Includes bibliographical references (p. 300-310) and indexes.

"This book is an examination of how and what teachers think in their practice of language teaching. Based on a case study of university level ESL teachers in Canada, it looks at the planning practices of teachers, both in preparation for the classroom and during the moment-to-moment decision-making that occurs in the classroom. It also looks at how teachers interpret and evaluate the events, activities and interactions that occur in the teaching process, and how these interpretations and evaluations feed back into subsequent planning. It examines the structure of teachers' beliefs, assumptions and background knowledge and elaborates on the role that these play in the decision-making process.

This book is an important contribution to the emerging perspective in education which views the development of teacher expertise not as the mastery of behaviours, but as the active involvement of teachers in constructing a personal and workable theory of teaching, and the learning/teaching experience as an interactive, dynamic process." (Book Cover)

CONTENTS

Series Editors' Preface

Thanks

1. Why study the teacher?
Research and language teaching
The method debates
Focus on the learner
Classroom-centered research
Gaps in our understanding of language teaching: three research questions
The structure of language teaching
Teachers' planning processes
Teachers' interpretative processes
Participant-centred research: focus on participants' understanding of events in context
Conclusion

2 The study
Subjects and classes observed
Research methodology
Data collection
Data analysis
Validity and the research methodology
The data collection methodology
Validity and the analysis of the data
_generalizability of results

3. An ethno-cognitive model of language teachers' decision-making
The ethnographic study of teachers
A cognitive model for the study of language teachers
Plans and action
Interpretation of events: background knowledge and belief systems
Linguistics, discourse analysis and the study of language in context
The concept of coherence and the overall model
Conclusion

4. The structures of teaching: units and relationships in a course
A participant-centered view of course structure
The interpretation of the learner
The interpretation of the teacher
The interpretation of the researcher
Types of course structure
Chronological (calendar/clock) structure
Conceptual structure Characteristics of the structures
Relationships among units: sequential and hierarchical
Course structure as an evolving dynamic entity: tangled hierarchies and heterarchies
Conclusion

5. Decision-making in the structuring of a course: a model of the planning processes of teachers
Planning and decision-making in the teaching process
Planning and decision-making: the range of consciousness of decisions
Planning and decision-making: the relationships among decisions
Teachers' planning: factors in the process
External factors
Internal factors An elaborated model of planning and decision-making in the teaching process
Conclusion: the model

6. Procedures and strategies in the planning process
The task of the teacher
Interpretation of course goals
Interpretation of learners' abilities
Teachers' procedures and strategies for planning
Overview
Description of procedures and strategies
Features of the decision-making process
Tentativeness of planning
Resources and constraints
Top-down and bottom-up planning
Implicit planning: activating experienced structures
Conclusion

7. An integrated view of teachers' beliefs, assumptions and knowledge
Approaching language teaching
Assumptions about language
Assumptions about language learning
Assumptions about language teaching
Teachers' background knowledge and beliefs: the education literature
Teachers' background knowledge structures
Teachers' beliefs and implicit theories Theoretical issues in the literature: relevance for second language teaching
BAK: beliefs, assumptions and knowledge Features of BAK
The evolution of BAK
Conclusion

8. The role of BAK in teachers' interpretative processes
Interpretation of classroom events
Interpretation of the curriculum
Interpretation of a textbook-based curriculum
Interpretation of theoretical and pedagogical concepts
BAK and planning
BAK, teaching and life
Conclusion

9. Coherence in the teaching process
The coherent nature of the cycle within a course
The mechanism for change
Teacher change
Curricular evolution
Conclusion

10. The structure and process of teaching in context
The structures of teaching
Theoretical relevance
Relevance for practice
Teachers' planning procedures
Theoretical relevance Relevance for practice
Teachers' interpretative processes
Theoretical relevance
Relevance for practice
Coherence in the teaching process Curricular evolution and evaluation
Teacher change and evaluation
Conclusion: exploration and discovery as a catalyst for change

References

Author Index

Subject Index