Teachers in transition

A case study of EAP teachers’ applications of blended learning approaches before, during, and after a series of teacher training workshops*.

* Workshops communal and collaborative rather than traditional-style trainer driven.

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Overview of this research. Participatory

action research to

conduct research on

teachers’ interpretation

s and applications of

blended learning (BL) approaches

Case Study

narrative of results generated from the action

research process

Results from action research feed the case study, rather than creating tension between two distinct approaches.

Generation of a theoretical

framework that will have (a)

situated impact (b) professional

impact (c) Personal

impact

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• INTO University Partnerships, London – EAP setting. Academic Programme Manager – training and team building. Not a role culture: multiple responsibilities & personality dimensions. I have membership of the actual community under study (Bailey, 1998) – participatory AR.

• UEA London is a new venture: creates possibility for a research team that can build on shared energy and professionalism. Share critical reflection and practice integral to professional development.

• Concrete and practical issue of immediate concern to the teaching community: making greater usage of technology in our lessons.

• Ideological and pragmatic benefits to using an action research approach.

Context of the research

Image (left) taken from www.newtrainingideas.com

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• Action Research is a disciplined inquiry that aims to understand, improve and reform practice (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2000).

• Research should aim to generate knowledge that can be brought to bear on specific practical problems (Punch, 2005).

• “Action Research is a form of collective self-reflective inquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social and educational practices” (Kemmis, & Mc Taggart, 1988).

• Action Research aims to produce improvement in practice, our understanding of practice and the situation in which practice is embedded (Robson, 2002).

Pragmatic aspects of Action Research

Powerful form of staff development because it is practice to theory rather than theory to practice(Ross, 1997).

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Research questions

Research question 1 = How do teachers of English for Academic Purposes interpret the academic literacy needs of international students on Foundation courses in the United Kingdom higher educational context?*

Research question 2 = How do EAP teachers interpret their (our)application of Blended Learning (BL) approaches as a means of developing these academic literacy needs? Research question 3 = How do these interpretations change, both during and after collaborative workshops on the usage of skills driven blended learning approaches (Valiathan, 2002) in the EAP classroom?

*Important to stress that I too am one of these EAP teachers

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Research design

•Positioned within qualitative paradigm - as I am looking for an

understanding of the research context from the inside rather than the

outside

•Choice of methods appropriate for research questions

•Use of interviews and focus groups

• Partners and not participants (Burns, 2003 and Rubin & Rubin, 2005)

because AR is necessarily democratic

• EAP teachers ranging in ages & roughly equal mix of gender; with

varying levels of technological literacy& attitudes to technology.

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Before – RQ1

During – RQ2 & RQ3

After – RQ3

Map of methods to research questions

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Structure of the workshops

Workshops will take place on a monthly basis over the course of a term

Workshops will be discussion based, looking at an aspect of technology and how we,

as a community of teachers, understand it & how we might apply it in the classroom

Participation is open to everyone, and consent must be given for any research

Teachers will be interviewed before, during, and after the workshops

All information will be confidential

Emphasis on sharing knowledge and capturing the richness of that shared knowledge

All recordings transcribed within 24 hours to minimise loss of descriptive meaning

and to facilitate the rich and thick description required to ensure trustworthiness.

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•Goal is to produce a rich descriptive narrative.

•Need to synthesise multiplicity of voices into a single narrative that is both authentic and representative.

•Analysis of the teachers’ understanding of the transition from scaffolding to independent application that occurs over the duration of a training programme.

Reporting data in the form of a case study narrative

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Coding and data analysis

•Systematic data collection and analysis expected of AR.

•Initial framework of codes that allows scope for emergence.

•Accounting scheme in Miles & Huberman – display, reduction, analysis.

•Movement away from the descriptive to the analytical.

•Use of CAQDAS to establish higher order domains, classifications, and relationships – facilitates sub-codes & hierarchies.

•Preliminary work has included recording a conference workshop.

Description

Multi dimensional

analyses

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•Reflexivity is the central component of a process that is deemed cyclical in nature rather than merely chronological (Burns, 2003; Creswell, 2009).

•Continuous process of scrutiny – shifting between interpretation and evidence (Somekh, 1993).

•I will keep a reflexive record throughout. •Yin (2009) – case studies particularly require a solid chain of evidence

Reflexivity and continuous analysis of data

Reflexivity Continuous Analysis

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•Prolonged engagement with the research setting

•Ensuring that the workshops are indeed collaborative.

•Rich and thick description of that setting

•Appropriate range of triangulation measures

•Sound theoretical models underpinning the research.

Ways of enhancing trustworthiness

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Achieving ethical research

*Fully in line with BERA and ESRC guidelines.

•Professional and personal responsibility.

•Must look on ethics in a human rather than merely seen as a set of procedures to overcome (Rubin & Rubin, 2005).

•Ethical clearance from both INTO University Partnerships and the University of East Anglia.

•Ethical clearance from the University of Manchester.

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Contribution to knowledge

Situated impact

Professional impact

Personal impact

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References

•BERA (2004). ‘Revised Educational Guidelines for Educational Research.’ British Educational Research Association.

•Burns, A. (2003). ‘Collaborative Action Research for English Language Teachers.’ Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

•Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2000). ‘Research methods in education’ (5th ed.) New York: Routledge. (pp. 226 et seq.)

•Creswell, J. (2009). ‘Research Design – Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches.’ London: SAGE.

•Economic and Social Research Council, (2005). ‘Research Ethics Framework (REF).’ ESRC Publications, Swindon.

•Kemmis, S. C. & McTaggart, R. C. (1988). The action research reader (3rd ed. ed.): Deakin University Press, Australia.

•Punch, K. (2005). Introduction to social research : quantitative and qualitative approaches (2nd ed.). London: SAGE. (pp. 162 et seq.)

•Robson, C. (2002). Real world research : a resource for social scientists and practitioner-researchers (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK ; Madden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers. (pp. 215 et seq.)

•Ross, L. (1997). ‘Changes in Practice: steps in action research.’ In Burns, A. and Hood, S. (1997). ‘Teachers’ voices 2: Teaching Disparate Learner Groups.’ Sydney: National Centre for ELT and Research.

•Valiathan, P. (2002). ‘Blended Learning Models.’ Retrieved July 13, 2006 from: http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/aug2002/valiathan.html

Yin, R.K. (2009). ‘Case Study Research – Design and Methods.’ Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.