3rd Annual

Teacher Leadership
Academy

February 10, 2011

From the Conference Chairs

Dear TLA Participants,

We would like to welcome you to the Teacher Leadership Academy. The organizing
committee has worked especially hard to make this event a success.
We are pleased to be able to welcome three prominent teacher educators as our plenary
speakers: Dr. Neil Anderson from Brigham Young University in the US; Dr Dudley
Reynolds, from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar and Dr Ramin Akbari from Tarbiat
Modares (Instructor Training) University in Tehran, Iran. Each will share their expertise and
insights about the importance of developing leadership skills.
We would like to express our gratitude to our hosting institution, Dubai Men's College,
Higher Colleges of Technology. Thanks also go to our generous sponsors: TESOL Arabia and
Dubai Mens College. A special vote of thanks goes to our presenters who provide the
important content of this conference. Without them this event would not have been possible.
Enjoy the conference!
Regards,
Christine Coombe & Konrad Cedro
Conference Chairs
Maria Brown
Program Chair

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3rd Annual Teacher Leadership Academy, February 10, 2011

Dubai Mens College
Room

8:00-9:00

9:00-9:50
Plenary
Leading

L115
Registration

Educational

COEE 1

Dudley W.
Reynolds

DMC
Reception
Area

Burnout in ELT:
Strategies for Recovery
or Prevention

DMC
Auditorium

12:00-12:50

Distributed
Leadership
Practice

Lunch

Change
Who, Me?

L113
(Learning
Centre)

10:00-10:50
11:00-11:50
Concurrent Sessions

Coombe

Glen

Teacher Education:
Pre-Service Teachers
Beliefs about Aspects of
Teaching

Teacher
Evaluation
in
ELT

Dorri

Davidson

Finding
Professional
Development
Opportunities in
TESOL
Wiens

DMC

1:00-1:50
2:00-2:50
Concurrent Sessions
Investigating
Classroom
Atmosphere and its
Effects on Learning

Steps Towards
TBLT: What
Managers Need to
Know

Alkire & Vogels

Morrow

3:00-3:50
Plenary

4:00 4:50
Plenary

Balancing

Teachers

Personal

and

and

Supervisors:

Professional

Are They

Development

Really

: Roles

Different?

Toastmasters
International
The Personal
Advantages
of Joining

Occupational
Stress in
University EFL
Teachers

Anderson

Aubrey

Neil
Anderson

Narrative Inquiry
of an American
Teachers-Leaders
Experiences

A Team Leader,
or a Dictator?

Time Management
Strategies for
Busy ELT
Professionals

DMC
Auditorium

Pronoza

El Miniawi

Brown

PD Portfolios:
An Effective CV

From English
Language Learner
to Teacher
to Leader

CLIL:
Whats
the Buzz?

Coombe

Onat

Pugliese

COEE 2

Cafeteria

and
Tools
Ramin
Akbari

DMC
Auditorium

Plenary Sessions
9:00-9:50 a.m.
DMC Auditorium
Leading Educational Change Who, Me?
Dudley W. Reynolds, Carnegie Mellon University Qatar, Doha, Qatar
Quick name a leader who changed the field of education! John Dewey. Maria Montessori.
Paulo Freire. You?
For many of us, educational change sounds like a political
movement; a revolution that would be led by a mighty general, or a
sage. I definitely never thought of myself as a leader of educational
When I reflect on my career, however, I realize that I have had
significant opportunities to impact the education offered to English
language learners in a variety of settings and ways.

wise
change.

In this talk I argue that we are all presented with opportunities to lead
educational
change. It is important, therefore, that we recognize - and understand the agency
that we have in our everyday settings. Drawing on my experiences as
a classroom
teacher, a researcher, and an advocate for our profession, I share lessons learned about
educational change, the forces that shape it, and our own potential to affect it.
Bio:
Dudley W. Reynolds is Teaching Professor of English and Director of Research on English
Language Learning at Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar. He also currently serves on the
international TESOL associations Board of Directors. His research focuses on second
language writing teaching, development, and assessment. He is the author of One on One with
Second Language Writers: A Guide for Writing Tutors, Teachers, and Consultants (University
of Michigan Press, 2009) and Assessing Writing, Assessing Learning (University of Michigan
Press, 2010).

