(A+) Exploring teacher learning through their Involvement in course design: a case study

Tác giả: Nguyễn Thị Chi

Giảng viên hướng dẫn: Lê Văn Canh

Năm xuất bản: 2019

Mô tả: The present study used a case study approach in order to explore how participation in course design impacts teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL), or how teachers learn professional knowledge and skills during their participation in course design. The study employed teachers’ narratives as the data collection method and Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987, 2015) as the theoretical framework. Additionally, in order to enhance the credibility of the study, document analysis and interviews with two informants were conducted. The information collected from the relevant documents and the informants enriched the context of the study and helped the researcher to elicit more details from the teacher participants. The collected data were analyzed following the central tenets of the Activity Theory. By positing the study within the Activity Theory perspective, thereby highlighting teacher learning as a mediated activity, the study revealed the knowledge and skills the teachers learned from their participation in the design activity as well as the factors that affected their learning. The findings of the study indicate that course design can be considered as a meaningful activity for teacher professional development; however, whether it is effective depends on many factors. It is suggested that a learning activity could lead to a good outcome if the following factors are guaranteed: (1) the object is meaningful to inspire the subject to take right actions, (2) the subject is an agent who is willing to learn, has abilities to utilize the givens, and practices reflection regularly, and (3) the mediational means need to be appropriate and sufficient. The study contributes to the understanding of course design as an activity in relation to the professional development for university EFL teachers.