TESOL Macedonia-
Thrace, Northern Greece held its annual “Welcome Back” event at the War Museum
of Thessaloniki this year. The guest speaker was Professor Desmond Thomas from
the University of Essex, who gave a talk with the title “Becoming a Researcher:
Is it Worth the Effort?”, a project which is going to take place on SEETA and
in which all members are welcome to take part. The auditorium was full with
people who were enthusiastic about the beginning of the new school year.
Everyone attended the talk with great interest since it is an online project of
great importance.
The event began
with Roger House’s report on the past events organized by TESOL Macedonia-
Thrace throughout the year and their great success as a “result of the effort
of all the board members”, as he said. He also made an important announcement: that
he steps down as Chair due to his moving to Athens for professional reasons,
and he welcomed on the board, as a replacement, Georgia Psarra. Then the new
Chair, George Topalis, took over. Mr Topalis gave the annual financial report
and presented this year’s Convention entitled “Back to Basics”, which is going to
be held on the 28th-29th March 2015 at the American
College of Thessaloniki.
Afterwards it
was the turn of Professor Thomas, who started his talk by providing some
background information about himself. He is a Professor at the University of
Essex and a researcher or, as he prefers to be called, a teacher- researcher, a
term that caused a surprise to the audience and which he clarified in his talk.
He explained that a teacher-researcher is someone who does research in their
own classrooms. He then asked why people do research and he gave some possible
answers. Some, he said, want to add to existing knowledge, to explain existing knowledge
or to question and why not, challenge existing knowledge. But there might also
be some personal reasons for conducting research. For example, someone may want
to do research to find answers to personal questions they have or others expect
that their research will lead them to a promotion or to fame. He went on to
talk about the different types of research, stressing that the most important
thing is to find the right question that is going to be the subject of your
research. He also referred to the difference between teaching and research and
he posed the question if there really is such a difference. His answer was a definitive
“NO”. He said that we should ensure that research and teaching are fully
integrated and that teachers should become researchers. A brief account of the
situation in the U.K was provided, especially of the difficulties both teachers
and researchers face by the effort to connect Universities with the job market.
Mr Thomas quoted parts of some books by David Nunan, where he stresses the
necessity of the existence of teachers-researchers and of Miller, according to
whom “all teachers are already researchers although their findings are not
published”.
Professor Thomas
went on to explain the two distinct approaches existing in research. The one is
the Positivist/ scientific approach that states that the world exists
independently of our knowledge of it and uses quantitative data collection and
analysis. The second one is the interpretivist approach, which states that the
world is defined by our knowledge of it and uses qualitative data collection
and analysis. In education the one used is the positivist/ scientific one
because it is the only one that leads to objective and measurable results. He
also talked about the research cycle that starts from hypothesis and ends with
the data and their analysis, about how to develop a research project ,and he
gave some examples of research topics. Furthermore, he said that research
benefits the teachers in two ways. First of all, it is a reflective practice
where the teacher has to think about what they do and why and secondly it
boosts the teacher’s confidence. Mr Thomas
went on to explain the stages of the project organized by SEETA. The first
stage will be the collaborative stage which is a small scale research, set
after consensus and carried out by individuals at their respective institutions.
The second stage will be the individual stage where EFL teachers choose and
develop their own research projects to be carried out in their institutions
with the continuous support of SEETA. This support will be in the form of
training and webinars carried out during the first stage – and will be
necessary for both stages. He concluded his talk with some questions for
discussion and the introduction of the research topic, suggested by the
majority of teachers on SEETA, entitled: “The Changing Uses of Technology in
the EFL Classroom”.
Next, it was the
turn of Anna Parisi, as SEETA coordinator, to explain the project and what the
teachers who will decide to participate will have to do and will gain from this
experience. Anna and Desmond stressed time and again the support and the
training that all teachers will have by SEETA. She said that it is going to be
a two-year long project. The first year will be a training year where teachers
will be able to attend webinars and learn how to carry out research and they
will be asked to complete certain tasks. Certificates will be provided to those
who successfully complete the tasks. The second year will be the year when
teachers will have to do their research and write reports on their findings.
The results of both years will be published in IATEFL and the names of the
people who participated will be included. All information is available on SEETA
for the teachers who are going to be interested in becoming researchers.
The event
finished with a guided tour of the museum where all attendees had the chance to
admire the different exhibits and learn useful historical data. It was a great
pleasure seeing everybody at our “Welcome Back” event and we are expecting you
to our next events as well. As TESOL Macedonia-Thrace board members we would like
to wish you a happy and productive new school year.
By Emmanuel Kontovas
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