Using Reverse Mentoring to Transform In-Service Teachers’ Beliefs About How to Teach English
Transformación de las creencias de los profesores en ejercicio acerca de la enseñanza del inglés mediante la mentoría inversa
Keywords:
beliefs, in-service teachers, student-teachers, reverse mentoring, teaching English (en)creencias, enseñanza del inglés, mentoría inversa, practicantes, profesores en ejercicio (es)
This qualitative research study delves into elementary school teachers’ beliefs and the potential contribution of reverse mentoring to improve English language teaching for children. The purpose was to explore how elementary in-service teachers’ beliefs could be transformed after participating in a reverse mentoring experience. A group of in-service teachers from two public elementary schools and a group of student-teachers from Universidad de Córdoba (Colombia) were the research participants. Data were gathered through a questionnaire, interviews, and classroom observations. Findings showed that reverse mentoring played an important role in transforming in-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching English to children regarding the difficulties of language learning, communicative strategies, motivation and expectations, foreign language aptitude, and the nature of language learning.
Este estudio exploratorio indagó cómo las creencias de profesores en ejercicio sobre la enseñanza del inglés a niños eran transformadas después de participar en una experiencia de mentoría inversa. Participaron un grupo de profesores de dos escuelas públicas de primaria y un grupo de practicantes de la Universidad de Córdoba (Colombia). La información se recolectó mediante un cuestionario, entrevistas, notas de diarios de campo y observaciones de clase. Los resultados mostraron que la mentoría inversa jugó un papel importante en la transformación de las creencias de los profesores sobre la enseñanza del inglés, con respecto a dificultades en el aprendizaje, las estrategias comunicativas, la motivación y expectativas, la aptitud hacia la lengua extranjera y la naturaleza del aprendizaje de lenguas.
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