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In the educational field, there is a huge lack of leadership initiatives due to school administrations are the ones in charge of analyzing school matters to make decisions. This issue has been affecting teacher’s role in the community since as good professionals, they are expected to be immersed in learners’ development as part of an institution and know how to beneficiate the entire school by providing relevant ideas as potential leaders. However, the prospective participation of teachers has been unnoticed in many ways. Thus, this proposal attempts to provide two significant insights on how to improve teacher’s autonomy to persuade a positive change in his/her work environment towards the purpose of beneficiating a whole school community. Having the opportunity of participating in some school changes to remove an obsolete educational system and the creation of projects with the contribution of learners and teachers, is our plan to raise leadership in school settings.

Project-based learning or PBL as short is a teaching method that offers students fundamental tools for both cognitive and personal development through the completion of a project aimed at providing alternatives to a real-world problem. Although some researchs have been done on the benefits of PBL, little have emphasized on the characteristics of materials that can be used during the learning process including required standards for improving oral participation. The purpose of this study was to investigate through document analysis the characteristics of materials that must meet the PBL method to improve students’ oral participation. Data included observation, archival data, and reflection. The results showed that the characteristics of the materials to improve oral participation employing PBL must be based on communicative tasks and the learner-centered approach integrated into the general English materials to achieve the purpose. The conclusion is that, although it was difficult to find a document specifying the characteristics needed to help learners improve their oral participation through PBL, teachers are free to create or adapt authentic materials based on approaches whose purpose meets the requirements that learners need to improve

La enseñanza de la escritura en la clase de idioma extranjero puede ser una tarea desalentadora que exige tiempo y esfuerzo de los maestros, pero también requiere que aumenten la conciencia sobre cómo lo hacen actualmente y las razones por las que lo hacen. Muchos docentes no parecen estar conscientes de cómo enseñan la escritura, si lo hacen como práctica del lenguaje o como práctica social. Por lo tanto, esta investigación buscó identificar la comprensión de los docentes acerca de enseñar a escribir en inglés en los cursos de Comunicación en el Programa de Inglés, así como los desafíos que podrían enfrentar al enseñarlo. Los datos se recopilaron de observaciones de clase, el diario del investigador, entrevistas con tres docentes del Programa de Enseñanza del Inglés en la Universidad de Córdoba, y fuentes secundarias como actividades de escritura y los programas del curso. Los resultados mostraron que los docentes tienen creencias sobre cómo enseñar la escritura, generalmente siguiendo un enfoque orientado al producto y al proceso. Sin embargo, los participantes descubrieron instancias en las que han enseñado a escribir como práctica social; aunque, no parecen estar completamente conscientes de las causas. Además, los maestros revelaron que enfrentan desafíos que hacen que la enseñanza de la escritura sea abrumadora y difícil. Se sugiere que se necesita más investigación para continuar explorando cómo los maestros pueden superar los desafíos que enfrentan y hacer uso de un enfoque más equilibrado que integre las formas textuales, centradas en el individuo pero también en lo social.

Listening is the English language skill that models language for students to understand sounds, intonation, pronunciation, differences in accents, and so forth as stated by Tomlinson (1984, cited by Hamouda 2013, p. 117). This skill allows people to share messages effectively making it possible to communicate. After initial observations carried out in a primary school, it was possible to identify students’ difficulties when understanding L2 listening activities. This action-case study explores how primary students’ listening skills may change when using animated cartoons in L2 lessons. The study also investigate students’ perception about this tool. Data was collected through observations, one semi-structured interviews for the students, one structured interview for the teacher, and an initial and final test for the students. Results showed that there was an improvement in students’ listening skills and they recognized it as a good tool for developing the L2.

