Exploratory Practice for Continuing Professional Development

An Innovative Approach for Language Teachers

Assia Slimani-Rolls, Richard Kiely

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9783319697635
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Enseignement des langues

This book explores the use of Exploratory Practice (EP) as a tool for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) by language teachers, and responds to the increasing demand for teachers to engage in research. It presents the results of a unique two-year longitudinal study that critically examines the implementation of EP by teachers of English and modern foreign languages. Through these case studies, the authors provide a critical account of EP as a form of practitioner research that bridges the divide between theory and practice. It emphasizes the centrality of teacher and learner learning in language education curriculum improvement, and gives a voice to teachers' perspectives on using EP in the classroom. This book will be of interest to language education professionals and scholars working in Applied Linguistics and Language Education.

Part IIntroduction

In this Part, we set out the approach to and rationale for Exploratory Practice (EP) as a means of achieving Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for language teachers. We take as our starting point, the diversity and complexity of language teaching as it has developed over recent decades. The field involves a range of instructional contexts, from the early years in primary schools to university classrooms, and from contexts of English teaching where there are distinct benefits in terms of study and work opportunities, to languages other than English, where the sense of purpose is less incentivised and the need for innovative practice less urgent.

Our focus is the teacher, and the ways teachers develop professionally through working with their students to understand classroom life. We build on a range of insights in recent years, which identify the teacher, rather than materials, techniques, technologies and tests, as the most beneficial area to focus on in order to better learning processes and outcomes. Without engaged, effective teachers, other investments in curriculum enhancements are likely to prove limited. Our proposal for investment in teachers is continuing professional development in the EP tradition, a proposal to support teachers in exploring their classrooms, and understanding the dynamics which make them work as spaces for learning.

In Chapter 1 we locate EP in the field of teacher learning. We consider the traditions of language teaching, from method to post-method, which have come to shape programmes in teacher education and development. Then we make the case for EP, both as a way of teaching and as a form of practitioner research, which can support teachers in developing their pedagogic strategies through working with students to transform the social space of the classroom.

In Chapter 2 we explore CPD as a core investment in improving language pedagogy through enhancing the understanding and capacity of the teacher. We draw on the Kennedy framework of models for continuing professional development to understand the wider context of organised teacher learning, and to locate EP in the diverse frameworks and approaches that have emerged over recent decades. We explore the particular context of language teaching in the Higher Education (HE) sector, and focus on the ways the guiding principles of EP—prioritising quality of life, understanding, collegiality, inclusivity, sustainability, and the use of normal classroom activities as investigative tools—can be harnessed as inherent driving forces for developing the teachers’ understanding of their practice.

In Chapter 3 we review the state of Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) teaching in a context where English as an international lingua franca has come to dominate language education. First, we examine the impact on communities of language teachers of the spread of English in education contexts—schools and universities—in Europe and Asia, in particular the decline in numbers of students learning MFL, and the structural changes which have ensued in departments and programmes. We illustrate how these phenomena have contributed to limited investment in CPD, and limited innovative practices in classrooms. Second, we explore the emerging heterogeneities, the ever-increasing diversity in which language learning and teaching is carried out against the backdrop of globalisation and various higher education institutions’ agendas such as internationalisation. We propose EP as a way for MFL teachers to engage with their work, and see the contribution of their pedagogy in the face of challenges posed by the globalised classroom.

A note on terminology:

We use the terms for teachers and learners flexibly and undogmatically throughout this book. The teachers in the language teacher research project (LTRP) are also researchers, and the authors of Chapters 5–10. In the university work context, they are lecturers and tutors.

We, authors of this book, are teachers, lecturers and tutors. We are also research leads for the LTRP and mentors of the practitioner researchers.

The learners are also students, classroom participants and learning practitioners.

We commit to this diversity of terms as a way of clearly representing the agency in the arguments, accounts and examples we present, and as a way of reflecting the complex world of language classrooms and programmes, and the multiplicity of roles we play as we negotiate such complexity.

