Abstract:

Digitally-enhanced learning has recently become a key component of foreign language teacher training. In particular, to foster pre- and in-service foreign language teachers’ active learning in online learning environments, Flipped Learning may represent an effective practice. For this purpose, while developing innovative e-ecologies (Cope and Kalantzis 2017; Hampel 2020), Flipped Learning (Egbert et al. 2015; Graney 2018) may be implemented within a Community of Inquiry framework where – besides the cognitive, teaching, and social presence (Garrison et al. 2000; Garrison and Arbaugh, 2007; Vaughan et al. 2013) –, the emotional presence, i.e. the newly added component to the Community of Inquiry model (Cleveland-Innes and Campbell 2012), is given priority in keeping with the emergency remote teaching and learning experiences occurred in higher education during the lockdown (Bozkurt et al. 2020). Thus, on the basis of the analysis of the data collected in two courses taught online at an Italian university in times of crisis, the main educational practices suitable for designing effective online and/or blended foreign language teacher training courses using a Flipped Learning model are presented. Furthermore, various teaching and learning methodologies suited to being integrated into online Flipped Learning and enhancing students’ collaborative construction of multimodal knowledge will be illustrated; activities suitable for fostering online learners’ emotional presence will also be examined.

The pedagogical outline developed in the present study may be useful to higher education institutions engaged in the design and implementation of online and/or blended foreign language teacher training courses in a post-pandemic context.

References:
[1] Bozkurt, A., et al. (2020). “A global outlook to the interruption of education due to COVID-19 Pandemic: Navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis”. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), 1–126.
[2] Cleveland-Innes, M., Campbell, P. (2012). “Emotional presence, learning, and the online learning environment”. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13(4), 269–292.
[3] Cope, B., Kalantzis, M. (2017). “Conceptualizing e-learning”. In B. Cope and M. Kalantzis (eds.), E-Learning Ecologies: Principles for New Learning and Assessment. New York and Abingdon: Routledge.
[4] Egbert, J., Herman, D., Lee, H. (2015). “Flipped instruction in English language teacher education: A design-based study in a complex, open-ended learning environment”. TESL-EJ, 19/2, 2.
[5] Garrison, D.R., Anderson, T., Archer, W. (2000). “Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education”. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2–3), 87–105.
[6] Garrison, D.R., Arbaugh, J.B. (2007). “Researching the community of inquiry framework: Review, issues, and future directions”. The Internet and Higher Education, 10(3), 157–172.
[7] Graney, M.J. (2018). “Flipped learning and formative assessment in an English language class”. In Jeffrey Mehring and Adrian Leis (eds.), Innovations in Flipping the Language Classroom: Theories and Practices. Singapore: Springer.
[8] Hampel, R. (2020). Disruptive Technologies and the Language Classroom: A Complex Systems Theory Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Vaughan, N.D., Cleveland-Innes, M., Garrison, D.R. (2013). Teaching in Blended Learning Environments: Creating and Sustaining Communities of Inquiry. Edmonton, AB: Athabasca University Press.

Keywords:

Teacher training, digital learning, flipped learning.