271 / 2018-06-11 19:36:00

Improving Experienced EFL Teachers: Grounding Lesson Study Design for Teacher Change in Model of Adaptive Expertise

experienced teachers, lesson study, adaptive expertise

全体主题 > 中国特色英语教师发展研究

Some experienced teachers remain to be experienced teachers all their life, only a few transform themselves into expert teachers. Improving experienced EFL teachers in teaching practice continues to challenge teacher educators in China. This article contends EFL teaching work needs to be situated within theories of professional learning that focus on refreshing and altering experienced teachers who are ultimately capable of innovatively and flexibly integrate theories into instructional practice. A framework of adaptive expertise is proposed which highlights scaffolding instructional practice while simultaneously creating opportunities for experienced teachers to collectively engage with practical problems in teaching practice and critical reflection in research lessons. This study adopts a case study methodology to examine three experienced teachers' changes in beliefs and instructional practices as they prepared and implemented two research lessons respectively in Beijing Outstanding Teacher Program. Multiple sources of data were collected, including in-depth interviews, video recordings of trial lessons, discussions with two supervisors (a professor and an expert teacher) on revising lesson plans and public lessons, reflective journals from teachers and stimulated recalls. Through constant comparison and analytic induction, this study aims to explore the potential of research lessons to help build up integrated knowledge about theories of teaching and learning and instructional practice. Data reveals that teachers gradually grasped the core of theories of teaching and learning, enriched their instructional strategies and built up their contextualized and conditionalized knowledge. Framing the improvement of experienced EFL teachers in lesson study within Model of Adaptive Expertise may inform teacher education pedagogies and curricular for experienced teacher learning.