What’s New at the Research Professional Council?

This blog is part of the TESOL Research Professional Council (RPC) Blog series.

TESOL’s Research Professional Council highlights new research through teachers’ own stories of real-time engagement in times of challenge and change.

“By the end of the first year, students were excited to share and engage in instruction in a variety of languages, and students enjoyed hearing about each other’s languages. Additionally, a few of the focal students initiated an action research project when they realized that Google Translate did not support the Somali function.” Read Leah Shepard-Carey’s Research Story about her Minnesota, USA classroom.

“Teacher research is happening in real time when teachers exchange their ideas through open-access virtual platforms,” writes Amira Salama, American University, Cairo. Check out “Teacher Resilience in Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic” in TESOL  Blogs.

“In this study, a heat map shows where the main focus of the experienced online teacher’s attention lies…it shows the focus is on the participants—when they show emoticons, raise hands, or activate the microphone to speak. The teacher’s focus is on the social aspects of the class, and the content.” Learn how we know when online learning is effective from Ursula Stickler, Open University, UK, on the TESOL International Association YouTube channel, Why We Need to Know How We Know: Epistemology for Online Language Teachers.”