Out of the Out of the boxboxOut of the Out of the boxbox

he title of this article comes from a comment I heard at an

International Association of Teachers of EFL (IATEFL) Special

Interest Group (SIG) symposium in Barcelona in 2002. It neatly

sums up the idea that development can only come from within you.

But suppose you work for an institutionwhere development is not encouraged,where there never seems to be time to doanything about it, or where you are theonly language teacher and have no one toshare ideas with. How can you developin these circumstances? This article looksat some of the ways teacher developmenthas been defined over the years, at whatteachers understand by development,and most importantly, at how you candevelop yourself.

Education,Training, orDevelopment? The terms teacher training, teachereducation, and teacher development (TD) areoften used interchangeably. What is thedifference? Is there indeed a difference?

Development means change and growth.It means becoming the “best kind ofteacher that I personally can be”(Underhill 1986, 1). According to Edge(cited in Wallace 1991), “teacher trainingor education is something that can bepresented or managed by others; teacherdevelopment is something that can bedone only by and for oneself” (p. 3).Rossner (1992) identifies four keycharacteristics of teacher development:

� it is about dealing with the needsand wants of the individual teacherin ways that suit that individual ....

T

“You Can Train Me, and YouCan Educate Me, But YouCan’t Develop Me—I Develop”by Sandra Piai

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�much of TD is seen as relating to newexperiences, new challenges and theopportunity for teachers to broadentheir repertoire and take on newresponsibilities and challenges ....� TD is not just to do with language

teaching or even teaching: it’s alsoabout language development(particularly for teachers whosenative language is not English),counselling skills, assertivenesstraining, confidence-building,computing, meditation, culturalbroadening—almost anything in fact.� TD, in most teachers’ opinions, has to

be “bottom-up,” not dished out bymanagers according to their ownview of what development teachersneed .... (p. 4)

Development Opportunities,Real and Wished-forAre the characteristics above relevant toyour situation? In 2003, the IATEFL TDSIG undertook a small research project toexplore the development opportunitiesteachers felt were available where theyworked and whether they were contentwith those opportunities. They were alsoasked what type of development theywould have in an ideal world.

The Ideal WorldHere are some of the developmentopportunities teachers said they wouldlike to have:� time to discuss teaching methods

and the like with colleagues�monthly TD sessions where teachers

of the same level, course, orprogramme coordinate and sharewhat’s happening in class meetingsfor the exchange of good practice�more liaison between teachers,

sharing of ideas, and discussion of problems�more cooperation with colleagues

who are interested in development,structured with long-term aims andtime for reflection� in-service, on-site training�more regular workshops at the

workplace rather than off-siteconferences and workshops� courses with a practical element� action research, because it allows

teachers to focus on their owndevelopment and follow research in

areas they want to work on in their teaching� time off to take credit-bearing

training courses with a specific focus

These requests seem to fit with Rossner’skey features and are similar in referring tocooperation, collaboration, and discussionwith colleagues, and in-house courses orworkshops. Basically, the teachers wantedtime to get together with other teachers,which is not often possible because ofbusy schedules.

The Real WorldOf the teachers who completed thequestionnaire, 85 percent said there wereopportunities for development where theyworked, but only 60 percent feltencouraged to develop. Teachers inprimary and secondary schools and adulteducation were more positive about thepossibilities for development than teachersin higher education were, with just under60 percent saying they were satisfied. Justover 40 percent said they did not feel theywere given sufficient time or opportunityfor development. Private sector teachersresponded more positively than their stateschool counterparts.

This research was conducted only on asmall scale, and follow-up interviewswould have been interesting. Althoughonly 10 percent of the questionnaires werereturned, the fact that more than fortyteachers took the time to return themshows the importance some teachers giveto development. You never stop learning,and teachers, more than people in mostother professions, may continue to do sothroughout their careers.

Developing YourselfHow relevant is this to teachers who workin isolation? One colleague who set up hisown school in Pakistan after the BritishCouncil closed down its schools there in2001 wrote, “When you are isolated, youdon’t have anyone to bounce ideas off andyour creativity suffers. Working on yourown can be great, but you begin to missthings like coffee breaks and friendly chatswith colleagues.”

To avoid complete professionalstagnation, he joined an online coursethat included tutor support and a chat

room. He felt that taking an online classwas better than subscribing to anelectronic discussion list because thediscussions would be more focused andrelevant to his interests.

Below are some of the ways other teacherssaid they tried to keep up-to-date:� reading journals, articles, and books� talking to other teachers� reflecting on their own teaching� going to conferences� relying on other people who are

more up-to-date� using the Web� trying to use new materials or revise

old ones�writing and editing articles� learning from their trainees

or students

While none of these ideas is new, they areall activities that you and your colleaguescan organise among yourselves, even ifTD is not encouraged where you workand even if you work in isolation.

