M.Ed. Research Showcase
The second part of the Faculty of Education's Master's in Education (M.Ed.)
Dissertation Showcase took place on Friday 12th December at St.James Cavalier
in Valletta. Around 40 persons turned up for the event that consisted
of two presentations by graduates from the Faculty's Master's degree programme
as well as two expositions concerning two recent developments in the Faculty's
teacher education programme. The event was one of the activities held this
year to commemorate the Faculty of Education's25th Anniversary.
The two M.Ed graduates who presented the findings of their thesis were Mr.
Alan Marsh and Ms. Jacqueline Rotin. Two other graduates,Mr. George Camilleri
and Ms.Maria Vella Muscat ,both Gozitan, were also scheduled to present their
work. They were however left stranded in Gozo owing to the inclement weather.
The event was opened by Dr Carmel Borg, the Faculty of Education's Dean,
who spoke of the importance attached by the Faculty to research at all levels,
ranging from the preparation and supervision of undergraduate dissertations
to research carried out by faculty members which is published in international
refereed journals. The organisation of this two part event (the first part,
consisting of four presentations by M.Ed graduates took place in June) testifies
to the Faculty's commitment in this regard. The Faculty established
a Publications and Research Committee for this purpose and it is this committee
which is responsible for the organisation of the two part showcase that will
now become an annual event.
The first presenter, Mr. Alan Marsh, a leading TEFL specialist, described
his case studies of the spoken and written reflections of two 'English as
a Foreign Language' teachers who learnt to adopt a learner-centred approach
to communicative language teaching while following an RSA/Cambridge
CELTA EFL teacher training course. The case studies explored how both teachers
developed their own dynamic theories of teaching and learning through reflection
on their teaching practice, rather than through conceptions derived from
external theoretical knowledge. A significant finding was the fact that,
for both teachers, moving from a traditional teacher-centred
approach towards a learner-centred one involved undergoing an emotional and
psychological process in which reflection focused on crisis, dissonance between
'theory' and practice and continuous discoveries about themselves as individuals.
Mr. Marsh argued that, in order to facilitate this process, it is important
to give teacher trainees ample opportunity to articulate their pre-training
experiences and conceptions of teaching and learning before they are able
to move on to a new conceptual framework which they fully own.
The second presenter, Ms.Jacqueline Rotin, a Home Economics teacher, spoke
about the action research which she carried out with her colleague in a girls'
area secondary school in order to deal with the implementation of the SEC
Home Economics examination course work. Apart from providing an overview
of the advantages and disadvantages of course work as experienced by both
teachers and students, Ms. Rotin also highlighted theories that emerged
on how to deal with course work in the classroom. Ms. Rotin's work is in
itself a study on action research in that it analyses the use of this
type of research in the Maltese classroom from a practical and a critical
point of view.
The final part of the programme consisted of two presentation by members
of the Faculty of Education. Dr Deborah Chetcuti, from the Faculty's
Departmentof Mathematics, Science and Technical Education, gave a presentation
on theFaculty's Professional Development Portfolio recently introduced for
the benefit of prospective teachers undergoing the initial teacher education
programme leading to the B.Ed(Hons.) degree. Mr Colin Calleja, from the Faculty's
Department of Primary Education, spoke about a recent Cd introduced by the
Faculty to assist prospective school teachers in planning teaching resources
to be used in the primary level classroom.
16.12.03