Language Teacher Education

Jon Roberts

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780340646250
• eBook ISBN: 9781317836353
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

'Language Teacher Education' is an introduction to language teacher training and development for teachers and providers in pre-service and in-service programmes. The text outlines the main theories of human learning and applies them to teacher education. Based on a broadly social constructivist perspective, it suggests a framework for planning pre-service and in-service programmes, and is illustrated both with case studies from a range of training situations around the world and appendices containing teacher education materials.

Language Teacher Education is intended to inform readers' practical decisions and to help them build their own theories of teacher learning.

Part 1: foundations of language teacher education

1

Theories of learning and implications for teacher education

1.1	Models of the person and teacher education
1.1.1	Person as input-output system: model-based learning
	Behaviourism
	Model-based learning and teacher education
	Criticisms of model-based teacher education
1.1.2	Humanistic psychology: person with self-agency
	Nondirective intervention
	Humanistic theory and language teacher education
	Critique
1.1.3	Person as constructivist
	Constructivism and ELT
	Constructivism and teacher education
	General criticisms
	Kelly and Kolb: constructivist theories of learning
1.1.4	Person as social being
	Occupational culture and professionalism
	Teacher development and the school
	Lewin and action science
1.1.5	Conclusion: a social constructivist approach
	Implications for LTE
1.2	Reflection and teacher development
1.2.1	Dewey and reflective thinking
	Reflection
	Progressive education and personal experience
1.2.2	Schön’s view of expertise: the reflective practitioner
	Implications for LTE
	Criticisms
1.2.3	Reflection in teacher education
	Types of reflection
	Issues in reflective activities

This chapter is in two sections. In section 1 we outline four perspectives on learning and relate them to LTE (Table 1.1 and Box 3.2).¹ First we consider the view of the person as an externally driven input-output system, the basis for behaviourist learning theory and ‘model-based’ approaches to LTE. Then we consider the view of the self-actualising person central to humanistic theory (Rogers, 1961; 1982). After this, we outline theories based on the view of person as constructivist, of learning as the development of each person’s mental representations of the world. We outline mainstream constructivism and the theories of Kelly and Kolb. Then we consider aspects of the person as social being: occupational culture, teacher development in the context of school, Lewin and action science. Then in section 1.1.5 we try to bring these strands together: we suggest that behavioural and humanistic perspectives throw useful but only partial light on teacher learning, and that a synthesis of constructivist and social perspectives, a broadly social constructivist view, provides the most helpful and appropriate general framework for teacher education design.

In section 1.2 we discuss some aspects of reflection, commenting on the work of Dewey and Schön (sections 1.2.1 and 1.2.2), and suggesting a typology of activities (section 1.2.3).

Table 1.1 Views of the person and approaches to language teacher education

View of person	Behaviour and development determined by:	Parent theory	Consistent with LTE as:
‘input-output’ system	external conditions	empirical science, behaviourism	model-based, e.g. micro-teaching
with self agency	self-actualisation	humanistic psychology	person-focused, e.g. counselling models of supervision
constructivist	personal constructions of the outside world	cognitive psychology	reflective, e.g. self-awareness activities
		experiential learning	experiential e.g. loop input methods
social being	group identity	social psychology	social constructivist e.g. related activity cycles

1.1 Models of the person and teacher education

The four models of the person² which underpin different descriptions of human learning have consequences for the objectives, content and process of teacher education because they suggest different models of the teacher: what a teacher is, what s/he knows and how s/he learns. After Roth (1990) we summarise these models as follows.

• Person as input-output system: all behaviour can be explained in terms of general laws which explain connections between input (via the senses) and output (behaviour); human behaviour can be predicted under certain well defined external conditions.

• Person with self-agency: the person is an autonomous and self-determining agent; individual experience motivates action.

• Person as constructivist: the person functions as an intelligent system, developing increasingly differentiated representations of the world which frame our perceptions and actions; learning involves ongoing reconstruction of these representations.

• Person as social being: our behaviour is determined by social rules in our relationships with others and in the norms we follow to achieve acceptance by bthers. However, our actions are not wholly socially determined: we can choose the groups we wish to associate with, and can impose a personal style on our roles.

