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,Continuing Professional Development in TESOL: Current Perspectives, |
Andrzej Cirocki,Raichle Farrelly,Heather Buchanan |
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This chapter sets the stage for the chapters to follow. It defines the concept of continuing professional development (CPD) and clarifies the importance of TESOL practitioner professional learning. Attributes of effective professional development and a principled approach to professional development of TESOL practitioners are explained. Evaluation and the sustainability of CPD programmes are also briefly discussed. The chapter closes with a brief explanation of the purpose, structure and readership of the book.
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EFL High School Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development: The Costa Rican Experience |
Verónica García-Castro,Max Arias Segura |
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Continuing professional development (CPD) is crucial to enhance in-service teachers’ pedagogical skills and their overall careers. However, CPD practices for EFL teachers vary depending on the teaching context, and some practices are still undeveloped. The aim of this chapter is to provide a glimpse of what CPD for EFL teachers looks like in Costa Rica by drawing attention to CPD practices implemented in secondary education. A description of some CPD providers with examples of successful CPD training and lessons learnt is discussed. The chapter also reflects upon how to improve CPD for EFL teachers in Costa Rica and puts forward ideas to build national coordination among CPD providers. It concludes with priorities for future CPD practices to enhance the CPD training EFL teachers receive in Costa Rica.
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Continuing Professional Development in the Foundation Program at a National University in the State |
Okon Effiong |
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Teachers, especially language teachers, benefit tremendously from continuing professional development (CPD) by engaging in various strands of CPD. Language teacher associations the world over support teachers through various CPD principles applied in workshops, as well as the effect of the workshops on their teaching approaches. In addition, English language programmes in various institutions may offer effective and sustainable opportunities for faculty members to grow in the profession through various CPD events. Providing such development opportunities may influence the attitudes and teaching approaches thereby contributing to the quality of the teaching process. For the general improvement and success of language education, CPD as the name implies, ought to be a continuous process with engaging activities aimed at enhancing both the theoretical and practical knowledge underpinning teaching. This chapter will therefore address the various activities aimed at enhancing the classroom skills of English language teachers on the Foundation Program of a national university in the State of Qatar. This will include activities promoted by the department through its Conference Organising C
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A Continuing Professional Development Programme for TESOL Teachers in South African Secondary School |
Nhlanhla Mpofu |
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The purpose of this chapter is to describe the continuing professional development (CPD) programme used to develop English as a First Additional Language (EFAL) teachers’ professional competences in the South African secondary schooling context. There has been a call for more qualified and competent teachers to teach critical subjects such as English. English language is the medium of instruction in South African secondary schools. There are many factors that intersect to influence the quality of education in South Africa; chiefly, among them are the apartheid legacy, economic inequalities and teachers’ poor pedagogical content knowledge. To address these challenges, a CPD programme was initiated in 2011 by a multisectoral team to improve the quality of teacher development to improve the quality of learning. This chapter describes this CPD programme focused on EFAL secondary school teachers. Specifically, the chapter highlights the different professional development activities that EFAL teachers participate in to maintain and enhance their knowledge as a strategy for enhancing quality learning. Both the strengths and the weaknesses of this CPD programme are discussed. In conclusion
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Learning to Teach: The Continuing Professional Development Realities of English Language Teachers in |
Gladys Ngwi Focho |
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Very little is documented on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) agenda in low-resourced contexts such as Cameroon. However, teachers working in these difficult circumstances constitute a large portion of the English-language-teaching landscape. They often leave training institutions with basic awareness of ELT procedures because CPD programmes on offer are limited in scope and provide inadequate institutional support. Faced with myriad challenges, teachers struggle to adapt to ongoing policy innovations, conform to pedagogic innovations, and navigate emerging context-specific constraints—all without a guiding framework for implementation. This chapter seeks to find answers to questions related to: (1) the strategies EFL teachers in Cameroon undertake to develop resilience; (2) their self-perceived value of Cameroon English Language and Literature Teachers’ Association (CAMELTA) CPD activities; and (3) how they struggle to be self-equipped with locally responsive procedures. It analyzes feedback provided by teachers from WhatsApp presentations in CAMELTA WhatsApp chat groups between September 2020 to August 2021 through an open-en
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Professional Development for EFL Teacher Educators in Indonesia |
Kusumarasdyati |
