The contribution of Exploratory Practice to Professional Development: Research findings

Susan DawsonIATEFL, April 2014

Hiring-Hub.com (2013). Available at: http://www.hiring-hub.com/blog/make-your-employees-dreams-true/

‘a sense of plausibility’ (Prabhu, 1990)

Outline

Professional DevelopmentThe research studyThe participants Initial reasonsLinks to the 7 principlesConclusions

Professional Development

I develop

‘A reclaiming of professional development for teachers, by teachers, recognizes that they have not only a right to direct

their own professional development but also

a responsibility to develop professionally throughout their

careers’

(Johnson, 2006: 250. Italics mine)

What is Exploratory Practice?

‘It is an indefinitely sustainable way for classroom language teachers and learners, while

getting on with their learning and teaching, to develop their own understandings of life in the

language classroom’. (EP website, 2008)

The Research Study

Why are you interested in Exploratory Practice?

‘[email] can increase reflexivity by providing both the time and space

…to construct, reflect upon and learn from …stories of experience’

(James, 2007: 964)

The participants

Respondent Sector/job Time involved with EP

Jenny HE, EnglandCourse director, author, EAP teacher

15 years

Amy HE, EnglandEAP teacher

2 years

Yvonne HE, EnglandEAP teacher

4 years

Paula HE, TaiwanUniversity Lecturer

11 years

Steve HE, England,University lecturer, PhD supervisor, author

> 7 years

Dave FE, EnglandDirector of studies, EAP and GE teacher

< 1 year

The analysis: Initial reasons Intellectual reasons

So, part of my interest in Exploratory Practice stems from my trying to resolve how it is different from Action Research. In some ways, this is more of an intellectual pursuit – but it is one that I find engaging.

Dave I was intrigued by the differences between EP and AR... and at that time what seemed to sum it up was the starting point of a 'puzzle' for EP, and a 'problem' for AR.

Jenny

Similarity of context

When Dick Allwright showed pictures of practitioners in Brazil working for understanding, I could immediately envisage that that practice could work well in state schools in my country, Argentina, where resources are scarce and grammar-focused practices are still common. Because this situation in my country worried me, I was open to see if I could find ways of working to improve it, and I found that EP seemed just perfect.

Amy

Critical pedagogy

Joint beneficiaries

I first became interested because I wanted a way to do research that was meaningful to me and my learners.

Yvonne

The seven principles

The ‘what’ issues1. Focus on quality of life as the fundamental issue. 2. Work to understand it, before thinking about solving problems.

 The ‘who’ issues 3. Involve everybody as practitioners developing their own understandings.4. Work to bring people together in a common enterprise.5. Work cooperatively for mutual development.

 The ‘how’ issues 6. Make it a continuous enterprise.7. Minimise the burden by integrating the work for understanding into normal pedagogic practice.

(Allwright and Hanks,2009: 260. Italics original)

QUALITY OF LIFE

UNDERSTANDING

COLLEGIALITY

SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability

The Flip side of Sustainability

Burn-outFormalisedOne-off businessExtra stressFrustrationHunt for the philosopher’s stone

http://talentbitsandbytes.com/tag/burnout

Efficiency or Quality of Life?

Quality of work or teaching efficiency

’… more effective language teachers, more efficient ‘delivery systems’ of educational success,

by discovering and adopting more efficient techniques.’

(Allwright, 2003: 119)

Quality of life

Efficiency of understandingFor example, if something is not working, I try out a multitude of solutions to see if I can improve upon it. This is action research.But if I go down the EP path of simply trying to understand the issue, this might mean that I can work more efficiently. Similarly, if the EP path means trying to understand why the solutions don’t work, it leads to more efficiency. If EP means trying to differentiate between issues that can be improved by action and issues that can’t be improved by action… this also leads to more efficiency.

Dave

Understanding

'If you want truly to understand something, try to change it.'

Kurt Lewin, 1890 -1947 

'To understand is hard. Once one understands, action is easy'

Sun Yat Sen, 1866-1925

Such realization might eventually appear in the form of a few simple words, yet it is often achieved through a complex process of discovery. 

Paula

Collegiality

“The quality of your life is determined by the quality of

your relationships.”

Dr. Elias Porter (1914-1987)• break down those teacher-learner barriers• bring teachers closer to their learners • respects teachers' and learners' own decisions

Conclusion

The idea of including learners as researchers alongside teachers and 'academics' is a radical and exciting one.

Jenny