Video-Mediated Dialogic Reflection for Teacher Professional Development: A Case in Vietnam

A Brief Overview Of Second Language Teacher Education

There are several choices accessible to in-service English language teachers for pursuing Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Those entail formal ones like conferences, workshops, or seminars to informal ones like mentoring, written journals, teacher study groups, or peer-coaching (Bailey et al., 2001; Wedell, 2017) The following paragraphs set out some efforts at categorizing second language teacher education (SLTE).

Wallace (1991) outlines three models which have historically existed in CPD: the craft model, the applied science model, and the reflective model. The craft model, which emphasizes the experiential component of learning, has inexperienced teachers observe and replicate more experienced ones. The applied science model, on the other hand, highlights the importance of imparting scientific knowledge through research from researchers to teachers, which represents intellectual learning. Finally, the reflective model encompasses teachers reflecting on what they previously know, and the model acts as a ‘compromise solution’ (Wallace, 1991, p.17) to both experience and science. Borg (2016) uses the term the training-transmission model to refer to training generated externally from teachers; Freeman (2009) refers to it as the input-application approach and Farrell (2021) uses the phrase knowledge transmission approach to refer to a similar concept. In contrast to this external model is reflective practice (RP), which deals with teachers’ internal growth.

Figure 1 below provides a visual summary of the aforementioned concepts.

Figure 1.

Second language teacher education models

Across SLTE literature, there has been increasing criticism towards the external models, for they might not reflect what actually happens in the classroom (Farrell, 2021; Timperley, 2011), and there exists the problem of the theory/practice gap (Edge, 2011; Farrell, 2021; Schön, 1992). Reflective practice, on the other hand, is generally favored, playing a central position in teachers’ professional development (Mann & Walsh, 2013, 2017; Walsh & Mann, 2015), attaining the ‘status of orthodoxy’ (Mann & Walsh, 2017, p.5). Popular reflective practice activities include critical friends group, team teaching, peer coaching, action research, written journal, and Cooperative Development (CD) (Farrell, 2019; Walsh & Mann, 2015)).

Cooperative Development: A Conversational Approach To Slte

Although reflective practice has been considered central in SLTE, it has been stereotypically deemed an individual process; a great number of reflective paradigms present reflection as a process carried out alone rather than a collaborative one. Another inherent challenge of reflective practice is that the written forms of reflection (i.e., reflective journals, diaries) generally dominates its dialogic counterparts (see Walsh & Mann, 2015). In reality, working together and picking up knowledge from one another is very much aligned with Dewey's original definition of reflection, which placed an emphasis on communication and collaboration.