Teaching Quality of EFL Teachers: Do Years of Teaching Experience Matter?

Teaching quality plays a significant role in students’ achievement which is the main goal of education. So far, teacher education has witnessed widespread reforms to improve this quality with no obvious evidence to uphold the claim that experienced teachers are more competent than beginning teachers. This study attempted to investigate whether years of teaching experience can make any significant difference in EFL teachers’ teaching quality. To this end, classroom interactions of 90 English teachers who were teaching to 7th-grade students were observed by using Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Findings showed better teaching quality in terms of instructional and emotional support for beginning teachers (0-3 years of teaching experience), but this dimension declined for transitioning (4-5) and experienced teachers (more than 5 years) with no evidence of a significant difference between them. The only superiority of experienced teachers was having better classroom management compared to other teachers with beginning teachers in the lowest position. These findings suggest that directed professional development programs and evidence-based learning can be beneficial for all teachers regardless of their years of teaching experience.