| Research Abstract |
Although the current literature in general teacher education emphasizes the importance of creating a professional development school, there has been little documentation as to how such a professional learning community is actually created. In the area of foreign language teacher education, although Freeman and Johnson (1998) advocate a reconceptualization of the knowledge base of language teacher education, including the school context, the teacher, and practices, few studies have been conducted within this three-way framework. In particular, "teacher learning within the social, cultural, and institutional contexts" (p.397) has not been explored except for a few studies (e.g., Kleinsasser, 1993 ; Sato, 2000 ; 2002 ; Sato ＆ Kleinsasser, 2004). Using multiple data sources including interviews, classroom observations, surveys, and documents, this study aims at revealing how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers struggled and collaborated to develop a learning community with the sup
… More
port of a university teacher in a Japanese public high school over the past five years.
This study has described how teachers in an English department in a Japanese high school struggled with projects implemented by the prefectural government and went through difficulties in order to revitalize their curriculum. It was true that teachers were forced to work on curriculum revitalization at first due to the top-down initiatives and there were many times when these teachers resisted and struggled with the projects. Yet, the more these teachers collaborated with the support of a university teacher toward the same goals, particularly in the second project, the more they experienced successful teaching practices. As the teachers confirmed better student outcomes, they began to develop materials and share them with one another. From this point of view, these teachers generated many teacher learning opportunities within their school context, as they worked on their curriculum revitalization as a team. The following are the implications :
(1) Teachers were resistant to changing their beliefs about English language teaching and learning.
(2) Changing assessment and making coherent assessment criteria became a catalyst to develop teachers' practices.
(3) Creating a weekly meeting was effective but not enough.
(4) Gradually, teachers took risks, communicated more about teaching, and moved away from the textbook.
(5) Keeping track of student-achievement data built up teacher confidence.
(6) Teacher collaboration with the support of a university teacher encouraged teachers to take more risks and facilitated on-the-job teacher learning.
(7) Teacher learning led to better student learning.
In summary, this study revealed that these teachers have been transforming their workplace into a site for inquiry as they struggled, went through conflict, agreed and disagreed with one another, and tried out new practices little by little. In other words, these teachers have been transforming this school from a weak teaching culture into a learning organization or a professional development school. Less
|
