Friend Karen Richardson has reached out to the teacher development community to help out a colleague. She sent me the following email (also posted on our Facebook page): “A colleague has asked me whether I would be her assessor/tutor for her Teaching Practice. She intends to take a cert TESOL course run by intesol. It’s [...]

The answer to this question is ‘yes’. But it should be clear what we mean by ‘critical friend.’ The concept would no longer be meaningful if it could not be distinguished from helpfulness, sympathy or peer coaching. An essential characteristic of a critical friend is that someone who wants to learn by seeking support for [...]

Critical friendship is an intriguing concept. The term appears in many books and articles about research and about collaborative learning. However, it has rarely been defined clearly. It is my aim to define it more precisely so that we set it apart from concepts like collegial consultation and helpfulness. I will do this by presenting [...]

The Internet is an great tool for teacher development. If you thought the Web was just for entertainment, think again. Here are some simple ideas to get you started. TDSIG.org – Obviously, the first thing to do is sign up for this website. Our objective is to provide the best in teacher development news and [...]

In this month’s blog I would like to tackle the concept of critical friend. In the next NL you will find an article on this topic. What all critical friends have in common is that they are good listeners and respond to problems and questions with integrity and a positive attitude. Of course the two [...]

As the proud new webmaster of TDSIG.org, I’ll be trying to provide both members and casual visitor (the “development-curious”), with a user-friendly and useful site dedicated to teacher development. To this end, I’ve introduced a few changes to the site. Nothing too dramatic, but hopefully improvements. The site is now more colourful, and therefore hopefully [...]

Find out about the SIG Day and download the programme!

“ELT, life, the universe and everything” Harrogate, 7 April 2010 This is a Pre-Conference Event with a difference: in the world where change is the only constant, we are going to challenge the need to stick to things as they are and venture into the universe of the unplanned, where anything can happen. The structure [...]

By Pauline Taylor & Katie Head http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1013655 Our workshop was scheduled for the last morning of a busy and exhilarating conference. The session, which we called ‘Revitalising your Teaching’, attracted a good number of conference-weary IATEFLers, intrigued by the title and curious to know what recipes for teacher refreshment were on offer. The activities we [...]

Pre-conference event – What colour is my teacher? Workshop facilitated by Rosie Tanner and Jenny de Sonneville http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakerome/3065903183/sizes/l/ Before coming to the conference, I had decided to take part in the workshop of the Teacher Development SIG. I am so happy about it now! This day has given me much more than I had expected. [...]