© The Author(s) 2019

Assia Slimani-Rolls and Richard KielyExploratory Practice for Continuing Professional Developmenthttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69763-5_1

Begin Abstract

1. Exploratory Practice in Language Education: How Teachers Teach and Learn

Assia Slimani-Rolls¹ and Richard Kiely²

(1)

Institute of Languages and Culture, Regent’s University London, London, UK

(2)

Modern Languages and Linguistics, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

Assia Slimani-Rolls (Corresponding author)

Email: [email protected]

Richard Kiely

Email: [email protected]

End Abstract

1 Introduction

This chapter locates Exploratory Practice (EP) in the field of continuing professional development (CPD) for language teachers. The case is based on two sets of ideas: the nature of teaching and the nature of research, and the ways these come together in the processes of teacher learning which occur within CPD initiatives. We examine critically perspectives on language teaching which focus on ‘method’, and theoretical accounts of teaching in the research literature. We discuss the post-method condition, and ways this needs further development and support in order to be a frame for action in classrooms and programmes. The discussion of how teachers should teach involves a consideration of models of teacher learning and language teacher education. The focus in this book is on CPD: how experienced teachers continue enhancing their knowledge and skills in their work context. We discuss the nature and role of research in the process of teacher learning, drawing on theorisations of practitioner research, as developed within EP, and set out by Dick Allwright in the preface to this book.

To this date, there has been no study that has examined critically the long-term implementation of EP with a group of teachers as part of a CPD programme. This unique feature combines with our understanding of the potential of EP for supporting the process of teacher learning, particularly the focus of working with students to understand the ways quality of life can be achieved in classrooms. This book complements the growing body of work on EP. A special issue of the Language Teacher Research journal in 2003 explores the EP theoretical framework and illustrates how the principles work in the classrooms. Gieve and Miller (2006) explore the inherent complexity and idiosyncrasy of life in the language classroom, and the ways EP makes a unique contribution to the field of language education. Allwright and Hanks (2009) introduce a set of propositions about the learners and the ways their role and participation evolve in the EP classroom. Hanks (2017) examines the EP theoretical and philosophical underpinnings through the analysis of the accounts of a group of students on an English for Academic Purpose (EAP) programme. In this book, we explore the contribution that the principles of EP can make to language teacher CPD. At the heart of the book are the learning experiences of six language teachers, three in modern foreign languages (MFLs) and three in English language teaching, set out in Chapters 5–10, and contextualised in the wider field of language teaching in Chapters 1–4, and 11.

We propose EP as a mode of action for teachers, which develops effective teaching in classrooms, and which supports teacher learning and CPD. Our case is based on the EP of the six teachers (Part II) who document the processes of teaching and of researching practice which transform their classrooms, and generate enhanced understanding and teacher learning. These accounts illustrate the processes of puzzling, researching, understanding, and transforming which took place in their classrooms, and generated insights which are not so much ideal solutions to problems as achievements in teacher learning: insights into their practice that teachers can take forward to new classes, programmes, and groups of students.

A core strand of the EP process is negotiation. Teachers always have a lead role in classrooms and can determine what is done by instructing students. In EP, however, they involve the students as active participants, as practitioners of learning, who contribute to understanding possibilities and opportunities in the classroom. In this book, we set out the role of EP as long-term support for teachers, where they make sense of the diverse factors—cultural, social, and emotional as well as technical and theoretical—that shape their lessons and programmes. The next sections of this chapter set out these ideas of teaching and research such that they provide both a foundation and a framework for teachers to merge teaching and research in the particular forms of EP that add value to their classrooms, and to their professional lives.

2 Teachers and Method

The notion of teaching method has been a central pillar in language education for decades. It underpins the translation of language learning theories and research findings into procedures for the classroom, as set out in methods books such as Richards and Rodgers (2001). Teaching method also determines the guidelines in teacher training and education programmes, and shapes the activities and tasks in published course books and teacher’s books, as well as teaching practice manuals (for example, Scrivener [2011]). It also frames criteria of effectiveness in classroom observations carried out as part of quality management processes in programmes and institutions (Kiely and Rea-Dickins 2005).

Perspectives on teaching method vary in terms of agency. On the one hand, the principles of a method may be enabling for teachers. They provide ideas for activities and lessons, and guide implementation in the classroom. For novice teachers, they provide a framework for planning lessons and managing instruction and interaction in the classroom. Thus, methods and their underlying principles can facilitate teaching, and provide information that guides adaptation and innovation. On the other hand, methods can limit teacher agency. They specify procedures that are based on decisions made by others, but do not fit well with the conditions which prevail in classrooms, programmes, and institutions. More importantly, the notion of method sends the message that appropriate p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• Part I. Introduction
• Part II. Introduction
• Back Matter