Professional development for chinese EFL

Barnawi eds., Mobility of Knowledge, Practice and Pedagogy in TESOL Teacher Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64140-5_6 EFL Teachers in Australia: Perspectives, Challenges, a

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

A Ahmed, O Barnawi (eds.), Mobility of Knowledge, Practice and Pedagogy in TESOL

Teacher Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64140-5_6

EFL Teachers in Australia: Perspectives, Challenges, and Research Potentials

Dat Bao

This chapter discusses the experience of Chinese in-service teachers of English who participated in a professional development program in Australia The program reflects an increasing trend in English language education in today’s context of globalisation and transnationalism where

it is common to see practitioners from one context seek interaction with colleagues and senior experts in another context The chapter presents, first of all, an overview of the current discourse on EFL teacher develop-ment in China Instead of focusing on a Western view, the discourse takes

on a Chinese perspective which is a less-commonly discussed positioning

on this theme In doing so, the review looks at both the need and the challenge in teacher development in context

Secondly, the discussion reports an empirical study based on the pro-gram as offered by Monash University which annually hosts Chinese teachers in ten weeks’ course in the city of Melbourne The aim of the study is to examine the teachers’ experience with the program in terms of

D Bao ( * )

Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

e-mail: dat.bao@monash.edu

satisfaction, need, difficulty, criticism, and aspiration Data will highlight both strengths and existing challenges to Chinese in-service teachers’ pro-fessionalism, that is, where the program has performed well and has failed

to meet the teacher expectations

Thirdly, it highlights what can be further taken into consideration so that the program would reach out better to such needs These recommen-dations not only serve the teachers’ efficient development but also assist Australian institutions in developing new strategies for teachers to improve English pedagogy in schools or institutions

Due to the limited scope of the chapter, the discussion will not com-pare the Australian program in this project with other teacher develop-ment programs in the world Instead, it reveals the teachers’ reflection on the design, components, and implementation which will be concretely described in the chapter Readers can benefit from this discussion by looking at how the range of activities offered by the program are received and evaluated by the teachers

Current Discourse: Needs and Challenges

The Need of Professional Training Overseas

This section captures the relevant literature from academic and public- debate sources published in the Chinese language It touches on the need

of professional training overseas and research on the impacts of such overseas training on teacher development The discussion then identifies

a number of existing challenges to Chinese in-service teachers’ profes-sionalism and proposes recommendations with regard to areas to be addressed for future improvements in overseas development courses

In scholarly discourse in China, it has been unanimously agreed that teachers’ pedagogical skills and research competence are two areas that need to be improved and updated (Han, Wang, & Li, 2011; Xu, 2009; Zhang, 2012) This is true in in the educational system generally and in English language teaching specifically These dimensions are like two sides of the same coin whereby research-based outcome should

constantly inform instruction decision and quality To elevate such capa-bilities, educators need interaction and updated input with advanced expertise on an international basis; and thus, teacher development requires more professional work in overseas programs

When it comes to such activities, research on positive impacts of over-seas training and development has demonstrated the fact that many Chinese teachers who have participated in such programs have reported positive learning experiences For instance, a study by Ju Kao la (2018) has found that out of 18 teacher participants who attended training at Pennsylvania State University, 17 (94.4%) have greatly benefited from what they perceived as high professionalism and responsibility of American lecturers As far as the impact of such experience on educa-tional practices at home is concerned, the same project has documented that professional training overseas has resulted in teachers’ advanced teaching performance In particular, the communicative approach and task-based pedagogy have boosted dynamic learning atmosphere in class-room and enhanced students’ learning interest

As self-evaluation is included towards the end of the program, teacher reflection shows that most teachers could feel improvement in their everyday teaching quality Many overseas programs have led to teachers’ integrative competence in essential areas such as language skills, digital skills (including wiki, podcasting, blog, and so on), culture knowledge and understanding, and research skills (Ju Kao la, 2018) By the same token, documentation from international experiences has shown that most participants hold the opinion that overseas training is ideal for their professional development (Xu, Zhang, & Xu, 2010)

Existing Challenges

Having recognised the above advantages, scholars do share concerns regarding various problems with ELT development programs both in China and overseas In particular, Chinese researchers have realised that more problems occur when training takes place domestically rather than

in an overseas setting Many teachers who have participated in domestic programs hold negative opinions toward teacher development programs

In many cases, such programs often involve experts invited from overseas

to assist Chinese teachers in updated ELT knowledge and skills Below are some challenges arising from teacher development programs being offered in mainland China

