Page 25 - Getting of the fence

putting these two theories in line with Desimone’s (2009) conceptual framework 1 for studying the effects of professional development on teachers and students, a
certain sequentiality arises because, according to Desimone (2009), professional development includes four interactive critical features: (1) a teacher takes part in a
professional development programme and (2) experiences changes in knowledge, skills, and attitude; (3) these changes lead to changes in instruction, which ultimately (4) lead to increased student learning. This means that the Theory of Instruction, focusing on increased student learning, follows the Theory of Change, focusing on changes in knowledge, skills, attitude, and consequently instruction. This thesis focuses on the Theory of Change.
1.6 Objective of this thesis
The objective of this thesis, then, is threefold. The first objective concerns the design of a literature-teaching model that is in line with the recent holistic perspectives as described by Paran (2008), which include various aspects of the learner, the context, and the literary text. The second objective concerns a systematic enquiry into the current position of EFL literature education through the eyes of teachers as well as students. And the third objective concerns an in-depth analysis of how teachers experience the relevance and usefulness of a literature-teaching model as described in the first objective. By doing this, we aim to contribute to the growing field of research into foreign language literature teaching, motivated by several gaps in the international knowledge base: empirical research into EFL literature classroom practices in secondary education and an investigation into the views of secondary school students regarding EFL literature education.
Central, therefore, in this thesis is the development of a foreign language literature teaching model that is in line with the recent holistic perspective, which include various aspects of the learner, the context, and the literary text. Important for us in the design of this model, was to take a multi-perspective, including the teacher’s and student’s perspective. We then used this model to describe current EFL literature teaching practice as well as how students experience EFL literature lessons. The final step involved an intervention where we researched how eight EFL teachers experienced the relevance and usefulness of the model after working with it for one year.
General introduction
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