Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to touch upon the unaddressed points regarding the practice of lesson study (LS) in the field of language teacher development in a Turkish education context by considering the challenges faced and observed by the EFL teachers, their suggestions to design a process like LS practice and benefits that LS practice could provide them in terms of teaching and professional development.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis is based on the data from five EFL teachers’ collaborative work in an arrangement of lesson and learning study and from the researcher’s observations during meetings and discussions throughout the process. The data consist of interviews with participant teachers (pre and post), video recordings of the teacher workshops, field notes of the researcher and video recordings of the research lessons. The analysis was carried out through content analysis beginning with listing the responses of participants, identifying the frequency of citations, collecting similar responses under a common category to determine the categories and at last placing codes into the related categories.
Findings
The results show that the teachers had some concerns about LS practice both before and after practicing the model in the study context. They stated their concerns mostly about time, increasing responsibility and effort, being a demanding process. However, the practice seemed to meet their expectations, lead to improvements in knowledge, teaching practices and perspectives, contribute to the personal and professional development of teachers and triggered enthusiasm and a desire for students to participate actively in learning process.
Originality/value
This paper serves as an explicit example of LS practice with its plus and minuses in a Turkish education context as teachers’ views and the researcher’s personal reflections in the current study can guide the process of change and provide evidence and practical suggestions on the feasibility of the program for the ones attempting to experience it. Besides, the teachers’ perceptions and suggestions regarding LS practice in the present study can enable other teachers, organizers of professional development programs and the researchers an opportunity to lead future practices.
The present study aims to provide insights into how teachers' beliefs about the qualities of effective teachers are shaped when they take part in Lesson Study practice as a teacher-led, collaborative professional development activity. The study adopted qualitative research methodology and utilized from the qualitative data collection means including repertory grids (i.e. pre-and post) and follow-up interviews to achieve the research aim. The results reveal that the EFL teacher in the study context steps in the process of change since he is observed to cite constructs related to teacher-student relationships and add new constructs related to professional development as a result of experiencing Lesson Study model with his colleagues.
Creating a non-threatening, non-evaluative environment for the teachers to improve some aspects of their teaching, peer coaching aims to promote teachers' professional development by contributing to the efficacy of the teachers and teaching process. Despite a great number of studies conducted on the effectiveness or impact of peer coaching in the field of preservice EFL teacher education or in-service EFL teacher training, the issue of what features the EFL teachers attribute to an effective peer coach has not been dealt with adequately. In this respect, the present study aimed to investigate the key features of an effective peer coach from the perspectives of four EFL teachers via Rep-Grid analysis technique and follow-up interviews. The results suggested different features attributed to an effective peer coach as based upon the teachers' prior experiences.
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