AYLEN FERNÁNDEZ AND ALEXIS CORA

PRACTICE II

KUMARAVADIVELU, B. Towards Post-Method Pedagogy (2001).

1. What created the need for a post-method pedagogy?The necessity of implementing a post-method pedagogy emerges as a consequence of recurrently articulated dissatisfaction with the limitations that two isolated concepts such as the concept of method and the transmission model of teaching education had since they were not working together. In this context, the L2 profession is faced with an imperative need to construct a post method pedagogy so as to better the level of education.

2. Explain the 3 dimension parameters. Having in mind that the post-method pedagogy is build up as a three-dimensional system consisting of the parameters of particularity, practicality and possibility, the author argues that a post-method pedagogy must:

Facilitate the advancement of a context-sensitive language education based on a true understanding of local linguistic, socio-cultural, and political particularities;

Rupture the reified role relationship between theorists and practitioners by enabling teachers to construct their own theory of practice;

Tap the socio political consciousness that participants bring with them in order to aid their quest for identity formation and social transformation.

As it can be seen the most important point throughout this post-method pedagogy is that not only we should introduce in our practice the political and sociocultural conflicts that coexist in our community but also to be aware the way in which we should link them.

3. What are the advantages of a post-method pedagogy?One idea that can fundamentally restructured second foreign language teaching and teacher education emphasizes the need to go beyond the limitations of the concept of method with a call to find an alternative way of designing effective teaching strategies and another emphasizes the need to go beyond the limitations of the transmission model of teacher education with a call to find an alternative way of creating efficient teaching professionals. As a result we would be facing a greater awareness of issues such as teacher beliefs, teachers reasoning and teacher cognition. A common thread that runs through the works mentioned above is along-felt dissatisfaction with the concept of method as the

AYLEN FERNÁNDEZ AND ALEXIS CORA

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organizing principle for language to teaching and teacher education. These works can therefore be seen as heralding the development of what might be called a post-method pedagogy.For instance, one of the benefits is that we will be able to create a mainstreamed curriculum so that the contents we teach are relevant.

4. How does he use the term pedagogy?He uses the term pedagogy in a broad sense than the one we may know from that side the author includes not only issues pertaining to classroom strategies, instructional materials, curricular objectives, and evaluation measures, but also a wide range of historical, political and sociocultural experiences that directly or indirectly influence language to education. Within such a broad-based definition, he visualizes a post-method pedagogy as a three-dimensional system consisting of three pedagogic parameters: Particularity, practicality and possibility. With this new way of understanding the concept Kumaravadivelu is able to go beyond the theory of the idea of pedagogy and he builds up a concept that can go all through our lives.

5. Summarize the salient features of each parameter: particularity, practicality, possibility.

Pedagogy of particularity is antithetical to the notion that there can be one set of pedagogic aims and objectives realizable through one set of pedagogic principles and procedures. It claims that a meaningful pedagogy cannot be constructed without a holistic interpretation of particular situations and that it cannot be improved without a general improvement of those particular situations. Pedagogy of practicality does not pertain merely to the everyday practice of classroom teaching. It pertains to a much larger issue that has a direct impact on the practice of classroom teaching, namely, the relationship between theorist and practice. It aims for a teacher-generated theory of practice; a theory of practice is conceived when there is a union of action and thought or, more precisely, when there is action in thought and thought in action. It is the result of what is called pedagogical thoughtfulness. In this sense a pedagogy of practicality metamorphoses into a pedagogy of possibility. Pedagogy of possibility is concerned with individual identity. Language education provides its participants with challenges and opportunities for continuant quest for subjectivity and self-identity. In words of another author “language is the place where actual and possible forms of social organization and their likely social and political consequences are defined and contested”. Language teachers cannot hope to fully satisfy their pedagogic obligations without, at the same time, satisfying their social obligations. They will be able to reconcile these seemingly competing forces if they “achieve a deepening awareness both of the sociocultural reality that shapes their lives and of their capacity to transform that reality.

6. What sort of dichotomy does Post-method pedagogy reject?As the author states a post-method pedagogy is based on three dimensions, from that point we can say that from a particularity of pedagogy, post-method pedagogy rejects the

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advocacy of a predetermined set of generic principles and procedures aimed at realizing a predetermined set of generic aims and objectives.As a pedagogy of practicality, post-method pedagogy rejects the artificial dichotomy between theorists who have been assigned the role of producers of knowledge and teachers who have been assigned the role of consumers of knowledge.As a pedagogy of possibility post-method pedagogy rejects the narrow view of language education that confines itself to the linguistic functional elements obtained inside the classroom.In a broad sense what we can mention is that post-method pedagogy invites us to think critically about the way in which we educate since it allows us to create new means of thinking about our job as educators.

