Sustainable English Language Teacher Development at Scale

This book offers a thorough and comprehensive review of the lessons learnt from the award-winning 'English in Action' English language teacher development programme, which ran in government primary and secondary schools across Bangladesh from 2008 to 2017. Over the course of nine years the programme involved 51,000 teachers and 20 million school students, demonstrably raising standards of teachers' classroom practice and students' English language attainment, and won the British Council ELTON Award for Local innovation (2013) and Times Higher Education Award for International Impact (2107). The sixteen chapters explore the programme in detail, looking at both the successes and the challenges encountered throughout its course, including the strategies used to address the challenges. The key innovative factors of the programme include: · a positive choice to build on the existing context, such as the lives and experiences of local teachers and the demands of a nationally determined curriculum; · teacher learning taking place in the teachers' own classrooms; · a focus on learning the 'how' of communicative language teaching through reflective practice and peer support; · the use - within a carefully constructed pedagogy - of affordable, readily-available mobile phone technology; · the use of mediated authentic video · a model of teacher development at very large scale that provided a successful alternative to the'cascade'model; · a partnership with government institutions to ensure that improved practices are maintained beyond the life of the Programme.

Ian Eyres is Senior Lecturer at The Open University, UK and former Head of both the Primary Teaching Programme and Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, English in Action. Tom Power is Senior Lecturer at The Open University, UK and Director, English in Action. Robert McCormick is Emeritus Professor of Education at The Open University, UK and Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor to several DFID-funded projects.

Introduction: Effecting Change Within and Across a National Education System, Tom Power, Ian Eyres and Robert McCormick Part I: Context 1. The Educational Context of Bangladesh: An Overview, Sonia Burton, Ian Eyres and Robert McCormick 2. The Status and Economic Significance of English in Bangladesh: Perceptions and Consequences, Elizabeth J. Erling and Masuda Khatoon 3. The Bangladesh Context: Critical Comments, Fauzia Shamim Part II: Teacher Professional Development in Low-To-Middle-Income Countries 4. Approaches to Teacher Professional Development in Low-To-Middle-Income Countries, Tom Power 5. The EIA Approach to Teacher Development, Tom Power 6. The Role of Mobile Technologies in Transforming Teacher Professional Development (TPD) at Scale in Bangladesh, Clare Woodward, Bikash Chandra Sarkar and Christopher Walsh 7. The Organizational Imperative: Sustaining Locally Appropriate Ecologies of Innovation at Scale, David Pedder Part III: English Language Teaching 8. Empowering Teachers and Learners through EIA's Approach to English Language Teaching, Clare Woodward, Malcolm Griffiths and Mike Solly 9. Raising Standards of English: Questions of Proficiency, Ian Eyres and Rehnuma Akhter 10. English Language Teaching: Critical Comments, Amol Padwad Part IV: Strategic Issues 11. Research, Monitoring and Evaluation (RME): Foundational Cornerstone or Luxury Addition?, Robert McCormick and Rama Mathew 12. Ensuring Sustainability: Collective Ownership, from Project Implementation to Institutionalization, Sharmistha Das and Marc van der Stouwe 13. Ensuring Value for Money, Claire Hedges, Kirsten Zindel and Bikash Chandra Sarkar 14. Strategic Issues: Critical Comments, Ahmed Shamim Final Reflections: Lessons Learnt, Marc van der Stouwe, Ian Eyres and Robert McCormick Glossary References Index