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SCHOLARSHIP

Evidence for Scholarly Thinking and Writing Ability

To demonstrate my proficiency in scholarly thinking and writing, I included one paper from ETAP 770, Frameworks for Teacher Professional Development and one paper from ETAP 735, A Socio-cognitive View of Instruction. The first paper demonstrates my ability to comprehend and interpret reflection and to generate ideas as reflective practice relates to teacher education. In the second paper, there is evidence for my understanding the socio-cognitive view as it pertains to foreign language aptitude. My ability to express myself in conceptual, theoretical and persuasive writing is evidenced in both papers.

ETAP 770

FRAMEWORKS for TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Fall 2007

Dr. Carol Rodgers

ETAP 770, Frameworks for Teacher Professional Development, was one of the richest courses in terms of content that I have taken during my doctoral studies. I gained insights about the nature of learning and identity development of teachers. It was the first time that I began to realize the importance of students’ voice and agency in learning. I was provided not only with knowledge about reflection and reflective practice through readings such as Korthagen & Vasalos (2005) and Rodgers (2002) but also with the tools (i.e., different models and theoretical frameworks) to question the curricula of pre-service teacher education programs in Turkey.

The final project for ETAP 770 offered three alternatives: a research project (researching a particular program, person, or theory); a design project (designing our own professional development program); or a structured experience (e.g. participating in a professional development project either as a facilitator or a participant). Through readings such as Korthagen & Vasalos (2005), Rodgers (2002), Ball and Cohen (1999), Buchmann (1990), Feiman-Nemser (2001), and Shulman (2004), I came to the realization that an “inquiry-oriented” curriculum for pre-service teacher education programs is a must if the goal is to get teachers engaged in functional reflective practice. For this reason, I decided to write the literature review section of a pilot study proposal for the required final project. The study was going to examine the prospective English teachers’ opinions about reflective practice (e.g., how it affected their development) in a semester-length undergraduate course on reflection. My long-term plan was to build my dissertation on this pilot study; however, after talking to the chair of a foreign language teacher education program in Turkey, I realized that conducting this study was not possible due to practical and procedural reasons. Therefore, I postponed carrying it out till I become a faculty member at a university in Turkey. I offer the literature review of this proposal as evidence of my scholarly thinking and writing as it reflects my ability to comprehend and interpret reflection, and to generate ideas as reflective practice relates to teacher education. My ability to express myself in conceptual and theoretical writing can also be observed in this literature review.

References

Ball, D.L., & Cohen, D.K. (1999). Developing practice, developing practitioners: Toward a practice-based theory of professional education. In L. Darling-Hammond and G. Sykes (Eds.), Teaching as the learning profession: Handbook of policy and practice (pp.3-32). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.

Buchmann, M. (1990). Beyond the lonely, choosing the will: Professional development in teacher thinking. Teachers College Record, 91 (4), pp. 481-508.

Feiman-Nemser, S. (2001). From preparation to practice: Designing a continuum to strengthen and sustain teaching. Teachers College Record, 103 (6), pp. 1013-1055.

Korthagen, F., & Vasalos, A. (2005). Levels in reflection: core reflection as a means to enhance professional growth. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 11 (1), 47-71.

Rodgers, C. R. (2002). Defining reflection: Another look at John Dewey and reflective thinking. Teachers College Record, 104 (4), 842-866.

Shulman, L.S. (2004). Professional development: Learning from practice. In S. M. Wilson (Ed.), The wisdom of practice: Essay on teaching, learning, and learning to teach (pp. 502-520). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.

ETAP 770, literature review for a pilot study proposal

ETAP 735

A SOCIOCOGNITIVE VIEW of INSTRUCTION

Spring 2008

Dr. Judith Langer

Road to dissertation…

Discovering the dialogical approach has been the turning point of my doctoral education. With a nod to Vygotsky (1978), Bakhtin (1986), and Wertsch (1991), I became intrigued with the social origin of the human mind. The dialogic approach which takes “the dynamic role of social contexts, individuality, intentionality, and the socio-cultural, historical and institutional backgrounds” (Johnson, 2004, p. 16) into consideration when explaining cognitive growth has not only influenced my perspective to second language teaching but also changed the positivist research paradigm that I had been planning to follow for my dissertation research. As Johnson puts it, “the dialogic approach focuses on particularities rather than on our ability to generalize findings to a population at large” (2004, p. 16). While I was going through this shift in perspectives and paradigms, I was also observing my sister who was in the United States to visit us and improve her English. Despite all of her efforts, she did not show the progress I expected during her 6-month stay. This experience led me to look into the construct of language aptitude more closely. As I read the literature, I began to realize that it had always been assessed via cognitive measures. Nobody (within the range of the resources I had access at that time) had studied language aptitude from a socio-cultural perspective. Therefore, I decided to fill this gap in the literature by taking up a dissertation study to assess foreign language aptitude with a socio-cultural lens. My efforts in trying to understand the construct of language aptitude resulted in a literature review that I prepared for the final project of ETAP 735, which I further developed for the draft dissertation proposal I wrote in EPSY 750, Research Design class in fall 2008. I offer this review as evidence of scholarly thinking and writing ability since it reflects my understanding of the socio-cognitive view of instruction as it pertains to foreign language aptitude. It also depicts my ability to put forward criticisms for cognitively-oriented language aptitude measures based on socio-cognitive and socio-cultural views, as well as the ability to express myself in conceptual, theoretical and persuasive writing

References

Bahktin, M.M. (1986). Speech genres and other essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Johnson, M. (2004). A philosophy of second language acquisition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Wertsch, J.V. (1991). Voices of the mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

ETAP 735, a critique of language aptitude research from a socio-cognitive lens