Session Title:
Mentoring Teacher-research
Abstract:
Resources on classroom-based research are now easily available but how to facilitate teacher-research has been relatively neglected. This EVO session aims to develop a community of teacher-research mentors and to provide guidance to enable mentors and prospective mentors to play what can be a pivotal role in supporting teacher-research.
Target audience:
- Teacher educators, teacher development group leaders etc. who are currently mentoring teachers or student-teachers to do research into their classroom practice
- Intending or past mentors of teacher-research who want to know more about the process before they begin (again)
- Curious but undecided potential teacher-research mentors who want to know more about what’s involved before they decide
Participants may also be:
- Decision-makers, administrators, school leaders, teacher educators or group leaders wondering whether to initiate and/or design a programme to encourage teacher-research
Session objectives:
Participants will be engaged in the following activities:
- Sharing ideas about the nature of mentoring and what mentoring teacher-research might specifically need to involve
- Peer-coaching enabling participants to practise / reflect on teacher-research mentoring skills
- A planning task involving consideration of who to mentor and establishment of a timeline and plan for effective communications
We also focus on the following stages of teacher-research mentoring, engaging participants in practical activities relating to each of them.
- Helping teachers to select a topic
- Guiding teachers to develop research questions
- Preparing teachers to collect data
- Guiding teachers to analyse and interpret data
- Supporting teachers to plan and evaluate change
- Helping teachers to share and reflect on their research
The syllabus and practical activities are based on the British Council publication, Mentoring Teachers to Research Their Classrooms. Itself based on practical experience in Latin America and South Asia, this will be complemented by questions and insights from participants themselves in relation to their own experiences.
Finally, we encourage teacher-research mentors to continue to link up internationally, and we indicate resources and possibilities for follow-up.
Syllabus:
Note: all webinars begin at 14:30 GMT - find out what time this is where you are here.
Week 1: (January 9 - 15)
What does teacher-research mentoring involve? / 1st online meeting – Sun. Jan. 9, 14:30 (GMT)
- Sharing of teacher-research and teacher-research mentoring experiences among participants
- Discussion of why mentoring is important for supporting teacher-research
- Sharing ideas about the nature of mentoring and what mentoring teacher-research specifically needs to involve
Week 2: (January 16 - 22)
Developing topics and questions / 2nd online meeting – Sun Jan 16, 14:30 (GMT)
- Helping teachers to select a topic
- Guiding teachers to develop research questions
Week 3: (January 23 - 29)
Supporting data collection, analysis and interpretation / 3rd online meeting – Sun Jan 23,14:30 (GMT)
- Preparing teachers to collect data
- Guiding teachers to analyse and interpret data
Week 4: (January 30 - February 5)
Making a mentoring plan – and guiding teachers to plan and evaluate change / 4th online meeting – Sun Jan. 30, 14:30 (GMT
- A planning task involving consideration of who to mentor and establishment of a timeline and effective communications
- Supporting teachers to plan and evaluate change
Week 5: (February 6 - 13)
Helping teachers to share and reflect on their research / 5th online meeting – Sun Feb 6, 14:30 (GMT) &
6th online meeting – Sun Feb 13, 14:30 (GMT)
- Helping teachers to share and reflect on their research
- Wrap-up, taking things further, and evaluation of the EVO
Media:
- Space for static and archived content http://mentoring-tr.weebly.com/evo2022.html
- Interactive and ongoing content space https://groups.io/g/Mentoring-TR
- Live meeting space - Zoom meeting room (for weekly webinars / discussions)
Sponsor(s):
IATEFL Research SIG
Join the Mentoring Teacher-research EVO
Registration starts on Jan 2nd, 2022 and lasts until Jan 9th.
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To register for this EVO, please go to:
http://mentoring-tr.weebly.com/evo2022.html
In the middle of the page you will see two forms.
Step 1: Fill in your name and email address and click on 'Submit'
Step 2: Join the EVO's discussion forum by entering your email address again and clicking on 'Subscribe'
You will be able to post / respond to messages once your subscription has been processed. Please watch out for email messages which explain the next steps.
For example, you will receive details about our first online session together on Sunday January 9th at 14:30 GMT.
If you are a teacher interested in getting involved in researching your practice ('doing' teacher-research) for the first time, consider joining the 'Classroom-based research for professional development' EVO rather than this 'Mentoring teacher-research' EVO, which is for existing and prospective mentors.
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Moderators:
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Name (last, first) |
Email address |
Location |
Biodata |
Photo |
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Smith, Richard |
r.c.smith@warwick.ac.uk |
UK |
Prof Richard Smith has worked as a teacher educator for almost twenty-five years, the last twenty of them in the UK at the University of Warwick. He is the co-founder and former co-ordinator (2008–18) of the Teaching English in Large Classes research and development network (TELCnet), former co-ordinator of the IATEFL Research SIG (2011–15) and founder and chair of the steering committee of the International Festival of Teacher-research in ELT (2017, 2021). He has published widely on topics ranging from teacher-research to the history of language learning and teaching, and has worked with teachers from many countries, both directly and as academic adviser to teacher-research mentoring schemes in Latin America and South Asia. For his publications and further information see http://warwick.ac.uk/richardcsmith |
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Eraldemir Tuyan, Seden |
sedentuyan@gmail.com |
Turkey |
lecturer in the Department of English Language Teaching at Çağ University, Mersin, Turkey, and is interested in psychological perspectives on ELT, including individual learner differences in language learning, motivation, learner autonomy and beliefs. She has published articles on various aspects of affect in foreign language learning. Her major interests are Emotional Intelligence, Social-Emotional Learning, individual differences in SLA, Action Research, and personal and professional development. |
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Primary Contact: (just one, please):
Richard Smith (R.C.Smith@warwick.ac.uk)