This presentation describes a number of CPD projects carried out in a Binational Center in Brazil, aimed at dfferentiating professional development and moving away from traditional TD, towards innovative TD.

1. SHIFTING PARADIGMS
IN
TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
FOR THE NEXT
GENERATION
Isabela Villas Boas
Kátia Falcomer
Casa Thomas Jefferson – Brasília -
Brazil

3. The Institution –
Casa Thomas Jefferson
 50-year-old, non-profit English language Teaching
Institute in Brasília, Brazil
 242 teachers – mostly non-native speakers with a
teaching load of between 20 and 36 hours a week
 Around 17,000 students of different age and profiiency
levels
 Students range from Very Young Learners to Post-
Advanced

4. The teachers
# of Years Percentage of CTJ
teachers (total: 242)
1 – 5 61.5%
6 – 10 09.5%
11- 15 12%
Over 16 17%

5. Yearly teacher appraisal system
Planning
Assessing
Investment in
academic
development
Professional
attitude and
commitment
Attention to
rules and
procedures
Interpersonal
Dynamics
Language,
content, culture
and digital
literacy
Instructing Learning

6. Traditional
professional
development
Top-down decision-making
A fix-it, prescriptive approach
Lack of ownership
One-size-fits-all techniques
Fixed an untimely delivery methods
Visionary
professional
development
Collaborative decision-making
A growth-driven approach
Collective construction
Tailor-made techniques
Varied and timely delivery methods
Diaz-Maggioli, G (2004) Teacher-centered professional development. Alexandria,
Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

7. The innovations
Projects Audience
TEFL Seminar All teachers
Mentoring First-semester teachers; sometimes
second-semester ones
Weekly workshops for newly-hired
teachers
First-semester teachers
Senior Teacher Project Teachers with over five years in the
institution and good evaluation results /
trainee teachers
Peer mentoring Senior teachers who successfully
completed the Senior Teacher Project /
first-semester teachers
Mini-courses led by teachers Senior teachers
Blogging All teachers

8. A local TEFL Seminar
1st TEFL Seminar in 2001
Open to the teaching community
Ts have the chance to select what to focus on; presenters
select what to present about
Past - Talks and workshops given mostly by academic
coordinators and supervisors and a few senior teachers
Present - Mid-career and even some novice teachers feel
encouraged to present

9. Presenting for the first time at the CTJ seminar served as a springboard
to my professional development. After my first experience as a
presenter, I became much more confident and got up the courage to
develop more projects and share them with other teachers. Since then,
I haven’t stopped presenting in local, national as well as international
seminars. To my surprise, I ended up developing a taste for delivering
presentations and it all started in a CTJ seminar.
I believe the attendees at CTJ Seminars are really demanding. Thus, by
presenting in such event, you feel more capable to speak in public and
you do have to prepare yourself some time before by reading articles
and rehearsing the presentations. Therefore, all the preparation
required to develop Seminar presentations had a direct impact on my
professional development.

10. The CTJ Seminar was indeed my first experience as a presenter. I
sent a proposal because I felt I had interesting things to share in
relation to the interpersonal dynamics between teacher-students.
Presenting at the CTJ Seminar contributed to my own reflections
about teaching practices, it is always interesting to hear what
people have to say about our opinions and experience and reflect
upon them.

11. A mentoring system for
newly hired teachers
Newly-hired teachers have very specific needs
How it was in 2003 / How it changed in 2007
The mentors’ role
Differentiation within the mentoring system

12. Statement Average
The mentoring system was important for my
adaptation in the institution.
4.6
The mentoring system was important for my
development as a teacher.
4.7
I felt supported by my mentor. 4.8
I learned something new from my mentor. 4.7
15 teachers
Fully disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Fully agree

13. It helps with the adaptation into the school, both
pedagogically and professionally; it gives a feeling of
safety knowing someone’s there for you.
It really makes teachers feel supported, since they have
a chance to improve before actually being evaluated.
Knowing that you’re not being judged or assessed
counts a lot to build rapport with coaches and the
company team.
I can ask for help; dealing with difficult situations gets
easier because you know where to find support.

14. Weekly sessions for first-
semester teachers
Created in 2012 to complement the mentoring
More in-depth focus on pedagogical and
bureaucratic aspects
Creates a learning community among the teachers
hired each semester
How topics are selected

15. Topics
Learning styles
Teaching grammar in a communicative context
Teaching writing
Teaching reading
Pair-work
Teaching very young learners
The brain and language learning
Setting clear objectives for your lesson
Technology in the classroom
Movie segments to assess grammar goals
(based on a coordinator’s internationally acclaimed blog)

16. The sessions definitely helped us teachers develop a collaboration
spirit among ourselves. I felt like we all stuck together in order to
overcome the difficulties that each one of us had.
Interpersonal relationships were strengthened, which makes it
easier to share experiences, both positive and negative.
The training helped me have a sense of belonging and become
integrated into the school.
It created a close-knit group of people who felt they were on the
same boat.
The teachers were given an environment in which they could know
each other better and feel comfortable about clarifying doubts with
each other, as well as sharing ideas and solutions for issues.

