Abstract
The studies of students learning together in learning community (LC) programmes have been widely explored. Implementing and evaluating LC programmes challenge teachers considerably. This paper explains how action research was used to design, trial and refine a same-year LC programme to motivate students. The LC programme was successfully integrated into a course of English in 2017 and 2018 about 8 months in span. The paper demonstrates the value of action research for designing the LC programme to increase student motivation. In the meanwhile, the role of transformational teacher leadership and peer leaders played in a successful learning community is elaborated as well. Key elements influencing the success of the pro-gramme were: task-based learning activities; appointment of peer leaders; the provision of structured and unstructured student support; teacher assessment and peer assessment; and the use of interactive tutorials. Achieving the appropriate balance of these factors increased students’ motivation in their English learning.
Highlights
In the past few years there has been a gathering interest in the concept of teacher leadership and learning community, as teacher leadership exerts a great influence on the effective learning of the students
The paper demonstrates the value of action research for designing the learning community (LC) programme to increase student motivation
The specific aims of this paper are to: 1) Demonstrate the use of action research to motivate my students in a successful learning community; 2) Identify the combination of strategies that helped to improve student performance in a LC programme in a two-term English course over three cycles; 3) Describe the interplay of factors affecting student motivation and academic performance; and 4) Use action research to contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning; 5) Identify the role of teacher leadership in creating a successful learning community; 6) Find the implications in a similar professional context
Summary
In the past few years there has been a gathering interest in the concept of teacher leadership and learning community, as teacher leadership exerts a great influence on the effective learning of the students. Helterbran (2010) explains that, “teacher leadership rises from within the teaching ranks and expresses itself in a myriad of ways for the betterment of students, and school in general.” [1]. According to Lambert (2000), “teacher leadership is an enrichment of the teaching profession. Teachers may help to lead the school even in a capacity. Creating a learning community in a school is a critical factor for teachers’. Professional development and enhancing student learning as part of curriculum reforms (Verbiest et al, 2005) [3]. A professional learning community could enhance the professional competence of teachers and help to create the pedagogical content knowledge necessary to implement the new curriculum for effective student learning (Cheng, 2009; Hord, 1997) [4]
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