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Taking Action to Understand

Taking Action to Understand. Dr Assia Slimani-Rolls Regents’ College, London rollsa@regents.ac.uk. Participants. 1 Language Teacher MA holder + formal training in teaching 2 Business Teachers PhD holders in Law & Management Studies

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Taking Action to Understand

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  1. Taking Action to Understand Dr Assia Slimani-Rolls Regents’ College, Londonrollsa@regents.ac.uk

  2. Participants 1 Language Teacher MA holder + formal training in teaching 2 Business Teachers PhD holders in Law & Management Studies both consultants (represents clients in Court/ works for a multinational company 10 & 12 years of teaching experience No formal training in teaching Students 1st year international students studying for a B.A. in Business Administration

  3. Aims of the programme identification & investigation of puzzles bring a reflective dimension to the teaching through the micro analysis of the ‘teaching episodes’; develop the teachers’ research skills especially analysis and interpretative skills to elucidate those ‘puzzles’ & achieve a better understanding of their classroom practice.

  4. Methodology (a) Ts videotape themselves in wks 2, 5 & 8 and analyse the ‘teaching episodes’ (TES) of the 1st 20 mns of their sessions (b) What is a ‘teaching episode’? A segment of clsrm interaction with - boundaries … beginning and end - centre of gravity … thematic unity - significance … in terms of learning [Kiely & Davis, 2010] Group discussions in wks 4, 7 & 10

  5. Key principles of EP • put ‘quality of life’ first • work primarily to understand classroom life • work to bring people together • work for mutual development • integrate the work for understanding into classroom practice • make the work a continuous enterprise

  6. Discoursal characteristics of the 2 business classes

  7. Excerpt 1: Corporate Social Responsibility T: Do organisations have a moral obligation to us as mbers of our sty? St1: Yes. T: Yes, but why? St1: There are moral obligations if they’re inflicting that kind of damage on the surroundings. T: I don’t disagree with you, but legally are they right or are they wrong? St2: Being legal is different from being moral. For e.g, right now , it’s legal to get an abortion in the States, but not everybody thinks that’s moral. T: So, where do we draw the line for an organisation in our society? Do we expect them to bring + to the table than just make profit? I’m going to show you something now that we’re going to talk about today. [T hands out a 1 page document on J & J mission statement]

  8. Excerpt 2: Introduction to the English Legal System [T discussing whether and how law protects society] T: If you want to define law, therefore, how would you define it? St1: A rule. T: A rule? St1: A set of rules. T: Is it different when you say rule of law, or rules of law? Are they the same or are they different? St2: You can have laws, but it doesn’t necessarily always cover everything, that’s why you have ethics. T: Rule of law means a system. Rules of law means rules within that system. So law is a mixture of rules & regulations that govern or regulate or seek to draw the parameters of acceptable behaviour both in private and in public. Which does it regulate + your behaviour in private or in public?

  9. Excerpt 3: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) T: Well, he [st 1] says he’s come here for the money & how the money’s made doesn’t bother him. He’s here to make money, not to save the world. St2: That’s selfish (class laughs.) St1: If I’m not selfish, I won’t make money. St3: You can have money and be a socially responsible company. You increase your profit if you’re responsible. T: CSR increases your profit. You increase your profit, she says. Let me show you something here.[T shows an ad by Waitrose justifying their prices by setting up crèches for their employees]

  10. What has obstructed the Teachers’ recognition of the • learners’ engagement? • Seeing learners as ‘capable of taking learning seriously’ • (Allwright & Hanks, 2009:5) • Complexity in the process of making real-time decisions • - Ts giving priority to their agenda; • - difficulty of handling sts’ unexpected contributions- moving • from CSR to abortion, from laws to ethics; • - assuming tacit understanding;

  11.   - Ts’ perceptions of what they think they do as opposed to what they actually do. - Ts’ perceiving their subject to be above the Ls’ understanding – scarce opportunities for Ls to tap into their background knowledge. - Ts’ tendency to display expert responses when sts have already shown evidence of knowledge. - Ts’ tendency to conform to the sts’ attitude that they are the experts thus limiting the sts’ sphere of intervention. - Ts’ pressures to conform to time thus not endorsing the sts’ contributions.

  12. ‘Development of local understanding as a prerequisite to intelligent decision-making’ (Allwright & Hanks, 2009)

  13.  Transmissive type of learning culture rather than a collaborative type of learning culture based on sharing ideas.

  14. “This exercise has enabled me to reconnect with the students”. “I realise now that teaching is not about demonstrating my expertise but about how to convey it to the students”. “I’ve been on auto pilot for so long that I didn’t realise I wasn’t quite listening to my students & that I wasn’t giving them space”. “More staff should be involved in such activities.”

  15. “Teacherdevelopment needs to address that professional self esteem which is rooted in on-going achievements rather than in the attainment of other people's imperatives” (Breen, 2006:217-218)

  16. Allwright, D & J. Hanks. 2009. The Developing Language Learner. Palgrave Macmillan. Allwright, D. 2003. ‘A brief guide to Exploratory Practice: rethinking practitioners research in language teaching’. Language Teaching Research. 7/2. pp.113-141. Breen, M.P. 2006. ‘Collegial Development in ELT. The interface between global processes and local understandings’. In Understanding the language classroom. In S. Gieve & I.K. Miller (eds.) 200-225. Palgrave Macmillan Kiely, R. & Davies, M. (2010) ‘From transmission to transformation: teacher learning in ESOL? Language Teaching Research. 14/3, pp. 277-296 . Slimani-Rolls, A. 2003.‘Exploring a world of paradoxes: an investigation of group work. Language Teaching and Learning 7/2, pp. 221-239. REFERENCES

  17. week 2 (12 wk term) Learner responsibility towards the module • What do you think your class contribution would be? The Ls’ responses were overwhelmingly positive ‘prepare & complete assignments for class & participate in class discussion’, ‘participate in all aspects’, ‘share my views & questions’, ‘being an active member in discussions’ • What are you prepared to do, outside the class, for this module? - 76.4% ‘read’ - 17.6% ‘practice the skills that I’ve learned in this module’ - 5.8% Other

  18. Excerpt 4: Introduction to the English Legal System T: Ok, you’ve all got your handouts from last week, so we’re going to start by looking at the 1st lecture which is basically an introduction to the English legal system, the classification, the sources. Now can I ask you, what is meant by the word source or clause? What is your understanding of it? If it’s a source, what do you mean? St1: A reference. T: A reference, yeah. St2: Where it came from. T: Where it came from, yes. St3: The origin. T: The origin, yes. Anything else? Ok, so one of the things we are looking at today is having an understanding of what is law, looking at its various categories, examining the sources of law…

  19. From ‘why don’t the students engage more with my teaching? to ‘why don’t I let the students engage more with my teaching?’

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