7. What elements are needed to update to a post-method pedagogy? The essential element needed to update a post-method pedagogy is through the emphasis on context sensitivity which demands that various participants actualize it variously to suit various necessities. However, it should be feasible and indeed desirable to chart a broad road map that indicates the path the actualization process might profitable take so that we are able to consider both the means we are using and the end where we want to get. Such a road map in terms of the anticipated roles of learners, teachers and teacher educators invites us to use this post-method pedagogy as a demand of re-visioning their roles aiming to what we can call post-method practitioners.

8. What role is expected from learners? What can teachers do to help them? What can learners do to improve their learning process? What are the characteristics of the post-method teacher?

Having in mind the characteristics of the post-method era, Kumaravadivelu understands learner’s role as a non-permanent role. The author puts the learner within the frameworks of such theories as competition model, this paper attempts to verify and substantiate the claim that the language learner does not have a particular identity.This substantiation draws on two interrelated issues: (1) as people concerned with language education, teachers are responsible for practice which is mediated by different theories in the postmethod era, and (2) each theory allows for looking at the learner from one perspective according to which only partial understanding of the learner is within reach. Furthermore, since depending upon a particular theory, there might be an understanding of the learner different from and sometimes even the opposite of that formed on the basis of another theory, and because in the postmethod era are quite likely to be subjected to opposing theories, it is concluded that the foreign language learner does not have a particular identity.All in all we can say that “autonomous learners deserve autonomous teachers” and “that teacher autonomy is so central that it can be seen as defining the heart of post method pedagogy”.

AYLEN FERNÁNDEZ AND ALEXIS CORA

PRACTICE II

9. Do you agree with the author’s view of student-teachers? How far do you think this restructuring is being done by teacher educators in this subject?

“One way to accomplish this restructuring is to recognize that prospective teachers embarking on formal teacher education programs bring with them their notion of what constitutes good teaching and what does not, largely based on their prior educational experience as learners and, in some cases, as teachers. Their minds are anything but atheoretical clean slates. It is therefore important to recognize their voices and their visions.”(kumaravadivelu, 2001:24)We do agree with kumaravadivelu’s view since we do believe that teachers construct their “professional lives” from the experiences that they have had, i.e. We, as students, go through different experiences and that leads us to build up a teacher identity that will be carried out into the classroom. It can be said that if teacher educators make sure that their students have the possibility to share their experiences throughout their formation they will be able to construct an identity which is both critical and based on more than one view.Confidently, we can say that within the subject the possibility of creating a critical thinking has been carried out. Not only because we have developed authors like Carol Read or Leonor Corradi who give us the chance to create a humble and caring attitude towards teaching but we have also been able to link that theory with our experiences so as to cultivate a critical identity as future teachers.

10. How is research viewed from a post-methods perspective? What problems does it encounter?

Post-method pedagogy concerns research as belonging to the multiple domains of learners, teachers and teachers educators alike. These participants engaged in the joint accomplishment of learning/teaching operations, or to be engaged in pedagogic exploration either individually or collaboratively such a formulation of pedagogic exploration opens up concerns about objectivity and generalizability. The difficult task facing pedagogic explorers is how to get ready for the kind of research they would like to engage in. A post-method pedagogy like any other innovative practice imposes an extraordinary degree of responsibility on all the participants, particularly the teacher and the teacher educator. Problematizing such a pedagogy will identify some broad concerns that may arise.

11. What is the primary challenge for teachers as posed by Diamond?According to Diamond, the primary challenge for teachers “is to form and reform their own pedagogical theories and relationships”, and the primary challenge for teachers educators “is to help teachers to see themselves capable of imagining and trying alternatives, and eventually as self-directing and self-determining”. The essentials of a post-method pedagogic demand that both teachers and teacher educators successfully meet their primary challenges

12. Why has the concept of Method been so important till now?

AYLEN FERNÁNDEZ AND ALEXIS CORA

PRACTICE II

The greatest challenge the emerging post-method pedagogy imposes on the professional community today is to rethink and recast its choice of the organizing principle for language learning teaching and teacher education. The concept of method has long been the prefer choice. The choice of the pedagogic parameters as an organizing principle opens up unlimited opportunities for the emergence of post method pedagogies that can truly serve the interests of those they are supposed to serve.