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Professor Simon Borg
ELT Consultant
Visiting Professor of TESOL, University of Leeds
Professor II of English,
Western Norway University of Applied Science, UK
- Title:
What, why and how: Fundamental considerations in language teacher cognition research
- Abstract:
In this talk, I will consider some fundamental issues which underpin language teacher
cognition research. The first relates to the ‘what’ – i.e. what precisely we mean by ‘teacher cognition’ and what the scope
of the field is. Changing conceptualisations of teacher cognition over the years will be noted briefly with some reflections
on what an appropriate definition of teacher cognition – or possibly an alternative label for the field – might be today.
I will then move on to the ‘why’ – i.e. what the justifications for teacher cognition research are (and whether current
research is simply confirming what we already know). Finally, there is the ‘how’, which is most obviously about appropriate
research methods but also includes how teacher cognition research is positioned theoretically and how it is communicated
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Professor Maggie Kubanyiova
University of Leeds, UK
- Title:
Beyond themes: Learning how to ‘see’ language teacher cognition in qualitative data
- Abstract:
In this talk I ask three questions in relation to researching language teacher cognition:
What kind of ‘thing’ is language teacher cognition, how do we know when we ‘see’ it in qualitative data, and why should we
persist in our research efforts? l will share excerpts from my own data to illustrate one possible approach to addressing these
questions, summarised in my past work on the role of language teachers’ desired future visions in supporting students’ engagement
in the language classroom (Kubanyiova, 2015, 2019). This approach starts with treating qualitative data as evidence of practices;
of language teachers’ acting in their social worlds and in relation to others, including their students and the researcher.
I aim to illustrate how specific concerns regarding language teacher cognition might emerge from the researcher’s efforts to
understand those practices. I will conclude by proposing that learning to research in this way necessarily shifts the focus of
qualitative research training from learning how to identify ‘themes’ to learning how to ‘see’, engage with consequences of what
we see, and, as importantly, ponder why our inquiry matters and to whom.
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