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Humanising Language Teaching
Humanising Language Teaching
Humanising Language Teaching
MAJOR ARTICLES

Incorporating Critical Thinking in Teacher Education and Professional Development

Masoume Ghavidel, Iran

Masoume Ghavidel, M.A. student in TEFL at Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran. Her research interests include teacher education, critical thinking, and teaching, E-mail: masoum.ghavidel@yahoo.com

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Abstract
Introduction
Theoretical foundation
Professional development
Critical pedagogy
Critical thinking and professional development
Factors determining professional development
Teacher’s role
Discussion and conclusion
References

Abstract

The education of teachers represents one of the most important tasks of educational systems in the contemporary world. The process by which teachers are educated reflects the value attached by societies and cultures to the preparation of teachers. So, it is critical to pay close attention to how both new and experienced teachers are trained and supported because great teachers produce great students in this way. The essence of effective teaching and learning is understanding how meaning becomes attributed, and when education becomes concerned with helping people to make their own meanings, and conduct conver¬sations that elaborate, relate, and extend personal meaning. This article intends to explore this aspect of teacher education and tries to find the role of critical thinking in the processes of teacher education and the achievements reached as a result. To this end, critical thinking is merged with the professional development resulting from teacher education process.

Introduction

Research shows that an inspiring and informed teacher is the most important school-related factor influencing learning achievement. On the other hand, the education does not necessarily seek to bring about any specific changes in teachers’ behaviors, but to increase awareness, to deepen understanding of causes and consequences, and to broaden perceptions of what is and is not possible in the teaching processes.

Pishghadam, Zabihi, and Norouz Kermanshahi (2012) claim that ELT teachers should become “educational language teachers” (p. 893) who are not only English teaching experts but also well-informed professionals in different other realms of knowledge, such as psychology. Due to the nature of ELT, it is recommended that a close interaction between English teachers and psychologists be necessary to afford good opportunities for raising critical thinking among language learners. That the professionals in the field of English language teaching realize the importance of explicit instruction is very vital in critical thinking in language classes and the inclusion of critical thinking abilities in the whole ELT curriculum should be mandatory.

Regarding the importance of teachers’ pattern of action and the results gained following their practice in classrooms, Louden (1991, p. 6) argues that “from a practitioner’s perspective, teaching is a struggle to discover and maintain a settled practice, a set of routines and patterns of action which resolve the problems posed by particular subjects and groups of children”. These patterns, content, and resolutions to familiar classroom problems are shaped by each teacher’s biography and professional experience. The meaning of these patterns of action only becomes clear when they are set in the context of a teacher’s personal and professional history, her hopes and dreams for teaching, and the school in which she works.

Therefore, if professional development takes place in the context of educators’ daily work, it will be more efficient. In this way, all educators get engaged in a continuous growth of all involved in the educational system. Professional development contributes a lot to analyzing students’ achievement during the school year in order to instantaneously identify learning problems, develop solutions, and quickly apply those solutions to address students’ needs.

Theoretical foundation

Teacher development has appeared over the two last decades as a perceptible area of study with lots of research and study done on it. The literature in teacher development has served to broadcast information and ideas for promoting teachers’ performance and student learning. It has founded many discussions about the future trend of the teaching and the nature of teaching as a profession.

Contemporary attitudes regarding education of foreign language teachers comprise very complex acknowledgements based on epistemology of practice, on recognition that dedication and context are the basis of every education of teachers. The education of teachers should try in long terms to rationalize, apply, and support such programs for the education of teachers that would focus on learning originating from practice and dedicated to foreign language teaching practice (Johnson, 2009).

Our understanding of teachers’ working has been enhanced by the literature in the field to a very high extent. Yet, there is much within this field of study that is not clear and accurate. The concept of teacher development is rather unexplored and, consequently, the principles of the field of study are not defined well, and the nature of teacher development process is naturally not obviously known.

Thus, the concept of teacher development is not explicit enough. Fullan and Hargreaves (1992) argue on “how little systematic attention has been devoted to understanding the topic” (p. 1), and point out that “it is only in the last few years that teacher development as a concept has come under scrutiny” adding that “teacher development must be conceptualized much more than it has been” (p. 8).

