Language teachers making sense of Exploratory Practice

Abstract

Judith Hanks is a Lecturer in TESOL at the University of Leeds, UK, where she teaches undergraduates, postgraduates, and supervises doctoral students. Her research interests include investigating the relationship between principles and practices in practitioner research, and the challenges of integrating research and pedagogy in language teaching. 2 Abstract This article critically examines the implementation of Exploratory Practice in anEnglish for Academic Purposes (EAP) context in a British university. The innovation involved challenges as well as opportunities for uniting learning, teaching and research. Particular emphasis is given to two teachers, who are the focus of this article: the story of one, 'Jenny', illustrates the processes of doing Exploratory Practice with learners of EAP, while the story of the other, 'Bella', provides insight into the notion of puzzlement, a central feature of the Exploratory Practice framework. For these practitioners, it was clear that the integration of pedagogy with locally relevant, small-scale research activity, held a wealth of opportunities for language learning and teaching. KeywordsExploratory Practice, integrating research and pedagogy, practitioner research in EAP I IntroductionExploratory Practice (EP) is a form of practitioner research in language education which aims to integrate research, learning and teaching. Developed in the early 1990s (Allwright, 1993;Allwright & Bailey, 1991;Allwright & Lenzuen, 1997), at least partly in response to dissatisfaction with more traditional forms of classroom based research, EP promotes the idea of teachers (and learners) puzzling about their language learning/teaching experiences, using "normal pedagogic practices as investigative tools" (Allwright, 2003, p. 127). This move takes teacher research (Johnson & Golombek, 2002;Stenhouse, 1975), action research (Burns, 2010;Carr & Kemmis 1986), and reflective practice (Edge, 2011;Schön, 1983Schön, , 1987) a step further. By incorporating research into pedagogy, EP seeks to address the issue of the demands of research pulling practitioners away from their teaching and learning responsibilities.This is an account of how two English language teachers made sense of EP; the dilemmas, challenges and opportunities they faced as they tried implementing EP for 3 the first time into their practice. I worked alongside the teachers and learners to investigate the processes of initiating EP in an EAP context taking an EP approach myself. My intention is to take a critical look at the principles and practices of EP, considering the tensions at play when EP is implemented for the first time in a new context. Hence my own questions surface throughout the article, alongside those of the participants, to provide a multidimensional picture of the EP principles in action. II Exploratory Practice: a principled frameworkOver the past two decades, EP has been developed in discussions with teachers from around the world (Allwright, 2003(Allwright, , 2005Hanks, 2009;Slimani-Rolls, 2003Wu, 2004;Zhang, 200...

teacher’s moral role in mobilizing students’ motivation beyond L2 vision

“…This longitudinal classroom-based study can be framed as exploratory practice (EP), which is defined by Hanks (2015) as "a form of practitioner research in language education which aims to integrate research, learning and teaching" (p. 2). EP was developed in the early 1990s in the search for a new form of classroom-based research (Hanks, 2015) beyond scientific research (SR) and action research (AR) (Allwright & Hanks, 2009). Whereas SR aims at discovering general rules for efficient classroom practice, the purpose of EP is to deepen understanding of classroom practice.…”

Scaffolding Learner Puzzling in Exploratory Practice: Perspectives From the Business English Classroom

“…Proposing "practice as research" (Hanks, 2016, p. 28), ep gets the former done whilst simultaneously doing the latter. Studies have highlighted how ep has helped teachers see their learners as legitimate co-investigators of their language learning experience (Hanks, 2015b) and the mutual benefits to be gained from ep's integration of research and teaching via potentially exploitable pedagogic activities or pepas (Hanks, 2016). Thus, ep repositions the classroom at the confluence of teaching, learning, and research.…”

“…The ep literature evidences teachers and learners successfully exploiting the principles of ep, working collegially on teacher-initiated puzzles to enhance understanding of their language teaching/learning experiences (e.g., Banister, 2017;Dar, 2015;Hanks, 2015b;Perpignan, 2003;SlimaniRolls, 2003). However, the extent to which learners can develop, explore, and set their own research agendas is less well-documented and forms the focus of this paper.…”

Maintaining the Efficacy of Warm-up Activities in EFL Classrooms: An Exploratory Action Research

“…The focus on quality of life in classroom, involving everybody as practitioners, and working cooperatively for mutual development are emphasized (Wu, 2006;Hanks, 2015). Collaboration between students and teachers is similarly voiced as unavoidable and inseparable from each other (Raimann & Mongomery, 2007;Dar & Gieve, 2013).…”

“…EP is the understanding of life in classroom, it is questioning 'what is inherently so?' (Wu, 2006;Hanks, 2015). EP gives learners opportunity to rethink their goals, share their reflections with others in groups, use their own strengths, and explore their own ways of learning (Chu, 2013, p. 5).…”