Page 203 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

Impact of a Professional Development Programme

In my very first lesson, I had difficulty in using the target language in the classroom not because of myself
but because of my mentors. I wanted to use my knowledge that I gained from my university Young Learn-
ers Classes but my mentors didn’t let me use the target language because they didn’t trust the students
in understanding the language (Reflective journal).

This incident overturned Özge’s prior belief that “teachers should mostly use L2 in the classroom”
(Reflective journal). To resolve her dilemma concerning the use of L1-L2 dichotomy, she initiates her
action research project. She was offered guidance and was provided a set of articles to read. During this
process, she shared her own understanding by relating it to what she had learned in the teacher education
courses. Through the dialogic mediation (Vygotsky, 1978) with the author of this study, the supervising
teacher, she saw the importance of “forming a situational understanding of the subject matter, the school
curriculum, and the students” in teaching (Reflective journal). Such understanding, according to Özge,
is “the key to integrating the theoretical knowledge into a coherent and practical framework to guide
her teaching” (Reflective journal).
Özge seemed to be going through a slow and gradual process of developing and modifying her beliefs
concerning the use of L1 versus L2. She expresses this process in her journal:

I was left alone in the classroom because of my mentor’s illness; I did everything as I wanted. My thoughts
changed when I was the only authority in the class because in the presence of a mentor, I believed I would
not be able to put my plan into practice. So, I planned my lesson, prepared my materials, organized the
activities. All of my negative feelings started to vanish. When students started to learn the songs that I
taught them and tried to express themselves in English, this motivated me more. Every class listened to
songs related to the topics. I tried to find a suitable song for them sometimes spending a whole night. I
tried to make them speak in English because the mentor didn’t use L2 in the classroom. I struggle with
this a lot but when I heard a word of English from them, I was motivated more.

She continues her experience as follows:

I tried to use L2 all the time because the students hadn’t been exposed to it till then. They were somehow
shocked and puzzled whenever they heard me speak English. All the same, they tried to listen to me and
understand what I was saying but they couldn’t wholly concentrate on it. I didn’t think of using L1, even
if I got some problems I thought I could find some other ways not to use L1. I used my body language
and put stress on the instruction they had problem with. I realized again that they just began to face
with English and I tried to keep on using English without ignoring Turkish because I could summarize
the important points in each class through Turkish.

This seemed to be a great opportunity for her as she further stated:

I can’t fully motivate the class when there is a mentor because, while I am using L2 in the classroom,
the mentor can interrupt to warn me about what the students can and can not understand. This distracts
me too much. But when I am alone I don’t have any anxiety so I can feel that this class is fully mine
(Reflective journal).

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