Second and foreign language teachers' problem-solving schemata development through informal problem-solving: the relationship between experience and expertise

Purpose: Second and foreign language (SL/FL) teachers' informal problem-solving has received little explicit research attention while it is widely acknowledged that problem-solving is crucial to expertise development in any complex knowledge domain. To develop a dearer understanding of the role of informal problem-solving in SL/FL teachers' expertise development, this study investigated how experience (i.e. time on the job) affects the level of problem-solving schemata development. Design/methodology/approach: This situational analysis of teaching practices was conducted with 15 SIJFL teachers divided into three experience groups. Through qualitative coding of verbal reflections on teachers' own lessons, the structural components of problem-solving schemata development were explored at two levels. The first or basic level represents the broader knowledge base which problem-solving utilizes in understanding and recognizing classroom situations. The second is the expert-level problem-solving knowledge level. Qualitative codes were quantified to enable descriptive statistics and t-tests for the analysis regarding the basic level. A descriptive analysis was performed to uncover expert-level knowledge. Findings and Originality/value: The results show that experience affects problem-solving schemata development in qualitatively different ways at different levels. At the first or basic level, most teachers develop extensive and numerous domain-specific problem-solving schemata with experience. Few experienced teachers develop expert-level schemata. At this level, experience mostly affects the type of domain-specific knowledge and quality of feedback on effective strategies incorporated in these schemata. The findings suggest that future studies need to adopt a multi-level analysis of problem-solving schemata development.