Abstract:

This presentation reports on a two-year project in the New Zealand context where a teacher educator worked in a reciprocal research partnership with two teachers of languages to investigate the pedagogical changes motivated by the use of digital technologies. This partnership is part of a wider project where four teacher educators and ten teachers in different curriculum areas and school sectors inquiried into their our own and each others’ practices. We developed a professional learning community where teacher educators and teachers became critical friends through professional learning conversations, reciprocated observations, and collaborative analysis meetings. In this presentation I will discuss the value of professional learning conversations in elucidating how technology impacted the pedagogical principles of two experienced and tech-savvy teachers of languages in secondary schools.

Two decades into the 21st century, we take a critical look as teachers to the promises of the influence of digital technologies on students’ engagement and autonomy, and learning that is increasingly collaborative, flexible, and ubiquitous. While considerable research focuses on technology tools and their use, or on initiatives to adopt such technologies, there has been less research on understanding the shifts in pedagogy which are made when such technologies are integrated in education contexts. Despite the early promises of the potential of digital technologies to lead to new ways of creating media-rich content, new spaces for communicating, sharing and participating in communities, technology is still predominantly used to gather, organise and report information. Even more worrisome, tech-savvy language teachers are struggling to effectively integrate digital technologies to their practices and capitalise on their potential. Data from extensive professional conversations from the three critical friends was analysed to identify how the classroom practices of the two teachers of languages revealed underlying pedagogical principles. The professional learning conversations allowed the development of a shared set of commitments, a sound technical and theoretical knowledge base and an extensive set of resources that support improved teaching. Insights from this New Zealand project will be drawn for teacher education and for other contexts.

Keywords:

Professional learning conversations, in-service language teachers, digital technologies.