Knowledge, beliefs and practices of EFL university teachers in Thailand regarding project-based learning

The application of project-based learning (PBL) in English class has been widely spread and accepted in the Thai educational setting. However, a body of literature has revealed problems regarding Thai EFL teachers and their use of PBL. Hence, this research aimed to quantitatively and qualitatively study the relationships among English teachers’ PBL knowledge, beliefs, and practices in the Thai university context. Fifty-two Thai EFL teachers from a language institute of an autonomous university participated in this study. All of them were asked to complete a PBL knowledge test and a questionnaire on the belief and practice about PBL. Subsequently, non-participatory observation and follow-up interviews were applied in order to capture in-depth information regarding the belief and practice of 15 volunteer participants. Thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data while frequency, mean, standard deviation, Pearson's product moment correlation, and multiple regression were used to analyze the quantitative data. The findings revealed inconsistency in their knowledge, belief, and practices. EFL teachers had knowledge and beliefs about PBL, but failed to implement it in an online English classroom. There were factors affecting teachers’ practice using PBL in the online classroom, such as distance learning, the culture of Thai students, who usually remain silent and are unwilling to speak or participate in class, educational policies and support, and time and class size. In order to expose students to active and student-centered activities, scaffolding from teachers is recommended based on the results of this study.