In a flash, we come to the end of 2022. It is a great time to pause and look back to see what some of the trends, key topics, and themes were when it comes to teacher professional development (PD) over this past year.
Photo by Laura Baecher “Teacher PD in Bahrain November 2022”
The field of English language teaching consistently evolves and always provides educators with abundant opportunities to learn and grow professionally. From using the printed word in blogs, newsletters, books, and journal articles to sharing information and ideas in videos, webinars, and online conferences, there is an abundance of PD available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Many topics continue to surface year after year, as these relate to ever-relevant topics, such as working with learners in the four skills, integrating content and language, or addressing the needs of particular types of curricula or students. Apart from these familiar topics, and in no particular rank order, here are eight topics that appeared frequently in 2022 in the TESOL community. To arrive at the list for this blog, I reviewed the:
- TESOL International Convention Program Book from March 2022
- IATEFL Conference Program Book from May 2022
- Colorín Colorado ELL News posts from 2022
- TESOL Connections articles from 2022
- TESOL Blog posts from 2022
- TESOL Interest Section newsletters from 2022
These are all freely available resources. (Note: Accessing the conference program book after a conference is completed can be a useful strategy to keep your finger on the pulse of what is of high relevance to educators in any given year.)
Topic Countdown
8. Overcoming Teacher Burnout
PD in this area focuses on recognizing the stress teachers are living in on a daily basis, approaches to self-care, and finding ways to create better structures within schools so that teachers can address dilemmas that are within their locus of control.
To learn more, read:
- 8 Reasons Teachers Are Burned Out (And 4 Ways to Help), by Judie Haynes
- 3 Ways to Get From “Burned Out” to “On Fire”, by Laura Baecher
7. Mindfulness
PD in this area focuses on social-emotional learning; student, teacher, and staff well-being; and intentionally creating space in the curriculum for learning about ourselves and implementing routines and practices that promote self-awareness and positive ways to collaborate with others.
To learn more, read:
- Social-Emotional Learning in the English Language Classroom: A Free Lesson on Mindfulness, by Luis Javier Pentón Herrera and Gilda Martinez-Alba
- Mindfulness for ELT Professionals, by Trish Reilly
6. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy
PD in this area focuses on identifying our own biases and identities as teachers, and then learning more and celebrating students’ home cultures, languages, and experiences and seeing these as resources upon which to build curriculum and classroom community.
To learn more, read:
- Practical Strategies for Culturally Relevant Lessons for ELs, by Chih-Hsin Hsu
- Placing Identity at the Epicenter of Socially Just Classrooms, by Nancy Kwang Johnson and Nicole Brun-Mercer
- 5 Activities to Explore Cultural Diversity, by Naashia Mohamed
5. Translanguaging
PD in this area focuses on challenging monolingual assumptions (like English-only policies) and strategically and thoughtfully creating classrooms tapping into the research that shows that home languages are a powerful resource for learning content and developing English language skills.
To learn more, read:
- How to Use English Learners’ Primary Language in the Classroom, by Valentina Gonzalez
- 2 Translanguaging Practices for Developing Biliteracy, by Sandra Mercuri and Vivian Pratts
4. Formative Assessment
PD in this area focuses on how to move away from a testing culture to one in which ongoing, low-stakes assessment informs teachers’ understanding of learners’ progress and the impact of their curriculum in order to make in-the-moment adjustments.
To learn more, read:
- Fun Ways to Assess Speaking, by Elif Yasin Holocsi
- 3 Strategies for Formative Assessment and Feedback, by Hetal Ascher
3. Creativity
PD in this area focuses on how to spark creativity in learners by making classroom activities more language-rich through setting up tasks that are high engagement, open ended, novel, and use approaches from theater education and the arts.
To learn more, read:
- Creative ELT Activities for Children and Children-at-Heart, by Laura Loder Buechel
- Exploring Creativity in TESOL Professional Learning, by Laura Baecher
2. Technology for Communication
PD in this area focuses on using the availability and access of online conferencing and collaborative writing tools to connect English learners from different parts of the world.
To learn more, read:
- 3 Digital Tools to Increase Speaking Practice, by Weina Li Chen
- Virtual Exchange: Collaborating to Create, by Margita Vojtkulakova
1. Teaching in the Postpandemic Era
PD in this area focuses on changes in workplace environments, use of curriculum and technology, applicability of previously adapted learning frameworks, and how to reengage both students and teachers in face-to-face instruction as well as continuing to utilize distance learning.
To learn more, read:
- Rethinking Professional Development at Your School Post Pandemic, by Gary Johnston
- ESL Teaching and Post-Pandemic: What Changed?, by Altiné Mni
Looking to 2023, which topics do you want to learn more about? Which topic do you believe should be a focus of your institution’s PD agenda?
In the comments, share PD topics you particularly enjoyed learning about in 2022!
from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/top-8-pd-topics-for-english-language-teachers-in-2022/
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