What is research for teacher

development?Mark Wyatt

Research for teacher development suggests which of the following to you?

1. Doing research themselves helps teachers develop?2. Research previously conducted can be used to

support teacher development?3. Teacher development in itself is possible, i.e.

teachers can develop?4. Some strategies for teacher development might not

engage teachers in research?5. Research for teacher development is not yet a

universally accepted concept?

You may have been a victim of…

Top-down ‘training-transmission’ models of language teacher education (Borg, 2015), which can be characterized by one-off workshops.

In a top-down approach, teachers are introduced to new ideas to take back to the classrooms to apply and…

Or no support for professional development at all? Do teachers often have to adapt “to the typical isolation

of their work lives?” (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2007, p. 954).

Or maybe you have benefitted from bottom-up teacher development?

How do you conceptualize teacher development? Think of a metaphor that sums it up for you. For example, is it a journey or a growth process or

something else? Complete the following sentence: My experience of

teacher development is………….

How do you conceptualize teacher development? How you conceptualize teacher development

is likely to affect the role within this you see for research.

For example, if your experience of teacher development is being led like a donkey along a narrow ledge, with the carrot of promotion dangling in front of you, then maybe the possibility of research for teacher development is not so obvious.

The term ‘teacher development’ is comparatively new (as google Ngrams show us, below)

Complete the sentence with the words that most readily come to mind: You can train a ____________ to _________________.

With the rise of ‘teacher development’, we have also seen greater awareness in recent decades of: Teacher cognition Teachers are increasingly seen as “active,

thinking decision-makers who make instructional choices by drawing on complex, practically-oriented, personalized and context-sensitive networks of knowledge, thoughts and beliefs” (Borg, 2003, p. 81).

With the rise of ‘teacher development’, we have also seen greater awareness in recent decades of: 1. reflective models of teacher education (Wallace, 1991)2. the teacher’s role as a facilitator of learning in social

learning environments (Vygotsky, 1962)3. intrinsically-motivated teachers’ needs for autonomy,

relatedness and competence (Ryan & Deci, 2000)4. how teachers develop through their careers, from

novices towards expertise (Berliner, 1988)5. how practitioner research/action research/exploratory

practice help (Allwright & Hanks, 2009; Burns, 2010)

How can we define practitioner / teacher / action / research? Teacher research suggests? Practitioner research suggests? Action research suggests? Exploratory practice suggests?

So, how can we define practitioner / teacher / action / research? In an IATEFL Research SIG online discussion last

year (http://resig.weebly.com/online-discussions.html ), Judith Hanks (who is speaking here next week) amusingly said:

“each does exactly what it says on the tin.”

Teacher research is

“systematic inquiry, qualitative and/or quantitative, conducted by teachers in their own professional contexts, individually or collaboratively (with other teachers and/or external collaborators), which aims to enhance teachers’ understandings of some aspect of their work, is made public, has the potential to contribute to better quality teaching and learning in individual classrooms, and which may also inform institutional improvement and educational policy more broadly” (Borg, 2010, p. 395).

Some prefer the term practitioner research, though: I suggest Practitioner as an alternative to Teacher

Research, as it allows the inclusion of learners working with teachers and other practitioners, such as educational psychologists, supervisors, coordinators, head teachers... this creates space for interdisciplinary reflection and investigation (Ines Miller from Brazil, in an online discussion in 2015). http://resig.weebly.com/online-discussions.html

Forms of teacher/practitioner research include action research and exploratory practice Of Action Research, Anne Burns (2015) says: “Action lies at the heart of the process, as it is the

strategies, behavioural changes and reflections that are put in place to explore or investigate a social situation that forms the basis for the research.”

Do you agree with these interpretations of action research (offered by course participants in the last week)?1. “AR is done for oneself rather than for others. So, it is

intrinsically motivated and guided by the passion of the researcher(s).”

2. “Action research provides an opportunity for teachers to come up with their own solutions to the issues rather than use ready-made solutions.”

3. “ ‘Mistake is a gift to humankind’ and it is this philosophy which acts as the key feature of AR”.

4. “According to the article, AR is a systematic way to approach, understand and try to solve a problem teachers have always been interested in.”

5. “Academic research is usually meant to inform large, general populations while AR is meant to inform a specific class, school.”

Exploratory practice is based on the following key principles:1. Put quality of life first2. Work for understanding3. Involve everyone4. Bring people together5. Work in a spirit of mutual development6. Make it a continuous enterprise7. Draw on existing curricular practices to minimize

the burden and maximize sustainability (Allwright & Hanks, 2009,

149-154)

Time to discuss: Teacher/Practitioner research: Who? Where? What? How? When? Why?

Who?

Teachers, their colleagues, their students, anyone else connected with the context with a professional interest?

Where?

The classroom, the school, the broader community?

What?

Whatever puzzles you? Whatever you or your co-researchers would like to learn more about?

How?

Through using natural (mostly) curricular practices and naturally occurring data?

As exploratory practice, as action research?

When?

As a sustainable enterprise, not once a year in artificial conditions?

Why?

To improve the ‘quality of life’? To gain a deeper understanding of issues in

the learning/teaching context? To gain insights that may shape change

processes, if change is desirable? To build the practical knowledge, research

skills, intrinsic motivation, sense of autonomy, relatedness and competence of all involved?

References Allwright, D. and Hanks, J. (2009). The developing language learner. Basingstoke: Palgrave

Macmillan. Berliner, D.C. (1988). The development of expertise in pedagogy. Washington: AACTE Publications. Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching. Language Teaching 36(2), 81-109. Borg, S. (2010). Language teacher research engagement. Language Teaching 43(4), 391-429. Borg, S. (2015). Beyond the workshop: CPD for English language teachers. In S. Borg (ed.),

Professional Development for English language teachers: perspectives from higher education in Turkey (pp. 5-13). Ankara: British Council, Turkey.

Burns, A. (2010). Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching: A Guide for Practitioners. New York: Routledge.

Burns, A. (2015). Doing action research – what’s in it for teachers and institutions? International House Journal of Education and Development, 38(21), 1-5.

Ryan, R.M. & Deci, E.L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-78.

Tschannen-Moran, M. and Woolfolk Hoy, A. (2007). The different antecedents of self-efficacy beliefs of novice and experienced teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23(6), 944-956.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge: MIT Press. Wallace, M.J. (1991). Training foreign language teachers. Cambridge: CUP.