Unpacking the Processes of Materials Use: An Interdisciplinary Perspective of Language Teachers’ Use of Materials in China

In light of the growing agreement on the critical impact that materials can have on teaching and learning, classroom-based research on materials use in natural educational contexts has become increasingly urgent. This study aims to explore language teachers’ use of instructional materials in classroom settings. Drawing on the analysis of materials, interviews, and lesson observations from cases of three Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and their six students, this study identified six interactive processes of materials use, based on which teachers’ pedagogical reasoning that enabled each process of materials use was unpacked. Through the theoretical lens of Keller and Keller’s anthropology of knowledge and Wartofsky’s categorization of artifacts, this article unraveled the relationship between teacher knowledge and practice in materials use and disentangled the multilayered roles of curriculum materials. The findings not only contribute to the conceptualization of materials use in language education but also suggest effective ways of enhancing the inservice professional development through materials use and development in natural educational contexts.

Changes of Teachers’ discursive practices learning dynamic mathematics in a collaborative, online environment

Using data from an inservice professional development course, we inquire into changes in secondary teachers’ discursive practices in a latter part of the course compared to the beginning of the course. Participants interacted in a collaborative online environment, known as Virtual Math Teams with GeoGebra (VMTwG), focusing on discursive, mathematical, and collaborative practices. From a sociocultural perspective, we believe that teachers gradually develop their Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) by interacting discursively in small teams. Using conventional content analysis of the teachers’ review of their recorded discourse, we investigate changes in practices from the teachers’ perspective. Our results show that teachers perceived that their discursive practices differed importantly from their practices at the beginning of the course.

Teachers as First Responders

Effective instruction begins at the level of each individual student in a classroom. It is not enough for educators to simply assess prior content knowledge at the beginning of the school year in order to develop an appropriate instructional program. Teachers should have knowledge of executive functions (EF), the cognitive processes associated with active learning and work production. Educators must be prepared with the tools and strategies to assess the foundational EF capacities of working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility that are essential to the learning process. Preservice training and inservice professional development that prioritize instructional strategies to further EF abilities can fill the current gap in pedagogical approaches, potentially improving the academic outcomes of students.