Definitions of teacher development are almost entirely absent from the literature. Even those who are generally thought as chief writers in the field do not exactly define what they mean by the term. For example, Darling-Hammond (1994), Leithwood (1992), Fullan and Hargreaves (1992) are not able to provide clear-cut definitions of teacher development of professional development. In the field of teacher development, definitional accuracy is predominantly significant because it looks to have been noticeably ignored. It is also important because, as a developing area of study, its knowledge base is still unfledged and insufficient compared to those of more well-established areas and, therefore, needs a kind of complementation. Due to these and because of the insinuations in place of the standing of teacher development as a zone of study that originates from them, it is important that the issue be looked at critically and I try to discover what critical thinking can give to the development of teacher that is contributing to the students’ ultimate attainment.

Professional development

Professional development is usually defined as the strategy schools employ to make sure that educators are constantly reinforcing their practice during their profession. An effective professional development surely involves groups of teachers and school officials to analyze the needs of their students based on a focused needs analysis. The groups of teachers try to problem-solve to ensure that all students accomplish success. Systems in school employ different plans to provide teachers this collaborative learning. Setting a time for professional development used effectively, teachers realize the benefits of the effective professional development.

Lange (1989) describes the term teacher development “a process of continual, intellectual, experiential, and attitudinal growth” (p. 379). The development approach to teacher education supports the assumption that teachers know and, do on providing tools, with which they can more fully explore their own beliefs, attitudes, and practices. It acknowledges a theory of teaching as central to the process of planning and implementing a teacher education program (Freeman, 1989). Teaching is acknowledged to be an intuitive, individual, and personal response to classroom situations and events. The approach is, hence, non-prescriptive.

Accordingly, policymakers, community leaders, and parents have a due duty to ensure that educators in their schools get involved in steady professional learning and apply that learning to enhance student achievement. By supporting professional learning, policymakers, parents, and community members can contribute to ensure a fruitful experience in education for every student in the community.

There is no doubt that it takes time for teachers like other professions to gain the skills they need to be effective in their roles. According to Ingersoll (2003), the complexity of teaching is so great that one-third of teachers leave the profession within three years and 50% leave within five years. Similarly, experienced teachers even face great challenges and threats throughout the year that include changes in subject matter and content, new instructional methods, new technology integration, changing laws and procedures, and the needs of student learning. Educators who do not experience effective professional development, will not improve their skills, and consequently, student learning suffers.

Some situations and circumstances are seen to have been the vehicles for special cases of teacher development. As Grossman (1994, p. 58) believes, the professional development of experienced teachers has taken a number of “different forms, including workshops, study groups, and action research projects.” With regard to the professional development of university staff, Grossman (1994) writes that “all instructors acquire new knowledge and perspectives from interactions in planning and teaching the class” (p. 59). She also refers to teachers’ new understandings of their role, and to teachers’ expanded vision of their professional roles and their awareness of broader issues in education.

Some argue that teacher development is the same as teacher learning (Bell & Gilbert, 1994). In learning, teachers develop their beliefs and attitude, develop their classroom practice, and attend to their feelings in relation with the changes made. Progression in teacher development, according to Bell and Gilbert (1994), can be known as one in which “personal, professional, and social development is happening, and one in which progress as one feature cannot continue except the other aspects develop, too” (p. 494).

They also believe what they think through as key sorts of the teacher development process (p. 494):

“Teacher development has two parts. One is the input of new hypothetical ideas and new teaching recommendations…. The second is putting to a test, estimation, and drill of these new hypothetical and teaching ideas over a prolonged era of time in a cooperative position where the teachers are able to obtain support and feedback, and where they are capable to reflect critically. ”

Leithwood’s (1992, p. 87) “multidimensional description of teacher development” combines three scopes of professional development: the development of professional skill; psychological development; and career-cycle development. These three dimensions are interconnected, but this does not unavoidably impede their being autonomous of each other as teacher development standards. On the one hand, Littlewoods’ reference to the importance of school leaders suggests that he perceives the dimensions as each being accomplished autonomously.

