract

The current research seeks to investigate both teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the Student-Centered Approach with teachers and LMD students of the English Department at MouloudMammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou. To carry out this investigation, we have relied on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) developed by IcekAjzen in 1991 as well as on the social-constructivist perspective of Vygotsky. The present study is based on the mixedmethods research, which combines both quantitative and qualitative methods for the collection and analysis of data. To collect the needed information, we have used a questionnaire that has been administered totwenty (20) teachers, in which only 13/20 have been handed back, and one hundred (100) questionnaires have been handed to students, and a semi-structured interview conducted only with eight (8) workshop teachers. For data analysis, it uses a statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to elicit statistical datafrom the closedended questions included in the questionnaire and the interview. On the other hand, Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) has been used for the interpretation and explanation of the results that have been obtained from the open-ended questions of both the questionnaire and the interview. Moreover, the results of this work have been displayed in terms of pie charts and bar charts. After the discussion of the findings, we have found out that the teachers and students of the English Department at MouloudMammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou hold positive attitudes towards the Student-Centered Approach as well as these attitudes’ impact positively on thestudents’ learning environment. It is also concluded that even though teachers of the English Department at MMUTO hold positive attitudes towards the SCA, they still confront some problems that hinder the use of the SCA during classes (lack of knowledge, class size, lack of teachers’ training…).