As a teacher trainer
and a researcher in teacher development, when attending the TESOL Conference in
Portland last week, I gave preference to the sessions related to this field.
Some of them focused on the trainer’s role and how initiatives towards teachers
should be conducted. Others focused on the teachers’ role in engaging in
professional development. All of them were truly interesting and added new insights
to my knowledge on the topic. However,
one specific talk called my attention, for , besides being related to novice
teachers, the ones I’m closer to at our institution, it addressed the
teachers’ and the trainers’
perspectives.
The talk conducted by
Dr. Liz England, from Shenandoah University in Virginia, revolved around an
experience she had gone through when organizing and delivering a sixteen-hour orientation
program for novice professionals as English
Teaching Assistants – ETAs - at the
start of their programs. The group of novice teachers had just gotten
their BAs in different fields and most did not have any background in TESOL. This group of seventy-five professionals accepted
the challenge of going to Malaysia to work with groups of kids and teens in primary and secondary schools.
The first aspect pointed
out by Dr. England was related to the beliefs the group of professionals had in
the beginning of the training program and, afterwards, how they changed their
points of view in such a short period of time. First of all, the group was made
up of Americans; therefore, they believed that because of being native
speakers, they would face fewer challenges than non-native EFL teachers.
Second, they thought that lesson planning wouldn’t be important since they had
many activities and nice ideas in mind. And third, they bet they wouldn’t have
problems concerning classroom management, for they were nice, young, and cool
teachers.
As Dr. England went
on describing the instant training program she had been required to deliver and
all the challenges she had faced, I started thinking about how I myself
sometimes feel when I wish I had a magic formula to give novice teachers to
make them feel ready and confident to teach any groups.
For us, teachers and
teacher trainers, it’s meaningless to point out all the reasons why a
sixteen-hour course will never be enough to prepare a teacher to face the
numerous different situations a classroom presents, but, as Dr. England
mentioned, if we trainers have little time to help inexperienced teachers, we
must make the most it.
After the sixteen-hour
orientation program, a survey was conducted to verify how helpful the training
was and in what ways it could be improved. Having already faced the first difficulties in
teaching, most of the ETAs pointed out that what they could benefit the most
from in the training was related to lesson planning and classroom management,
for these were the most challenging aspects of their new experience.
By getting this
feedback, I could confirm the idea that despite where novice teachers come from
and the particularities of the English language programs they are involved in,
the target issues in teacher training are pretty much the same. Thus, I felt
really pleased to acknowledge that the training and development opportunities
the Casa Thomas Jefferson has offered to novice teachers are in sync with the most
updated research conducted in the field of language teaching and training.
Also, I reviewed my own passion for the field I’ve chosen to dedicate myself
to, and own proud of being part of such a wonderful team of teachers and
teacher developers.