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3:00-3:50 p.m.
DMC Auditorium

Balancing Personal and Professional Development: Roles and Tools

Neil Anderson, Brigham Young University, USA
What roles do you play in the various aspects of your life?
What tools do you use to reflect on ways that you can make
improvement in your roles? This session will focus on four
personal and professional roles and four tools that we can
use to help us maintain more effective balance in those
roles. The four roles include: individual family member,
colleague, teacher, and leader. The four tools include:
personal development input questions, peer observation, 32-1 summary, and PD reading reflection journals. Through
consistent use of these four tools, we will see personal and
professional growth and improvement. This growth can
result in great satisfaction in both personal and professional
development.

Bio:
Neil J Anderson is a Professor of Linguistics and English Language and Coordinator of the
English Language Center at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA. Professor
Anderson has taught and presented papers and workshops in over 20 countries. His research
interests include second language reading, language learner strategies, learner self-assessment,
motivation in language teaching and learning, and ELT leadership development. He is the
author or co-editor of three teacher education texts in the area of second language reading:
Exploring Second Language Reading: Issues and Strategies (1999, Heinle/Thomson),
Practical English Language Teaching: Reading (2008, McGraw Hill) and L2 reading
research and instruction: Crossing the boundaries (2009, The University of Michigan Press).
He is the co-editor with Christine Coombe, Lauren Stephenson, and Mary Lou McCloskey of
Leadership in English language teaching and learning (2008, University of Michigan Press).
In addition, he is the author of an EFL reading series ACTIVE Skills for Reading (2002/2003
Heinle/Thomson). Professor Anderson served as President of Teachers of English to Speakers
of Other Languages, Inc. from 2001 to 2002. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of
The International Research Foundation (TIRF) from 2002 to 2008, serving as the President of
the Board from 2004 to 2006. He has been a Fulbright Teaching and Research Scholar in
Costa Rica (2002-2003) and in Guatemala (2009-2010).

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4:00-4:50 p.m.
DMC Auditorium
Teachers and Supervisors: Are They Really Different?
Ramin Akbari, Tarbiat Modares (Instructor Training) University, Tehran,
Iran
Teacher supervisors in different educational settings are in charge
of teacher evaluation and management. That is, they are provided
with institutional power to fire or promote teachers and define
acceptable norms of practice. Surprisingly, however, not much
published data is available as to how supervisors are different from
the teachers they supervise. In an attempt to partly fill this gap, this
study concentrated on the differences between supervisors and
teachers with respect to their efficacy as teachers, reflective
practice, burn out, and autonomy. Data were collected from
teachers and their supervisors working in a large language institute
in Tehran. This talk presents the findings of that study with respect
to each variable and the performance of groups on the instruments.

Bio:

Ramin Akbari is an Assistant Professor of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)

at the Iranian University of Instructor Training (Tarbiat Modares), where he teaches and
supervises postgraduate ELT students. His research focus is teacher education and
development, an area in which he has published in the Modern Language Journal, System,
TESOL Quarterly, and ELT Journal. He is also the co-editor (along with Dr. Christine
Coombe) of the Middle East Handbook of Applied Linguistics, to be published by TESOL
Arabia this year.

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Concurrent Sessions
10:00-10:50 a.m.
Burnout in ELT: Strategies for Recovery or Prevention
Christine Coombe, Dubai Mens College, UAE
Room: L115
Burnout is a serious issue in the area of education. It is of particular concern to ELT
professionals who live and work in Arabian Gulf countries where frustrations like inequitable
salaries and workload, long waits in traffic and increasing workplace demands besiege us all.
This presentation will focus on helping ELT professionals identify whether they are
experiencing burnout and provide strategies to help them either recover from or prevent this
phenomenon.
Bio:
Dr Christine Coombe is a faculty member of Dubai Mens College and the Chair of the 3rd
Annual Teacher Leadership Academy. She is currently on the English faculty of Dubai Men's
College and works as an Assessment Leader for the Higher Colleges of Technology. She has
spent 19 years living and working in the Arabian Gulf. Christine has been very involved in
English language teaching conferences and the local professional development affiliate TESOL Arabia. She is a Past President of TESOL Arabia and the founder and co-chair of the
TESOL Arabia Testing, Assessment and Evaluation Special Interest Group who organize the
Current Trends in English Language Testing (CTELT) Conference. Christine is President-elect
of TESOL (2010-2013).

