TEACHERS REFLECT, TEACHERS RESEARCH:

Timeless principles in changing times?

CHANGE

What has changed in:

for:

you as a language teacher over the years you have been teaching?

Change and reflection

What is the role of REFLECTION in any of the changes you have described in the previous slide, if any?

Relationship between reflection and wanting to know

Wanting to know

Reflection

To know or not to know…“What it means to the life of a person to ‘know’ something…” (Allwright, 2005, p.354)

“One aspect of human maturation, more important to some people than to others, is to want to know-...”(Edge 2001, p.1)

The REFLECTIVE teacherWhat does a reflective teacher do? ……………………… ……………………… ……………………… ………………………

The REFLECTIVE teacherWhat does a reflective teacher NOT do? …............................... ……………………… ……………………… ………………………

The REFLECTIVE teacher

“The thinking teacher is no longer perceived as someone who applies theories, but as someone who theorises their practice” (Edge, 2007, p. 14)

Theorising practice

In a nutshell, theorising practice means, NOT to apply large-scale theories to one’s own context-specific/particular teaching

but to work to understand one’s experience and to follow it to see where it leads.

Theorising practice will lead to:

Increased awareness of self/teaching/teaching of colleagues/ and more ….

Development of new kinds of knowledge Practical wisdom Kind of knowledge that helps

someone learn from changing situations

Kind of knowledge that helps a teacher formulate what it is that one has learned and to share it with colleagues (Edge, 2007, p.14)

The ‘reflective teacher researcher’

How will the reflective teacher theorise practice?One way is to take on the role of researcher alongside the role of teacher.

For Edge (2007), this involves ‘action research’ with an updated discourse, where the attitude is not to find the truth in what you do and to see what you can do to make that better, but to be able to say:

Edge’s new discourse on action research

“Here is my/our attempt to make things better, what can I/we learn from it?” (Edge, 2007, p.15)

What do I do to learn more from my practice?

Action (considering you are in the middle of ‘action’ (e.g. your own teaching)

Observation of what is happening (of your attempts to make things better) perhaps leading to a specific interest area (challenge, puzzle, success)

Reflection (on why what is happening is happening) Planning (based on your reflections what can you do to

find out more; ask your students, ask colleagues, collect information)

Action (what to do to improve the situation) Observation (to evaluate the changes made)

(Adapted from Edge, 2001, p.3)

What do you do with what you find?

Share with your students Share with colleagues Present in conferences Write it up for professional journals Feed it in to your next exploration Share with friends and family! ….. …..

Any resonances?

Allwright (2005) on looking back on a project where he was asked to teach classroom research skills to language teachers says,“The classroom-based SLA research project was clearly taking up far too much staff time… and it was requiring staff to learn research skills that were not likely to be helpful in their lives as teachers. So it was heavily parasitic upon their normal working lives , rather than supportive of them, or integrated into them”. (p.354)

Role of teacher educators

What do you think are the challenges and responsibilities facing teacher educators who encourage teachers to engage in their own research?

Try this in your classroom? What are you trying to make better in

your classroom?

What would you like to learn about this?

What is the one thing that you CAN do to study this so you can learn/know more about it?

Changing times, timeless principles

The change of attitude for language teachers:

Teachers theorise their own practice, rather than apply theories to their practice, and one way they can do this is by engaging in their own research.

Timeless Principle:Wanting to know

THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE!ANY QUESTIONS?

REFERENCESAllwright, D. (2005) Developing Principles for

Practitioner Research: The Case of Exploratory Practice. The Modern Language Journal, vol.89, pp.353-366.

Edge, J. (2007) Action research as attitude: Why action research matters and who it matters to. IATEFL Research Newsletter, Issue 20, pp. 14-16.

Edge, J. (2001) Attitude and access: Building a new teaching/learning community in TESOL. In J. Edge (Ed.) Action Research. Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.