| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Welcome to Class-Based Research EVO 2017

This version was saved 7 years, 3 months ago View current version     Page history
Saved by Richard Smith
on December 1, 2016 at 11:50:49 pm
 



Overall goal

 

This EVO Project provides a hands-on introduction to inquiry-based teacher development, especially (though not exclusively) for teachers working in difficult circumstances (large classes, low-resource classrooms, etc.). The project takes participants through different stages of teacher-research, engaging them in practical activities which will gradually build their confidence in this area.

 

     

Session Objectives

 

Overall the project aims to improve teachers' sense of self-efficacy and professional autonomy via inquiry-based practice.  Specific session aims focus on commencing teacher-research,  developing a plan, sustaining research and developing further autonomy. 

 

Participants will learn how to carry out small-scale research in their own teaching settings: tasks will be provided which teachers can carry out in their own classrooms or teaching institutions. The goal will be for participants to share  findings with others in this EVO commmunity, and ultimately beyond.

 

The project takes participants through different stages of teacher-research for teacher development and engages them in activities which will gradually build their confidence in this area: from sharing successes and understanding the value of collaboration (week 1) to creating research questions and gaining insights from colleagues (week 2), then deciding on and trying out tools for exploring the questions by collecting classroom data (week 3); analyzing data and learning how to share findings (week 4); and finally reporting to the community, and planning further research and action (week 5).  

 

 

Target audience

 

We aim to connect, in particular, with teachers and teacher educators working in relatively difficult circumstances in developing countries who may not otherwise have much access to teacher development opportunities. Open-source materials and experiences to be referred to mainly come from teacher-research projects in such settings, including the Champion Teachers project in Chile (British Council and Ministry of Education Chile) (2013 to present), Hornby Regional Schools in Nepal (2013-2014) (A.S. Hornby Educational Trust and British Council) and the Teachers and Children as Co-researchers in Indian Primary Schools project (British Council) (2015-2016). 

 

 

Weekly content

 

 

Preparatory  (Jan 1-9 2017) 'While-waiting warm-up'

 

While you're waiting for the EVO to begin, click on this link and get to know the moderators via their short self-introductions on video, introduce yourself in our Facebook group / Google + community, fill out a questionnaire which will help us support you better and which constitutes your official 'registration' for this EVO, and browse some of the readings and videos about teacher-research that we've made available.

 

 

 

Week 1  (Jan 9-14, 2017)  Introduction and stepping into research for teacher development

 

After clicking on the above link on or around 8 January, hear an introduction to the project overall, then introduce your classroom and teaching situation to the group via Google + / Facebook group. We will then focus on sharing recent successful teaching experiences relating to your contexts. The emphasis is on confidence-building and relationship-building via recognition of yourselves and your colleagues as experts in your own classrooms. Videos of other teachers sharing their experiences in a workshop in Nepal will also be shared and discussed. 

 

 

Week 2  (Jan 15-21, 2017) Identifying a focus of research and using colleagues as resources  

 

You will be helped to identify a main research focus and develop this into a clear research question or questions.Then, you will consider how you could consult colleagues (including fellow EVO participants) to begin to find answers. Throughout this process, you will receive feedback from moderators and other course participants.

 

Week 3   (Jan 22-27, 2017) Practical tools for exploratory research

 

You will be introduced to the value of exploring before attempting to bring about a change. This entails stepping back from the situation, and considering different sources of information and appropriate data collection tools. Participants will identify main features of various types of data collection tools, will determine the best type for their own questions and will plan to use it. During these steps in the process, participants will gain feedback from moderators. Participants will also be shown how they can involve their students in the research and problem-solving process. Reference will be made to materials from experiences with learners in Chilean secondary schools and in Indian primary classrooms.

 

Week 4  (Jan 28-Feb 3, 2017)  Analyzing and sharing what you find

 

This week will be allocated to the discussion of basic data analysis procedures and ways of sharing research.  Participants will learn about several ways to analyze data and will decide which analysis procedure(s) will best complement their study.  Finally, participants will discuss how to best share their valuable insights with their colleagues, with a focus on innovative, creative and teacher-friendly means of sharing. 

