The Effect of Iranian English Teachers’ Practice of Pedagogical Competence on Students’ Learning

The article investigates the contribution of teachers’ practice of pedagogical competence to the high school students’ learning of English language in Rasht, Iran. Following a multi-method research in the quantitative research paradigm, first, a five-point Likert scale questionnaire of pedagogical competence was administered to 16 high school English teachers. Based on the teachers’ responses and, according to Hofstee Compromise Method, 12 of 16 teachers with the minimum and maximum acceptable percentages were divided to two equal groups of high practicing (HP) and low-practicing (LP) teachers of pedagogical competence. Next, randomly selected from 150 students from the teachers’ classes, 115 students were selected. Based on the homogeneity test, however, 67 students were selected for the experiment phase. Then, the students received the teachers’ three-month instruction that covered three lessons of the book ‘Vision’ taught at the third grade of high school. A posttest was administered to the students after receiving instruction. The results revealed a significant difference between the students in HP and LP groups with regard to English language learning; the HP group reported a significant progression from pretest to posttest as a result of the teachers’ practice of pedagogical competence. Some pedagogical implications, limitations of the study, and suggestions for further studies are presented.