Teachers Ways of Knowing: Reclaiming Professional Development

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Teachers Ways of Knowing Reclaiming
Professional Development

• Karen E. Johnson
• TESOL Canada
• May 26-28, 2005

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What counts as knowledge? Who is considered a
knower? What counts as professional development?
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What is it that second language teachers need to
know in order to do the work of this profession?
How is this knowledge best learned by
individuals who wish to become members of this
profession?
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• What teachers know about teaching is
• socially constructed out of experiences
• as learners in classrooms and schools
• as participants in professional teacher
• education programs
• as members of the communities of practice
• in the schools where they work

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A socially-situated view of knowledge and
learning the processes of learning are
socially negotiated, constructed through
experiences in and with the social practices
associated with teaching and learning
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A socially-situated view of teacher learning

• teachers as legitimate knowers
• teachers as creators of knowledge
• understand language teaching through the
  perspectives of teachers
• feature centrally teachers experiences and
  beliefs about the learning-teaching process

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Teachers Ways of Knowing



Suzanne
Jolie
Judy

• What teacher learning looks like
• Teachers as legitimate knowers
• Teachers as creators of knowledge
• Teachers reclaiming their own professional
  development

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Who is in this classroom with me?

• by Suzanne House
• In (2002) Johnson, K.E. Golombek, P. (eds)
  Teachers Narrative Inquiry as Professional
  Development. New York Cambridge University Press.

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ESL 411 Volunteerism
National Volunteer Week
Food Bank Hunger Knows No
Boundaries
USA Weekend Make a Difference Day
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ESL 411 Volunteerism - Budget Activity
Rent Transportation Food
Clothing Insurance Education
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ESL 411 Volunteerism - Poster Session
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When you look at your students What do
you see?
ESL 411 Volunteerism
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Who is in this classroom with me?

• by Suzanne House
• In (2002) Johnson, K.E. Golombek, P. (eds)
  Teachers Narrative Inquiry as Professional
  Development. New York Cambridge University Press.

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Now dash away, dash away, dash away all!
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Dialogues Around Social Identity, Investment,
and Language Learning

• by Bonnie Norton Peirce
• (1995) TESOL Quarterly, 29 (1) 9-31

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Who are students allowed to be in this classroom?
How might this positioning of students affect
their language learning?
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Learning About Me
Included in this section are things I have done
in the MA TESL program that have helped me
understand who I was before I began this program
and who I am now.
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Visual Depiction - Caption This was an exercise
that asked for a visual representation of how I
saw typical teachers and ideal teachers. Its
pretty scary to think about the kind of teachers
I have had all my life and the kind of teacher I
want to be. How Im going to reconcile these, I
dont know yet, but at least I know the extent of
the challenge before me. I think recognizing
this has been a very important first step for
me.
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Purposes 1 - understand beliefs about teachers
and teaching
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Learning About Language
This section includes some reaction papers,
activities about language and language
acquisition, and examples of learning how to
apply theory to the classroom.
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Article Presentation - Caption I was assigned
to do an in-class presentation of an article on
instrumental and integrative motivation. These
labels are helpful ways of naming what sort of
motivation learners may have, but they also make
motivation seem black or white, and I dont
think it is all that simple. I know I have felt
both types of motivation, at the same time! It
seems a lot of the theory we have read carves up
language learning into neat little categories.
But I think language learning is much more
complicated than that. When I look out at my
students, I know they are much more complicated
than theories in second language acquisition
make them out to be. I want to know what types
of motivation make my students tick, but I wont
limit my view to simple categories.
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Purposes
6- use knowledge of theory to inform their
instructional practices
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Learning About Teaching
This section includes activities I did that
helped me learn about teaching from the outside
in.
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AWK - Caption Im a writing teacher right now
and learning to articulate why I write (as in
comments) what I write on my students essays was
a real eye opener for me. After reading this
article, I began to really monitor my own
responding behavior and I realized that my
written comments were pretty vague. No wonder
they couldnt figure out how I wanted them to
revise their papers. Zamel's suggestions seem to
be in the back of my mind every time I read and
respond to a students paper. I try to put
myself in their shoes and think about how I might
react to seeing a big red AWK on one of my
papers. This has helped me to put theory into
practice but also to see my responding behaviors
through my students eyes
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Purpose
5 - understand subject matter content from an
instructional perspective learn to anticipate
areas that may require additional instructional
support 6 - use knowledge of theory to inform
their instructional practices
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Being a Teacher
I taught ESL 015 (Academic Writing II) this
semester and in this section I have tried to show
how I have come to think differently about my
curriculum, my students, and myself as a teacher.
I believe I grew along with my students, perhaps
maybe even more than they did.
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The American Dream
Nature February 14, 2001 American Dream
Debunked By Corie Lok The popular notion of the
American dream achieving happiness through
influence and money -- may not be a recipe for
contentment after all, US psychologists now
report. Self-esteem, feeling competent, in
control of your life and close to people you care
about are more important for psychological
well-being, new research suggests.
Kennon Sheldon, of the University of Missouri at
Columbia, and his colleagues asked hundreds of
American university students to recall their most
satisfying event of the last week, month, or
semester. The students rated self-esteem, related
ness (feeling connected with people),
autonomy (feeling in control) and competence
(feeling effective) as the top four emotions that
accompanied feeling satisfied. At the bottom of
the list were popularity, influence, money and
luxury. These aspects of the American dream
may not be so desirable after all, says
Sheldons team
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Critical Analysis - Caption The first
assignment in this course is a critical analysis
of a reading. The reading is about the American
Dream and right away I realized that my students
didnt really know what the American Dream was
all about (they thought it meant money grows on
trees). They didnt know the history of the
Horatio Alger stories or that its a myth unless
you are white, male, and middle class. So, I
gave them several other readings that debunk the
American Dream, and then asked them to write a
critical analysis of the idea of the American
Dream, rather than a critical analysis of a
single reading. Through this set of activities,
they learned how to write a critical analysis but
they also learned about American history,
American popular culture, and the American
psyche.
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Purpose
2 - be able to reflect on, critically analyze,
and evaluate your own teaching practices 5 -
understand subject matter content from an
instructional perspective learn to anticipate
areas that may require additional instructional
support
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Preparing for the Future
I never realized how much we take good
teachers for granted. In this section, I have
included experiences I had that helped me become
the kind of teacher I want to be.
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Coffee Cup - Caption
About mid-way through the semester, we ended one
of our Friday afternoon classes a bit early and
headed over to Ottos for coffee. Before I knew
it, this became a Friday ritual and it was here
that I really got to know my students as people
with interests, talents, and rich lives outside
of the classroom. They got to know me, they got
to know each other, and these informal
interactions, more than anything I did in the
classroom, helped me know how to teach them
better.
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Purposes
1 - understand beliefs about 2LL 2LT 4 -
come to recognize students' strengths and
development as learners and language learners
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Teachers Ways of Knowing

• Legitimate knowledge
• Emerges in and out of lived realities
• Transcends the theory-practice dichotomy
• Must be made public
• Reclaiming professional development

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Teachers Ways of Knowing Reclaiming
Professional Development

• Karen E. Johnson
• TESOL Canada
• May 26-28, 2005