scholarly journals Dialogic discussion as a platform for constructing knowledge: student-teachers’ interaction patterns and strategies in learning to teach English

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Jun Zhang ◽  
Donglan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Interaction Patterns ◽  
Constructing Knowledge ◽  
Pre Service Teacher

AbstractBeginning teachers are frequently heard making observations that the knowledge and skills they have acquired on the training programmes do not come handy when they want to apply them in their real-work situations. They have also reported lacking the ability to integrate theory and practice in reality. Henceforth, teacher-educators are faced with challenges of how to proportionally balance the two strands of pivotal knowledge that are necessarily connected with teacher-education curricula in pre-service teacher preparation. One of the approaches to examining the issue is to investigate student teachers’ dialogues for knowledge-construction to uncover the interaction patterns and strategies they use in negotiating lesson objectives and processes. Against such a background, this paper reports on a study of 24 student teachers receiving training in English language teaching on the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme at a teacher education institution in Singapore. It was intended to find out the negotiation processes in relation to lesson-planning objectives and how student teachers positioned themselves and others in the processes in the pre-service teacher-education classroom. Results show that student teachers were more concerned about surviving the first lesson than about promoting pupil learning in constructing knowledge about language teaching. The stronger peers’ dominance in the discussion process was taken for granted, suggesting that learning took place in a mutually beneficial and constructive manner and that student teachers’ willingness to cooperate and readiness to express themselves were indicative of their intention to maintain group cohesion and dynamics. These, in turn, are necessary prerequisites for student teachers to become collaborative and reflective practitioners.

scholarly journals Dialogic Discussion as a Platform for Constructing Knowledge: Student-teachers’ Interaction Patterns and Strategies in Learning to Teach English

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Zhang ◽  
Donglan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Interaction Patterns ◽  
Constructing Knowledge ◽  
Pre Service Teacher

Abstract Beginning teachers are frequently heard making observations that the knowledge and skills they have acquired on the training programmes do not come handy when they want to apply them in their real-work situations. They have also reported lacking the ability to integrate theory and practice in reality. Henceforth, teacher-educators are faced with challenges of how to balance proportionally the two strands of pivotal knowledge that are necessarily connected with teacher-education curricula in pre-service teacher preparation. One of the approaches to examining the issue is to investigate student teachers’ dialogues for knowledge-construction to uncover the interaction patterns and strategies they use in negotiating lesson objectives. Against such a background, this paper reports on a study of 24 student teachers receiving training in English language teaching on the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme at a teacher education institute in Singapore. It was intended to find out the negotiation processes in relation to lesson-planning objectives and how student teachers positioned themselves and others in the processes in the pre-service teacher-education classroom. Results show that student teachers were more concerned about surviving the first lesson than about promoting pupil learning in constructing knowledge about language teaching. The stronger peers’ dominance in the discussion process was taken for granted, suggesting that learning took place in a mutually beneficial and constructive manner and that student teachers’ willingness to cooperate and readiness to express themselves were indicative of their intention to maintain group cohesion and dynamics. These, in turn, are necessary prerequisites for student teachers to become collaborative and reflective practitioners.

scholarly journals ELT Student Teacher Identity Construction: Exploring Teacher Roles and Domains of Expertise

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Nafiye Cigdem Aktekin ◽  
Hatice Celebi
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Education Program ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Teacher Roles

In this study, we direct our focus to identity construction in an English language teaching (ELT) teacher education program. We explore the teacher roles in which student teachers are struggling to position themselves comfortably and the teacher expertise domains (subject matter, didactics, and pedagogy) that they are dedicating themselves to improving. To address our research focus, we have collected reflections and survey responses from 18 student teachers in an ELT education department. Our findings indicate that ELT student teachers find it difficult to position themselves as experts in and about the English language and that they feel a need to be equipped with expertise first and foremost in the subject matter, and then in didactics, followed by pedagogy. These results imply that in ELT teacher education, certain language ideologies are still prevalent and need to be dealt with by teacher educators for transformative outcomes in education.

scholarly journals Developing Communities of Praxis: Bridging the theory practice divide in teacher education

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael James Anderson ◽  
Kelly Freebody
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teach For America ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
The University ◽  
New Education

