Seminar on Language Teacher Education (ED 662)

Dr. Kathi Bailey (2 credits)

Are you working as a teacher educator? Would you like to become more confident and effective in this role? Explore the reflective model of professional development as it relates to your past experiences and future goals. Design and evaluate training programs for pre-service and in-service language teachers. Exchange ideas and experiences with others under the guidance of a veteran teacher educator.

Next offering: June 18 - July 23, 2008 

Course Description

This seminar is intended for experienced language teachers who have (or expect to have) responsibilities for educating other teachers. Its contents and goals are based on the assumption that in our field, people are typically promoted into training positions because they have done well as teachers themselves. Seldom are they given specific preparation for their roles as teacher educators. However, in the past decade, teacher education has become a viable specialization in our profession and teacher development has emerged as an established focus of research. 

In this course we will investigate issues related to teacher training, education and development. Various philosophies and models of pre-service and in-service programs for training language teachers will be examined. Seminar participants will build professional skills to be more competent and confident teacher educators. 

Goals 

The Seminar on Language Teacher Education has several specific purposes:

• to acquaint students with the existing literature on pre-service and in-service education of language teachers;
• to familiarize students with some of the research on teacher development and teacher cognition
• to help students understand different philosophies and models of teacher education;
• to help students articulate their own personal philosophy of teacher education;
• to help students understand the role of prior learning in shaping attitudes about teaching and teacher education;
• to provide students with guided practice in designing pre-service and/or in-service training programs;
• to provide students with resources and strategies to promote their own ongoing professional development; and
• to help students develop their own time management skills as language teaching professionals.

This course is taught in a fairly intensive format. Students are expected to have read the assigned material before each class session (preferably before the course begins) and be thoroughly prepared to discuss it on the day it is due. Students are also expected to participate fully in all synchronous sessions and other tasks on a daily basis.

Course Materials 

Two textbooks are required for the course and can be purchased from the publishers or from commercial book distributors, such as Amazon.com. Additional course readings will be available electronically through the Monterey Instittue's Library Online Reserve system. The required textbooks include:

• Bailey, K.M., Curtis, A., and Nunan, D. (2001). Pursuing professional development: The self as source. Heinle & Heinle Publishers. Paperback. [ISBN= 0-8384-1130-4]
• Wallace, M. J. (1991). Training foreign language teachers: A reflective approach. Cambridge University Press. Paperback. [ISBN= 0-521-35654-7]

Assignments

There are two major written assignments in this class:

• The first is an autobiography of yourself as a language learner and teacher. The point of the assignment is to discover and articulate how your experience as a language learner and a teacher will influence you as a teacher educator (20% of the course grade).
• The second is an original plan for the pre-service or in-service education of language teachers (60% of the course grade).

Class participation (both synchronous and asynchronous) constitutes the remaining 20% of the final grade.