The Influence of ‘Teacher Autonomy in Obtaining Knowledge’ on ‘Class Practice’

In every L2 classes there are certain prearranged syllabuses which act as guidelines for teachers. However merely following the syllabuses leaves little or no space for teacher's autonomy. Considering teachers’ class practices as the result of a pro cess of „obtaining knowledge, perception, and attitude’ among ESL secondary school teachers in Malaysia, the first objective of this study was to identify how autonomously/heteronomously teachers obtain knowledge of teaching strategies, and secondly, how the obtained knowledge develops into perception and attitude. The findings revealed that the more autonomously the knowledge was obtained, the more it was developed into class practices.