Teacher Learning through Participation in Course Evaluation: An Indian Experience

Abstract

This chapter considers the relationship between teacher learning and active involvement in a teacher education programme through reflection and articulation in a research environment. The study on which it is based was initiated as a response to the problems the teachers faced in developing their high-school learners’ reading skills, in part because their own reading skills were inadequate. In the course under investigation, the focus of training was deliberately changed from ‘methodology to develop learners’ proficiency’ to ‘development of teachers’ language proficiency’. The chapter begins with an account of the teacher education context in Odisha, with special focus on the English Language Teaching Institute (ELTI), Bhubaneswar, the Diploma programme it runs, and a description of the education and background of the participating high-school English teachers. This is followed by a description of the reading strategy course and the details of the inquiry wrapped around this course. The next section theorises from the experience gained, followed by a discussion on its implications for practice in contexts where teachers come from disadvantaged sociocultural and rural backgrounds.