English Language Teacher Education: Facing Challenges, Forging Connections

DIRECTIONS: Watch Kumaravadivelu´s talk on “English Language Teacher Education”, and make and post in your personal blog a mind map of the KARDS model. 

DIRECTIONS: In addition to designing the mind map about the KARDS model, answer the following reflective and critical questions

1.       How would you keep the lamp burning?
2.       What criticism would you make to the KARDS model?

Language teacher education in the age of ambiguity

DIRECTIONS:  Listen to the following podcast made by Magdalena Kubanyiova, and write a response to the rationale and ways she suggests for educating language teachers as meaning makers in the world:

https://soundcloud.com/cler_leeds/professor-maggie-kubanyiova-language-teacher-education

"Sponsored" and "Independent" Professional Development

DIRECTIONS:  In your personal blog, give an account of some experiences of "sponsored" and "independent" professional development you have had as an English teacher. Read what other colleagues posted in response to this task, and make a brief reflection on how different or similiar those professional development experiences have been.

Springboard questions

DIRECTIONS: Based on the literature review, class discussions, and personal experiences you have had with LTE-LTD, make reflective and inspirational questions which can be used as a springboard for choosing the topic to be undertaken in the course final project. Here you are some sample questions:

How does the pedagogical understanding of teachers develop and change over time? 

What personal and professional influences impact teachers’ pedagogical understanding?

What is the role of "context" in SLTE?

What kind(s) of inputs are self-sustaining and generative?

How do teachers build on these inputs to become ongoing learners?

How do we know who an ELT professional is?

How can the description of what it means to be an ELT professional be compared to the reality of Colombian English teachers?

What is the problem with non-professionals?

Why are ELT teachers referred as "cinderella", or the "aromatherapy", of the profession?

How different is teacher professionalism from other professionalism?

How would you defone the role of "context" when defining a professional teacher?

What seems to be wrong with initial teacher training?

How is the space to be created in the teacher’s busy schedule for teacher reflection, sharing, mentoring and learning from one another?

How can English language teachers make a community of practice through the use of social media?

What has the impact of the bilingual policies and programs (Colombia Bilingue) on the professional development of English teachers been?

What constitutes a quality SLTE program in terms of its curriculum, the teaching methods that it gives rise to, and the kinds of teachers that the program produces?

What sort of infuences have shaped your teacher identity?

From the standpoints of "critical theory" and "critical pedagogy," English language teaching is argued not to be a politically or morally neutral activity. What implications do you think this assumption has for LTE and/or LTD?

From a sociocultural perspective, teaching is viewed, not as transfer of knowledge, but as creating conditions for the construction of knowledge and understanding through social participation. How do youu think this philosophy has shaped SLTE?

From professional collaboration to collaborative professionalism

DIRECTIONS:  Watch the Keynote Lecture by Professor Andy Hargreaves "From Professional Collaboration to Collaborative Professionalism," and discuss in your instructor´s blog the following questions:

1) Whereas professional collaboration is a descriptive term referring to how teachers collaborate together, in one way or another, here or there, collaborative professionalism is prescriptive. It is about how to collaborate more deeply, in ways that achieve greater impact. How do you think the transition between professional collaboration to collaborative profesionalism can be promoted in our educational context?

2) Collaborative professionalism is organized in an evidence-informed, but not data-driven, way through rigorous planning, deep and sometimes demanding dialogue, candid but constructive feedback, and continuous collaborative inquiry. To what extent can students profit from their teachers´ practic eof collaborative professionalism?

Welcoming words

Dear Master Candidates: Welcome to this academic blog which is intended as an opportunity to exchange experiences and conceptual insights into the fields of Language Teacher Education and Development. In addition, this site will also serve the purpose of facilitating interaction between the course instructor and participants as to the development of some reflection blogging tasks. These are the general conditions you are expected to meet:

• Please, create a personal blog for this course, and invite your colleagues to become critical readers of the different contributions you post.
• There will be two types of blogging tasks: (1) ones which you will carry out here in the instructor´s blog by using the comments section; (2) others which you will do in your personal blogs. 
• In addition to these tasks, you can also post and share some other useful reading materials concerning the course contents.
• Please, visit this site and your classmates´ blogs, and make critical and constructive comments about the different postings.