BC & Hacettepe University Symposium

Esengül Hasdemir worked as an educational consultant for many years and now she is an instructor and teacher trainer at Atılım University. She is mainly interested in teacher training for which she attended many in service workshops. 
 

Along these lines, her session was related to the skills, qualifications and knowledge a trainer needs to possess along with the responsibilities of a teacher. Esengül also focused on the question of why teachers are hesitant to call themselves trainers.
 

First, to be able to find out the skills and qualifications a trainer needs to have on a global scale, Esengül Hasdemir looked for job descriptions of teacher trainers required by many universities in the USA. Having analyzed teacher trainer adverts, she found out that a trainer is required to know her subject matter, be aware of the principles of adult learning, motivation strategies and have a repertoire of creative ideas. Regarding qualifications, a teacher is supposed to have a high level of English proficiency, advanced degree in teaching English, ample experience in the field, the ability to cooperate with colleagues and be willing to work in a different cultural context.  According to the adverts, a teacher also needs to be enthusiastic to conduct workshops and have excellent interpersonal communication. 

Secondly, Esengül explained the responsibilities of teacher trainers as follows:
 

•motivating new teachers, 

•planning, preparing and conducting training sessions, 

•observing lessons and giving feedback, 

•attending meetings, 

•interviewing teachers, 

•creating, engaging and stimulating, 

•collaborating with colleagues, 

•evaluating the implementation of the programme 

•reporting the information 
 

Finally, she provided the audience with a list of teacher training programs for those who would like to be trainers and suggested that teachers should not be afraid or hesitant to call themselves “trainers” because they have an important role for novice teachers and institutions. 
 

Reviewed by Sibel Taşkın Şimşek 
 

Asst. Prof. Dr. John O’Dwyer is the director of Bilkent University School of English Language (BUSEL) and general coordinator of  Özel Bilkent Schools. John is interested in organisational development and learning, language testing and evaluation, and in-service teacher education and professional learning.
 

The focus of John O’Dwyer’s talk was on the importance of in-service teacher learning for the institutions that want to create a culture of institutional learning.  The aim of the session was “to develop a rationale for in-service development from an institution’s and an individual’s perspectives, i.e. organisational and personal learning, to discuss how institutional and individual in-service learning can best be met and to reflect on the role of in-service educators in the process of in-service teacher learning”.  At the start of his talk, a diagram with many smiley faces representing the people he has been working with was used to attract the attention of the audience to the fact that every day in every lesson each teacher gains a new experience. Their beliefs, the way they do things change gradually and they learn something new. This is called “intellectual capital”, which is an important concept because if institutions invest in people they will also develop their intellectual capital. The challenge for organisations is how to capitalise on this learning which continues every single day in their institutions. By referring to the famous tree called Eywa (Tree of Souls) from the film “Avatar”, he emphasised how institutions and education are linked to each other like a single brain. He also mentioned that institutions are not simple brains made of electrical impulses but they are “ a community of minds”  made of “connections” as was stated in the quote made by Raymond Tallis from The Guardian ( April 29, 2012). In order to achieve this, he suggested seeing meetings, for example, opportunities to create “community brains” in the institution since wider learning option takes place in the meetings. “The Knowledge Creation Cycle” (SECI Process) explains the cyclical learning by putting emphasis on socialization and externalization, where everybody gets connected through meetings. Then, in more formal formation, i.e. combination and internalization, by getting people to reflect, one can start to create explicit knowledge, which then becomes widely available by connecting to other people from different institutions. At that point, the cycle begins again. 
 

As shown in “the upward and expanding spiral of learning-knowledge” diagram, both the individual and the institution learn as one goes through the stages mentioned in the cycle. 
 

The implications of in-service training such as doing the same thing again and again to be able to know “how to learn”, which is called “double-loop learning”, creating a culture of learning, creating conditions for exchange to make learning explicit were also mentioned in the talk. As practical implications, he pointed out that the leaders need to create open dialogue & experience sharing opportunities for the staff by creating common areas such as open staff rooms or coffee places. Focused peer observations, coaching, professional development slots, research & conference presentations were also some other suggestions.  Competency frameworks like British Council (CPD), BALEAP, and Cambridge were also mentioned in the talk. John shared the career progression opportunities in his context in three categories; formal expected courses e.g. COTE, DOTE, ICELT etc., voluntary courses e.g. CDC, PhDs, MAs etc. and Ad Hoc Development e.g. Testing, Evaluation, CEFR etc. His final remarks in the talk were that staff related progression can be achieved through opportunities provided by the institutions rather than compulsory participation.