Teacher education in universities is under pressure. In many new education policies there is a renewed focus on teacher quality, and therefore quality initial teacher education. In some countries this renewed focus has led to a resurgence of “alternative approaches” to teacher education such as Teach for America / Australia. One of the most persistent complaints about pre-service teacher education is that educational theory presented in these programs does not relate sufficiently to the real work of teachers. In an attempt to overcome these real or perceived divides, tertiary drama educators at the University of Sydney constructed a professional experience program based on both the community of practice model (Lave and Wenger, 1991) and Frierean notions of praxis (1972). The community of praxis approach emphasises the importance of integrating theory and practice to support the development of beginning teachers. This article outlines the development, implementation, and evaluation of this approach, including the reasoning behind its foundation and the theoretical and practical significance of such an approach for teacher-educators.

Second language teacher education: Review of recent research on practice

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Wright
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Learning To Teach ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Language Teacher Education ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Second Language Teacher Education ◽  
Second Language Teacher

Second language teacher education (SLTE) has undergone considerable change over the past 25 years. The question of how language teaching is learnt and how programmes of professional preparation can contribute to this process now elicits quite different answers. A new agenda of theory and practice has emerged as SLTE has incorporated many of the ideas and practices of reflection (Schön 1983). At the same time, it has drawn increasingly on feeder fields of research and practice such as teacher cognition and professional cultures. These have augmented, and to some extent displaced, the original roots of SLTE in Applied Linguistics and Psychology, and a new knowledge base (Freeman & Johnson 1998) has been established, contributing to the formulation of theory about language teachers' learning-to-teach, and its practices. The focus of this review is on the extent to which the new agenda has influenced SLTE practices in recent years. It examines accounts of activities teacher educators and student teachers engage in during SLTE programmes in formal learning experiences. The paper identifies a thriving practitioner research culture in SLTE but argues that much more research is required to establish the true extent to which new conceptualisations of the process of learning-to-teach second languages guides SLTE practice.

scholarly journals Professional Ethics as Experienced by Student Teachers: A Neoliberal View

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-104
Author(s):  
Marita Cronqvist
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Professional Ethics ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Ethical Practice ◽  
Early Career Teachers

Student teachers’ experiences of professional ethics, as lived practice, need to be visualized and verbalized to support their ability to develop an ethical practice. The aim of this article is to discuss the lived experiences of professional ethics from beginning teachers’ internship, based on a phenomenological study. Some of the essential meanings are interpreted in relation to the tension between responsibility and accountability that is emerging from neoliberal influences in teacher education. Inspired by Reflective Life World Research (RLR), interviews were conducted with student teachers specializing in preschool and elementary school. The empirical data was analyzed in order to determine the meanings that constitute the lived experience of professional ethics for early career teachers. By identifying the implications of professional ethics in neoliberal times, teacher educators can more easily observe and communicate the manifestations this has for teaching. Discussions and observations of professional ethics can stimulate student teachers’ learning as part of teacher education discourse.

scholarly journals Language teaching methodology and teacher education: Trends and issues—An interview with Alan Waters

2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Chit Cheung Matthew Sung
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Teaching Methodology ◽  
Extensive Experience ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The World

Adopting appropriate teaching methods and designing suitable teaching materials are among the major concerns of language teachers around the world. Although many teachers are eager to find the ‘best’ or most effective ways of teaching, there are no easy answers, given the wide range of sociopolitical contexts in which teaching takes place. In this interview, Alan Waters, a leading expert in English language teaching (ELT) from Lancaster University, talks about the trends and issues surrounding language teaching methodology, materials design, as well as teacher education in ELT. With extensive experience in the field, Alan has taught English as a foreign language and taken part in teacher training projects in various parts of the world, and has published several books and numerous journal articles. He is interested in all the main aspects of the theory and practice of ELT.

scholarly journals Implementing Poetry in the Language Class: A Poetry-Teaching Framework for Prospective English Language Teachers

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Safiye İpek Kuru Gönen
Keyword(s):  
Student Teachers ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Material Selection ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Teaching Methodology ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Language Class

