TALES FROM THE CHALKFACE:

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1 TALES FROM THE CHALKFACE: TEACHER-LED RESEARCH MINI-CONFERENCE Abu Dhabi University February 28th, am to 1.00 pm THE CONFERECNE IS A JOINT EVENT ORGANIZED BY TESOL ARABIA TTD SIG, THE RESEARCH SIG & ABU DHABI CHAPTER Teacher-led research conference fmohamed3@adnoc.ae tesolarabiaresearchsig@gmail.com Teacher-Led Research Mini-Conference 1

2 TALES FROM THE CHALKFACE Schedule of Activities Time 8:30-9: 30 9:30 10:00 Plenary Session ACTIVITIES Registration of Participants Welcome and Opening Address Mohamed Azaza: Re-conceptualizing Teacher Professional Development: Insights from Current Research 10:00-10:45 Concurrent sessions A Dr. Mouna Abou-Assali: Dear Teachers: What Keeps You Going On? Edith Flahive: Leadership Behaviours: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Teresa Murphy: Using Edmodo to Encourage and Enhance Student- Teacher Relationships Richard Baltus & John Frymire: Instruction and Assessment Using Moodle 10:45 11:15 BREAK 11:15 12:00 Concurrent sessions B 12:10 12:55 Concurrent sessions C Ali Al Maskari A Learning Organization: What s in it for Schools? Bridin Harnett: Intercultural Competence and the Quality of Life in the Classroom Dr. Sahbi Hidri: Practical tips on how to carry out item analysis Amjad Taha: Enhance Students Learning through Cultural Awareness Sudha Govindswamy Sunder: Teacher Perception about Concept-Based Methodology of Curriculum and Instruction: Is It a Matter of Power and Control? Amani Benali: Undergraduate Arab Students Attitudes to Native and Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers in Abu Dhabi 12:55 01:15 Book Raffle (Sponsored by SMART BOOK PUBLISHING & DISTRIBUTION) Certificates and Conference Closing 2

3 Plenary Session Re-conceptualizing Teacher Professional Development: Insights from Current Research Due to the profusion of knowledge about teaching and learning, the education reform initiatives taking place all the over the world and the recent developments in information technology, the need for effective teacher professional development programs has never been so urgent. Unfortunately, recent professional development research studies report that most of the current teacher PD programs are traditional, inconsistent and ineffective. At the individual level, it has been reported that teachers are still working privately, individually and unwilling to share their practices (Westheimer, 2008). At the organizational level, it has been found that the audit and bureaucratic school cultures, the quality-driven policies and the tight inspection policies promote an ineffective training-oriented and one-size-fits-all model of professional development. Drawing on a recent research carried out in the local context of the U.A.E, the presenter will discuss the need for a paradigm shift in how teacher professional development should be re-conceptualized. He will mainly argue that effective PD should be supported by a school culture where teacher professional learning is not looked at as an individual activity, but rather as an integral part of the school organizational learning in which all teachers, school leaders and learning communities collaborate and learn together. Mohamed Azaza holds an MSc in TESOL from Aston University and DELTA from the University of Cambridge. He is also a PhD candidate in Educational Leadership with Leicester University. Mohamed has published and presented on areas as diverse as teacher professional development, professional communities of practice, teacher leadership, curriculum and materials design, differentiated instruction, emotional intelligence and cross-cultural communication. Mohamed is the current chair of TESOL Arabia s Research SIG and the president of TESOL Arabia Toastmasters Club. mazazamelki22@gmail.com Concurrent Sessions A Dear Teachers: What Keeps You Going On? Emotions guide our ways of thinking and reacting in different circumstances. These emotions can be positive (i.e. happiness or satisfaction), or negative (i.e. stress or frustration). It is hard to imagine teachers teaching without showing any kind of emotional reactions. In fact, emotions are at the heart of teaching. Many research studies have focused on the relation between these types of emotions and the teachers educational practices. Close to this relation is teachers selfunderstanding of their feelings, beliefs, identities and attitudes. All of these together play central roles in shaping the teachers personalities and apparently control the teachers actions in their teaching-learning processes. The presenter in this discussion group will raise some questions with regard to teachers emotions at the workplace, and the effect of adopting positive or negative attitudes on teachers persistence, personal lives and teaching practices. Participants are invited to share their experienced emotions in dealing with different work situations in their contexts and give examples of factors that contributed to a better utilization of these changes in their classrooms. Dr. Mouna Abou-Assali is an EdD holder from the University of Exeter, UK. She is a faculty member in the Culture, Society and Linguistic Education Department. Mouna received her MEd degree in ELT from The University of Sheffield, UK. She has over 18 years of teaching experience in initial teacher training courses, supervision of teachers, and school principals and vice-principals training. Her research focus has been on teacher professional growth, teacher and student-teacher emotions, and leadership. 3