Reflect WeeklyNot everyone likes keeping a reflectivediary. Some like the idea but find it tootime-consuming. Even if you cannotmanage a journal, try to find half an hourat the end of each week to sit downquietly, look back over the week, andwrite one good and one bad thing youremember about your lessons. Thenreflect on why you remember them andwhy they were good or bad.

If you reflect in this way each week, youcan then compare your reflections overthe weeks, throughout the term, and eventhroughout the year. You might also noteone thing you have learned each weekand reflect on “What would havehappened if … ?”

Revise Your MaterialsAnother technique for self-developmentis revising old materials. Do they alwaysneed revising? Why or why not? If theydo, how would you revise them?Thinking about these questions triggers areflective process that can lead you toexplore areas you might not otherwisehave explored.

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�

Discussing the materials with otherteachers can lead to discoveries aboutyourself as a person as well as a teacher.It may even lead to writing and editingarticles, both of which involve readingabout the topic of the article, checkingcertain data for accuracy, revisiting booksand articles you read a long time ago orreading new ones, and making sure youare not misquoting or misinterpreting.Perhaps from this process you will moveon to getting some of your materialspublished or even writing your own book(see Fleming Wood 2004).

Learn from the Students You TeachRinvolucri (2004) gives several examplesfrom his teaching career of how helearned from the students he workedwith. This way of learning was on the listof questionnaire responses.

You can learn from students, but how?You can learn how they like to learn, andyou can adapt how you teach accordingly.You can learn about their language andtheir culture. From their attitudes andtheir response to your materials andlessons, you can learn whether they likewhat you are doing and, as Rinvolucrisays, whether what you are doing isappropriate to their needs.

All of this aids your professional as well asyour personal development. Rinvolucrialso asks whether lawyers, doctors, and

architects learn as much from their clientsor patients as teachers can from students,which reinforces the point raised earlierabout teachers continuing to learnthroughout their careers.

Observe YourselfThere are more traditional ways ofdeveloping, even if you are in an isolatedteaching situation. One way is to set upaction research projects; these can beundertaken individually. Another way isto audiorecord lessons. Not only do youhear yourself teaching, but you often hearother things you may not have beenaware of while engaged in teaching. Forexample, recording yourself can makeyou more aware of just how clear (orunclear) your instructions are.

Become a StudentLess traditional ways to develop are toattend courses that are not related tolanguage or teaching, such asaromatherapy, yoga, drama, salsa, art, orinformation technology. Some of thesecourses will help you unwind and, as aresult, may put you in a more reflectivemood. Others will help you developdifferent creative skills, which you will beable to use later in the classroom.

In addition, putting yourself in theposition of a student helps you understandwhat your students are going through inyour classes and helps you empathise withtheir frustrations. Similarly, if you do notspeak your students’ language, think ofthe problems you might have learning it. Ifyou do speak the language, reflect on anyproblems you may have had learning it.This will help you understand how yourstudents may be feeling about learning English.

Observe Someone ElseAnother traditional form of TD is peerobservation. Peer observation can worktwo ways: you can develop fromobserving colleagues, and you can developfrom having colleagues observe you.

If you work in isolation or in aninstitution where development is notencouraged, how can you undertake peerobservation? Is it absolutely necessary forpeer observation to involve teachersteaching the same subjects? Surely,

classroom management techniques—suchas setting up pair and group work, givingclear instructions, and using visual aids—and factors such as motivation anddiscipline are relevant to all teachers? Tryto arrange peer observations with otherteachers in your school who are like-minded but teach different subjects, oreven send transcripts of your lessons toother teachers for comments.

Make Time to DevelopMost teachers I know never have enoughtime. However, putting aside a half-houron the weekend for reflection or taking acourse in something new and completelydifferent can be invigorating andstimulating and can only benefit you andthe students you teach. Talking andcollaborating more with colleagues canimprove the working environment aswell as encourage development.

I leave you with some sentences tocomplete, based on an idea by Head andTaylor (1997):� Reading this article has made me

think about ...� I can create opportunities to work

collaboratively with other teachers by ...�My students can help me

develop by ...�Next week I’m going to ...

References

Fleming Wood, L. 2004. Developing through yourmaterials. IATEFL Teacher Development SIGNewsletter 2:19–20.

Head, K., and P. Taylor. 1997. Readings in teacherdevelopment. Basingstoke, England: Heinemann.

Rinvolucri, M. 2004. Students develop their teachers.IATEFL Teacher Development SIG Newsletter 1:17–19.

Rossner, R. 1992.Where there’s a will—facilitatingteacher development. IATEFL Teacher Development SIGNewsletter 18:4–5.

Underhill, A. 1986. Editorial. IATEFL TeacherDevelopment SIG Newsletter 1:1.

Wallace, M. 1991. Training foreign language teachers.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sandra Piai is programme coordinator of the MAin English Language Teaching at the SussexLanguage Institute, University of Sussex, in theUnited Kingdom, and a former editor of theIATEFL TD SIG Newsletter.

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“ “Basically, the teacherswanted time to gettogether with otherteachers, which is notoften possible because ofbusy schedules.

CL