Through effective professional development, educators develop the knowledge and skills they need to address students’ learning tasks. In order to be effective, professional development necessitates thoughtful preparation followed by cautious application with reaction to guarantee it. Educators who contribute to professional development, then, must put their new knowledge and skills to work. Professional development is not operative and practical unless it makes teachers advance their teaching or causes supervisors to become better school leaders.

Finally, Darling-Hammond (1994) can be quoted as saying that professional development is a process of enhancing teaching’s professional status by expanding the knowledge base upon which the profession draws and by increasing teachers’ epistemological awareness.

Critical pedagogy

Critical thinking is a meta-thinking skill and it needs thinking about thinking. This is extremely demanding and often demands a long period of training and education. Critical thinking is defined as “the intelligently controlled process of dynamically and competently intellectualizing, smearing, investigating, manufacturing, and/or assessing data collected from or engendered by skill, reproduction, reasoning, or announcement, as a guide to certainty and achievement” (Scriven, 1996, p. 23).

Strohm and Baukus (1995) consider 'dealing with ambiguity' as a crucial part of critical thinking. They argue that “ambiguity and hesitation serve a critical-thinking purpose and are essential and even a creative part of the procedure” (p. 56). Critical thinking is recognized by another characteristic known as metacognition. More specifically, “metacognition is being conscious of one’s thinking as one performs thorough tasks and then using this consciousness to control what one is doing” (Jones & Ratcliff, 1993, p. 10).

In order to understand the concept of critical thinking, we need to consider two components: a set of information and belief generating and processing skills, and the habit, based on intellectual commitment of using those skills to guide behavior. Thus, it can be contrasted with the acquisition and retention of information alone, the mere control of a set of skills, and finally, the mere usage of those skills as an exercise without the acceptance of their results.

Education can act as the catalyst for enabling students to become critically active citizens, and transformation begins in the classroom, or public sphere, and then moves outward as students live beyond the classroom (Giroux & McLaren, 1996). Since many educational institutions enjoy the lever of power to have sustainable dominant beliefs, there is also the power of the institution to examine and alter the unfair societal standards. Apple (1989), for example, argued that dealing with the issue of equality that lies at the core of critical pedagogy is hard unless we have a clear image of the society’s current cultural, economic, and political unjustness that can provide a focal point around which education is acting. Undoubtedly, the structure of schooling represents the structure of the dominant culture out in society. Thus, in order to change that structure, we need to figure out what elements make the substance of the inequality or unjustness out there.

The goal of academic achievement that is manifested in the training and experience of children that will become active citizens in a dynamic society is shared by critical educators. For these educators, the function of education is to pave the way for social shift and drive toward a dynamically democratic society. So, there are exciting and, at the same time, frightening challenges teacher educators have to face to prepare teachers to effectively teach each student toward fruitful academic success and to train teachers who will actively encounter existing social inequalities.

Regarding critical pedagogy, Haque (2007) argues that Freire’s pedagogy is a critical model that supplies a framework providing an explanation of the world that fosters inequalities and injustice. In addition, his pedagogy also provides the vehicle for further transformational changes. This emphasizes the critical process of co-intentional education. Thus, as Freire (1993) asserts, education should be a place where teachers and students are both subjects, not only in the task of unveiling a reality in the real world, but also in the task of reinforcing knowledge.

Freire’s critical framework proposes that teaching and learning environment must be dialogic (Haque, 2007). Similarly, Crookes and Lehner (1998) warn that critical pedagogy should be carefully considered as goals in the teaching of ESL and EFL. Hence, the development of English communicative abilities, a critical awareness of the surrounding world, and the knowledge and awareness to improve matters need to be heeded to.

Developing an awareness of impartial English language instruction within the principles of critical pedagogy, critical language awareness and the power of language must be carefully dealt with. Additionally, cultural dominance should be minimized when teaching English to second or foreign language learners.

