Profile Issues in Teachers' Professional Development (Apr 2009)
Editorial
Abstract
PROFILE, as well as other publications in the area of English language teaching in Colombia, has witnessed how the teacher research movement has grown and become stronger in the past few years. This has been so thanks to the sustained work of recognized research groups as well as the involvement of less experienced teacher educators, school teachers, and novice teachers who have decided to incorporate the research activity into their teaching job. In addition, the reforms most initial teacher education programmes have undergone, as a means to bridge the gap between theory and practice, have had an impact on the attention given to the teaching and development of the research skills of pre-service teachers. Likewise, several professional development programmes include innovation and action research in their curricula as alternatives to systematically examine teaching practices and, hence, encourage change.