Join us after the first plenary session and before the second to hear some words of welcome!

Gaining teaching experience as a teacher is not enough to provide automatic professional development, for we do not learn from experience as much as we learn from reflecting on that experience. Reflective practice involves instructors systematically looking at what they do, how they do it, why they do it, what the outcomes are in terms of student learning, and what actions they will take as a result of knowing all of this information. Such reflection is best completed in collaboration other teachers. Thus, experience combined with systematic reflection in collaboration with others can lead to professional growth so that we can become more effective teachers. In this plenary, I discuss what reflective practice is, how it can be accomplished, and what it can result in.

One of the greatest resources a school has is its teachers. In any school, there are teachers with varied experience, knowledge, and skills; and both the school and its teachers can benefit by learning from each other through different forms of collaborative professional development (CPD). Collaborative approaches to learning are central to current pedagogies of second language teacher education. In this presentation approaches to CPD will be discussed, including teacher support groups, lesson study, teacher research, and online professional communities, as well as the opportunities and challenges involved in implementing CPD.