Exploring English Teachers’ Perceptions About Peer-Coaching as a Professional Development Activity of Knowledge Construction

• Main Author: Adriana Castañeda-Londoño
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: ASOCOPI 2017-07-01
• Series: HOW
• Subjects: Peer-coaching; professional development; self; teacher knowledge
• Online Access: https://howjournalcolombia.org/index.php/how/article/view/345

Teachers’ knowledge and how they construct it is an area that deserves attention when it comes to producing fruitful professional development practices. This small-scale action research aims at identifying the perceptions of three teachers in a private language center about peer-coaching and their actual construction of knowledge in a peer-coaching activity. Data were collected through two narratives and the transcription of recorded conversations among participants after the observation of their classes. The results suggest that before peer-coaching teachers held three types of perceptions towards observation and feedback: a cautious approach, an identity tension approach, and a celebratory approach. After peer-coaching one sees that two perceptions emerged: observation and feedback entail, on the one hand, high anxiety about teachers’ self-image; and on the other, observation and feedback show a deep sense of their selves.