Research showcase

The second part of the Faculty of Education's Master's in Education Dissertation Showcase was held last Friday at St James Cavalier, in Valletta.

About 40 people turned up for the event, which consisted of two presentations by graduates and two expositions on developments in the faculty's teacher education programme.

The event was one of the activities held this year to commemorate the faculty's 25th anniversary.

The event was opened by dean Carmel Borg, who spoke of the importance attached by the faculty to research at all levels, ranging from the preparation and supervision of undergraduate dissertations to research carried out by faculty members which is published in international refereed journals.

In the first presentation, M.Ed. graduate Alan Marsh, a leading specialist in teaching English as a foreign language, described his case studies of the spoken and written reflections of two TEFL teachers who learnt to adopt a learner-centred approach to communicative language teaching while following an RSA/Cambridge CELTA EFL teacher training course.

The case studies explored how both teachers developed their own dynamic theories of teaching and learning through reflection on their teaching practice, rather than through conceptions derived from external theoretical knowledge.

A significant finding was the fact that, for both teachers, moving from a traditional teacher-centred approach to a learner-centred one involved undergoing an emotional and psychological process in which reflection focused on crisis, dissonance between 'theory' and practice, and continuous discoveries about themselves as individuals.

Mr Marsh argued that, in order to facilitate this process, it is important to give teacher trainees ample opportunity to articulate their pre-training experiences and conceptions of teaching and learning before they are able to move on to a new conceptual framework which they fully own.

The second presenter, Jacqueline Rotin, a Home Economics teacher, spoke about the action research which she carried out with her colleague in a girls' area secondary school in order to deal with the implementation of the SEC Home Economics examination course work.

Apart from providing an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of course work as experienced by both teachers and students, Ms Rotin also highlighted theories that emerged on how to deal with course work in the classroom.

Ms Rotin's work is in itself a study on action research in that it analyses the use of this type of research in the Maltese classroom from a practical and a critical point of view.

Two other graduates, George Camilleri and Maria Vella Muscat, both Gozitan, were also scheduled to present their work. They were however left stranded in Gozo owing to the inclement weather.

Deborah Chetcuti, from the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technical Education, spoke about the faculty's Professional Development Portfolio recently introduced for prospective teachers undergoing the initial teacher education programme leading to the B.Ed (Hons.) degree.

Colin Calleja, from the Department of Primary Education, spoke about a recent CD introduced by the faculty to assist prospective school teachers in planning teaching resources to be used in the primary level classroom.