Critical thinking and professional development

Critical thinking is the process by which teachers review, renew, and extend their commitment as change agents to the moral purposes of teaching. It helps them critically acquire and develop the knowledge, skills, planning, and practice with people around in their teaching career. Effective professional development is embedded in the reality of schools and teachers’ work fostering critical reflection and meaningful collaboration. As Renyi (1996) notes, it is internally coherent and rigorous, and it is sustained in the long run. Teachers’ critical thinking is the cradle of reforms in the academic setting, and critical curriculum development became a vehicle for professional development and school reform. It is, however, crucial that the teachers be in clear communication with their administrators and communities concerning reform issues.

Expecting teachers to be critical thinkers, teacher educators emphasize reflective practice as an important feature of ESL/EFL teacher education programs worldwide. To this end, the formation of teacher development groups is one way that may promote reflective practice for EFL teachers. Teacher development groups can provide enriching opportunities for teachers to develop into professional educators. Respecting group as a whole, we must, nevertheless, remember that the group is made up of individual teachers, and that it is these individuals who are reflecting on their work, and this reflection is very important for teachers.

To Richards (1990), reflection is a crucial component of teacher development. He argues that self-inquiry and critical thinking can “help teachers move from a level where they may be guided largely by impulse, intuition, or routine, to a level where their actions are guided by reflection and critical thinking” (p. 5). Richards noted further that critical reflection refers to “an activity or process in which experience is recalled, considered, and evaluated, usually in relation to a broader purpose" (p. 6). Additionally, Farrell (1995, p. 95) asserts that “it is a response to a past experience and involves conscious recall and examination of the experience as a basis for evaluation and decision-making, and as a source for planning and action.”

Officials in educational institutions as instructional leaders need to participate in professional development. Though it is primarily designed for teachers, the officials can support its outcomes. Additionally, they also need professional development to address their specific roles and responsibilities. However, this professional development occurs in different venues. It needs to be mentioned that many experts believe the officials do not have adequate access to professional development related to their roles as school leaders.

Factors determining professional development

To meet the education goals in an institution, all educators in the system are required to participate in professional development. This takes place when the institution is executing a new program such as a new reading curriculum. Some plans in professional development are institution specific; that is, they are executed in the institution building. Analyzing student data and educators’ needs, the school’s officials should encourage or guide teachers’ professional development to meet its goals. If a teacher’s performance is inadequate, the officials may demand that the teacher take part in professional development programs.

The institution needs to take policies that describe its philosophy about professional development, its purpose, and guidelines for implementing it. Furthermore, the institution may require annual reports or evaluations of the professional development plan to ascertain the impact of the plan. The policies must make it crystal clear that the purpose of professional development is to increase learning of both educators and their students, and the institution must hold educators accountable for achieving acceptable results.

If the professional development plan provides ongoing opportunities for educators, it can continually improve their knowledge and skills so that they can help students achieve the expected outcomes. There is a direct and positive relationship between educators and learners. When educators learn, students learn more. Institutions concerned about the student ultimate achievement and future, must support implementing professional development plan.

All stakeholders have a role in certifying that educators can participate in an effective professional development. Parents must demand and support high-quality professional development plans that lead to better teaching, improved school leadership, and higher student performance.

All institutions must be encouraged and supported to hold professional development plans and they must be provided with the time and facilitation to learn what they need to know to address students’ learning problems. Institutions which hold and make the professional development plan easy must understand what student learning needs educators may face.

Furthermore, all educators are organized into learning teams. In team learning, novice educators interact with and learn from more experienced educators on the team. By this, they eliminate variations in performance and begin to take collective responsibility for the success of all students.

Similarly, school leaders need to improve with study, practice, reflection, and even hard work. Knowing how to engage teachers, the leaders are able support staff, and students in an effective learning, and the school becomes the center of learning for all adults and students.

Teacher’s role

Since the time teachers begin any kind of training or education, it should be a basic requirement to be made for continual expansion of their subject matter knowledge through tangible skills used to instruct, perceive, appraise, and reflect to reach professional development. They also need to have collaborations with other teachers and managers to help them resolve difficulties and support each other through argument, discussion, and participation in instructive variations.

