Mechanisms of teacher autonomy realization: multimedia & information and communication technology in teaching English

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Associate Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design

Mechanisms of teacher autonomy realization: multimedia & information and communication technology in teaching English

Babenko O.V. Ph.D. in Philology, Associate Professor

Kyiv, Ukraine

Abstract

The study is aimed at analyzing the contradictory nature of the concept “teacher autonomy”, its essence, modern approaches, types, as well as the implementation of some digital didactic techniques in the process of teaching English as a foreign language. From the point of view of psychology autonomy is associated with self-determination based on intrinsic motivation. The teacher autonomy is interpreted as a degree of individual's independence to make decisions on any issues of the professional activity.

This term is characterised by various manifestations in different cultures and described in detail using synergistic and competence-based approaches. The purpose of the article is to systematize modern studies in the area of “teacher autonomy”, as well as to demonstrate in practice how modern requirements for teachers can be combined with reliance on new digital educational resources. There are three components of teacher autonomy: an ability to realize autonomous activity, motivation for creativity and professional independence. Information competence is an integral part of the professional competence of a foreign language teacher. Modern multimedia as a form of communication combines various forms of content: text, audio, animation, video. LearningApps.org service is a Web 2.0 application. Due to this platform we can successfully develop, store interactive tasks on a number of subject disciplines. Students can brush up, systematize and test their knowledge in a playful way, which contributes to the formation of their cognitive interest, development of critical and creative thinking, as well as learning autonomy. This internet-service is irreplaceable in teaching foreign languages, since it helps teachers and students use or create various exercises to practice a full range of language skills (reading, listening, speaking and writing). To illustrate the advantages if the ICT we have made up a number of activities on the topic “Fashion Industry” for students of specialized higher educational institutions, and we are happy to share our teaching experience in the article.

Key words: teacher autonomy, teacher S ability, motivation, professional independence, information technologies, LearningApps.org, didactic advantages.

Анотація

МЕХАНІЗМИ РЕАЛІЗАЦІЇ АВТОНОМІЇ ВЧИТЕЛЯ: МУЛЬТИМЕДІА ТА ІНФОРМАЦІЙНО-КОМУНІКАЦІЙНІ ТЕХНОЛОГІЇ В ПРОЦЕСІ ВИКЛАДАННЯ АНГЛІЙСЬКОЇ МОВИ

Бабенко О. В. кандидат філологічних наук, доцент, доцент кафедри іноземних мов Київський національний університет технологій та дизайну вул. Немировича-Данченка, 2, Київ, Україна

Дослідження спрямоване на аналіз суперечливої природи поняття «автономія вчителя», розгляд сучасних підходів до інтерпретації його сутності, типів, а також реалізації деяких цифрових дидактичних прийомів у процесі викладання англійської мови як іноземної. З точки зору психології автономія пов'язана з самовизначенням, заснованим на внутрішній мотивації. Під автономією вчителя розуміється ступінь самостійності особистості приймати рішення з будь-яких питань своєї професійної діяльності. Цей термін має різні прояви в різних культурах і детально описується за допомогою синергетичного та компетентнісного підходів. Мета статті - систематизувати сучасні дослідження в галузі автономії вчителя, а також продемонструвати на практиці те, як можна поєднувати сучасні вимоги до вчителя з опорою на нові освітні ресурси. Розрізняють три складові частини автономії вчителя: його здатність реалізовувати автономну діяльність, мотивацію до творчості та професійну незалежність. Інформаційна компетентність - невід'ємна частина професійної компетентності вчителя іноземної мови. Сучасні мультимедіа як форма комунікації об'єднують такі форми контенту: текст, аудіо, зображення, анімацію, відеоматеріали. Інтернет-сервіс LeamingApps.org є додатком Web 2.0. З його допомогою можна успішно розробляти, зберігати інтерактивні завдання з різних предметних дисциплін. Учні можуть перевірити та закріпити свої знання в ігровій формі, що сприяє формуванню їхнього пізнавального інтересу, розвитку критичного та творчого мислення, учнівської автономії. Ця платформа також успішно використовується під час навчання іноземних мов, оскільки вона дозволяє використовувати або створювати різні вправи для відпрацювання всього спектра мовних навичок (читання, аудіювання, говоріння та письмо). Для ілюстрації переваг цього інтернет-сервісу ми розробили низку різнопланових вправ за темою «Індустрія моди» для студентів спеціалізованих вищих навчальних закладів та охоче ділимося своїм педагогічним досвідом у статті.

