Language teacher education and development: learning teaching Chapter 9

Training the trainers Extensive education programme developed for training supervisors in observation techniques associated with clinical rather than traditional, evaluative supervision, using a non-evaluative method and features of workshop discussion, classroom observation forms and checklists, meetings, and post- observation discussion.

Research on teacher development There are questions arised in these researches:- 1-What kinds of experiences make teachers typically feel they have learnt something useful themselves? 2-Can self-observation in some rigorous way show teachers something they would not have believed of themselves? 3-Can teachers usefully engage in research, and what is the benefit? 4-How do teachers make their decisions? 5-Can teacher development proceed in isolation, or is some form of collaboration necessary? 6-What can information about experienced teachers’ learning tell us about? Methods in the classroom Use of resources Teacher preparation?

Critical incidents The experience of some kind of ‘critical incident’ enables the learner to change their approach, sometimes in major ways, and draw benefit.

Diary studies Using teacher diaries or ‘records’ promotes reflection. The reflections largely focused on the benefits the teachers saw in the content of the INSET course. Three types are identified : 1-solving problems, in which problem areas from home were given a new look through work on the course. 2-seeing new ideas, in which the teachers reflected on new teaching to take home. 3-legitimizing their own practice, in which the teachers found justification from the INSET course for practices they had adopted in their classrooms without really being able to articulate why.

Action research Teacher- research is sometimes seen as a purely developmental exercise. Action research has been criticized as a model for teacher research because of its rather time-consuming. An obvious benefit is the increased commitment and professionalism of the teachers involved and a change in our understanding of how teachers work within the changing constraints.

Observation The major systematic observation schedules were developed for supervisors to be able to base their feedback to students on some form of of empirical data rather than just impression.

Teacher cognitions Woods (1996) presents a book-length study of teacher cognition, by which he means ‘an’ integrated network of beliefs, assumptions and knowledge (BAK) underlying teachers’ interpretative processes. How they use their BAK in interpreting incidents in their classrooms and in making decisions affecting those classrooms, both in planning and in immediate action.

Language and the language teacher In order to teach anything, the teacher must have a degree of mastery over the subject matter. Simply being a native speaker is no qualification for teaching the language. There are many issues in this argument. One issue is the relative value of proficiency in the language compared to teaching skill. Another issue is the degree of linguistic knowledge about the language possessed; often, non- native teachers have very good levels of theoretical knowledge, having studied the language academically, and some native speakers have not. A third issue is the desirability of the bi-lingual teacher. A fourth issue is the breadth of experience.

Presented by : منى محمد الصاعدي. هناء واصل الوافي. فوزية محمد المالكي. فوزية عبد الخالق الزاهراني. رابع.. G (B)