domingo, 25 de agosto de 2013

A socio-cultural approach to teacher development and education

At a time when student-centredness has become common-place in progressive language teaching discourses, isn’t it about time we acknowledge and provide for the teacher-centredness of professional development? In this presentation on how teachers learn to teach, Willy Cardoso will argue that, in general, teacher education, development and training programmes lack the theoretical foundations of what constitutes teacher learning, mainly in its cognitive and affective elements; and that this has far reaching implications. For example, by focusing primarily on the transmission of classroom management and language analysis skills, we run the risk of shaping the ELT profession as that of technicians. Henceforth for the benefit of our profession we seriously need to consider language teachers first and foremost as educators. To do so, the presenter will propose some principles and practices that can place the socio- cultural aspects of learning how to teach at the core of this matter. By taking a socio- cultural approach to teacher education we are reminded that everyone has ideas about what teaching should be like, with many implicit values and beliefs about it. Such ideas, longside theories that show how cognitive development is mediated by social activity, give us the understanding that our knowledge of teaching has been co-constructed in cultural and historical ways. One of the most powerful developmental tools for teachers is the ability to uncover what underpins their classroom practices and even the meta-language used to describe what they do. Therefore, it is essential that we open more educational spaces for teachers to become learners. - See more at: http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/seminars/socio-cultural-approach-teacher-development-and-education#sthash.gwvgHj79.dpuf http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/

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