Background to 'Teachers Research!'
We planned Teachers Research! as a special, participant-centred day dedicated to research by teachers for teachers, with supportive commentary from Dick Allwright, Anne Burns and Donald Freeman. The day was to be structured around short presentations by poster followed by informal discussion. in combination with commentary and an open discussion session involving Dick, Anne and Donald (see finalized programme here).
The title 'Teachers Research!' echoes the title of the 'Teachers Develop Teachers Research' (TDTR) series of conferences, started off in 1992 at Aston University, UK. Organized jointly by IATEFL's Research and Teacher Development SIGs, the last of these conferences, to our knowledge, took place in Chile in the early 2000s. We hoped that this 2014 Pre-Conference Event would revive the spirit of TDTR as expressed by Julian Edge in 1991 - 'there is one main criterion which a participant presentation should meet: it must be in the nature of a report on the speaker's experience of carrying out some investigation into his/her own teaching context, along with a statement of outcomes in terms of personal and/or professional development' (Research News - The Newsletter of the IATEFL Research SIG No. 1 June 1991, p. 17). For the philosophy underlying the 'participant-centred' design of the day, see Barfield, A. and Smith, R. 1999. ‘Teacher-learner autonomy: the role of conference and workshop design’. In Proceedings of Teachers Develop Teachers Research (TDTR) 4 (CD-ROM). Whitstable, Kent: IATEFL.
We hoped that there would be opportunities to present, discuss, listen, learn and get feedback for:
• people completely new to teacher-research (TR),* but interested in it;
• people doing TR who'd like the opportunity to present informally and get some feedback (e.g. in a group / talking next to a poster to a few people);
• people working with teachers who'd like to introduce them to TR, and who would like to discuss this in an informal atmosphere with others interested
• teacher educators already supporting teachers in TR, and wishing to share ideas and experience and get feedback;
• people with ideas they want to discuss about what TR 'should' be like.
* And what is teacher research? “Addressing questions that arise from your practice by gathering data, analysing it, and sharing what you find!” (Perhaps!)
Richard Smith, Research SIG Coordinator, on behalf of the 'Teachers Research!' organizing committee (Sarah Brewer, Yasmin Dar, Ana Ines Salvi, Paula Rebolledo, Richard Smith)
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The title 'Teachers Research!' echoes the title of the 'Teachers Develop Teachers Research' (TDTR) series of conferences, started off in 1992 at Aston University, UK. Organized jointly by IATEFL's Research and Teacher Development SIGs, the last of these conferences, to our knowledge, took place in Chile in the early 2000s. We hoped that this 2014 Pre-Conference Event would revive the spirit of TDTR as expressed by Julian Edge in 1991 - 'there is one main criterion which a participant presentation should meet: it must be in the nature of a report on the speaker's experience of carrying out some investigation into his/her own teaching context, along with a statement of outcomes in terms of personal and/or professional development' (Research News - The Newsletter of the IATEFL Research SIG No. 1 June 1991, p. 17). For the philosophy underlying the 'participant-centred' design of the day, see Barfield, A. and Smith, R. 1999. ‘Teacher-learner autonomy: the role of conference and workshop design’. In Proceedings of Teachers Develop Teachers Research (TDTR) 4 (CD-ROM). Whitstable, Kent: IATEFL.
We hoped that there would be opportunities to present, discuss, listen, learn and get feedback for:
• people completely new to teacher-research (TR),* but interested in it;
• people doing TR who'd like the opportunity to present informally and get some feedback (e.g. in a group / talking next to a poster to a few people);
• people working with teachers who'd like to introduce them to TR, and who would like to discuss this in an informal atmosphere with others interested
• teacher educators already supporting teachers in TR, and wishing to share ideas and experience and get feedback;
• people with ideas they want to discuss about what TR 'should' be like.
* And what is teacher research? “Addressing questions that arise from your practice by gathering data, analysing it, and sharing what you find!” (Perhaps!)
Richard Smith, Research SIG Coordinator, on behalf of the 'Teachers Research!' organizing committee (Sarah Brewer, Yasmin Dar, Ana Ines Salvi, Paula Rebolledo, Richard Smith)
Back to Teachers Research! home