Differentiated instruction is a pedagogical strategy that seeks for ways to include all students’ learning styles and needs in the classroom. Deborah Blaz and Tomlinson (2005; 2006) highlight the benefits of a Differentiated Instruction (henceforth DI) for students such as with ADHD, for decreasing their levels of inattention and hyperactivity during lessons. Even though there have been many studies using DI for ADHD students, there have been few focused on only increasing the students’ attention span. In other words, research studies for ADHD students using this pedagogical strategy are rich on suggestions to overcome the most common features of ADHD like hyperactivity and inattention as a whole. However, differentiating content in lesson planning for only gripping attention and maintaining it for longer periods is lack in research. The purpose of this study is to propose a unit with series of lessons to favor the analysis on how ADHD students’ attention span may improve while using Differentiated content in EFL lessons, and to highlight the specific adaptations and differentiations the teacher needs to do in order to enhance the students’ attention. The designed lessons will be taken from the Suggested Curriculum, and they will be adapted for a DI in Content. This research study will offer suggestions on how to enhance students’ attention for longer periods in the EFL lessons, and to understand which adaptations may work to enhance attention skills. Lessons will be designed taking into account national guidelines such as the Suggested Curriculum for primary as well as the Basic Learning rights. These lessons will offer a strong DI in content so students with ADHD students might enhance their attention while learning English as a foreign language. Moreover, social inclusion for ADHD students in regular classrooms is meant for the study. As a result of the present study four lessons were created so be applied in a context where conditions and suggestions are met assertively.

Technology has brought many advantages in people's lives and it has supported many fields, including the educational field. Teachers and students have been benefited with the inclusion of technology inside the classrooms. There have been several studies related to the benefits that technology has brought for the schools. However, there is still a need for more phenomenological research in our context about English teachers’ lived experiences about the use of technology in their classrooms. Particularly, the limitations that they have faced during their teaching practices. The purpose of this study was to explore and understand English teachers’ lived experiences about the use of technology in the EFL classroom. Seidman (2006) three series of interviews model was used to collect the data. The data analysis was carried out through Colaizzi’s (1978) method of seven steps for descriptive phenomenology. The analysis process provided four themes: (a) The Transcendence of Being a User, (b) Awareness of a Value, (c) The Experience of Being Technology-illiterate, and (d) The Smoothness of Communication and Sense of Improvement. The findings of this study provide accounts of the participant’s experiences about the significance of being a user, sense of improvement and value and the limitations inside the EFL classroom, and also the experiences gave meaning to the inclusion of technology in the teaching-learning process.

Reading comprehension is a receptive skill that encompasses other linguistic features such as vocabulary and grammar in which the reader understands texts by decoding and visualizing meaning. Despite the complete curriculum of the public school Liceo La Pradera regarding reading in English lessons, students of a tenth-grade course remain in traditional activities that privilege students’ learning of grammatical knowledge, usually failing to arouse them to learn to read. Hence, students’ competence in reading is limited to understanding isolated words and related grammar structures. Considering this fact, this study sought to determine the characteristics of designing a blended EFL reading unit with DARTs and News in level articles for a group of 37 tenth-graders. Data was collected through an interview, a reading diagnostic task, a questionnaire, observations, and official documents. Findings of this study described the final planning of a reading unit based on the needs analysis as well as its process of creation. This study suggests that the effect of the application of such unit might vary according to the context is implemented.

When it comes to designing a syllabus, English teachers endeavour to seek for the most suitable strategies, techniques and approaches that help to meet students’ needs and make language learning a relevant experience to their learners. Games, for instance, are a clear sample of that search since a great number of studies has shown how games may act as a trigger to promote interaction and language practice in EFL. On the other hand, conversation activities are necessary by many teachers and students in the English classes; however, lessons planned on grammar and vocabulary prevail more often than activities in which students hold conversations. In view of this, the present study aimed to propose a topic-based-functional syllabus using outdoor games to promote students’ conversation established in the CEFR (2018), companion volume. To conduct this study, a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and observations were selected to gather the data. After analyzing the information gathered, we determined and explained in depth the aspects needed to design a topic-based-functional syllabus for promoting learners’ conversations in 8th grade.