To keep on sustainable professional development, English language teachers need to get involved in many professional activities to construct their own self-development policies either in individual form or in a cooperative manner. Also, peer-coaching, study groups, action study, team teaching, and in-service training are some other effective professional development policies. Cark (cited in Hargreaves & Fullan, 1992) suggests that professional development is essentially “a solitary journey” (p. 81). However, almost all teachers need help and support during that journey from coworkers or administrators to improve their own expansion, by which they can gain an inside viewpoint on other teachers’ skills and increase their consciousness through reflecting on their own condition. In the same line, Edge (cited in Bailey et. al., 2001) notes that working in isolation holds teachers to the past and personal knowledge shared with no one cannot contribute to their growth, but through association there is a chance for teachers to remove static situation and draw some conclusion concerning their experiences and concepts.

Teachers as change managers of modification must take a critical stance and have the possibility to be what Giroux and McLaren (1996) defined as “transformative scholars who unite intellectual thinking and training in the function of instructing students to be considerate and energetic people” (p. 122).

Teachers become the inactive receivers of professional knowledge (Zeichner, 1983), when some teacher education programs can be stockholders of information and the students at teacher education are the depositees (Freire, 1970, 1993). The challenge of teachers becoming transformative scholars exist in this conflict of teachers being technicians who are merely transmitters of knowledge (Dillard, 1997; Giroux, 1988; Giroux & McLaren; 1996; Leistyna & Woodrum, 1996; Sleeter & Grant, 1999). On the contrary, according to Dillard (1997), transformative intellectuals critically study the world and its procedures, including the radical and instructive organizations that keep social differences, and afterward, convert it.

Discussion and conclusion

The need for ongoing teacher education has been a recurring theme in language teaching circles in recent years and has been given renewed focus as a result of the emergence of teacher-led initiatives such as action research, reflective teaching, and team teaching. When teachers are actively involved and empowered in the reform of their own schools, curriculum, pedagogy, and classrooms, even those with minimal levels of formal education and training are capable of dramatically changing their teaching behavior, the classroom environment, and improving the achievement of their students.

It is critical for veteran teachers to have ongoing and regular opportunities to learn from each other. Ongoing professional development keeps teachers up-to-date on new research on how children learn, emerging technology tools for the classroom, new curriculum resources, and more. The best professional development is ongoing, experiential, collaborative, and connected to and derived from working with students and understanding their culture.

Through professional development, educators learn new knowledge and skills and learn to improve teaching and leadership. Similarly, educators use what they learned in professional development. Furthermore, if administrators become better leaders and teachers become more effective and apply what they learn, students achieve higher levels. Thus, professional development is worth the cost.

It is worth mentioning that those responsible for organizing professional development often do so in ways that isolate rather than energize and assist educators. They may not be clear about precise improvements in educator and student performance or may not carefully control what steps will lead to the anticipated performance levels. Moreover, educators often complain that they are required to take part in professional development that does not address the real challenges they face in their schools and classrooms. They present a kind of professional development that targets large numbers of educators from very different schools and classrooms who have students with different needs. Likewise, the professional development may not consider educators’ varying levels of motivation, interest, knowledge, and skill.

Nevertheless, when schools hold professional development successfully and attain impressive ends, the poorly conceived and ineffectively implemented professional development that leads to complaints will surely be repelled. That is, when organized well, professional development maintains its real value and remain credited.

There needs to be constant assessment of the professional development. This assessment can be achieved via techniques such as surveys, tests, observations, video recordings, and interviews. The duration of professional development must be significant and ongoing so as to allow time for teachers to learn a new strategy and grapple with the implementation problem. Professional development can also be useful if it takes place before classes begin or after they end.

The three factors of considering, planning, and executing professional development contribute highly the efficiency of professional development. Unfortunately, numerous educators who are responsible for consolidating professional development have had no formal education in how to practice. The learning skills they form for others are the same as to their own skills, many of which were neither positive nor operative. Moreover, professional development of teachers and administrators can be a kind of motivation for students who look them up as models in such a way that their development establishes a culture of learning throughout the school.

A team-based professional development organized by educational institutions requires that all teachers and administrators have constant participation. As a result, the entire school is more focused and effective. Professional development as an era of accountability requires a change in a teacher’s practice that leads to increase in student learning. Consequently, professional development needs to emphasize practices that will turn students into critical thinkers and problem solvers.

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