EYL Teachers’ Professional Development by Distance Learning: The Greek Case

Abstract

Teacher Professional Development (TPD) has been characterised as a lifelong process of growth which is mainly career orientated. Teacher Development (TD), on the other hand, is more inclusive of personal and moral dimensions and involves the teachers’ active participation in a reflexive analysis of their practices. The paper focused on the case of the Hellenic Open University (HOU), and supported that Reflection and Action Research are powerful tools towards TD and TPD, illuminating this through presentation of the way in which Greek ESOL teachers are encouraged to engage in reflection, along the module “Teaching English to Young Learners” (TEYL), as well as through discussion of the findings of a small scale research among 50 teacher-students of the particular module.

Keywords

• Hellenic Open University
• distance learning
• post-graduate
• teacher education
• Greek State School
• Teaching English as a foreign language
• EFL
• young learners