Teacher Education: Pre-Service Teachers' Beliefs about Aspects of Teaching

Jafar Dorri, IAU and Zabansara Language School, Tehran, Iran
Room: L113
Over the past decade, considerable attention has been focused on exploring meaningful ways
of preparing pre-service students for the teaching profession (Goodnough et al., 2009). To this
end, many studies have been conducted on the improvement of the quality of pre-service
teachers (Cheng et al., 2009, Meirink et al., 2009, Torf, 2005). Pajares (1992) believes that it

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is hard to change pre-service teachers' beliefs about language teaching unless these ideas are
challenged during the implementation of the training program. Since it is of crucial
importance for teacher trainers to know what beliefs pre-service teachers bring with them to
their teacher training courses (TTCs), the ideas of 80 pre-service teachers about various
aspects of language teaching and learning were investigated through semi-structured
interviews. Data Analysis of 530 points revealed that some aspects of pre-service teachers'
ideas are in line with theories of language learning and teaching but teacher trainers are
required to work hard to change a large number of ideas which may harm the quality and
efficacy in their future classes. The talk ends with some pedagogical implications and
recommendations on how to help pre-service teachers remove ill-formed ideas, in the hope of
opening a line of inquiry in teacher education in Iran.
Bio:
Jafar Dorri holds an MA in TEFL from the University of Tehran, Iran and is currently
teaching at IAU and Zabansara Language School. He has presented work on TEFL issues in
TELLSI as well as TESOL Arabia. His articles were also presented at IATED, in Spain, in
2008 and 2009. His research interests include corrective feedback, assessment, and teacher
education.

Finding Professional Development Opportunities in TESOL

Beth Wiens, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE
Room: COEE1
Are you looking for a better job? Are you a fresh graduate? Are you a seasoned professional
who has been out of the mainstream for a while? All of us need professional development for
a variety of reasons, but we may not know where to find opportunities to get it. This
presentation will showcase opportunities in various English language teaching organizations
like TESOL, IATEFL.
Bio:
Beth Wiens teaches in the Academic Bridge Program at Zayed University in Dubai, United
Arab Emirates. She is a past president of TESOL Arabia and, currently, a member of the
TESOL Arabia Executive Council. Her interests include assessment, curriculum and materials
development, and integrating technology into the classroom.

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Concurrent Sessions
11:00-11:50 a.m.
Distributed Leadership Practice
Matthew Glen, Al Ain Womens College, Al Ain, UAE
Room: L115
This paper reports recent doctoral research which examined the concept of distributed
leadership in a large public secondary school in Queensland, Australia. The case provides
insights into current conceptions and practices of distributed leadership and its contribution to
sustainable change and school improvement. The conceptual framework and tools of culturalhistorical activity theory were used to map and gain insights into the schools leadership
activity system. Drawing upon this research, the paper critically analyses the cross-cultural
dimensions of distributed leadership, and explores the policy implications of large-scale
leadership reform within selected UAE school settings.
Bio:
Dr Matthew Glen (B Ed, M C Std., Ed D, MACE) is an Australian with over 36 years of
experience in education, including 25 years as a teacher and school principal. He has worked
in senior management roles in quality assurance and review of schools, professional
development and leadership training. He has led professional teams in school improvement
projects in Qatar, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Currently, he is Chair of Education at Al Ain
Womens College.

Teacher Evaluation in ELT

Peter Davidson, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE
Room: L113
Teacher evaluation is a contentious issue. Given that teaching is a multi-dimensional activity,
there is a need to use multiple-measures when evaluating teachers. In this talk, I will provide a
framework for teacher evaluation by discussing: Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET);
Classroom Observations; Teaching Portfolios; Course Statistics.
Bio:
Peter Davidson currently teaches English language and composition at Zayed University in
Dubai, having previously taught in New Zealand, Japan, the UK and Turkey. Peter recently

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co-edited three books: Computers in English Language Teaching (2010, TESOL Arabia);
Teaching Writing Skills in EFL (2008, TESOL Arabia); and Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness
in ESL/EFL Contexts (2007, University of Michigan Press); He is particularly interested in
vocabulary teaching and learning, English language testing, teacher education, and faculty
evaluation.

Challenges of Leadership Practices: A Narrative Inquiry of an American Expatriate

Teacher-Leaders Experiences
Jenya Pronoza, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Oman
Room: COEE1
The presentation will report the findings of a small scale qualitative study on the challenges
that expatriate teachers face while they occupy leadership positions in educational institutions
in the Gulf. The data collected revealed a number of challenges at different levels. However,
due to their wide range and the limited scope of the research, this presentation focuses on
those challenges faced at the stage of strategic planning.
Bio:
Jenya Pronoza is a faculty member at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. She is an MA holder
from Donetsk National University, Ukraine. She is currently working on her EdD in TESOL
from the University of Exeter, UK.

