Situated in the fields of linguistics and education, with a learning sciences perspective, this study aims to both investigate and support teacher learning in the real-world context of professional development (PD) in early English language education (i.e. with children from 6-10 years old) in Portugal. Like any context, it is unique in its specificities.
In Portugal, children in primary education have one class teacher who is responsible for all areas of the curriculum except English, which became a curriculum subject in 2015. The primary English teachers (PETs) are mostly requalified secondary English teachers, with limited knowledge and experience of age-appropriate teaching practices. Their beliefs and practices are grounded in their singular experience of teaching and assessing older learners, which differs considerably to that of young children. A recent nationwide study has confirmed that PETs’ assessment practices rely upon summative approaches and focus on developing reading and writing skills, thus ignoring national guidelines and recommendations for age-appropriate teaching and learning practices. Additionally, PETs are often professionally isolated, with few opportunities to share and critically examine teaching experiences or to learn through professional dialogue. This is the identified problem of practice, which requires the real-world intervention.
The use of technology in teachers’ PD is recognised as being effective and meaningful and blended Massive Open Online Courses (bMOOCs) have the potential to widen participation and disseminate innovation. Additionally, bMOOCs associated with online communities of practice (eCoPs) have been shown to combat professional isolation, foster engagement and result in higher rates of course completion. The bespoke, real-world intervention is in the form of a bMOOC called ‘Classroom-based assessment in primary English education’. It has been developed with a learning environment design that follows adult learning theories, combining cognitivist and social learning with socio-constructivism. The hypothesis is that teacher learning takes place through situativity by focussing on practice supported by meta-cognition, so the bMOOC innovatively alternates modules of theory and practice for PETs to engage with theory then plan for, implement, and reflect on mini-classroom-based interventions. The bMOOC includes features typical of a formal online learning experience e.g. videos of good practice, examples of resources, peer assessment and e-portfolios and task structures are interactive, practical and exploratory and supported by reflection. An additional feature is the parallel online Community Platform (CP) which is integrated into the bMOOC structure and will enable the eCoP to continue once the bMOOC modules have been completed. The bMOOC and its eCoP thus create novel conditions for learning that theory suggests might be productive but presently are not common or well understood.
