TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

Pete Clements, Sarah Smith and their colleagues

an

application outside our school

network. Furthermore, these sessions
are of high importance to the centre,
so they are often made compulsory.
This means that teachers may forgo
other training sessions to attend these.

vil

ion

ing

Pu
b

Last year, we performed an informal

evaluation of our training and
development programme. We came to
the conclusion that there were plenty of
CPD opportunities for teachers,
including peer observation schemes,
weekly INSETT (in-service teacher
training) sessions, swap shops, and
funding for qualifications such as the
DELTA. However, whilst the funding
options and less formal training
opportunities (such as the swap shops)
were popular, we felt that more could be
done to encourage teacher participation
in the INSETT programme. We
considered these issues:

The fact that teachers have to attend a

quota of training sessions each term is
in some ways positive. However, it can
mean that they become reluctant to
attend sessions outside mandatory
hours, as these would be unpaid.
Moreover, some teachers simply dont
have the time.
Attendance at certain INSETTs
during the latter part of 2015 was quite
low. Based on informal staff feedback
and our own experiences, we put this
down to lack of interest in certain
topics, the top down management-led
nature of the training and sometimes
poor scheduling. We felt that if our
teachers had more control over the
mandatory aspect of their professional
development, this might foster more
collaboration, engagement and teacher
autonomy.

lis
h

What needed to change

and why

Pa

Although it is mandatory to attend at

least two INSETT sessions per term,
our teachers normally have the
freedom to choose which sessions they
attend.
INSETT topics are normally decided
by the management.
INSETT sessions are often
management-led, although teachers
can volunteer to deliver the training.
Many recent INSETT sessions have
focused specifically on how to deliver
in-house products. These have limited

td

Choosing the participants

We had five teaching centres in

Bangkok, and over 100 teachers in total.
If we invited every teacher to
participate, they would have to complete
tasks in groups. Could we guarantee
that all those who wished to participate
would commit wholeheartedly to the
tasks? Also, was it viable for teachers to
collaborate across centres?
We decided first to approach a select
few teachers. These were chosen on the
basis of their evident commitment to
professional development. Some were
seen as highly collaborative in the
staffroom, some were active
contributors during INSETTs, and some
were undertaking further training or
voluntarily delivering training. The
teachers appreciated us approaching
them directly and recognising their
dedication, so they were pleased to be
part of the circle.

dM
ed

There were a few things to consider

when introducing our Quality circle:
1

learn the benefits of quality circles.

his term, at our British
Council centre in Bangkok,
Thailand, weve experimented
with a different form of
teacher development programme with
great success.

How we got the group

started

ia
L

Anyone for
quircling?

during an hour-long meeting. The aim

was not only to share ideas, but to
encourage more reflection and
engagement in classroom practice.
Topics would be decided by the whole
group, and specific tasks devised should
the teachers wish for more direction. We
hoped to cover two topics per term, each
across a five-week period.

How we changed it
A blog post from Sandy Millin provided
some good ideas for alternative training
methods (https://sandymillin.wordpress.
com/2015/11/15/alternatives-to-thefriday-aftenoon-seminar/). We chose to
create a Quality circle, which was a
variant on Sandys account of action
research projects. Our idea was for the
teachers to choose an ELT-related topic,
undertake some action research on it
and report their findings to the group

Motivating the participants

Some participants were highly motivated

from the outset. However, to encourage
engagement in every topic, we found
that we needed a further incentive. Our
management allowed the meetings for
our teaching group to count as part of
the teachers mandatory training quota.
The fact that the group was teacher-led,
with no intervention from senior staff,
certainly added value.
Another thing we modified was the
image. INSETTs can be quite serious
affairs, and dont necessarily foster a
feeling of camaraderie. We played
around with a name and ended up
calling it the Quircle, which the
teachers found geeky and, dare we say it,
quite charming! Quircle quickly became
a verb, with those who love quircling

50 Issue 106 September 2016 ENGLISH TEACHING professional www.etprofessional.com

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

Sharing the findings with

others

The Quircle had to benefit all the

teachers at the centre, not just those
involved. We decided to summarise the
findings from the group via a newsletter.
We figured that this would not only help
other teachers to learn about the
research undertaken, but also enable
them to find out more about how the
group functioned. As a result, they
might then be more willing to
participate voluntarily. We took
extensive notes during our workshops
and wrote these up, making sure we
acknowledged the contributions of
individual teachers.