Ключові слова: автономія вчителя, здатність вчителя, мотивація, професійна незалежність, інформаційні технології, LearningApps.org, дидактичні переваги.

Problem statement

Autonomy, a person's psychological ability, presupposes self-determination that is based on intrinsic motivation. This term has been widely studied. On the contrary, in the pedagogical context the necessity for further research of a multidisciplinary concept “teacher and student autonomy” is drastically increasing. It should be emphasized, that there is no common understanding of this phenomenon in modern conditions. These ideas determined the relevance of the topic of our article. autonomy didactic teaching language

Recent research and publications

This multidisciplinary issue has been analysed in terms of student autonomy (I. I. Malkin, N. I. Pidkasistyj). Some authors emphasize its cognitive essence (O. V. Babenko, V. S. Goncharov). The problem of an optimal efficient educational model has always drawn attention of a wide circle of researchers, in particular a model of developing education (V. V. Davydov, D. B. Elkonin, V. V. Rubtsov, etc.). The interconnection of autonomy and language learning is analyzed in many facets in a number theoretical and experimental works and findings (R. Cardenas, A. Cohen) [1; 2; 3].

The novelty of the study is in combining multidisciplinary theoretical and empirical studies to develop teacher autonomy skills based on LearningApps.org, Web 2.0 application.

The purpose of the research is to systematize contemporary views on the nature of a multidisciplinary concept “teacher autonomy” and its promoting in practice through multimedia and information and communication technologies in ESL classes.

General-scientific methods are used to present this information.

Presentation of the main material. The concept of teacher autonomy refers to the professional independence of teachers in schools, especially the degree to which they can make autonomous decisions about what they teach to students and how they teach it [5].

The essence of autonomy promotion is to help teachers and students become life-long learners, ready to face non-stop challenges of modern society. There are many other views of this concept, but on the whole the main components of autonomy deal with “responsibility for analyzing possibilities, making choices and effecting changes in one's life and activities, involving both independent and collaborative action” [3, p.183].

Several research schools in this area of studies came to similar conclusions:

necessary elements in autonomy are advanced professional skills, empathy, awareness of one's needs, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, critical and creative thinking, constructive criticism and freedom;

autonomy does not mean that teachers delegate all their functions to learners;

learners need to collaborate with teachers to gain and realize some levels of autonomy;

In general, teacher autonomy can be divided into three types:

teacher's ability, skills to realize autonomous activity;

willigness, motivation to work creatively;

freedom and professional independence [4].

Nowadays, during the transition to the autonomy of educational institutions, the measure of employee autonomy is a key point. It is important to take into considerations, that an unfree staffcan become a barrier for the effectiveness of the institution's autonomy in terms of improving the quality of education for each individual student. The teacher autonomy assumes, that the educational process is entirely planned and supervised by a teacher himself/herself. We see the examples of a real pedagogical culture and high efficiency in the students' achievements in case of teachers managed to defend their autonomy, or the school administration was able to create conditions to support such teachers. During the long historical experience of acting under strict regulations, the biggest problem for a modern teacher is not some inability to act independently, but the lack of need for autonomy among them. An autonomously working teacher is not only an experimenter, a participant in all kinds of programs and projects, but a devoted teacher who has his/her independent pedagogical style of teaching, who is willing to act with a high measure of professional independence. Such a teacher offers author's pedagogical solutions in a constantly changing range of tasks. The depth of autonomy can be different in relation to certain areas of any teacher's activity, from absolute autonomy (choice of forms and means of teaching), notification approval to action within the framework of clear external procedures (final certification). First of all, teachers need autonomy for creating their learners' autonomy, because learner autonomy is concomitant to teacher autonomy

To accomplish instructional goals and promote supportive learning environment, teachers need to have freedom for decision-making and providing best opportunities for students' development. In this regard, it is necessary to highlight the increasing role of multimedia and information and communication technology in the educational process. Information competence is an integral part of a foreign language teacher's professional competence. It is divided into two types according to a presentation form and a method of obtaining information. Naturally, knowledge, that has passed the stage of personal appropriation (internalization), is especially important. According to thematic glossaries multimedia as a form of communication that combines different content forms: text, audio, still images, animation, video footage, interactivity, in contrast to traditional mass media (printed material or audio recordings).

