Heliyon
Volume 9, Issue 5, May 2023, e15981
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Research article
Leveraging affordances in an ecological stance: Reflective language teaching for professional development during COVID-19

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15981Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • Multiple-case study on the progress of remote language teaching during COVID-19.

  • Adaptive teacher agency in the reflective use of pedagogical and social affordances.

  • Reflective teaching as a means of self-directed continuing professional development.

  • Closer interconnection between classroom dynamics and social evolution.

  • Ecological language pedagogy for transformative digitalization in global education.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has made a prominent impact of social contexts on teachers' professional development in remote classroom teaching. To explore how the change has altered human-environment relationships in university language classes, this qualitative case study investigated three teachers' progressive reflection on their use of affordances for teaching Chinese as a second language (L2) during COVID-19. Under the framework of human ecological language pedagogy, three themes of emergency remote teaching emerged from monthly semi-structured interviews about the three teachers’ reflective practice in remote classrooms: computer-dominant teaching conditions, flexible classroom interaction, and rational social empathy in L2 education. The findings suggest the importance of a growth mindset for L2 teachers to leverage their teaching abilities and environmental resources for continuing professional development during COVID-19 and post-pandemic periods.

Keywords

Teacher professional development
Distance education and online learning
Improving classroom teaching
Teaching/learning strategies
Post-secondary education

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