4 Leadership Behaviours: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Teachers often make various complaints about their principals such as: his/her failure to demonstrate a caring attitude; failure to listen; failure to compliment staff; failure to interact with staff; failure to provide positive reinforcement; showing favouritism, and so forth. The use, or failure to use these behaviours, creates a certain leadership style that can positively or negatively affect the supervisory climate in a school, college, or university. This presentation examines the leadership behaviours principals in government and private schools in the UAE, from the perspective of teachers. An analysis of research data derived from a tried and tested survey instrument (Bulach, Boothe, and Michael, 1999) reveals that principals are exhibiting ineffective behaviours in three domains: human relations, trust, and instructional leadership. The findings are discussed in relation to relevant literature in the field. The data suggest that principals need to increase their positive behaviours and decrease their negative behaviours. Such revelations are examined in light of their implications for school leaders, and recommendations are made to address the ineffective behaviours. : Edith Flahive, B.Ed, RSA DELTA, MA TESOL, MBA Educational Leadership; is a member of the English faculty at Abu Dhabi Men s College. Prior to joining the HCT, she worked with young learners in the UAE. Her research interests include learner autonomy, classroom methodologies, and leadership. She is currently completing her PhD in Education. USING EDMODO TO ENCOURAGE & ENHANCE STUDENT-TEACHER RELATIONSHIPS Most learning management systems used in schools and colleges mainly function as a virtual classroom in that assignments and feedback are the main features used. Edmodo, on the other hand, can function as a platform that can be used in a greater variety of ways. Its interface, (like Facebook), and ease of use, among other features, allow teachers to move outside this virtual classroom and build virtual relationships with students. It can also encourage students to take risks in their work that they might not attempt in the real classroom. This presenter has worked with Edmodo over a period of time with different groups, teaching different skills and has developed new ways to use it that enhance the learning experience for her students. In this presentation, she will demonstrate and reflect on her findings. (It will involve some practical examples, so please bring a mobile device to participate). user-friendly Ed.Tech tools in the classroom. Teresa Murphy has been in Education since 1985 and mainly in ESL. She has an MA in Applied Linguistics and DELTA. She has interests in active vocabulary development, particularly in low level students, and in developing user-friendly Ed-Tech skills and tools in the classroom. However, they are not a substitute for the actual face to face teaching. teresa.murphy@hct.ac.ae Instruction And Assessment Using Moodle The presentation will outline the use of Moodle for instruction and assessment. It will illustrate the different types of activities / tests that can be created. In addition, other benefits of using Moodle such as security features, test reliability and validity, and analysis of test results will be discussed. Richard Baltus, M.A (Ling.) has presented in Canada, Asia and the Middle East. He is currently teaching at ADNOC Technical Institute in Abu Dhabi and has also taught in Canada and Japan. 4

5 John Frymire, M. Ed. (Ed. Tech.) has taught English in 9 countries on 3 continents. He is currently instructing and developing course/assessment material using Moodle at ATI in Abu Dhabi. Concurrent Sessions B A Learning Organization: What s in it for Schools? A school culture that invites deep and sustained professional learning will have a powerful impact on student achievement, Ron Brandt The presenter will highlight principles of a learning organization through the lens of an ongoing change initiative in his working environment. These principles can assist other educational institutes to enhance their own organizational performance. The learning organization concept originated in the business world but has recently been applied in more and more educational settings to promote continual enhancement and expansion of the awareness and capabilities of all members of those educational institutions. Organizational effectiveness and student outcomes are continuously improved through this ongoing process. This process involves developing a learning culture where learning is embedded, communicated to and understood by every member of the organization. Peter Senge s concept of the Fifth Discipline and its practical application in learning organization will also be explored, referring to the presenter s experiences in laying the groundwork for transformation of a local educational institution into a learning organization. Ali Al Maskari is currently the Head of Academic Studies Section at ADNOC Technical Institute. He worked as a teacher of English in Government Schools and a supervisor of the English Language Program in the Model Schools. His interests include Teacher Education, Educational Leadership, and Conversational Interaction and Second Language Development. aalmaskari@adnoc.ae Practical Tips on How to Carry Out Item Analysis Item analysis (IA) investigates the pass/fail dichotomy, mastery- vs. non-mastery of materials, item difficulty and ability. This presentation highlights practical tips on how to carry out classical and modern IA using item facility (I.F.), item discrimination (I.D.), analysis of distractors, difference index (D.I.), B-indexand Multi-Faceted Rasch Model (MFRM).Recommendation tips are accentuated to address the necessity of writing a list of specs to design useful tests. Dr. Sahbi Hidri holds a PhD in Language Testing. His area of expertise includes SLA and socio-cultural approaches to assessment, evaluation, dynamic assessment, test design and validation. sahbihidri@gmail.com> Intercultural Competence and the Quality of Life in the Classroom This presentation hopes to inspire educators to focus on the quality of life and intercultural communicative competence in the language-learning classroom, rather than on the instrumental values of output to meet both student and institutional expectations. Through an exploration of the concepts of Intercultural Communicative Competence and Exploratory Practice, this educator s trajectory and practice are ethnographically described through the situated contexts of the language classroom. The presentation puts forward the view that the language classroom is co-constructed by instructors and students as equal practitioners, somewhat in a Vygotsky tradition. This work to develop a social reality or culture, unique to the individual participants enhances student developmental learning and sensitivity to the learning context. A concern for the cultural components in the classroom fosters understanding in our global environment in which students learn to, think locally, but act globally, in the words of the Friends of the Earth Slogan. 5