Poetry has often been neglected as a favorable tool for language teaching. What is more, its role to expand human experience and create language awareness has not been fully realized. As a reaction to often-underestimated value of including literature in the language class, this article proposes a poetry-teaching (POT) framework for language practitioners to bridge the gap between literature and language teaching methodology. Step-by-step procedure followed in the framework aimed at helping prospective teachers incorporate poetry into language teaching, while at the same time offering various materials and activities to be used in their future teaching practices. The proposed framework was presented to 21 student teachers at an English Language Teaching (ELT) department of a state university in Turkey to help them integrate the ideas of using poetry in a micro-teaching context. Prospective teachers acted both as learners and teachers while following the steps of the suggested framework, and reflected on this experience through reflective diaries and stimulated recalls of their teaching performances. They also took part in semi-structured interviews at the end of the study. Qualitative analyses revealed that poetry can have a place in language teaching by using a systematic and guided framework tailored to the features of a language classroom. With the help of the proposed framework, implementing poetry in the language class helped to promote motivation, creativity and self-expression along with multi-skill development and interaction among learners. However, incorporating poetry into the language class was challenging in terms of time and effort required and difficulties in material selection and design. This study suggests that poetry can become part of language teacher education. In this regard, this article proposes implications for teachers and teacher educators for the implementation of poetry in language teaching practice.

scholarly journals Doing It by the Book: Training Student Teachers at the Faculty of Letters, the University of Porto (FLUP) to Evaluate English Language Teaching (ELT) Materials

e-TEALS ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nic Hurst
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Bologna Process ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Training Courses ◽  
The University ◽  
The Bologna Process ◽  
Pre Service Teacher

Abstract Understanding what the use of a coursebook implies is at the heart of any consideration of how ELT instruction in Portugal operates and, as such, should also be central to any pre-service teacher education. Since the curricular reorganization prompted by the ‘Bologna Process’, the Faculty of Letters, the University of Porto (FLUP) has included within its ‘Masters in English and other Foreign Language Teaching’ course (Mestrado em Ensino de Inglês e de Alemão / Francês / Espanhol no 3.º ciclo do Ensino Básico e no Ensino Secundário) an optional, one semester subject called the “Production of Didactic Materials”. This talk will demonstrate and discuss how, in this case, training student teachers to develop a criteria based framework for evaluating FL teaching materials, and applying that same framework, can be considered a way of re-focusing the traditionally, largely theoretical, lecture-based training courses typical of the Portuguese paradigm.

Constructing English: pre-service ELA teachers navigating an unwieldy discipline

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kati Macaluso ◽  
Cori McKenzie ◽  
Jennifer VanDerHeide ◽  
Michael Macaluso
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Beginning Teachers ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Preparation Program ◽  
School Subject ◽  
Pedagogical Innovation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Matrix

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe a pedagogical innovation – a matrix construction exercise – intended to help pre-service teachers (PTs) navigate the multiple and oftentimes competing discourses that shape the school subject English Language Arts (ELA). Design/methodology/approach To explore the various ways the PTs drew on the discursively constructed paradigms of ELA throughout their teacher preparation program, researchers (themselves teacher educators) conducted an intertextual analysis (Prior, 1995) of PTs’ classroom texts and interview transcripts. Findings The intertextual analysis suggested that PTs possessed knowledge of and investment in a range of discourses, which they used to anchor their own pedagogical and curricular decision-making and to anticipate the leanings and ideologies of other stakeholders in ELA. Although the organizational schema of the matrix proved helpful from an orientation standpoint, it also may have disguised the productive tensions between particular discourses for some PTs. Originality/value Although scholars have long noted the plurality of the school subject English and some studies on innovations in teacher education allude to the difficulties that teachers encounter as they navigate the multiple purposes of ELA, there is little scholarship that considers how pre-service and beginning teachers might best navigate that incoherence and unwieldiness. This study, which contextualizes and explores a pedagogical innovation in an English methods class designed to help PTs navigate the many “Englishes”, attempts to fill this gap. The findings suggest that teacher preparation in ELA would do well to conceive of pedagogical innovations in teacher education that allow teachers to grapple with, rather than solve, the uncertainty and unfinalizability of the discipline.

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