4 Teachers as learners - Discussion of results
4. Affective-emotional goals (n= 2)
4.2 Teachers’ realisation of goals
Teacher development in the context investigated here is, as previously stated, a matter of self-regulation, because there is no one checking on the progress of the language teachers, except the teachers themselves. In this respect, the way the teachers conduct themselves as learners is decisive. The focus here is on their learning behavior, i.e. on how teachers proceed to achieve their goals, and this is operationalised as follows:
A. the activities they engage in B. the strategies they use and develop 4.2.1 Language teachers’ activities
The first striking result with respect to which activities the teachers engage in to pursue their goals reflects a wide spectrum of possibilities. The major differences among the teachers, first in quantitative and then also in qualitative terms will be the focus of this section.
Quantitative differences
When the participating teachers speak about what they undertake for their professionalisation,
they mention different activities. These are listed here as a catalogue. The order is determined by the activities that are more common among all the participants to those that are the least common among them.
Catalogue of activities teachers engaged in Attending teacher workshops
Having informal exchanges with other colleagues Observing colleagues’ lessons
Creating learning materials Learning another language Being a teacher trainer Drawing on theory
Enrolling in a Teaching Programme/ Teaching qualification diploma
Having a study group
Reading professional literature Carrying out personal projects
Writing for other teachers (books, articles for teachers’ magazines, etc.)
Networking Blogging
Table 4.3 – Teachers’activities catalogue
The activities from the catalogue are distributed in an uneven way among the teachers. The next table (Table 4.4) shows the distribution of activities. Some activities seem to be common to all the participants (attending teacher training/workshops and having informal exchanges with other colleagues)120. The table also aims at presenting the increased involvement of the teachers in additional activities (Extras). The teachers of Group 1, i.e. the teachers with ‘own learning goals’ are highlighted. Three of them clearly stand out because they engage in almost all of them.
120 Johnson (2009: 95) and Dana & Yendol-Hoppey (2009) indicate many different types of PD activities teachers could engage in, such as "Peer coaching", "Shared inquiry" (to quote but a few), but they were not mentioned by the teachers in this study.
Attending teacher workshops Having informal exchange with other colleagues Creating learning materials Having a study group Drawing on theory Reading professional literature Extras
A54 x x x x x x x
P73 x x x x x x x
N51 x x x x x x x
I312* x x x
M96** x x x
D243** x x
M171 x x
B282 x x
N95 x x
J106 x x
The teachers with the asteriscs have an additional activity, such as:
* Observing colleagues, being teacher trainer and ** Learning another foreign language. They are not listed in “Extras” to accentuate that the increment in the upper rows referred to more additional activities.
Table 4.4 - Distribution of professional development activities
The upper part of the table indicates three teachers (A54, P73 and N51) who engage in more activities for their professional growth than the others, such as “having a study group with colleagues”, “reading professional literature” and “drawing on theory”. Each of them also engages in further activities (column “extras”). Teacher A54, for example, uses feedback from students, observes colleagues, writes for a teachers’ magazine and promotes books for a publishing house. She blogs and networks a lot with the explicit aim of developing professionally (this will be further elaborated on later in this chapter in the section
“Colleagues as learning opportunities”). Similarly to teacher P73, she had some experience being a teacher trainer herself, attending teaching conferences and carrying out personal projects. Teacher P73 is also learning another language for her professional development, (as teacher D243 above). Finally, Teacher N51 also shares one activity with A54: they are both attending a teaching qualification diploma programme specifically planned for teachers of a second/foreign language.
For two teachers (I312 and M96) the data show that besides attending teacher workshops and participating in exchanges with other colleagues, they engage in some additional activities.
They mention “Creating learning materials” as a way of professionalizing and also of participating in either activities such as “Being teacher trainer” (I312), or “Observing
colleagues” (M96).
As regards the remaining teachers, their activities for professional development are restricted to attending teacher workshops and enjoying meeting other colleagues. These are the most frequent activities that the teachers in this study mentioned for their development, and which seem to constitute a sort of “default” or a minimum of activities in which most of the teachers engage for their professional growth121.
Teacher D243 is additionally learning another language, which she considers a “Fortbildung”, a useful activity for language teachers who wish to collect ideas for their teaching:
[Interview D243: 252-253] ich habe selber an einem Sprachkurs teilgenommen für Arabisch und war somit in der Schüler Situation und das war…also bis heute mache ich das…und das ist für mich auch eine ständige Fortbildung eigentlich… uh mal als Schüler das zu sehen z.B grad im Anfänger- Unterricht bei einer völlig fremden Sprache zu merken, wie toll das ist, wenn der Lehrer ein Wort auch ein drittes Mal anschreibt auch wenn das schon vor drei Stunden mal angeschrieben wurde und in der nächsten Stunde noch mal, und wenn es dann noch ein drittes Mal angeschrieben wird, es ist noch nicht zu viel.
Also dies zu sehen, wie wichtig die Wiederholung speziell im Anfänger-Unterricht ist, wo man noch sehr unsicher ist über die Schreibweise und hat man alles richtig verstanden und so. Oder dann auch… ja also ich denke…mal die Seite zu wechseln und selber Teilnehmer zu sein von einem Sprachkurs finde ich eine ganz wichtige Erfahrung.
