student teaching

This study investigated how several pre-service EFL teachers in an undergraduate programme engaged in a series of collegial discussions after their student teaching experiences over the third year of the programme and how the collegial interactions nurtured their professional development. The individual interviews and group discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed in verbatim. The findings indicated that the active participation of the participant teachers in collegial discussions following their student teaching experiences facilitated learning in a collaborative learning community. The participants shared their personal practical experiences, scaffolded their peers and developed their professional knowledge in several aspects. Their awareness of pedagogical challenges was raised and they addressed their learners' needs and learning strategies in real classroom settings more effectively. The collegial interactions focused on the transfer of theories learned from the disciplinary textbooks to the pedagogical realities of the EFL educational settings. The engagement of the student teachers in collegial discussions made them reconsider their pedagogical beliefs and practices.

The active participation of several pre-service EFL teachers in discourse socialization practices facilitated learning in a collaborative learning community. The participants shared their personal practical experiences, scaffolded their peers and engaged with assigned academic texts. Their engagement in collegial discussions and with academic texts developed their professional identity in several aspects. Through involvement in discourse practices, the participants underwent the process of identity construction as a legitimate member of their discourse community. As a non-stop process, the identity construction of the participants was continuously influenced by their prior learning and teaching experiences, knowledge from disciplinary materials and fieldwork experiences as pre-service English teachers. The influence of the discourse practices was overwhelming as they experienced a shift of professional identity to feel like relative experts. The participants reconstructed their identity. They felt more committed to their EFL local community and they saw themselves as members who could be more contributing to their local community. The group discussions provided enough chances for the participants to feel like a community member and voice their professional identity through participating in discussions.