Internships are professional practicums carried out by university students, generally during the last years of the degree, to put into practice the knowledge and faculties learned in a real working context. Besides, the intern has the purpose of improving or solving a problem found in that context. My internship was developed in a program offered by the University of Cordoba, called Bilingualism for peace at la Ribera high school in Monteria, Cordoba. I was working with pre-intermediate level students. In this level the vast majority of students had difficulties in expressing themselves verbally (speaking skill). To improve this, I decided to base my teaching method on various pedagogies (PBL, culturally responsive pedagogy, and intrinsic motivation). Throughout this process, I grew as a teacher, and as a person; I realized how difficult and challenging is this job but, it is also rewarding to see students’ progress and how they got more interested in a subject.

Reading to learn is an instructional approach that leads students from aided to independent creation of meaning in reading and writing, it follows a cycle with a set of strategies guiding students to independent construction of a specific text-genre. Nevertheless, few studies have designed instructional units and lessons for the use of R2L to promote learners’ oral production, most specifically of oral exposition texts. Neither has it been researched yet the use of this methodology along with mediation tools in the EFL class. Therefore, this qualitative study is intended to describe the main characteristics an instructional unit and lesson based on R2L and flipped learning should contain to develop tenth-graders’ capacity to produce oral exposition discourses in an EFL class. As well as to identify the main adaptations EFL teachers should consider when integrating R2L and FL for developing students’ capacity to produce exposition oral genres. Previous to the unit design, a diagnostic lesson was conducted on tenth-graders in a public school from the rural side of Montería, Colombia. Throughout the intervention oral production tasks, audio recordings, observations, and document analysis were used to collect data for the present design. This study sheds light on the existing gap of knowledge about the design and implementation of R2L and Flipped instruction to prompt the participation of oral exposition texts in tenth-graders. Leer para aprender (R2L) es un enfoque instructivo que, siguiendo un ciclo con un conjunto de estrategias pedagógicas, lleva a los estudiantes de la ayuda a la creación independiente de significado en la lectura y la escritura, así como a la construcción independiente de géneros textuales específicos. Sin embargo, pocos estudios han diseñado unidades y lecciones instructivas para el uso de R2L enfocados a la producción oral de los estudiantes, específicamente de textos orales argumentativos. Además, la investigación del uso de esta metodología junto a herramientas de mediación tecnológica es casi nula en el campo de la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera. Por eso, este estudio cualitativo pretende describir las principales características que deben contener una unidad y lección instructiva basadas en R2L y el modelo de aula invertida, enfocadas en capacitar a alumnos de décimo grado para la producción de discursos argumentativos. El presente estudio también busca identificar las principales adaptaciones que los docentes deben considerar al momento de integrar R2L y herramientas tecnológicas en el aula de inglés como lengua extranjera, enfocados a la producción del género textual argumentativo. Antes del diseño de la unidad, una clase diagnóstica permitió identificar un bajo nivel de producción oral en alumnos de décimo grado en una escuela rural pública de Montería. Durante la intervención, tareas de producción oral, grabaciones de audio, observaciones y análisis de documentos permitieron recopilar información para el presente diseño. Este estudio permitirá esclarecer la brecha existente en la literatura concerniente al diseño e implementación de R2L y aula invertida para impulsar la participación alumnos de décimo grado en discursos argumentativos.

Cordoba “My first steps” in the modality of the internship has allowed trainee teachers to explore a real-life context working with young children from a vulnerable area in Monteria Cordoba, with the purpose of applying different strategies and practices that will help children in this program to get an initial encounter with the target language. Due to the difficulties of the current year and the inability of providing the face to face classes, the internship in the first semester 2020 has suffered some changes, and in order to continue the project, it was established to work in the designing of a unit plan and several lesson plans following some approaches that will be beneficial to this population of students. The objective of this paper is to describe my experience in this internship; designing some lesson plans for students at such a young age, as well as describing the activities carried out during the whole process of the internship. Following the designing of the lesson plans, this final report deals with the implementation of a play-based approach and the advantages of working with this one taking into account the children’s context and needs.