1.1.1 Person as input-output system: model-based learning

Behaviourism

Behaviourist psychology views the description of mental events as merely speculative, and observable behaviour as the only reliable basis for theory building (Roth, 1990). It proposes that precise laws can associate observed behaviours with external stimuli. Learning (lasting behaviour change) takes place when external stimuli beneficial to the person reinforce behaviours. Thus a behaviour is learnt by operant conditioning (positive and negative external reinforcements in the form of rewards and denial of rewards). Complex behaviours are learnt by shaping: an individual’s behaviour is brought progressively closer to a target behaviour by operant conditioning. From this perspective, all social behaviour is seen as externally ‘shaped and maintained by its consequences’ (Roth, 1990: 272), when the consequences are positive for the person.

Skinner argued that operant conditioning could be used to cure socially unacceptable behaviour such as crime and deviance, not by changing minds but by shaping behaviour (Skinner, 1971). His view was widely criticised on ethical grounds as a denial of individual rights and as a gross oversimplification of change in personal behaviour. Currently, other than in cases of extreme disability, education in which a person is trained to produce a finite set of acceptable behaviours on cue is widely seen both as irrelevant to human functioning and as ethically questionable.

Behaviourist theory offers an approach to curriculum design in which a model of a target behaviour is broken into discrete sub-behaviours. Its lasting contribution to education appears to lie in this approach to the learning of complex tasks. It provides a means to break down global learning targets into clearly defined and graded subcompetencies, which can then be learnt step by step. While open to criticisms of reductionism, this approach has supported much effective curriculum design. However, its approach to the learning process, based on the imitation of models, has been superseded by constructivist models (see section 1.1.3) and so processes of imitation and shaping would not necessarily be used when following a curriculum of graded skills or tasks.

In language teaching, audio-lingualism gives us a clear demonstration of behaviourist principles. Learning is seen as determined by external stimuli. Correct ‘speech habits’ are established by means of pattern drilling, repetition, and reinforcement by immediate correction of error and praise of success.

Criticisms of behaviourism can be summarised as follows:

• behaviourist theory excludes mental states from the explanation of behaviour; however, observation of complex animal and human action shows it to be determined by mental states (such as intention) and to be proactive rather than simply reactive;

• complex social behaviour such as teaching, and complex learning such as language acquisition, cannot be explained without reference to thinking and self-direction;

• shaped behaviour rarely transfers to conditions different from those of the original training;

• the concept of learning as shaping to a social norm violates the human right to self-determination and self-expression.

Model-based learning and teacher education

A teacher-education course based on behaviourist principles will define content as an inventory of discrete behavioural skills presented in the form of visual or written models. In process, it will try to shape learner-teachers to conform to a model. We consider two aspects of teacher education directly based on this view: classical micro-teaching and competency-based teacher education (CBTE). We also consider the traditional apprenticeship approach to teacher education, which pre-dates behaviourism but which also bases professional education on imitation of models.

Classical micro-teaching

Micro-teaching was introduced at Stanford University in 1963 as a preparation for school-based teaching practice. In a micro-teaching programme a single model of a target behaviour is presented and student-teachers’ behaviour is then shaped to match it by means of observation, imitation and reinforcement by feedback. To enable step-by-step learning, teaching skills are defined in lists of precise behavioural competencies to specify learning objectives and serve as assessment criteria.

Competencies are practised in scaled-down ‘micro’ settings (a small number of learners, a short period, a limited teaching objective, a focused skill) and are assumed then to transfer to the more complex conditions of the classroom (Brown, 1975; Turney, 1977; Perrott, 1977; Wallace, 1979; Carver and Wallace, 1981; Wallace, 1991). A helpful resume of micro-teaching issues can be found in Dunkin (1987: section 6) and a very detailed treatment in McIntyre et al. (1977). For English language teaching (ELT) Wallace’s account of microteaching has yet to be bettered (Wallace, 1991: Chapter 6).

The test of micro-teaching is that skills transfer to the active repertoire of teachers in classrooms. Experience of transfer problems, and a general shift in psych...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part 1 Foundations of language teacher education
• Part 2 Initial teacher education
• Part 3 Inservice education and training
• Bibliography
• Index