On the Effect of RRT-Based Strategically Mediated Reflective Practices on Academic Self-Concept (Research Paper)

One of the major concerns in language education is making theory and practice to be visibly connected. Fulfilling this aim, the present study sought to introduce a new mode of strategically mediated reflective instruction, reflective reciprocal teaching (RRT), and investigate its impact on Iranian EFL learners’ academic self-concept by focusing on its components. To this end, the current study, adopting a quasi-experimental design, was conducted in a 6-stage treatment following the cognitive apprenticeship principles mentioned by Collins et al. (1989). Convenience sampling was used to select intact classes with 100 freshman EFL learners. A translated version of the Academic Self-concept Inventory was utilized as the pre-post assessment tool. MANCOVA was exploited to examine changes in group means and determine how well the intervention program worked to improve the learners’ academic self-concept. The numerical data signified that the RRT instruction significantly impacted the components of learners’ academic self-concept. In other words, increasing learners’ positive self-perception about their competence dealing specifically with creativity, intellectual ability, self-regulation, and motivation, could be fulfilled under special programs considering them as agentive figures with respected abilities when working cooperatively with significant others (teacher peers).