Research Question : How should the teacher trainer share their own teaching

The responses, naturally with a variety of caveats attached, recognised the potential usefulness and beneficial nature of teachers sharing their experience and expertise with their students. However, it was important that the contents of the individual lessons did not diverge from the overall stated aim of the course. It was, therefore, important that the contents of the lessons be aligned with those of the course, especially in terms of the trainer being able to plan the lessons according to the principles taught in the course. Consequently, as far as the sharing of experience was concerned:

[h]e/she should progress with the material systematically, and in connection with the topics, the teacher trainer can talk about his/her experience.

Thus suggesting that course content and its systematic teaching should be prioritised over trainers’ sharing of experience. Nevertheless, trainees were clear in stating that the teacher trainer should refer to their own experience and expertise as part of their classroom teaching. A division can be made here between participants’ referring to ‘talk’ on the one hand, and ‘anecdotes and stories’ one the other in the following collection of responses based on which of the respondents made overt reference to one or the other terms in their answers.

A certain degree of overlap can be assumed here between the two categories.

When talking about their experience teachers could highlight the problematic:

he/she could tell about those fields that caused problems for them & suggest possible solutions or show methods and techniques which worked for him. However, despite the perceived benefit that could accrue when [s]/he can share his/her experience by telling memories and useful advices to us, such advice must be given in a specific way:

[t]hey should talk objectively about their real experience of what worked, of alternatives and problems

MN Methodological consideration – making unprepared comments

Having viewed a video of a teacher whose performance I judged less than satisfactory I commented that it is important for the teacher to enjoy their classes and to keep themselves interested. Equally, they should ensure that their students do not

fall asleep. This judgement was immediately challenged , and came as a shock since I had not thought it through. This was a pivotal moment and caused me to give more pause for thought before commenting on anything going on in any classroom.

This entry shows that I was unprepared in terms of sharing, and explaining, my own views on my approach to teaching. A result of this was the decision to research the move from teacher to teacher trainer.

As far as anecdotes and stories are concerned, these could make lessons colourful by telling anecdotes from their teaching experience or it could prove interesting to hear stories about different people with different experiences. That they have a part to play was exemplified by the respondent who thought that personal experiences can be implanted in methodological courses and to hear about how a certain method works in practice is always useful. Similarly, the view of the trainer could be ascertained via the form of stories and presenting his own personal attitudes towards a certain issue. In addition, the intrinsic worth of anecdotes and stories, particularly in relation to the readings, was emphasised by a respondent’s claim that:

anecdotes help a lot just as well as comments made by the trainer on the readings

In addition to talking about their work, trainees also expected trainers to be able to give examples of teaching, that is concrete examples of teaching, both good & bad, or both positive and negative methods, or even for them to demonstrate an efficient and a less efficient way of teaching for example a grammar point or reading, speaking etc, as well as examples which were general and specific. Again, the criterion of choice rested on respondents’ use of the word ‘example’, although it is clear in some instances that an amount

of overlap between these and previous categories exist. Once again, problematising aspects of teaching was seen as important because [b]y telling examples of their own teaching experience, [they could…] present[…] practical problems and discuss[…] the possible solutions with the students. Illustration and sharing experience then are seen as of benefit:

[i]t can help a great deal when talking about a meth[odology] [p]roblem and the teacher comes up with a situation to illustrate it –sharing teaching exp[erience ] gives a more practical tone to methodology sessions than are the norm

As well as giving examples, students expect their trainers to set examples of appropriate practice; this is a category reflecting to some extent that of the alignment between actual lessons given and planned course contents described above, because, as one respondent put it, it matters a lot how the teacher holds their own lesson in which I participate.

Interestingly, overt demonstrations of ability may not be necessary since [e]xpertise does not need to be demonstrated. It comes off pretty well, if they [the teacher] do. As a result, one respondent recommended that:

[e]very class should contain a sort of 15-20 minutes when the teacher trainer gives a sample class of teaching one certain element

MN Teacher as exemplar – The role of congruence

Ought I to have mentioned my 'philosophy' of making sure that I enjoy my classes and have fun in the classroom as a primary goal?!

This did not set a good example to the class. I must make every effort to reserve making judgemental comments, I OUGHT to know better, just as I want them to do so.

Sharing is again a category based around the respondents' conscious use of ‘share’ in their answers; and once again a certain degree of overlap exists between this and the preceding categories as they emerged. Interestingly the first piece of data emphasises that sharing does not equate with dictating: [s]hare but don’t dictate concrete examples, while in the same spirit emphasising that the teacher should share them after peer teaching sections and when relevant topics come up, but first he/she should let students give their own opinion.

By the same token, teachers should [g]et students to share because they should give opportunity to the students to tell him their ideas and to practise teaching, and he should correct them and give advice and so demonstrate sharing as a process whereby ideas can be exchanged and any incorrect ones can be challenged and corrected where need be. Ultimately, sharing is seen as an indication of the trainer’s trustworthiness and authenticity:

it is very useful to share with the students, as it will make the teachers appear as more trustworthy and authentic

The use of peer teaching by trainers, as discussed below, was viewed as important, for example one response succinctly states that I think peer teaching and its criticism is really a good way. However, as is becoming clear, considerable overlap is already emerging; peer teaching as a teacher training technique involves the sharing of experience in regard to student-to-student interaction and its subsequent analysis:

peer teaching concentrating on a difficult task they had to face during their practice and discussion about it in one methodology class – share experience

Just as course contents need to be considered, so too must the needs and wants of student teachers, and it is expected that the trainer be aware of these. A clear case therefore emerges of the need to focus on the student, particularly in terms of student interest and relevance. The trainer is obliged to establish such needs and wants:

[b]y asking how the students would do something then add their own ideas as well. (But not saying: ‘This is my idea)’

Unsurprisingly, given the avowed trainee preference for the practical over the theoretical, as already demonstrated above, the role of theory received only very scant mention:

[t]o teach theory

Given that the role of the readings should be to represent a significant part of the input of the course it is disappointing that they merit so few mentions. However, in view of the previous data entry this is less than surprising. In spite of this, their role is recognised in so much that the trainer’s shared experience and expertise complement the readings, that is goes [a]long with the readings, with commenting. More importantly, the readings are seen as a way to:

add comments on the subjects raised by the readings, with relevant anecdotes