Professional practices as developmental processes: effective teaching and trainee’s autonomy within ELT curriculum

Abstract

“New aims in education have made such impact that universities around the globe are modifying their programs of education. In Mexico, the Autonomous University of Puebla has updated its programs to meet the new requirements for global and modern education. One of those modifications is found at the Faculty of languages, where a series of improvements has modified the teacher education program. This change aims to improve aspects such as values, teacher development, and reflection in order to promote a higher involvement of trainees into society. However, due to ineffective practices the trainees show a lack of commitment, reflective actions and disinterest for planned results. This research aims to explore to what extent professional practices contribute to the development of LEI students’ autonomy and the achievement of ELT curriculum objectives by analyzing their attitudes and experiences. It aims to analyze to what extent autonomy is dictating the trainees’ planning of career objectives and professional actions such as lesson planning and evaluation. A qualitative approach was used in order to analyze experiences, attitudes and behaviors of the participants through interviews. Results show that trainees have not acquired the abilities, values and skills which stated in the program”