Different contemporary didactic techniques such as mindmap, timeline, infographics, scribing, podcasting, quizlet and many others help to realize the stages of internalization [1, p. 7; 6]. To satisfy any kind of educational needs more and more new digital tools appear on a regular basis. Here is a comparative table of some of them, in particular LearningApps. org, Snap Camera + Meeting Gestures Lens, Teacher Tools, SignAll Learn, SpatialChat. The following brief review to clarify the primary purpose of each tool and is emphasized below.

SpatialChat, a platform for virtual parties, is a tool that could simulate “mingle activities” in which students move around the classroom and talk to each other or practice a target structure.

Snap Camera(Use Gestures to Communicate in Any Video Conference System) is implemented to reduce teacher speaking time and increasing student speaking time.

Adding Snap Camera with Meeting Gestures Lens makes gesture reactions completely clear to everyone, as well as fun to watch.

Miro, RealtimeBoard, is a rebranded interactive tool for team collaboration. The platform originally was created for business meetings and collaboration, but later it became an irreplaceable tool for online language classes. As a result, students learn to work together in different activities. They generate and evaluate new information, clarify concepts and ideas.

Storyboard That is a web-based tool for creating digital storyboards. It motivates students to develop their creativity and critical thinking skills while having fun and an optimal choice for digital storytelling.

In this paper our concern is to highlight a new versatile tool that can be used with all levels of learners. The platform LearningApps.org helps teachers involve students into a variety of online learning activities aimed at developing of cognitive skills through matching, fill-in-the-blanks, word search and crosswords, maps, voting, ordering, naming. The advantage of this platform is in templates for most standard exercises and some creative templates with elements of gamification. The project was also created to enable educators to create their own various apps to share them with other colleagues.

To illustrate the advantages of this platform we have made up a number of activities on the topic “Fashion industry”. In the pictures we can see the instructive page and the final page with outcomes. The procedures of creating activities are available on the platform and described in details in some educators' blogs and papers.

There is a great number of templates for simple language or focused activities. Students can enjoy “games and quizzes such as matching, identifying, categorising, gap-filling, crosswords, filling in answers, ordering, putting things on a line and multiple-choice tasks” [4]. This platform gives a space for creativity through uploading self-made or authentic texts, pictures, audio or video content when creating or adapting activities.

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language through multimedia and ICT, in particular LearningApps. org, a universal tool for synchronic and diachronic learning and teaching, that can be adapted or made from scratch to practise the full range of language systems and skills at any stage of a lesson.

Bibliography

1. Babenko O.V. Іnternalization of information flow using techniques of visualization in the process of future philologists' professional training. Гуманітарні студії: педагогіка, психологія, філософія. 2019. T 10(3). C. 6-11.

2. Babenko O.V. Development of students' cognitive and intellectual abilities by means of podcasting. Педагогічні науки: теорія та практика.2020. 2(3), 150-155.

3. Cardenas-Ramos, Rosalba Considerations on the role of teacher autonomy. Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal. 2016.

4. Teacher autonomy (last updated 08.12.14).

5. Інтернет-сервіси в освітньому просторі.

References

1. Babenko, O.V. (2019). Internalization of information flow using techniques of visualization in the process of future philologists' professional training. Humanitarian Studios: Pedagogics, Psychology, Philosophy. Kyiv: Milenium, Vol. 10(3) 2019, pp. 6-11.

2. Babenko, O.V. (2021). Development of students' cognitive and intellectual abilities by means of podcasting. PedagogicalSciences:TheoryandPractice ,2(3), 150-155.

3. Cardenas-Ramos, Rosalba. (2016). Considerations on the role of teacher autonomy. Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal. 183.

4. Teacher autonomy (last updated 08.12.14).

5. Internet-servisy v osvitnomu prostori (2021). [Internet platforms in the educational space.].

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