Your TDSIG PCE will be online – 31 July 2021

Typically, when our profession thinks of development opportunities, we often default to certification courses, post-graduate programs, and conferences. Without question, these can be valuable modes for a teacher to develop professionally. However, they can have barriers to access that are out of our control. At this event, we’re putting teacher-driven development at the heart of the discussion.

In this revised online post-conference event, our TDSIG community will explore alternative forms of teacher development practices, such as action research, curriculum planning, reflective practice, and a dialogic approach. Along with experience-based talks, we will dive into the topics with each other and with the speakers in several engaging open-space sessions (this time, food and drink of your choice is encouraged!). Our PCE topics won’t end on this day either: we’ll share our plans to bring your participation and contribution towards a sustainable action plan for us all! Finally (and perhaps quite enticing…), we will be giving away 5 individual IATEFL + TDSIG one-year memberships, as well as a few other goodies.

We can’t wait to finally see you!

Key questions will include:

What teacher-driven approaches to TD are our community doing already that provide accessible alternatives to formalised training?
How do we create or adapt TD initiatives through a local lens?
What impacts do these alternative forms of TD on us that perhaps differ from more traditional approaches to TD?

REGISTER HERE: https://www.iatefl.org/events/13

31 July | Online Zoom
Full schedule details below.

IATEFL Conference Link: https://www.iatefl.org/conference/conference

Key speakers

How I stopped teaching: problematising language training in EMI
This talk is about accompanying wide-scale curricular change, towards English as a Medium of Instruction, from an English language teacher’s perspective. I will share my experience in developing EMI programs at my institution, specifically my journey towards placing ‘training’ before ‘trainee’ or ‘trainer’ under heavy curricular and time constraints. I will problematise the role of language teachers in EMI training, and analyse some of the identity shifts I’ve experienced in trying to achieve the goal of an EMI curriculum through in-house professional development.

Divya Madhavan has been an English teacher for 19 years and is currently Project Manager for EMI at CentraleSupélec, Université Paris-Saclay. She works with mainly with engineers, tinkering with language and science education to bring them closer together.

Systematic Informed Reflective Practice, or How to Avoid Judgementoring
In this talk I will share my several years’ experience of using Malderez’s (2015) Systematic Informed Reflective Practice (SIRP) mentoring model in an under-resourced university teacher education context in North Macedonia. Having previously personally experienced the benefits of SIRP, working closely with the author, I adapted what was initially designed as a peer mentoring model to be used in group reflection sessions with my student teachers. SIRP is an alternative to the ubiquitous ‘positive-negative-positive feedback sandwich’, criticised for promoting judgementoring (Hobson and Malderez, 2013). SIRP puts teachers centre stage, guiding them to arrive at their own informed judgements, rather than being ‘told’ others’. SIRP creates safe, non-evaluative reflective spaces in which teachers can work with artefacts from their classrooms, thus encouraging a long-term desire in teachers to systematically investigate their practices.

Elena Ončevska Ager works at Ss Cyril and Methodius University, North Macedonia. She teaches EAP and supports the development of EFL teachers, both pre-service and in-service, in face-to-face and online contexts. Apart from language teacher education and online learning, her research interests also include motivation and professional wellbeing.

My Process of Becoming a Better Teacher through Action Research
Action Research is a hot topic in EFL again, but how much action research is actually being done? We can call action research an underdog form of teacher development because it is mostly misunderstood. Too many teachers think action research is difficult and time consuming. Therefore, it is under practiced. In my talk I will present examples of action research projects in which I have participated, including a project that led to curriculum-wide change at a university in Japan. I will focus on the process of becoming a teacher researcher. I’ll share all the mistakes, as well as the successes.

Michael Stout is a lecturer at Hakuoh University, near Tokyo, Japan. He has been teaching since 1997. He has published and presented in Japan and internationally on a wide variety of topics including: Narrow Reading, Reading Circles, teaching with Web 2.0 applications, and action research.

Dialogic Approaches to Teacher Development
Adapted from Inspiring Dialogue: Talking to Learn in the English Classroom (Juzwick et al., 2013), this talk presents a model of dialogic teacher development that embraces the teacher as a reflective and autonomous practitioner. Focusing on the area of class talk where teachers often struggle to engage students in discussions conducive to their learning, the model starts with a questionnaire that encourages teachers to think about challenges in their class talks, offers a template for action research that is based on self and peer observations, then ends with another questionnaire that focuses on lessons learned and suggested solutions.

Nermine Abd Elkader is an instructor of Academic Listening and Speaking in the International Foundation Program in the University of Toronto. She has a Master’s degree in TESL and a Ph.D. in Education. Her research interest is merging theory and practice in employing Dialogic Pedagogy in EAP programs.

General day schedule

Our new schedule has now been updated and you can be seen below. All times are UK-centred for simplicity here. Apologies.

When	What
12.45	Zoom rooms open for networking
13.00	Welcome address from TDSIG Coordinator, Tyson Seburn
13.15	Talk 1: Michael Stout My process of becoming a better teacher through action research
13.45	Coffee space: An open space breakout room session where we discuss our thoughts on the talk and more directly chat with the speaker. Plus, grab your beverage and snack of choice. Suggestion: coffee and pão de queijo!
14.05	Mini-break
14.10	Talk 2: Elena Ončevska Ager Systematic informed reflective practice, or how to avoid judgementoring
14.40	Tea space: An open space breakout room session where we discuss our thoughts on the talk and more directly chat with the speaker. Plus, grab your beverage and snack of choice. Suggestion: tea and scone!
15.00	BREAK: Breakout rooms for socialising will be available.
15.15	Talk 3: Divya Madhavan How I stopped teaching: problematising language training in EMI
15.45	Wine space: An open space breakout room session where we discuss our thoughts on the talk and more directly chat with the speaker. Plus, grab your beverage and snack of choice. Suggestion: wine and camembert!
16.05	Mini-break
16.10	Talk 4: Nermine Abd Elkader Dialogic approaches to teacher development
16.40	Prosecco space: An open space breakout room session where we discuss our thoughts on the talk and more directly chat with the speaker. Plus, grab your beverage and snack of choice. Suggestion: prosecco and sabayon!
17.00	End of Day GIVEAWAYS and how we’ll follow up on today’s topics