Qualitative differences
In the next section I would like to focus on one aspect that has emerged from the data, namely, that there is a remarkable difference in the way the various activities are experienced by the groups (even the common ones), which indicates that the teachers differ not only in quantitative, but also in qualitative terms.
I have selected two of the activities, beginning with the first (‘Attending teacher training’) that is common to all of them and then following it with the next one (‘Having exchanges with other colleagues’). The discussion of the data is in accordance with the grouping of the teachers established on the basis of their goals:
Group 1. the teachers with ‘own learning goals’: A54, B282, I312, N51, P73 Group 2. the teachers without ‘own learning goals’: D243, J106, M96, M171, N95
Although the first group was identified as crucial for my research, I do not limit the discussion to this group, because ignoring the remaining teachers would not adequately render the context and because the contrast between the groups sheds more light on their differences.
Thus, although the first group is discussed in more depth and the teachers are characterised more individually, the second is discussed as well, but rather as a group, whenever the data
121 Because this result refers to the teachers who attended the programme KommUNIkation, we could assume for them a greater degree of interest and motivation in comparison to the ones who did not and in this sense they are not the norm. Therefore, based on the data, the “default” standard refers to a special group of teachers and can not be generalised to all the teachers.
allow it. When differences occur, they are of course indicated.
4.2.1.1 Attending teacher training
Attending teacher training in the form of workshops is the most recurring activity in the teachers’ answers. For the majority of them it seems to be either the most useful activity, or the most available one, a sort of “default” activity that comes to mind when teachers look for help:
[Interview A54: 211] I usually try to formulate something that I notice I’m having trouble with and then I try to read a book or mm go to a workshop.
When asked which forms of support they receive as language teachers, they all mentioned the lack of institutional support122. They reported that their available options are primarily reduced to some workshops offered by publishing houses:
[Interview B282: 35] training organized by publishing houses
[Interview I312: 23] That would mostly be the courses that the publishers offer, and then it would be our own in-company teaching that we do; peer teaching.
[Interview P73: 30] In München sind Fortbildungen sehr wichtig in unserem Institut [name of the language institute she works for] und sie machen richtig gute Fortbildungen.
The teachers were not obliged or expected to attend any form of teacher development activity as well, and reported attending workshops or completing teaching diplomas explicitly for themselves, like teacher A54 or teacher N51:
[Interview N51: 41-45] at the moment we are attending a course to attain a teaching certificate [name of the diplomafor teaching Italian].
Q.: Is it mandatory?
No.
Q.: Ah, did the school director ask you or suggest it?
No, we were not even asked, but it was …. In any case it is interesting123.
Only one teacher was expected to attend training specific for language teachers:
122 The programme KommUNIkation and another previous teacher programme at the LMU constitute two exceptions.
123Adesso ci stanno somministrando un corso per ottenere un certificato, ilxxx [name of the diplomafor teaching Italian].
Q.: Obbligatorio?
No.
Q.: Ah, la direttrice della scuola ve l’ha chiesto?
No, non ce l’ha neanche chiesto, però insomma la cosa si è …, del resto è anche interessante.
[Interview A54: 67] Well, xxx [name of the publishing house she works for] sent me to Wales, so it was a part of my job there basically to go. The other institutions I work for, for example [name of the institution]
don't expect me to have any workshops, so I really do it all on my own. I do it for myself.
The answers of the participants attest to two issues: first to one characteristic of the group of teachers, all being highly motivated teachers, who feel the urge to professionalise themselves.
Secondly, they point to the lack of institutional support for them.
In general, the teachers considered teacher training and workshops in a positive way and found that they definitely have a lot to offer. The teachers all seemed to learn from them, but they varied in their answers with regard to
1. what they learn from teacher training and workshops, 2. what they perceive as useful and difficult.
These aspects will be illustrated in the following sections.
What teachers learn from teacher training and workshops
Speaking about what she thinks she learns from teacher workshops, teacher A54 finds that what she can get out of workshops consists mostly in the opportunity to reflect:
[Interview A54: 296-8] Usually I take away very general ideas that start working in me. I don’t ever use worksheets one-to-one, I don’t need worksheets that I can put to practice on the following Monday, that’s not the way I go about teacher training, I use it as a time-out from…, to think about things, to really yeah, to reflect on my teaching and to reflect on teaching and where I’m going as a teacher. No, I use them, yeah I really do use workshops for professional development and not for, you know, to run my next lesson [laughs].
Q.:[laughs] mm mm Ok. Why do you say this?
Yeah, well, when I was a younger teacher, you know, at the beginning, I’d come away with photocopies and then I’d put them in the photocopier on Monday and I’d run a class with them, you know, that was how I used it and I don’t really do that anymore because my classes are much more specialized and I usually make the materials for them, so I might take an idea and then rework it, you know.
Worksheets, handouts and most of all the opportunity to “run the next class” without much effort (to quote teacher A54) are not in the foreground, she expects much more and is – together with teacher N51 – very critical towards the kinds of workshops that do not meet these expectations. As clearly expressed by teacher N51, they both were able to discern quality differences among the activities available for teachers.
Teacher N51 manifests her disappointment about teacher training sessions she had attended in the past because it had spoiled her interest and disheartened her, as she had not benefitted from it. She articulates her discontent in the word “recipe”:
[Interview N51: 87-93] What we have been learning so far, was mostly a blend of strategies, teaching, at yeah really low level, something between the recipe and the strategy, I would say ….