Exploratory practice for teacher professional development in Indonesia

Abstract

This research brief reports on emerging findings from a larger project examining Indonesian university English language teachers' professional development in implementing technology-enhanced task-based language teaching (TBLT) through exploratory practice (EP). Many studies have focused on the effectiveness of TBLT in promoting students' language development through pedagogical intervention (East, 2019). In Indonesia, relevant research has examined the issue of materials development for TBLT (Widodo, 2015) and the use of technology (digital storytelling) to develop university students' writing (Azis & Husnawadi, 2020). However, few studies to date have focused on the role of language teachers' professional development in TBLT, which should receive more attention due to the critical role teachers play in implementing TBLT (Van den Branden, 2016). To address this gap, our study explored English language teachers' professional development in designing and implementing technology-enhanced TBLT in Indonesian universities. To develop professional capacity in implementing technology-enhanced TBLT (TETBLT), language teachers may undertake a variety of activities, such as participating in in-service teacher training, attending conferences and seminars, and conducting practitioner research (Van den Branden, 2016; Ziegler, 2016). This study focused on language teachers' participation in a particular form of practitioner research, namely exploratory practice (Allwright & Hanks, 2009). What motivated English language teachers to join EP for designing and implementing TETBLT? We conducted this qualitative study to examine Indonesian university teachers' motivation to participate in EP during the pandemic. Ten English language teachers (two male and eight female) from three Indonesian universities participated in the study. The participants' teaching experiences varied, from 2 to more than 20 years of teaching. They also taught different courses: ESP-related courses, Grammar in Written discourse, Academic Writing, and Public Speaking courses. In this report, we use pseudonyms to anonymize the participants. During the study, the participants were provided with a series of professional development activities (EP workshop series). In the activities, they were introduced to the concept of EP and its principles as well as how to undertake collaborative inquiries with students with the help of potentially exploitable pedagogic activities (PEPAs). These PEPAs aimed to help the participants in achieving shared understandings with their students. The participants were encouraged to use various PEPAs to collect data and explore significant issues in language teaching; these include, but are not limited to, discussion, student–teacher conference, reflective journals, and diaries. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews from the participants on an online platform (i.e., Zoom). We collected two semi-structured interviews (40 minutes up to an hour) for each participant. These interviews focused on participants' initial experiences in conducting practitioner research before doing EP. In the interviews, they were also invited to share why they became interested in participating in EP to support their professional development. Data were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA; Pietkiewicz & Smith, 2014) in three main phases including multiple reading and making notes, transforming notes into emerging themes, and seeking relationship and clustering themes. Analysis of the interview data revealed that the participants' motivation to participate in EP for TETBLT were related to a variety of factors including their past experiences (of undertaking classroom-based research) and developmental goals (e.g., improving technology-enhanced pedagogical practices). These factors are elaborated in the following subsections. Data analysis revealed that the five participants' prior experiences were the catalyst for their decision to join EP. One participant, Alice, was motivated to participate in EP because of her experience of conducting classroom-based intervention study in her bachelor program. In the project, she implemented cartoon movies in her teaching practicum program to address the identified problems in relation to students' learning motivation. When deciding to participate in this study, she found EP offered her diverse ways of investigating classroom life. She realized that there seemed to be a missing component in her prior practitioner research practice where her pedagogical intervention (the use of cartoon movie) was based on her point of view (without engaging her students as co-investigators). Her decision to engage in this study was related to her understanding of EP through which the purpose of EP is to work for understanding (action for understanding), rather than problem solving, by integrating research into pedagogy (using everyday pedagogic activities). Alice's account resonates with that of another participant, Dilan, whose prior research practice was influenced by a problem-solving mindset that merely focused on coping with his classroom issues, but did not help him understand his classroom better. He reported that “I could not decide directly to solve the classroom problems without further understanding why these problems occurred.” Dilan's view was in line with EP principles, as Hanks (2017) argues that “solving the problem may be successful but will not necessarily yield an explanation of why the problem happened in the first place” (p. 6). Before knowing EP, what I tried to focus on when facing problems in the class was solving them without engaging students, listening their voices … other practitioner research tended to lead me to give intervention based on my own assumption. …EP is like bridging before thinking solution by exploring puzzles to understand classroom life. (January 2021) Analysis of the interview data revealed that eight participants (out of 10) were motivated to undertake EP because it helped them pursue their developmental goals. These goals refer to their interest in doing practitioner research and integrating tasks