1. From Emergency Remote Teaching to Online Learning: The Role of Professional Development
Dr. Betsy Lavolette (Associate Professor, Kyoto Sangyo University)
November 2020 Kyoto chapter Member Spotlight
Most faculty have experienced emergency remote teaching (ERT) due to the ongoing pandemic. However, ERT should not be confused with online pedagogy designed using best practices (Gacs et al., 2020; Hodges et al., 2020). Regardless of whether teaching is online, face-to-face, or hybrid, we must be able to provide students high-quality learning experiences, incorporating what we have learned from ERT into current and future teaching. Professional development (PD) is one key to making the transition from ERT to effective online learning and beyond. In this talk, I present examples of my experiences with online teaching and learning as a teacher, course developer, and PD facilitator. I also present preliminary results of a survey investigating the PD experiences of language faculty at Japanese universities and invite the audience to share their experiences. I then make the case that moving from ERT to online learning requires PD driven by pedagogical needs. To that end, I advocate for and provide examples of PD activities organized by faculty members via communities of practice and describe how these activities fit the guiding standards for effective PD (Duguay, 2020; Duguay & Vdovina, 2019). This bottom-up, flexibly implemented PD will continue to serve faculty beyond ERT, through online learning, and post-pandemic.
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Elizabeth (Betsy) Lavolette is Associate Professor of English at Kyoto Sangyo University. She holds a PhD in Second Language Studies with a focus on CALL from Michigan State University, and she was previously Director of the Language Resource Center at Gettysburg College (Pennsylvania, USA). Her research focuses on language learning spaces and forging connections between scholars and literatures of such spaces in the US, Japan, and globally. She is currently Programs Director of the International Association for Language Learning Technology and coeditor of the Language Center Handbook (2018 & forthcoming).
2. Professional Growth in the Online Environment: Avenues for EFL Teachers to Navigate
Dr. Laxman Gnawali (Professor, Kathmandu University)
2020 Bill Balsamo Asian Scholar
EFL teacher training programs aim to equip aspiring teachers with the knowledge and skills on both theoretical and practical spheres. The trainees graduate with the pedagogical competencies for the profession within the scope of contemporary technology and pedagogical principles. Initially, the learning from the training comes in handy to take-off, and their knowledge and skills make sense to navigate the skies of the foreign language teaching. As the time passes, teachers tend to create comfort zones and turn to their autopilot mode. The situation can be brought under control if the classroom navigation challenges are within the principles they developed while in the training. However, if there is unprecedented turbulence, regular maintenance efforts with interventions in the autopilot may not help the teachers stay afloat. They risk crash landing.
The Covid-19 pandemic hit foreign language teachers, as with all other professionals, putting them at the risk of crash landing. The majority of these teachers did their schooling in physical classrooms and later trained to be teachers for face-to-face delivery. Now they are struggling to develop online expertise not only for both delivering lessons but also undertaking their own professional development initiatives. If teacher education has any urgent issue to address, it is to guide teachers now in their professional development for the online environment.
In this interactive talk, I present the mapping of the current situation of EFL teacher professional development from the technological point of view before tracing the possible flight paths teachers can navigate, bracing themselves for safe landing.
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Laxman Gnawali, Professor of English Education at Kathmandu University, has over twenty years of experience in the field of English language teacher education in Nepal. His national and international contributions include EFL textbooks, articles and book chapters on language pedagogy and teacher professional development. A University of Exeter alumnus, Laxman has a repute in and outside Nepal for inspiring teachers for professional development for self-directed initiatives. He currently serves NELTA (Nepal English Language Teachers Association) as its Senior Vice President.
