Page 205 - Innovative Professional Development Methods and Strategies for STEM Education

Impact of a Professional Development Programme

To manage lessons effectively, she tried to establish classroom rules through a reward system:

I realized that managing misbehaviours of students was not a big deal. Because I saw that they were
willing to learn English when they had fun during the lessons. For example, in one of my classes I asked
students to draw an object. I told them that if they could draw the object and write the name correctly,
I would reward those students by putting a star in their notebooks. This may sound very ordinary but I
was very surprised when I saw how it made students alert and this activity became more important for
me later because the students who were not interested in learning English and were not very attentive
to any word of mine suddenly became very enthusiastic about my lessons. Students like rewards and
competitions.

Another belief she developed concerning classroom management was that of authoritative stand, as
reflected in her journal:

While teachers should be friendly with students, they should also be authoritative in the classroom.
During the course of my practicum I also realized that I had to be the authority in the class in order
to manage students’ misbehaviour. For instance, in 4/H classroom, students knew that I was a trainee
teacher in their school so they treated me as if they did not trust my knowledge. When I tried to teach
something they made a lot of noise and did not listen to me. I could not implement the management of
that classroom. I mean I could not manage them because they did not accept me as their teacher. So, in
my opinion students should not know whether the teacher in their classroom is an official teacher or a
student-teacher.

Therefore, through her dialogic interaction with the students during the teaching practicum (Johnson,
2006; Tang, 2004), the participant realized the complexities of classroom management, which entails
a comprehensive and situational understanding of the subject matter, the curriculum and the students.
Contrary to her previous simple belief that teachers should be friendly now she realized that teachers
should also be authoritative.

Activities to Attract Students’ Attention

Although Özge firmly believed in the value of using a variety of activities, games and songs in the young
learner classes, she had a real dilemma as she stated earlier “I am idealist and want to use them in my
teaching. However, I don’t know whether these can really work in the classroom” (Reflective journal).
Her uncertainty could be attributed to her mentor’s traditional way of teaching. However, the participant’s
belief to create a communicative classroom using songs, games and activities were sustained throughout
the programme, and she integrated them in her teaching.
To illustrate, the interview, conducted during the 4th week of the practicum, explored the possible
change in her beliefs and teaching behaviour derived from her participation in CAR and different pro-
fessional activities including lesson planning and practical teaching, in the field school. In planning the
weekly lesson, she expressed confirmation of her original beliefs to use a variety of activities:

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