Sustainability Issues There is hardly any post-program support to

sus-tain development Such lack of attempts towards specialised continua-tion results in low sustainability In other words, trainees’ confidence has limited time and experience to grow due to the short-term nature of the course (Xu et al., 2010)

Unresolved Workplace Constraints In addition to their participating in

the program, teachers find themselves confronted by heavy teaching load (Zhang, 2012) It remains a dilemma when teachers are expected to spend time and energy on skill-upgrading workshops without ever being given relief support from the everyday responsibility at their schools

A Lack of Professional Readiness Some participants are selected against

their will to join in the training program (Sun, 2004) In every school, some teachers are prone to furthering their practice while others do not feel the need for change in their instruction quality When their motiva-tion in professional development seems low, attending the program becomes a routine and teachers would not wish to invest all their effort in improving their pedagogy

More Pedagogical Input Than Hands-On Teaching Rehearsal Insufficient

practical experience during the development program Although training and practice should go hand in hand, the programs do not create instant conditions for practice to demonstrate the updated principles Without newly generated evidence to support practice, the program ends up deliver-ing more knowledge than implementation Arguably, new pedagogical theories are often difficult to digest due to the lack of theory combined with practice

Low Contextualisation The efficiency of development programs often

suffers when trainers and trainees hold opposite objectives Much of this predicament is due to the difference in cultural background between overseas experts and Chinese teachers Besides, many experts who con-duct the program, due to their lack of knowledge about the Chinese ELT context, are not highly capable of providing responses to all the diverse needs of participants This is not mention different understandings of language teaching due to different sociocultural, political, educational environments

Conflict of Values Part of the content obtained from the training

pro-gram in many cases seems contrary to Chinese teachers’ professional beliefs, perceptions, and understanding (Sun, 2004) This tension, unfor-tunately, is often downplayed by many program organisers In many cases, experts who came from outside of China do not educate themselves

in contextual and cultural knowledge when they designed program con-tents Because of this, delivery is sometimes not well catered for local needs and interests In many cases, it is hard for participants to put what they have learned into practice, simply because there is a gap between lecturers’ contextual knowledge and Chinese teachers’ expertise While the experts are good at teaching, they do not understand the Chinese socio-cultural, political, educational circumstances On the contrary, while Chinese teachers know their context well, they do not possess a wide range of advanced knowledge and skills to select and apply in their everyday performance

Unlike the discourse found in the West, which is often enriched and well-generated, the Chinese literature on the same topic remains mini-mal As a result, the number of references in this discussion are few However, it is important to make such less known perspective visible so that both experts and teachers can make sense of potential gaps in the program and adjust the program content accordingly

Research Design

This qualitative study is contextualised in the real-world setting of a teacher development program Every year, one group of approximately

20 Chinese in-service teachers from Mainland China arrive in Australia

to participate in a ten-week teacher development program The main component of the program includes workshops on current trends of ped-agogical input and skills development for teachers, all of which take place

at Monash University This is coupled by a number of off-campus activi-ties for providing exposure to social communication in English, organis-ing visits to schools, museums, and other cultural venues, as well as interaction with Australian educators In this scenario, I happened to be among expert team members who worked directly with the teacher par-ticipants on a regular basis

The project follows a case-study approach as it takes on these impor-tant features:

• It has a authentic scenario;

• It seeks potential of challenging issues for insights into program improvement;

• It examines an open-ended situation that requires in-depth illumina-tive investigation;

• The setting has multiple components that requires interaction among resources, which inspires the need to address the integration of broader theoretical, social, and contextual contexts in the program

Data were collected from 17 teachers from Zhejiang Province who wished to share their views by reflecting on their learning experiences during these ten weeks in Melbourne, Australia Data collection tools comprise focus group interviews, observations of workshop dynamics, and teacher discussions based on field trip to schools Monash University has a well-established TESOL program which provides teacher education

to pre-service teachers at PhD and Masters’ levels as well as to in-service teachers from around the world The program is part of the Faculty of

Education, which ranks first in Australia and 12th in the world according

to Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU, 2019)

The content of data collection cover four key areas:

• What the teachers think they have learned and valued from on- campus workshops;

• What the teachers benefit from field trips outside the university;

• The kind of knowledge and exposure teachers find meaningful; and

• Challenges they identify as noticeable which can be considered as aspects for improvements in future programs

Below is a summary of teacher responses to the areas in questions (Table 1)