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EFL teacher educators need to pursue professional development to improve their linguistic and pedagogical knowledge and skills. Not only does it benefit their career growth, but the pre-service teachers they are training also become more motivated to learn further because the teacher educators set a real example of lifelong education. Continuing professional development (CPD) is implemented in Indonesian universities which are former teachers’ colleges in various forms, but the present chapter focuses on two practices that constitute reflective inquiry: conducting research and developing instructional materials. The teacher educators conduct classroom action research and lesson study, becoming more reflective and mobilizing all their knowledge and skills in overcoming problems in their classrooms. Additionally, they design instructional materials which are more suitable for pre-service teachers’ requirements and the syllabus than for commercial needs. Challenges on the part of the teacher educators occur in implementing those programmes, namely, complacency, lack of autonomy, reluctance to reflect, and workload. On the basis of the practices and the challenges, the future direction
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Continuing Professional Development for Teaching English as an Additional Language in New Zealand Pr |
Karen Ashton,Erin McKechnie |
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This chapter examines the current continuing professional development (CPD) provision for teaching English as an Additional Language (EAL) for primary school teachers in New Zealand. The chapter starts by providing an overview of the broader EAL teaching context in New Zealand, followed by a discussion of professional learning, which is one of the six teaching standards set by the New Zealand Teachers Council (Education Council in Our code, our standards: Code of professional responsibility and standards for the teaching profession, 2017), with all teachers expected to reflect on their teaching practice and to make changes for the benefit of their students. The chapter then considers the range of CPD practices available in New Zealand to support teachers of EAL students before focusing more closely on two examples of CPD followed by a discussion of the effectiveness of each of these practices in meeting the specific needs of New Zealand teachers. Classrooms in New Zealand are becoming increasingly diverse and therefore effective CPD must support teachers in responding to this. However, alongside this, the chapter argues that due to the busy work lives of teachers, any CPD must be p
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Continuing Professional Development for Primary School Teachers in Oman |
Mohammed Al Ghafri,Donald Sargeant,Mark Wyatt |
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This chapter focuses on the continuing professional development (CPD) of Omani primary school teachers of English as a foreign language. The first part outlines in brief how CPD in Oman developed along with the great expansion in the educational system following reforms in the 1990s. The second part examines the goals, policies and standards regarding CPD and the top-down and bottom-up processes in Oman. In the third section, we examine the outcomes of educational reforms since the 1990s, in terms of their impact on teachers’ experiences of CPD and their support for reflective practice. The penultimate section describes CPD teacher training practices that we have found to be effective, focusing on cooperative learning activities that teachers can reflectively take into their schools. It also describes a bottom-up CPD initiative to improve initial literacy in one region of the country that was taken up by the Ministry of Education and cascaded down around the country. This initiative led to a further project that involved teachers in reflectively developing materials. The final section examines the lessons we have learnt in our CPD teacher training and looks at possible future devel
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The Sookmyung TESOL Intensive In-Service Teacher Training Program in South Korea |
Diane Rozells |
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This chapter provides an overview of the nationwide Intensive In-service Teacher Training Program (IIETTP) for public school Korean EFL teachers in South Korea and then goes on to explore the case of how it is implemented in Sookmyung Women’s University for secondary school teachers. The Sookmyung IIETTP is regarded as a leader in professional development for English language teachers in Korea, and only select teachers are invited to participate in this programme. Key features that stand out in the Sookmyung IIETTP are: (1) its emphasis on globalization of Korean EFL teachers through overseas teaching practica, immersion programmes at overseas universities, and a dedicated team of native speaker instructors; (2) its focus on developing reflective practitioners through action research and other reflective activities; (3) the enhancement of teachers’ English language skills through courses such as writing and composing, critical thinking and media, as well as their skills in using technology in teaching; and (4) its focus on self-enrichment and emotional wellbeing through yoga and self-improvement workshops. The programme was designed in this way in response to initiatives from the M
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Continuing Professional Development for TESOL Instructors Working in Canadian Settlement Language Tr |
Marilyn L. Abbott,Kent K. Lee |
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This chapter describes continuing professional development (CPD) for TESOL instructors of adults in the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) programme in the province of Alberta, Canada. After setting the context, we review relevant literature on CPD in adult TESOL contexts, outline the provincial and national CPD activities available to LINC instructors and discuss the challenges associated with participating in CPD. Most of the available CPD activities are one-shot events in which the presenters determine the learning objectives, but these may not necessarily align with the instructors’ unique CPD goals and needs. One way to address the issue of alignment is to encourage the establishment of researcher-supported professional TESOL reading groups in which the members identify practice-related issues; select, read, and discuss peer-reviewed articles; then combine the article information with their professional knowledge and experience to co-construct practices and policies to address the issues. We present evidence from our longitudinal professional reading group project to demonstrate the effectiveness of reading groups as a valuable form of informal, teacher-driven
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Professional Development of CLIL Teachers in Kazakhstan: The Case of Nazarbayev Intellectual Upper-S |
Yeraly Baizhanov,Andrzej Cirocki |