Professional Development Portfolios: An Effective CV

Christine Coombe, Dubai Mens College, Dubai, UAE
Room: COEE2
Teacher portfolio development is one of the latest trends in both teacher development and
evaluation. An essential component of a teacher portfolio is an effective, up-to-date CV. In
this session, the presenter will discuss the dos and donts of an effective CV for an English
language teacher and participants will have the opportunity to evaluate a problematic CV.
Bio:
Dr Christine Coombe is a faculty member of Dubai Mens College and the Chair of the 3rd
Annual Teacher Leadership Academy. She is currently on the English faculty of Dubai Men's
College and works as an Assessment Leader for the Higher Colleges of Technology. She has
spent 19 years living and working in the Arabian Gulf. Christine has been very involved in
English language teaching conferences and the local professional development affiliate TESOL Arabia. She is a Past President of TESOL Arabia and the founder and co-chair of the
TESOL Arabia Testing, Assessment and Evaluation Special Interest Group who organize the

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Current Trends in English Language Testing (CTELT) Conference. Christine is President-elect

of TESOL (2010-2013).

Concurrent Sessions
1:00-1:50 p.m.
Investigating Classroom Atmosphere and Its Effects on Student Learning
Andrew Alkire and John Vogels, Dubai Mens College, Dubai, UAE
Room: L115
What is the best way to set up a classroom? Do different classroom setups/decorations
improve or hinder second language learning? Can we optimize our students learning
experience and therefore improve student learning? From our individual experiences teaching
students, we have arrived at very definite and surprisingly similar ideas about how students
learn: student motivation can best be improved when students are in a stimulating learning
environment, which improves their acquisition of English. To substantiate our beliefs, we
investigated this matter by conducting a study that involved decorating and adding objects to
two classrooms and two control classrooms. Our results corroborated our hypothesis: with a
stimulating learning environment student absenteeism is decreased and student learning,
language acquisition and motivation is improved.
Bios:
Andrew Alkire and John Vogels are English Faculty Instructors at Dubai Mens College.
They have been involved with curriculum development, teacher training, blended learning
teaching, and assessment. They have been teaching for the past 15 years in countries such as
South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Introducing Toastmasters International: The Personal Advantages of Joining

Neil Anderson, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
Room: L113
The goal of Toastmasters International is to help individuals become more competent speakers
and leaders. Through a member driven organization, individuals follow guidelines to prepare
speeches from the Competent Communicator manual. Simultaneously, members complete
leadership projects from the Competent Leadership manual. Individuals proceed through
advanced communicator and leadership manuals to arrive at the highest award of
Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM).

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This session will outline the Toastmasters International communication and leadership tracks
and identify the personal advantages of joining the organization.
Bio:
Neil J Anderson is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at
Brigham Young University, in Provo, USA. Professor Anderson has taught and presented
papers and workshops in over 30 countries. His research interests include second language
reading, language learner strategies, learner self-assessment, motivation in language teaching
and learning, and ELT leadership development. He served as President of Teachers of English
to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. from 2001 to 2002. He has been a Fulbright Teaching
and Research Scholar in Costa Rica (2002-2003) and in Guatemala (2009-2010). Professor
Anderson is also an active member of Toastmasters International and has earned the awards of
Advanced Communicator Bronze and Competent Leader. He currently serves as the President
of Utah Valley Toastmasters.

A Team Leader, or a Dictator?

Hala El Miniawi, Al Talaa School, Sharjah, UAE
Room: COEE1
In our classes, where learners acquire their attitudes towards life and visualize goals and
future plans, do we encourage the individuality that can allow the elites to produce highly
intellectual works that may enrich human heritage in science and literature? Alternatively, do
we nurture the spirit of team work? The main questions seem to be: what type of leader do we
need? Is this leader born, or made?
Bio:
Hala has a B.A. in English Literature and an M.A. in Language Methodology. She has taught
English in Syria and the UAE.

From English Language Learner to English Language Teacher to ELT Leader

Hilal Onat, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
Room: COEE2
Throughout their educational history, we see that teachers have had different hats to wear,
experienced different periods with different roles as a student, a teacher and a teacher as
school leader. It is difficult to define leadership but we can identify good leaders or good
leadership when we see it. We also have little difficulty stating what is missing when
individuals act, or organizations struggle. Is it possible to determine good leaders from good
teachers? Are they born, or made? What are the roles of teachers as good leaders?