and technology, so that they become what they aspire to become in teaching (Qiao & Hu, 2021; Tao & Gao, 2017). Four participants (Lady, Junaedi, Noe, Dilan) reported that they were interested in participating in EP because they could use pedagogical practices in their classroom as a tool of investigation or integrating research into pedagogy. Junaedi believed that his participation would help him use TETBLT to improve the teaching of speaking (a course he teaches) and engage his students in speaking practices while doing collaborative inquiries through EP with him. Pinner (2021) argues that “within an EP framework, everything done for research must also be done for learning, and research must be a by-product of learning” (p. 501). In other words, Junaedi believed he could engage students in collaborative inquiry through EP while his students also learned and developed their speaking skills via classroom activities such as role playing and online speaking tasks. He said in the interview that “conducting practitioner research or my purpose of doing and participating in this EP is to develop my teaching practices.” Two participants, Alice and Kira, were enthusiastic because their engagement in EP would help them respond to the online teaching imposed by the pandemic and improve their practice of TETBLT. Due to the global pandemic, the participants were required to teach online or run hybrid courses. Many language teachers faced challenges in adapting to online teaching because of communication issues in an online environment (e.g., teacher–student and student–student communication), observing students' participation, internet access, and lack of technological pedagogical competences (Baker et al., 2022; Kohnke & Moorhouse, 2021). Thus, the participants found their participation in this EP would help to understand online or hybrid teaching better. What attracted me to join this research is because your study focused on technology-enhanced task-based language teaching. I think I still lack technological literacy to support my English language teaching and also online teaching delivery. So, it will be useful for my everyday teaching practices. (December 2020) I also knew that there were two things I could learn when participating in this EP, like task-based and exploratory practice. I directly reflected in my teaching practice that teaching in the pandemic situation tended to be dominated by tasks and projects to support students' learning. (January 2021) We examined the motivation of English language teachers to conduct EP as a means for enhancing their professional development in TETBLT. This study shows that the participants' prior experiences and developmental aspirations were a significant driver for their motivation to engage in EP for pedagogical enhancement. The participants' previous research practices (e.g., teacher research) led them to explore pedagogical issues through EP with students as co-investigators or collaborators using everyday teaching practices (e.g., student–teacher conferences, students' reflective journals). EP also provided them opportunities to understand their classroom life with students without making premature pedagogical decisions like “fools [teachers] rush in to capture the stupidity of undertaking action too precipitously” (Allwright, 2001, p. 103), as reported by Alice and Dilan. This collaborative work would create a more dialogic teaching condition to help both teachers and students understand their classroom situation and better address any emerging pedagogical issues in the process. Other findings show that the participants decided to engage in EP because they regard it as an important means to achieve professional development (i.e., TETBLT) and their practitioner research skills by integrating research into curricular activities without creating extra work. Their motivation to engage in this EP is also associated with the need to integrate technologies in language teaching as compelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, the pandemic created a crisis for teaching, but it also presents an opportunity for teachers to adapt and learn to teach online through EP (Ramdani et al., 2023). The findings of this study offer certain implications for English language teacher educators and policymakers. The use of EP can be an innovative approach to promoting collaborative reflection among practitioners (teachers, students, and researchers) for educational improvement. In this regard, all practitioners may engage in a collaborative endeavor for mutual development to support the development of English teachers' professional capacity for TETBLT. In such a collaborative EP process, teachers and students can share and discuss what puzzles them related to TETBLT implementation so that they can develop better local understandings of their classroom life (Gieve & Miller, 2006). In turn, these understandings will lead language teachers to make informed pedagogical decisions with better support from students. We believe that EP will provide language teachers with collegial professional communities to sustain their professional development in achieving better classroom experience for both students and teachers (Benson et al., 2018; Soomro, 2018). Open access publishing facilitated by University of New South Wales, as part of the Wiley - University of New South Wales agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians. Junjun Muhamad Ramdani is currently a PhD candidate at the School of Education, University of New South Wales, Australia. He is also a faculty member of the English Education Department of Universitas Siliwangi, Indonesia. His research interests are language teacher professional development, teaching English speaking, Technology enhanced language learning (TELL), and qualitative research in English language teaching. Xuesong (Andy) Gao is a language teacher educator at the School of Education, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, University of New South Wales, Australia. His research interests include international students' educational experiences, language learner agency, language and literacy education, language education policy, and language teacher education.