What activity you did

How the activity went
Any problems you encountered
Give your overall thoughts are QR
codes useful or not?

Task 2: Kahoot
Trial Kahoot in a young learner class
(https://getkahoot.com/). Give a short
presentation, explaining:
What Kahoot is and how it works
What activity you tried with the
class

Selecting topics and tasks

an

How the activity went

What problems you encountered

ing

Task 3: A little light reading

lis
h

Choose a chapter from Language

Learning with Technology: Ideas for
Integrating Technology in the
Classroom by Graham Stanley (CUP,
2013).
Summarise and present (10 mins) any
interesting points made in the chapter
regarding the application of ICT in the
classroom.

in the classroom, but it was down to the

teacher to decide how to do this the
type of learners, the type of activities,
the phase of the lesson, etc.

Pa

vil

ion

Although the teachers were free to

suggest topic areas to research, as
administrators, we chose to assign a topic
for the first meeting. This helped us to
explain clearly what we expected the
teachers to do, and how they should share
their findings. We chose to look at the use
of ICT in the classroom, because some
teachers had already mentioned wanting
to develop in this area. In the box on this
page you can see three example tasks
(out of the eight used in the session).
These tasks were devised with
certain criteria in mind. We aimed to
address current issues and trends related
to our topic in this case, we thought it
would be interesting to evaluate some
popular ICT-related classroom tools
that have been mentioned recently
within the blogosphere and
twittersphere. Furthermore, we aimed to
bridge the gap between theory and
practice by offering some tasks that
involved reading ELT literature. We felt
that this is too often overlooked, and
that offering small, manageable reading
tasks might encourage the teachers to
consider some of the pedagogical issues
that underpin our practice.
The teachers were asked to sign up
for their preferred task. Despite
providing some guidance, we allowed a
degree of flexibility with regard to how
the teachers approached their task. For
example, a task might require them to
experiment with a particular ICT device

Pu
b

How you made the codes

A long-term goal

The idea of the Quircle was driven by a

longer-term goal. We wished to create
similar development groups or special
interest groups within our centres, which
the teachers would administer
themselves. This aspect of our work is
ongoing, but having this as an aim has
given the project clear direction from the
outset.

td

Research what QR codes are and

how they can be used in the
classroom. Trial an activity using QR
codes with any class/level of
students. Briefly explain:

others might opt for a presentation.

Either way, the task outline was merely
guidance: the teachers could adapt it as
they wished.

Did it work?
Session 1

dM
ed

Task 1: QR codes

ia
L

calling each other the Quirclers! It

might sound silly, but it really did help
garner enthusiasm amongst the
participants.

Presenting the findings

We knew that not all the teachers would

feel comfortable sharing their findings
with the group in the form of a
presentation. On the other hand, some
teachers who were inexperienced at
delivering INSETTs might feel that
short presentations in front of their
peers would help develop their
confidence. We chose to offer a range of
feedback types, depending on the tasks.
For example, some teachers could
choose a task which involved producing
a handout that summarised their
findings, others might prefer to choose a
task involving a demonstration, or

After five weeks of the teachers working

on their tasks, we agreed on a suitable
time and held a workshop. In keeping
with the ICT theme, we wrote each
participants name on a spinning wheel
(see http://wheeldecide.com/) to
determine the order in which they would
present their findings, and we gave each
one ten minutes to present, chat or go
through their handouts.
The teachers had done a sterling job
with their tasks, and most of them had
so much to share that they took the
floor for 20 or 30 minutes. It was great
to receive so much valuable information,
but this meant that not all the
participants had enough time to share
their ideas and the workshop went on
for 90 minutes instead of 60. Although
the teachers were happy to be there, we
were aware that our timing was
ambitious, given the nature of the tasks,
and we started to think of ways to make
the procedure more concise.
At the end of the first workshop,
with teacher-centredness being the key,
we asked the participants to think of a
theme for the next round. They chose
learner training and sense of progress,
and this time we didnt write up tasks
for it. We wanted to give them free rein
to take the topic in whatever direction
they wanted.
As the workshop had gone on for so
long, the teachers suggested working in
small groups on the next topic, and we
divided them into groups for young
learners, teens, adults (general English)
and adults (academic English). Again,
we gave a five-week period and pencilled
in a workshop for the end of term.

www.etprofessional.com ENGLISH TEACHING professional Issue 106 September 2016

51

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

Offer a variety of ways for the

teachers to share their findings.

