Page 102 - Pedagoška vizija / A Pedagogical Vision

Anja Pirih and Silva Bratož

reflective EFL teaching practice of generalist pre-service teachers who report
not having enough opportunities for teaching and reflection. We were espe-
cially interested in exploring the students’ awareness of teaching principles
for TEYL, the students’ perceptions of their own limitations in TEYL, and a self-
reflection on their information and communication technology (ICT) compe-
tence. Therefore, the study focuses on the following research questions:

1. In what way did the creation of an MTL enhance the students’ aware-
ness of teaching principles?
2. How did the instrument help the student teachers recognize and iden-
tify the main challenges linked to TEYL in asynchronous online mode?
3. What are the students’ perceptions of their own ICT competences
needed in creating the proposed lesson for asynchronous online learn-
ing?

The Reflective Instrument
The designed reflective instrument for teacher education integrates the cre-
ation of a ‘mini takeaway lesson’ (MTL) and reflective discussions carried out
during the lesson design process.
An MTL was created as an independent online lesson format for young
learners of English as a foreign language, and designed especially for asyn-
chronous online learning without any direct teacher or parent supervision
or assistance. It presents an alternative to face-to-face lessons. An MTL typ-
ically presents a contextualized communicative pattern or grammar point,
a story or a song, etc. and is created in a PPT or Prezi presentation format,
containing audio recordings, videos, and other visual material. An important
element of an MTL are interactive activities with automated feedback that
create an impression of the teacher being present. This format allows educa-
tion students to apply the principles and strategies which are characteristic
of TEYL and directly reflect on their suitability and effectiveness. In creating
MTLs, the students work within the communicative approach paradigm, pay-
ing special attention to the use of scaffolding strategies to enable an inde-
pendent learning experience for young learners. An MTL also differs from a
typical school lesson in terms of length. It has to be kept short (10–15 minutes
of learner workload), taking into consideration the shorter attention span of
young learners, especially when they are working independently. An addi-
tional argument for the short length is an attempt to avoid prolonged screen
exposure of young learners, as MTLs are delivered online.
The reflective instrument consists of several stages that follow each other
in a set sequence:
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