The Interplay among EFL Teachers ´ Teaching Experience, Critical Thinking, and Classroom Management

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to seek the possible relationship between the classroom
management, critical thinking, and years of teaching experience of Iranian EFL teachers. A total of 85 teachers (50 female and 35 male) ranging in age from 20 to 38 and varied in their ELT experience from 2 to 18 years were invited to participate in this research. The researchers employed two kinds of instruments to conduct this correlational research: (1) a questionnaire on critical thinking by Honey (2000), and (2) a questionnaire on classroom management by Martin and Sass (2010), both of which were of Likert-scale type. The result of the data analysis showed that there was an almost strong positive relationship between Iranian EFL teachers classroom management and critical thinking, which was also statistically significant, rs = .722, P ˂.05. The result of the Mann-Whitney U test for the second inferential statistics showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the teachers with different teaching experiences, U=611.50, p = .008 ˂ 0.05. Hence, it was concluded that more experienced teachers had better classroom management ability.