Jane Medwell

The New Curriculum Standards for teaching English introduced major changes in the culture of teaching and learning English in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Changes have been linked to changing goals for English instruction and a revision of Confucian values in schooling. In this article, we argue that this English curriculum proposes a new role, with new demands, for English-as-foreign-language (EFL) teachers in the PRC. In order to implement the curriculum reform successfully, teachers involved in the reform are required to have a shared understanding of its nature, purposes and scope. However, little is known about to what extent EFL teachers understand and engage with their new roles. This study examines teachers’ understandings of the new curriculum and of the new, demanding role of teachers implied by the curriculum. This is a mixed methods study involving an analysis of the curriculum document, a survey (n = 227) of EFL teachers and semi-structured interviews with a sample of teachers in the cohort (n = 18). The findings suggest that many teachers know the content of the curriculum document, but expressed uncertainty about the implications of changes, uncertainty about what a shift to student-centered teaching and learning means and confusion about new professional development demands. The findings of this study have wider implications for EFL teachers, teacher educators, researchers and policy makers in the PRC and similar national contexts. This article highlights that, from an international perspective, introducing new ideas and practices should consider teachers’ existing understanding and experiences of the curriculum as well as the way in which they understand the purposes of the changes, and should promote a shared understanding of policy intentions.

Information about the paper titled "LESSONS FROM A SHANGHAI READING LESSON" at IATED Digital Library

Information about the paper titled "PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS UNDERTAKING INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH: DEVELOPING SKILLS OF REFLECTION" at IATED Digital Library

In March 2020, universities in China transitioned to online education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and intensified the focus on collaboration in online learning. However, little is known about the impact of undertaking online collaborative learning (OCL) on student teachers’ views about the process and about their own teaching and learning. This qualitative study examined 18 student teachers’ views about their experience of OCL and the way it affected them as learners and future teachers. The participants reported that OCL helped them develop varied views of learning and had a positive effect on their views about the future use of OCL. They saw their personal experience of OCL as an important aspect of their development as teachers. These findings highlight ways that online learning can shape the views and professionalism of student teachers. Future teacher training programs can provide OCL as a teaching experience at an early stage to help transform student teachers’ self-understanding from that of a student to that of a teacher. The findings of this study further reveal that online collaborative teacher training offers student teachers an opportunity to collaborate, discuss, and reflect on their professional development as teachers. This encourages teacher educators to reconsider how new forms of practice and teaching theories can be woven together more effectively in post-COVID teacher training.

Information about the paper titled "CONCEPT-BASED TEACHING AND LEARNING: A REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH LITERATURE" at IATED Digital Library

This study examines teachers’ views about and practices in homework in primary schools, based on questionnaire data from 235 primary teachers and 19 in-depth interviews. Findings suggest that teachers prioritise contradictory goals and act in ways that support only some of these. Reading with parents is a universal form of homework and other homework focuses either on English or mathematics or takes a project-led approach. Integration of homework into class learning is problematic. Teachers are concerned about the possible effects of homework on educational inequality and questions are raised about teachers’ perceptions of homework as a signifier of good parenting.

Learning Styles: A Review of Validity and Usefulness

This paper reports on the development of reflectiveness and research skills in eight pre-service teachers, through their participation in a funded research project to develop the handwriting of children with literacy problems. The project aimed to analyse the reflections of the trainee teachers participating in an authentic research study and to consider what this reflection on practice might offer to the education of teachers in the current UK training context. The context for the paper was a project which engaged pre-service trainee teachers in researching the proposition that automaticity in handwriting plays a role in facilitating composing processes and that the automaticity of early writers can be trained. Some outcomes of the project for pupils are reported. The focus in the present paper is, however, on the participating trainee teachers and the paper suggests that conducting research was a significant learning event for these pre-service teachers and that, through working together, they were able to analyse their development as researchers and their learning during the research process. At a time when the English government views teacher training as a method of school improvement and the effectiveness of training is measured through its immediate impact on pupil outcomes, this study offers an example of how shared research can offer positive learning outcomes for pupils, develop the reflective thinking of pre-service teachers through researching a real problem, and develop links across a range of school and university settings.