Finding 1: Teacher Contentment

with Workshop Quality

Satisfaction was expressed towards the quality of professionalism, interac-tive experience, and richness of the program components These range from academic activities to the interaction with experts and peers; enhanced input to teaching approaches to practical discussion; support-ive classroom setups to academic resources; project work to peer presen-tation; materials evaluation to formative assessment; frequent use of English to EAL pedagogical tools (e.g vocabulary development, mind-mapping, differentiated reading kits, and so on) One cannot single out any huge component as the major role-player in making the teachers happy Instead, it is the dynamic mixture of various factors that bring success together Another important comment that stands out in the focus interview is teachers’ enjoyment thanks to the atmosphere of work-shops, the collegiality of the delivery team, and the hospitality of pro-gram staff Arguably, it is the balance between the intellectual experience and the sociocultural dimension of professional development program that effectively shapes the teachers’ approval

Table 1 Chinese teachers’ reflection on experiences with the ELT development

program at Monash University

Activities at Monash

Field trip and follow-up outside of Monash campus

Exposure to ways of educational practices in Australia

Identified challenges Interaction with

experts and

peers

Observation

of teacher- student interaction during school visit

Critical thinking

Discussion

and

interaction

Frequent use of

English

Making comments about teacher- student interaction

in Australia

Integrated curriculum

Limited English proficiency (struggle to participate in discussion and understand advanced academic materials) Project work Collaborative

work with peers outside of workshop hours

Diverse, flexible materials instead of one prescribed textbook Exposure to

education

methods in

Australia

Meeting with school leaders

Emphasis on skill-based, all-rounded development

Hands-on

practice

Experience of

teaching

approaches

Taking notes during classroom visits and sharing them later

at workshop

Flexible class arrangement

Limited prior knowledge (Chinese teachers’ lack

of preparation; Australian educators yet

to learn about Chinese educational context)

(continued)

Finding 2: Appreciating the Value of Fieldtrips

Professional development for teachers is not just about pedagogy work-shops Teachers who fail to see the overall picture of curriculum and con-text would be considered as teaching in the dark With this philosophy in mind, the participants express appreciation towards a range of external

Table 1 (continued)

Activities at Monash

Field trip and follow-up outside of Monash campus

Exposure to ways of educational practices in Australia

Identified challenges Formative

assessment

Learning activities at schools

Assessment as guidance instead of evaluation Peer

presentation

Interaction with teachers during school visit

Small class size Team- teaching

Insufficient interaction with Australian teachers

Supportive

classroom

setups

Exposure to school culture

Resourceful classroom

EAL

pedagogical

tools (e.g

vocabulary

development,

mind-

mapping,

differentiated

reading kits)

Observations

of student activities at museums

Australian teachers’

expertise knowledge

Social

experience

Diverse

learning

activities at

Monash

Interaction with Australian colleagues

at schools

Emerging in Australia working relationship

Limited mutual understanding

of the Australian and Chinese contexts for a comparative perspective

activities offered by the program These include school visits for the expo-sure to the educational culture of Australia, interaction with colleagues, observation of teacher-student interaction, meeting with school leaders, observations of student activities at museums, among others

First of all, such exposure allows the teachers to see another educational perspective different from their own and why Australian colleagues employ

a variety of teaching approaches Secondly, understanding context would allow insights into why pedagogy is being practised in a certain way Thirdly, what comes out of the exposure and observation at the schools would be incorporated into workshop discussion as follow-up activities

In other words, there is a clear connection between external activities and the workshop on campus The teachers would take notes during school and classroom visits for sharing them later at workshop for further discussion of educational culture and context Understanding the Australian setting is important for the Chinese teachers because they need to see the relationship between what Australian teachers do in their everyday practice and the specific context which they operate within For example, social communication often receives a great deal of emphasis in the Australian society while school knowledge and practical soft skills are other, equally important, dimensions of student development The Chinese educational system, on the contrary, emphasises academic work most of all Pedagogical approaches in China often favours knowledge over social interaction and recreation Such issues in contextualisation need to be examined when teachers plan their own professional practices

Finding 3: Exposure to Ways of Educational

Practices in Australia

Both on-campus workshops and school visits allow exposure to a differ-ent set of educational practices in Australia When such ideas are brought

up, the experts and the in-service teachers could identify a range of fac-tors which shape an educational system They include, for example, the practice of critical thinking, the value of integrated curriculum, the need for diverse, flexible materials instead of one prescribed textbook, the emphasis on skill-based, all-rounded development, flexible classroom