This report details an internship executed at public institution Marceliano Polo in Cereté-Córdoba. In this report I share how was my personal experience as a novice teacher and the things I had to deal with during all this process, I also mentioned my experience with the implementation of virtual classes, The current situation led us to take different measures to carry out our work as teachers. In addition, this internship aimed to implement lessons that focus on CLT to improve students’ oral skills. CLT lessons have proved to be an effective alternative to develop more dynamic and fluent lessons. This approach has been used for the development of communicative skills. Hence, the purpose of this internship was to identify the possible improvements in students’ oral skills after the implementation of CLT lessons.

Statement submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of English Teaching Program

This document portrays personal views on leadership in the context of education

The University of Córdoba offers the internship program as a selectable choice for students to attain a professional degree. Córdoba Transformada is a macro project elaborated by the university to create a positive impact in the Department of Córdoba. There are micro projects such as “Mis primeros pasos” and “Speakers” that are a part of the macro project. The latter project was the context in which the internship process was going to take place. However, the global pandemic prevented a traditional internship to be carried out, which limited interns to lesson planning.

The University of Córdoba offers undergraduate students the internship program as an opportunity for students strengthen their English Teaching abilities. Bilingualism for Peace is a program headed by The University of Cordoba which main purpose is to offer students from vulnerable areas of the city the opportunity to learn English, generating a big impact on the Department of Córdoba. It was Bilingualism for Peace, the program where I decided to conduct my internship; unfortunately, the process was abruptly changed with the Covid 19 pandemic and it was necessary to take measures for prevention. The interns of the program could not continue with the process and the internship was considerably affected.

This internship was conducted in the Bilingualism for Peace program at El Sabanal School in Monteria with students of beginner level from the rural zone. The purpose of this internship was to gain experience of teaching English to children and also improve my performance as an English teacher. The pedagogies are several concepts that were addressed during the internship, learner-centered approach, task-based learning, e-learning and intercultural understanding, those elements were fundamental in the design of the units and lessons. Furthermore, the experience obtained inside the classroom and how the previous concepts are aligned with the suggested units and lessons are part of this report. Finally, from this journey it can understand that the teaching process is a hard labor and how this experience was helpful to improve as a teacher, also some limitations are included such as the lack of technological resources due to not all students can have access them.

This statement presents a general perspective of Leadership according to different authors and a personal definition on Leadership. It highlights the significance of assuming leadership roles in school communities for achieving transformation. Besides, it points out the impact it has on educational context and professional development for a future teacher.

Leaders inspire confidence and builds trust among people to attain objectives. Effective leaders have a meaningful aspect in common, and that is they are capable of keeping their subordinates engaged. Leaders must adapt and modify their leadership style in order to achieve goals and inspire people along the way. This article aimed to explore the nature of leadership in educational contexts. It also argued that the presence of leadership in any educative organization is a crucial component of overall organizational success.

Studies have demonstrated the positive effects that leadership can have on schools (Adams, Kutty & Zabidi, 2017; Jones, et. al., 2015; Harris, et. al., 2017; Perera, Adams, & Muniandy, 2015). Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, and Wahlstrom (2004) reiterated that “Leadership is second only to classroom instruction among all school-related factors that contribute to what students learn at school” (p. 5). The school effectiveness and improvement field face a new and pervasive challenge (Harris, et. al, 2015). The past few decades have seen teacher leadership emerge as an important aspect of school leadership (Wenner & Campbell, 2017). Teacher leadership is no longer optional, teachers have developed an increasingly important role in their schools. Teacher leadership is now the significant means to inspire the enhancement of teaching (Muijs & Harris, 2006). In the current stage of instructional development, teachers’ routines are no longer restricted within classroom boundaries (Grant, 2006). Teachers are in a unique position to promote change within schools (Mangin & Stoelinga, 2010), by leading the spread of best practices through teacher collaboration, encouraging teacher professional learning and focus on content-specific issues due to their familiarity with the complexities involved in teaching (Wenner & Campbell, 2017; Curtis, 2013; Muijs & Harris, 2006).