17. Senior teacher project
The 5 phases in T’s professional development
(Huberman,1989)
1. Exploration and stabilization
2. Commitment
3. Diversification
4. Serenity or distancing
5. Conservatism and regret
“If teachers are able to realize their aspirations,
they tend to enter a phase of serenity”

18. Senior teacher project
An observation waiver for senior
teachers with high scores on their yearly
evaluations
Options:
1. peer observation with a trainee;
2. symetrical peer observation;
3. reflective piece based on class
recording

19. Agency:
A teacher suggested a
fourth activity: to work
on his m-learning blog.

20. Period # of teachers
invited
Peer
observation
Observing a
trainee
teacher
Reflective
teaching
Total of
participants
2/2012 26 3 10 1 14 (54%)
1/2013 24 2 6 1 09 (37.5%)

21. It was an opportunity to reflect on my own teaching.
I could give something back to the institution.
It would be an opportunity of learning from my peers.
I had one of the most interesting challenges of my career.
Actually, I believe it is not easy to be in the observer’s shoes
because it requires hard work and critical thinking to analyze the
positive and negative aspects of a class. In this project, not only
have I obtained information about this type of work but also I
have seen new perspectives to enrich my own teaching style.

22. Senior teachers as peer
mentors
• Goals
– provide novice Ts with the chance to receive feedback from
more experienced collegues rather than only from the official
mentors
– Engage senior Ts in a meaningful professional development
activity
• Target audience: Teachers who participated in the
Senior Teacher project

23. Statement Average
The peer-mentoring system was important for
my adaptation in the institution.
4.16
The peer-mentoring system was important for
my development as a teacher.
4.04
I felt supported by my peer mentor. 4.16
I learned something new from my peer
mentor.
4.25
12 teachers
Fully disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Fully agree

24. Mentors can help fine tune your lesson plans;
they are aware of current classroom
situations.
It was really enlightening, hands-on work;
assistance for class planning.
A complement, rather
than substitution, of the
mentoring

25. I was observed once by the mentor; she never gave suggestions
nor sent me a report or something similar. I felt disappointed.
I only met with my mentor once and we didn’t have much contact,
so the process didn’t actually work as a process. It was not
continued.
I didn’t think they actually gave me the feedback I was expecting.
What they told me wasn’t exactly relevant. The teachers involved
should be more understanding, more interested.
Millwater & Yarrow, 1997, as cited in Diaz-Maggioli, 2004).

26. Pros for Mentors
Newcomers are welcomed by experienced teachers who are not supposed to
evaluate them. There is a lot of sharing and we, hopefully, help them to lower
their anxiety.
It gives senior teachers a chance to share what they know; it connects senior
teachers and new teachers in a professional way; it places commitment to
training on senior teachers’ shoulders; it values the expertise of senior
teachers; it gives new teachers the opportunity of bonding with experienced
professionals; it gives senior teachers the opportunity of reflecting on their
own teaching; it exposes senior teacher to different teaching styles.
I believe this project is really positive to people who want to become teachers
here. The mentoring project really enriches people’s teaching and gives them
maturity to face challenges regarding their professional life. Therefore, I only
see positive aspects in this project and I hope it continues.

27. Cons for Mentors
Maybe mentors could meet their mentees in the end of the term to talk
and wrap up the semester with them. It could be a frank talk about how
things were along the semester.
Perhaps a clearer idea of what is hoped for from the teacher being
observed - what behavior and attitude the institution is looking for from
newcomers.
I felt I had to observe the class one more time to see if the suggestions
were put into practice... But I don't know how practical this would be
due to time constraints.

28. Mini-courses led by teachers
The first two rounds (how they used to be, why we
decided to change)
2013 – we adopted a bottom-up approach
Ts were asked to suggest topics and volunteer to
present
Ts were paired up (why)

29. Classroom
management
Mobile learning
Teaching
grammar
Teaching writing
Learning
difficulties
Teaching
pronunciation
Teaching teens
Task design and
digital literacy
Teaching young
learners
Online teaching
and learning

30. Blogging

31. Blogging
Why and how the blog was initiated
How and why it has changed
By November 2013, 40 posts by 24
teachers and a total of 8,418 views

35. Summing up the projects
Goal of the projects: differentiating
CPD
Organic process
The strengths of the projects outweigh
the weaknesses

36. For us to move
closer to Visionary
Professional
Development, Ts
need to be even
more involved.

37. Lessons learnt: transferability
to other contexts
Teachers at different career levels have distinct needs: novice
teachers need more practical, down-to-earth training, mid-career
teachers need to be given choices, and senior teachers need new
challenges.
One way to challenge senior teachers is to engage them in the
development of their novice peers.
Senior teachers feel valued and respected when they are engaged
in differentiated professional development activities.

38. Lessons learnt: transferability
to other contexts
New teachers in an institution adapt more easily and perform
better when they are part of a learning community. Weekly
workshops on topics dealing with these teachers’ immediate
needs, combined with mentoring, help build confidence and
lower anxiety.
An institutional blog to which any teacher can contribute gives
professionals a different type of opportunity to share knowledge
and caters to the needs of those who are not inclined to give talks
or present workshops but who have relevant ideas to share.

39. Lessons learnt: transferability
to other contexts
Choice is of utmost importance in any continuing professional
development endeavour: choice of topics to address, choice of
presenters, and even choice of projects in which to engage.
CPD cannot be confined to the institution’s walls; teachers need
to be engaged in CPD that connects them with the wider ELT
community. Seminars, webinars, and blogs are a means of
achieving this goal.

40. Lessons learnt: transferability
to other contexts
Agency is crucial in Visionary Professional Development.
Teachers need to be able to propose projects that are in
keeping with their goals and interests, rather than merely
adhere to pre-established ones.
The institution has to implement a CPD evaluation system, with
surveys to assess the programs’ effectiveness and compile
suggestions for future projects.

44. Isabela.villasboas@thomas.org.br
katia.falcomer@thomas.org.br
Images courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net