scholarly journals Professional Development and ICT: English Language Teachers’ Voices

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Kohnke
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Initial Questionnaire ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Good Teaching Practice

While technology use is becoming increasingly common in education, teachers remain reluctant to use it and hesitant on how best to incorporate it into their teaching and practice.  There is a strong demand from institutions for English language teachers to cope with the changing landscape of teaching in the 21st century.  This explorative study investigated Hong Kong tertiary teachers’ beliefs on continuing professional development activities to enhance their teaching.  The study had a two-phase research design, with an initial questionnaire (N = 58) followed by semistructured interviews (N = 12) to unpack the participants’ hidden voices.  The findings illustrated that most teachers are enthusiastic about professional development activities, though there is a misalignment between what universities value and reward and what teachers see as most beneficial for enhancing their teaching practices.  The results suggested that professional development activities should focus on sharing good teaching practice (e.g., informal chats, mentoring) within universities rather than on rewarding attending conferences and on-off, nonintegrated workshops.

scholarly journals Experiences of Timorese language teachers in a blended Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Open Praxis ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monty King ◽  
Bernadete Luan ◽  
Esperança Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
English Language ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Online Course ◽  
Course Content ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
English Language Institute

This paper details the experiences of a group of Timorese English language teachers from Lorosa’e English Language Institute (LELI) in Dili, Timor-Leste, who participated in a professional development MOOC entitled Teaching for Success: Lessons and Teaching between March and April 2017. Drawing on the pedagogical principles of blended learning; participants engaged with online course content, and once a week met as a study group to view some video content together and discuss issues arising from it. The authors draw on participant observation, individual and focus group interviews and post-course author reflections to outline the benefits and challenges of doing blended MOOCs in Dili, and propose that they can provide local English language teachers opportunities for subject area knowledge building, language literacy development and more general lifelong learning.

scholarly journals The discursive construction of teachers and implications for continuing professional development

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh Nair ◽  
Roshayani Arshad
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
English Language ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
The Government

The Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 is a document that spells out a plan of action for revamping the Malaysian education system. Therefore, it is no surprise that references are made to teachers and their role in ensuring the successful execution of the action plan. Although the blueprint does not set out a course of action for teachers of individual subjects, specific reference is made to English language teachers and this is ideologically significant. In order to understand this significance and how the blueprint positions Malaysian English language teachers, the document needs to be located within the wider discourse community, vis-à-vis through an intertextual reading. In this paper, we first examine the discursive construction of English language teachers in the blueprint as well as media texts to illustrate how these texts have collectively constructed the identity of Malaysian English language teachers. Next, we argue that this discursive construction of Malaysian English language teachers has had consequences for the way continuing professional development programmes have been organised for them in the first of three waves of the Malaysian Education Blueprint action plan from 2013 to 2015. The findings reveal that continuing professional development programmes during this period have focused predominantly on the training of the discursively constructed inept Malaysian English language teacher to ensure they possess the desired proficiency and are able to make changes to existing classroom practices that are aligned with the government agenda.

scholarly journals The Characteristics of Effective Professional Development That Affect Teacher’s Self-Efficacy and Teaching Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-144
Author(s):  
Bachtiar Bachtiar
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Effective Professional Development ◽  
Sense Of Efficacy ◽  
English Language Teachers

Many research suggests that effective professional development (PD) can help teachers increase their knowledge, skills and understanding about teaching. Research evidence also indicates that good quality PD enhances teacher sense of efficacy. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of good quality PD that affect teachers’ self-efficacy from the perspective of junior secondary English Language teachers in Indonesia. Data derived from the initial and follow-up questionnaires, TSG observations, and semi-structured interviews. The findings found that English language teachers perceived good quality PD are those activities that increase teachers’ knowledge and teaching skills, encourages collaboration, and is based on teachers’ classroom practical needs. The study suggests the need to involve teachers in the process of planning, designing, and implementing PD in order to maximize its benefits.

scholarly journals Female English Teachers Perceptions and Experience of Continuing Professional Development in Qatar

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 160
Author(s):  
Saba Qadhi ◽  
Alan Floyd
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
English Language ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
English Language Teaching

The Qatari government views English language learning as crucial to the country’s future success. Anecdotal evidence suggests, however, that English language teachers (ELTs) employed in Qatar may not necessarily have the appropriate training, qualifications, and experience to enable them to teach successfully. Despite growing research and interest in the continuing professional development (CPD) experiences and needs of ELTs in Western contexts, there remains a lack of research in Middle Eastern countries in general and in Qatar in particular. The aim of this study was to address this gap by exploring female ELTs’ perceptions and experiences of CPD in Qatar in order to develop new practical and theoretical insights into our understanding of this area. The study draws on data from life history interviews undertaken with 16 female ELTs with at least 3 years of teaching experience in Qatari schools. The study found that the participants had very different experiences of CPD based on their personal and professional characteristics. This suggests that for it to be perceived as a positive experience, the current model of professional development for ELTs may need revising. We propose a paradigm shift from a traditional “one size fits all” CPD model towards a more dynamic and interactive style of teacher development that facilitates both personal reflection and professional discourse among teachers. It is argued that such a shift would prove a considerable step forward for English language teaching in this country.

scholarly journals Professional development of English language teachers in Malang, Indonesia: Institutional and individual perspectives

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anik Nunuk Wulyani
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Ict Skills ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
The Individual

<p>Two important areas of professional development for teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Indonesia identified in the 2003 Law on National Education System and 2005 Law on Teachers and Lecturers are disciplinary knowledge and ICT skills. The present thesis investigates institutional and individual aspects of EFL teacher professional development (TPD) in Indonesia in relation to the development of these two areas of expertise.  Three studies were carried out. The first study measured Indonesian EFL teachers’ target language (English) proficiency as a core component of their professional knowledge and how it is maintained and developed by the teachers. EFL teachers’ language proficiency in this study was operationalised as their lexical, reading and writing proficiency and measured using the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), IELTS-like reading comprehension test and IELTS-like academic writing test, respectively. The results showed that the teachers’ length of service correlated negatively with their knowledge of academic vocabulary, as well as reading and writing proficiency, indicating issues with the outcomes of the TPD in this area. To triangulate the test results, teacher perceptions data were also gathered using questionnaires and interviews. It was found that the EFL teachers tended to overestimate their own overall English language proficiency.  The second study used a longitudinal blogging activity with the EFL teachers as a form of personal professional development that targeted their English language and ICT skills while reflecting on topics related to their professional (teaching) activities. Qualitative analysis of the blog entries of three EFL teachers suggested that the individual teachers’ blogging, critical reading and reflective writing skills were very uneven. Interviews with nine teachers and 11 educational stakeholders were then conducted to understand their views on blogging as a form of professional development. The results revealed that the perceived obstacles and drawbacks outweighed the perceived benefits of blogging as a form of personal professional development.  The third study examined Indonesian national TPD policy documents, how these policies were translated into local professional development programmes in Malang district. It was found that the needs for EFL teachers to maintain their English proficiency and ICT skills were only partially addressed in TPD policy and implementation. In addition, the interviewed teachers and stakeholders perceived the definitions, goals, administration, evaluation, benefits, and challenges of TPD differently.  Taken as a whole, the present findings show that institutional implementation of TPD policies in Indonesia needs to better target individual EFL teachers’ English proficiency and ICT skills, and that opportunities for better professional development need to be sought at both personal and institutional levels. At the individual level, self-motivation to continue learning is crucial for English language teachers who want to keep up with change and innovation in English language teaching. At the institutional level, needs analyses and environmental analyses are essential in designing programs for maintaining and developing teacher professional competency.</p>

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