 

Week 5  (Feb 4-13, 2017)  Developing a plan for further research and sharing

 

In  Week 5 participants will create their own timeline and goals for implementing their further classroom research. The moderators will discuss how classroom research can be planned, with a focus on the way exploration can lead into action and evaluation of change. The participants will catch up with any lingering work and activity for the course and will share their productions in the form of research plans or research itself. Finally, teachers will be encouraged to join specific networks (the 'Teachers Research!' Facebook group, the Teaching English in Large Classes network (TELCnet) and IATEFL Research SIG) for further development in this area. They will also be invited to join a dedicated Facebook group for staying in touch and reporting back about their research after the end of the course

 

Sponsors

 

We're very grateful to the following for supporting this EVO officially, and especially grateful to IATEFL and the IATEFL Research SIG for making available an Adobe Connect room for our live webinars.  

 

All-India Network of English Teachers (AINET);

English Language Professionals' Association (ELPA) - Ethiopia 

IATEFL Research SIG;

IATEFL Teacher Development SIG

Red de Investigadores Chilenos (RICELT);

Teaching English in Large Classes network (TELCnet)

 

                               

Who are we? Meet the moderators!

 

 

Kenan Dikilitas

 

Kenan, from Turkey has been a teacher for 19 years and a trainer for the last six years. His teacher training experience  primarily includes supporting teacher research for professional development. 

 

Asli Lidice Gokturk Saglam  

 

Asli, from Turkey, has been an English teacher in EAP settings for 15 years. She is an educational technologies enthusiast. Her research interests include; teacher education, educational technology and testing and assessment. She shares her reflections about teaching in her blog at http://aslisaglam.edublogs.org/ and on Twitter (@aslilidice) 

Paula Rebolledo

 

Paula, from Chile, has taught at school level and in INSETT programmes. Currently, she is the national academic coordinator of the English Opens Doors Programme at the Ministry of Education in Chile. She is the co-founder of RICELT, the first Chilean network of researchers in ELT. She has been mentoring teacher-research on the Chile Champion Teachers project funded by the British Council.

Richard Smith

 

Richard Smith, from the UK, has been a teacher educator for more than twenty years, the last fifteen of them in the UK at the University of Warwick. He is the co-founder and coordinator of the Teaching English in Large Classes network (TELCnet) and outreach coordinator for the IATEFL Research SIG.  He has given invitedworkshops and plenary talks about teacher-research in several countries. Website: http://warwick.ac.uk/richardcsmith

Twitter @RichardSmithELT

Amol Padwad

 

 

 

Amol Padwad, from India, currently works in a private college in India and is the National Convener of All India Network of English Teachers (AINET). He has also been a trainer, consultant and project manager for over 15 years and is currently leading an action research project for school teachers. 

Jo Gakonga

 

Jo Gakonga, from the UK, works on the MA in ELT at Warwick University as well as being a CELTA trainer and assessor and studying for a PhD in the field of teacher education. She also runs two websites www.elt-training.com  andwww.teacherfeedback.org.  She has three children and very little spare time!

Michelle Evans

 

 

 

 

Michelle, from the UK, has ESOL and EAP teaching experience in the UK and Vietnam and is currently a research assistant within the Teacher-research for Difficult Circumstances project at the University of Warwick.

Babita Sharma Chapagain




Babita Sharma Chapagain completed 
MA in ELT from the University of Warwick in 2015. She works as a teacher trainer at Rato Bangala Foundation, Nepal. She has also been teaching at Kathmandu University where she assists M Ed (ELT) students in carrying out a classroom-based research.  

Sadeqa Ghazal

 

 

 

 

 

Sadeqa Ghazal, from India, is a senior research fellow pursuing PhD(ELT) from the school of Humanities and Social Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology Patna. Her research interests include learner autonomy, teaching speaking, critical pedagogy and classroom-based action research in ELT. She has taught ESL at school level for more than five years in low-resource classrooms.

Twitter: @sadeqaghazal 

Mark Wyatt


Mark Wyatt, currently in the UAE, has worked in teacher education in contexts including Thailand, Nepal, Oman (with in-service teachers on a University of Leeds BA TESOL) and the UK (with Malaysian pre-service B.Ed TESL students at the University of Portsmouth). He moderates the discussion board of the IATEFL Research SIG and co-edits ELT Research. 



What to do now? 

 

We hope you will join us for this EVO 2017 adventure! To register, and to prepare for the launch of the project on 9th January 2016, go to the 'While-waiting warm-up' room and follow the suggestions there. Then join us for our live launch on 9th January at 15:00 GMT (or catch up with the recording later). 

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.