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While Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been widely employed in Europe for about 30 years to teach content using an additional language, its extensive implementation in Kazakhstan began only recently. Its introduction was driven by the educational reform in Kazakhstani secondary schools, including the promotion of trilingual education, which involved teaching some subjects in English. For this reform to be effective, secondary schools require teachers to demonstrate high proficiency in the target language as well as knowledge of how to teach using that language. This pressing need raises the question of how to educate CLIL teachers and design effective continuing professional development (CPD) programmes. This chapter reviews current CPD policies and goals in the Kazakhstani CLIL context. It also presents effective CPD practices designed for CLIL teachers in one private secondary school in West Kazakhstan. These practices cover a personalized professional development trajectory scheme, action research and lesson study courses, and a curriculum mapping procedure. Major CPD challenges in the Kazakhstani CLIL context are briefly discussed and suggestions made for imp
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Reflective Practice in CPD for EAL Teachers in Norway: A DLC Approach |
Yaqiong (Sue) Xu,Anna Krulatz |
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With increasing numbers of multilingual students in classrooms worldwide, research suggests that teachers of English as an additional language (EAL) feel insufficiently prepared to work with linguistically diverse learners. Consequently, there have been calls for more focus on diversity and multilingualism in teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD). This chapter presents a CPD project that utilized Farrell’s framework for reflecting on practice and the construct of dominant language constellation (DLC). An array of reflective tools, including dialogue, writing, narratives, and action research were integrated with various DLC-based activities at the following stages of the CPD: (1) Pre-workshop interview, (2) DLC-based workshops, (3) DLC lesson planning and delivery, and (4) Post-lesson interview. The outcomes from the DLC-based CPD involved the EAL teachers’ drawings of their DLC, DLC lesson plans and teaching materials, and DLC artefacts produced by students. By illustrating how the designed DLC activities promoted the EAL teachers’ reflection on their own multilingual identity, their beliefs, and practices in linguistically diverse classrooms, and how such a DLC-based
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Professionalizing English Instruction for Adult Immigrants and Refugees in the United States: One St |
Patsy Egan,Andrea Echelberger |
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Immigrants and refugees are resettled all over the United States, coming to classrooms with many primary languages and varying literacy levels and prior experiences with formal education. The adults in families are tasked with not only finding stable housing and employment, but they must also arrange for their children’s schooling and provide for the family’s healthcare and wellbeing. Without English and strong literacy skills, these tasks are almost unsurmountable, and students are left quite vulnerable and struggle to fully participate in their new culture. Adult English learners come to Adult Basic Education (ABE) for language instruction and to learn to navigate their new communities. Teachers in these adult schools bring a wide range of teaching experience and preparation, and requirements vary greatly from state to state. Minnesota, in the upper Midwest of the United States, has long been a leader in professional development for adult educators, in particular those learning English as an additional language. Minnesota provides an array of professional development opportunities such as study circles, conferences, and high-quality, curated online resources. Three characteristic
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The Implementation of a CPD Policy in the TESOL Sector in Malta |
Daniel Xerri |
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Continuing professional development (CPD) involves a broad range of activities by means of which language teachers develop their beliefs, knowledge and skills. While traditionally CPD has consisted primarily of a trainer-to-trainee dynamic, other forms of professional development that entail a higher degree of autonomy and collaboration on the part of teachers have become very popular. Even though these forms of CPD are equally—if not more—beneficial, when the regulator of the TESOL sector in Malta saw a need to streamline and validate CPD provision, it was faced with the problem of being unable to recognize CPD activities that are not easily quantifiable and verifiable. This chapter reviews the ELT Council’s CPD policy. Given that this policy impacts the work of all practitioners working in Malta’s TESOL sector by determining whether they are eligible for renewal of their teaching permit, the philosophy behind the formulation of the policy and the way it is operationalized merit evaluation. The chapter critically discusses this policy in light of the theoretical and empirical literature on professional development, and it proposes changes that can be made in order for the policy t
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CPD Provision for English Teachers in State Schools in Sri Lanka: Availability, Challenges and Effec |
Bimali Indrarathne,Lesley Dick |
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English is the prominent second/link language taught at all levels of education in Sri Lanka; however, students’ proficiency at school exit seems to be at a lower level than expected (Shepherd & Ainsworth, 2018). Recent studies highlight that teachers’ lower proficiency in English in the mainstream school system (Allan & Mackenzie, 2019), lack of practical approach in pre-service teacher training (Kennett, 2018), and issues in the curriculum, textbooks and assessments (Brunfaut & Green, 2019) are some of the contributing factors for lower student achievements. Several recent programmes have attempted to provide continuing professional development (CPD) to teachers in Sri Lanka to address such issues. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the type of CPD available for ELT practitioners at secondary level in the state school system and critically evaluate the effectiveness of such initiatives. We provide examples of good practice and highlight the key issues of CPD provision in the country. The chapter also looks at how reflective practice contributes to teacher professional development in this context. Finally, we discuss the recent advances in CPD in Sri Lanka, including onlin
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