Paula R. Golombek – författare

Transformative L2 Teacher Education Innovations features empirical research studies informed by Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory (VSCT) that are explicitly and intentionally designed to transform second language (L2) teacher reasoning and thinking, as well as L2 teaching practices and pedagogical choices.

With contributions from scholars and practicing teacher educators, each chapter highlights a designed innovative professional development experience that has created a “new” social situation of development with a clearly articulated “ideal” for L2 teachers to embrace and/or achieve. Each study articulates the rationale and unique design features of the innovation, the intentionality behind the choices made when designing and enacting the innovation, and the quality, character, and outcomes of the intervention for L2 teachers. Furthermore, each study documents the forms of mediation that are offered to support L2 teacher professional development, such as conceptual tools, goal-directed activities, and/or social relations/interactions.

The book offers insight into the internal logic of VSCT-informed L2 Teacher Education and provides concrete examples of how L2 teacher educators can adopt a Vygotskian-informed pedagogical stance in their teacher education practices. The edited collection is especially applicable for scholars and teacher educators in language education, applied linguistics, TESOL, and bilingual education who engage with Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory.

Transformative L2 Teacher Education Innovations features empirical research studies informed by Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory (VSCT) that are explicitly and intentionally designed to transform second language (L2) teacher reasoning and thinking, as well as L2 teaching practices and pedagogical choices.

With contributions from scholars and practicing teacher educators, each chapter highlights a designed innovative professional development experience that has created a “new” social situation of development with a clearly articulated “ideal” for L2 teachers to embrace and/or achieve. Each study articulates the rationale and unique design features of the innovation, the intentionality behind the choices made when designing and enacting the innovation, and the quality, character, and outcomes of the intervention for L2 teachers. Furthermore, each study documents the forms of mediation that are offered to support L2 teacher professional development, such as conceptual tools, goal-directed activities, and/or social relations/interactions.

The book offers insight into the internal logic of VSCT-informed L2 Teacher Education and provides concrete examples of how L2 teacher educators can adopt a Vygotskian-informed pedagogical stance in their teacher education practices. The edited collection is especially applicable for scholars and teacher educators in language education, applied linguistics, TESOL, and bilingual education who engage with Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory.

Embracing a sociocultural perspective on human cognition and employing an array of methodological tools for data collection and analysis, this volume documents the complexities of second language teachers’ professional development in diverse L2 teacher education programs around the world, including Asia, South America, Europe, and North America, and traces that development both over time and within the broader cultural, historical and institutional settings and circumstances of teachers’ work.

This systematic examination of teacher professional development illuminates in multiple ways the discursive practices that shape teachers’ knowing, thinking, and doing and provides a window into how alternative mediational means can create opportunities for teachers to move toward more theoretically and pedagogically sound instructional practices within the settings and circumstances of their work. The chapters represent both native and nonnative English speaking pre-service and in-service L2 teachers at all levels from K-12 through higher education, and examine significant challenges that are present in L2 teacher education programs.

Embracing a sociocultural perspective on human cognition and employing an array of methodological tools for data collection and analysis, this volume documents the complexities of second language teachers’ professional development in diverse L2 teacher education programs around the world, including Asia, South America, Europe, and North America, and traces that development both over time and within the broader cultural, historical and institutional settings and circumstances of teachers’ work.

This systematic examination of teacher professional development illuminates in multiple ways the discursive practices that shape teachers’ knowing, thinking, and doing and provides a window into how alternative mediational means can create opportunities for teachers to move toward more theoretically and pedagogically sound instructional practices within the settings and circumstances of their work. The chapters represent both native and nonnative English speaking pre-service and in-service L2 teachers at all levels from K-12 through higher education, and examine significant challenges that are present in L2 teacher education programs.

Taking a Vygotskian sociocultural stance, this book demonstrates the meaningful role that L2 teacher educators and L2 teacher education play in the professional development of L2 teachers through systematic, intentional, goal-directed, theorized L2 teacher education pedagogy. The message is resoundingly clear: Teacher education matters! It empirically documents the ways in which engagement in the practices of L2 teacher education shape how teachers come to think about and enact their teaching within the sociocultural contexts of their learning-to-teach experiences. Providing an insider’s look at L2 teacher education pedagogy, it offers a close up look at teacher educators who are skilled at moving L2 teachers toward more theoretically and pedagogically sound instructional practices and greater levels of professional expertise.

First, the theoretical foundation and educational rationale for exploring what happens inside the practices of L2 teacher education are established. These theoretical concepts are then used to conduct microgenetic analyses of the moment-to-moment, asynchronous, and at-a-distance dialogic interactions that take place in five distinct but sometimes overlapping practices that the authors have designed, repeatedly implemented, and subsequently collected data on in their own L2 teacher education programs. Responsive mediation is positioned as the nexus of mindful L2 teacher education and proposed as a psychological tool for teacher educators to both examine and inform the ways in which they design, enact, and assess the consequences of their own L2 teacher education pedagogy.