This study investigates developments in the practice of teachers who have engaged in a series of workshops on the integration of new technologies into their work in the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classroom. It looks specifically at developments in actions and knowledge during and after a teacher education programme, and how these developments shape or reshape teachers' specific professional practice of using technology in EAP teaching. Added to this, it explores ways in which teachers articulate their sense of EAP as a subject and EAP teaching as a profession, and tries to situate technology's role within that. Drawing on a theoretical framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006; Koehler & Mishra, 2009), and second-generation Activity Theory (Engestròˆm, 1987), this story of development unfolds through a case-study narrative over the bounded timeframe of eighteen months. The setting is a university language centre in the United Kingdom, where the workshops took place, and three teachers have been selected as cases to represent the story of developments, and changes in practice occurring in line with the delivery and aftermath of this teacher education programme. Significant changes were noted in the teachers' specific professional practice of using technology in their teaching, and the study suggests that as technology becomes embedded in EAP teaching, there is an associated re-thinking of practice in other areas, particularly the role played by, and nature of, EAP content. As such, this supports one of the central arguments for the development of TPACK, in that the introduction of technology to existing conceptualisations of Pedagogic Content Knowledge (PCK) (Shulman, 1986) has demanded that teachers question their existing pedagogy, and lay the foundations for development in their practice as a whole (Mishra & Koehler, 2006, p. 1063). This study then is a story of development and teachers' personal reflections on practice, giving shape to a final report that hopes to make a contribution to understanding, defining, and opening the way for further research into EAP practice in the digital age.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:764373 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Breen, Paul |
| Contributors | Motteram, Gary ; Slaouti, Diane |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/teachers-in-transition-developing-actions-knowledge-and-practice-in-the-eap-classroom(1b963085-b14d-4c4d-b873-cd1c9763e354).html |
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