Alan Pulverness presented on Teacher Development on Monday, 29^th October, 2007

 

 

On 29 August at the British Council’s Napier Road Centre, Alan Pulverness presented a talk on Teacher Development.

 

The talk began with a book quote:

 

“It is only through self-knowledge that we may hope to know others, and it is only through a commitment to professional development that we can hope to improve the quality of education in our classrooms.”

Jean McNiff Action Research: Principles and Practice (1988).

 

 

 

Alan then presented some interesting insights on what constituted Teacher Development. His take away point was any research or observation on teaching and learning need not be a lengthy and tedious academic exercise, rather it should be based on the stated objectives and outcomes and observational notes and intuitional insights informed by experience will provide various learning points for all teachers. Such records Alan argues should be included as academic material worthy of publishing. The gist of his talk was based on two salient questions:

 

• How can we develop our procedural know-how?

 

• How can we make our tacit knowledge explicit?

 

 

He shared various methods and records that were a working success in the UK:

 

1.       30 minutes daily ‘quiet time’ to list personal action points.

2.       2 colleagues try out a new idea for a month / discuss progress once a week.

3.       Group of colleagues meet once a month to discuss a book or article all agree to read.

4.       Group meets once a month to talk over problems individuals have encountered.

5.       Taking a course on a non-ELT subject

6.       Enrolling on a teacher training course.

7.       Reviewing a book for a teachers’ journal.

8.       Setting up a small-scale action research project and reporting on it at the next TESOL / IATEFL conference.

 

 

Alan rounded off the talk with a brief summary on the various humanistic approaches and Banking Education and Dialogic Education. He provided various models of action research by well-known academics and regaled the participants with his ready and wry humour.Though the attendance could have been better the session ended with an open discussion and Q&A from a number of participants.

 

Alan Pulverness has kindly shared his PPT slides.

 

Elizabeth Thorarajoo

STETS Secretary