6 Mrs. Bridin Harnett is affiliated to ADU. She has a Bachelor s Degree in Education awarded by the NUI, Ireland with Irish Literature and French Language and Literature. She has a Master s Degree in Applied Linguistics& TESOL, University of Leicester, UK, and a Certification in Occupational Testing from the British Psychological Society. Concurrent Sessions C Undergraduate Arab Students Attitudes to Native and Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers in Abu Dhabi, UAE This research studies undergraduate Arab Students Attitudes to Native and Non-Native English-speaking Teachers in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Students were invited to determine the defining features of native and non-native English speaking teachers and to identify whether they demonstrated a preference for one category over the other. The study took place at Abu Dhabi University, UAE with a sampling of 22 undergraduate students who are learning English as their second language. Students attitudes were explored using open-ended questionnaires and the data was interpreted qualitatively. The participants determined the characterizing features of each group of teachers to end up expressing their preferences towards NESTs. Regardless of the obtained results, the findings generated from the data could benefit the whole TESOL community including research in TESOL and second language acquisition, English language teachers, the educational institutions, and English language learners. However, the implications of this study remains limited and restricted to the specific settings and could not be generalized to different contexts. Ameni Benali is an English instructor at Al Khawarizmi International College, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Last fall she received her M.A in TESOL from Middlesex University, Dubai Campus. Her dissertation was about Undergraduate Arab Students Attitudes to Native and Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers in Abu Dhabi, UAE. She has many years of ELT experience in a variety of educational contexts. amani.benali2@gmail.com Teacher Perceptions about Concept-Based Methodology of Curriculum and Instruction: Is It a Matter of Power and Control? In this era of information revolution, we cannot teach. The overload of information and the resulting content saturation (Giddens, 2007) requires that teachers create purposeful strategies in teaching and learning, to engage and connect with the learners. Moving beyond content driven teaching and regurgitation of factual knowledge, to foster conceptual understanding (Erickson, 2008) through inquiry-based learning is a powerful strategy in connecting with today s learners. However, regardless of the value of this approach to curriculum and instruction, there are some challenges that teachers face at the classroom level, particularly in terms of the fundamental shifts such an approach demands in classroom dynamics. Drawing on Bernstein s (1975) theories of curriculum re-contextualization, this presentation will bring into focus the issues of power and control in the classroom that challenge teachers in adopting a concept-based approach to curriculum and instruction. Sudha Govindswamy Sunder is a certified curriculum consultant from the Lynn Erickson institute in Whitefish, Montana, USA. She often presents in international conferences on concept-based curriculum and instruction. Her conference presentations and workshops could be consulted through Besides serving as a Curriculum Reviewer at the International Baccalaureate (IB Americas Global Centre, Maryland, USA), 6

7 Sudha works as the Curriculum and Staff Development Coordinator at an IB World School in Dubai, UAE. In this capacity, Sudha provides continued professional development for international teaching staff in concept-based curriculum and instruction. A true believer in life-long learning, Sudha is currently completing her doctoral studies (EdD) as a part-time student at the University of Bath, UK. Her research inquiry aims to explore teacher perceptions in school-based curriculum development initiatives. Enhance Students Learning through Cultural Awareness Teaching culture in an ESL/EFL setting might be a risky task that requires a good understanding of both L1 and L2 cultures. Therefore, the presenter will share with the audience a list of classroom activities geared towards helping the learners enhance their cultural repertoire. Amjad Taha is an English language instructor at ADNOC Technical Institute in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He received his Master s degree in TESOL from SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont, US. amjadtaha06@gmail.com. 7