The success of the Quircle has led to

quality circles being set up for line
managers, and ideas for a new group to
be set up across centres in South East
Asia. Such plans are in their infancy,
and we envisage teething problems with
the latter, regarding scheduling and
video-conferencing. We have some plans
to create a wiki page where participants
can upload their research, presentations
and handouts, and engage via forums.
This would also be a place where we can
store our newsletters and provide task
sheets and links to outside sources.
Wherever the current project leads, it
has certainly highlighted what can be
achieved through teacher-led
professional development.

dM
ed

Formally and informally recognise

the contributions that teachers
make to the group. This will keep
them motivated.
Cultivate a group mentality
experiment with an interesting
name.

an

Get as many teachers involved as

possible this could be through
active participation or just by
keeping them in the loop by
sending out newsletters and
allowing them to sit in on sessions.

Slowly hand over the facilitator role

to interested participants, or
encourage them to create spin-off
groups eg a special interest
Quality circle, focused on exam
preparation or very young learners.

Pa

vil

ion

Pu
b

Before the next session, we had a lot of

emails from the participants, asking for
more guidance with their tasks or asking
for relevant resources: an indication that
our initial task sheet was useful and
something we needed to bring back.
At the second session, we imposed a
time-limit for each participant, but this
didnt stop us running overtime again.
One idea from a Quircler was to do a
pecha kucha style delivery, where each
presenter has to present 20 slides, each
for exactly 20 seconds (for more details,
see www.pechakucha.org/).
This was a good idea, but it didnt
really work for those who had handouts,
and others felt that it was too
demanding. Clearly, we need to work on
this, especially as more and more people
have expressed interest in joining.
A couple of teachers sat in on the
Quircle to see what it was all about. This
is great for those who want to
participate but perhaps dont have the
time beforehand to contribute. However,
we did open the floor for questions and
comments, which encouraged greater
participation for all.

Give the teachers control of topics

and content, but support and
provide tasks if necessary.

ing

Session 2

Keep it teacher-led. Dont act as a

trainer, just as a facilitator.

lis
h

We collated all the information into

a newsletter and made sure we
acknowledged all the teachers who had
contributed. We sent this out to all the
teachers in all the Bangkok centres and
to the British Council coordinators
throughout the South East Asian region
to distribute at their centres. This way,
the participants got lots of positive
feedback for their contributions, which
increased their motivation. In fact, after
sending out the newsletter, we recruited
more Quirclers and others who were
Quircle-curious and wanted to sit in on
the workshop.

td

Would you like to start your own

action research group? Here are a
few tips

However, it seems that complete

freedom actually creates more work for
the teachers, and some of them
struggled to find direction, resources
and a specific focus. It seemed more
motivating for them when they chose a
task from the list, so even though we
are dictating their focus, they still have
an element of choice. But does this still
emulate the top-down approach to
INSETTs we were trying to move
away from?

ia
L

Anyone for
quircling?

Get quircling!

What next?
Our first term with the Quircle was
successful, but there are still areas that
need improvement. As more and more
people express interest in joining the
Quircle, we really need to work out a

way of dealing with timing. One idea is

to encourage the teachers to approach a
task in groups, but this may not appeal
to all. Another idea is to set up stations
in the workshop room. Half of the
teachers could sit at the different
stations, ready to talk about their
research, and the other half could mill
around, choosing the specific topic(s)
theyd like to hear more about. After 30
minutes, they could switch places. This
change in delivery mode would mean
that the teachers wouldnt necessarily
create flipchart presentations, but might
discuss their topics more informally in a
question and answer format.
Providing tasks for action research
is also a contentious issue for us. If we
were creating a truly bottom-up
teacher-led group, then the teachers
would be free to research whatever they
liked (but within a given theme).

52 Issue 106 September 2016 ENGLISH TEACHING professional www.etprofessional.com

Pete Clements has

taught in South Korea,
Spain, Vietnam,
Thailand and the UK. He
has recently completed
the Trinity DipTESOL.
His interests include
data-based teacher
development,
supporting new
teachers and using
authentic listening
materials in class.
He currently works for
the British Council in
Bangkok, Thailand.
You can visit his blog
at https://eltplanning.
wordpress.com.
[email protected]
Sarah Smith has taught
in Senegal, Japan,
Ecuador, the UK and
Turkey. She is currently
working for the British
Council in Bangkok. She
is interested in teacher
training, experimenting
with new approaches to
teaching pronunciation,
and materials writing.
She is also a new
contributor to Petes
blog.
[email protected]