About the webinar
There is a longstanding engagement in the field of English language teacher development that language teachers must continually learn new things to reshape their knowledge, based on inherent ethical, conscious, and personal commitments to their professional development. The impact of globalization has brought English language teachers’ centrality to the fore. It is therefore needful that language teachers improve and reconceptualize their knowledge base and be up to date with current methodological, technological, and pedagogical improvements. There is a growing acceptance among ELT practitioners that traditional approaches to TED have failed to identify teachers background, beliefs and experiences in the design and provisions of opportunities for teachers’ professional development.
Over the years, teachers have not fully familiarized themselves with professional development opportunities, and have become increasingly unfamiliar with ways and means of achieving that. Teachers have not taken full responsibility for their professional development. Taking responsibility for professional development is a core aspect of teachers’ professional life as enshrined in the British Council’s CPD for teachers. It examines how teacher understand their professional needs and aspirations, as well as maximizing and utilizing opportunities for both personal and professional development.
In this presentation, I would examine various opportunities for professional development which teachers can effectively utilize to upgrade their practice. These affordances involve both top down and bottom-up approaches, such as webinars, face to face seminars, MOOCs, teacher association, peer feedback, observations, collaboration, materials and resources written for teachers for the sake of their professional practice. In this presentation, I shall also examine how reflective practice can improve their practice, that is, how regularly reflecting on their practice can strengthen and equip them positively.
Teacher will gain useful insights on how to adopt self-regulated CPD opportunities, which is the crux of taking responsibilities for CPD. This is because the uptake of professional development opportunities is seen as a self-driven process, a purely intrinsically motivated approach. This means that despite opportunities provided for teachers CPD by various ministries of Education across countries, taking responsibilities for CPD is the duty of the teacher, and so, should explore all available options at their disposal. It is only through assuming responsibility for self-paced learning that teachers can fully develop new skills, take up opportunities and meet up global standard of teaching. This presentation would showcase to teachers some simple things they can do themselves to secure a place in the global teaching community as experienced and versatile teachers. It will help them pay significant attention to things around them, including informal discussion with peers as ways of establishing professional help for their practice. Teachers would be able to find ways to support their students and collaborate with other teachers.
What makes effective CPD is for teachers to engage in opportunities that are engaging, supportive, job-embedded, focused, and on-going. Therefore, the uptake of professional development is not simply a one-off strategy, but those which are consistent with the needs of teachers.
I do believe that this presentation will offer useful engagements and classroom action research, which would in turn yield quality outcomes for their students.
About the speaker
Nyengiwari Mabel Ipalibo-Osokolo is a seasoned teacher with over ten years-experience. She teaches English language and literature in a government owned public school in Okrika, Rivers State. She graduated from the then Rivers State College of Education, where she made the first ever first-class honors in English Language and Education from the department.
In 2019, Mabel was awarded a Hornby Scholarship by the Hornby Educational Trust, to study for a master in teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).
Mabel has conducted trainings for teachers under the Hornby Alumni Project, cascading knowledge and shared experiences with teachers and other learning communities. She has participated and presented at British Council teacher training programs and events, as speaker and participant. Most recent is the Female Voices program of the British Council, where she shared fundamental tips for effective grammar teaching. Her material is currently published on the British Council TeachingEnglish Africa website.
Mabel is a member of the English language Teachers Association of Nigeria, (ELTAN), and the International Association Teachers of English as a Foreign language (IATEFL). She has presented in both National and International conferences.
Mabel is a writer, poet, teacher trainer/educator, mentor, content creative. She is simply a versatile creative.
Date recorded
Saturday 11 January 2025