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In this presentation, the speaker will focus on her own development as an English language
learner to English language teacher to ELT leader. She will discuss what goals she set to make
improvements and what mentors she has had to help her along the way. Reasons for why this
path was important to her will also be presented.
Bio:
Hilal Onat graduated from Cukurova University, Faculty of Education, Department of
English Language Teaching. She holds a CEELT Certificate and RSA DOTE Diploma and
MA Diploma in ELT. She also took MA courses at Aston University, in Birmingham, UK. She
has been teaching English at Hacettepe University, School of Foreign Languages and acting as
the Coordinator of Academic and Social Events, and Departmental Erasmus Coordinator of
SFL at Hacettepe University. Her other duties include coordinating the INGED Drama
Festival and the Franklin Global Spell Event. She is also the secretary of TESOL Arabias
Leadership and Management SIG. Her areas of professional interest include teaching
academic listening, management and organization, and international relations.

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Concurrent Sessions
2:00-2:50 p.m.
Steps Towards Task-based Language Teaching: What Managers Need to Know
Chris Morrow, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE
Room: L115
Task-based language teaching is a popular methodology that emphasizes purposeful,
communicative, and authentic use of English in and outside the classroom (Willis & Willis,
2007). Unlike traditional methods, which start by defining the language to be taught, taskbased teaching requires teachers to identify appropriate tasks that become the core elements of
the course. Students performance of these tasks has pedagogical and developmental
functions, but it also becomes the central organizing principle of the entire curriculum.
Task-based teaching requires a dramatic reorientation of conventional notions of curriculum,
instruction, and assessment (Nunn & Data, 2006). Managers need to be fully informed about
the ways teachers must collaborate together in a grassroots way to successfully carry out this
process-based type of teaching. In the curricular stage, teachers must work together to identify
students needs, define suitable tasks, and identify areas of relevant content knowledge. In the
instructional stage, teachers need to develop expertise as facilitators who model task
performance and coach students. Finally, in the assessment stage, teachers need to develop
clear guidelines and indicators of effective task performance in order to conduct helpful and
reliable types of holistic assessment.
This presentation will consider different organizational models which can allow teachers to
collaborate in the development of task-based systems of teaching that empower the teacher to
participate in the course design process at several levels.

Bio:

Chris Morrow has been an Assistant Professor of English Language Education at UAE
University since 2008. Prior to that, he taught English for 9 years in the universitys
foundations program. He has a PhD from the University of Buffalo. He can be contacted at
gomorrow@gmail.com.

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Occupational Stress in University EFL Teachers

Jonathan Aubrey, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE
Room: L113
You are invited to participate in a focus group discussion regarding occupational stress in
university EFL teachers. I am a postgraduate student at the University of Exeter (UK) and for
my Ed.D thesis, I am investigating stress in teachers.
Bio:
Jonathan Aubrey is a faculty member in the Department of English Language and Literature
in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, of the University of Sharjah.
Time Management Strategies for Busy ELT Professionals
Maria Brown, Dubai Mens College, UAE
Room: COEE1
Google Time Management and any number of sources that explain your mortal condition and
as many more resources that promise to cure you of it leap up off the screen. If only you could
find the time to read them or even some of them youd definitely be able to turn yourself
into a better time manager! What can we do in the meantime to deal with that mound of
unmarked scripts, to integrate more of those marvelous resources into our classes? In this
mixture of presentation and panel discussion, Maria will synthesize some of the relevant
information available and ask you and the panel what strategies to employ to be more
productive.
Bio:
Maria has worked with students, teachers and educators in Tanzania, Mozambique, Romania,
Brazil, Oman and the UAE. She holds a DTEFLA and a Masters in Education and Applied
Linguistics, from the University of Manchester. She has been a COTE and DOTE trainer as
well as a CELTA trainer and local tutor for DELTA. She is an examiner for IELTS and other
English exams from the University of Cambridge. She is currently teaching English and
Academic Writing Skills as well as preparatory courses for IELTS at Dubai Mens College. As
a busy teacher herself, dealing with the daily pressures of lesson preparation and
administrative follow-up as well as feedback on students writing to produce, she is always
looking for ways to improve her own time management!

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CLIL Whats the Buzz?

Tanya Pugliese, Higher Colleges of Technology, Sharjah, UAE
Room: COEE2
CLIL seems to have become the latest buzz word in the world of TEFL and pedagogy in
general. As a novice to CLIL, the presenter aims to demystify the concepts behind the
acronym and discuss whether and how these can be applied in practice in our classrooms. The
session is aimed at professionals who know little (or nothing) about CLIL and serves as a
practical introduction to this latest approach.
Bio:
Tania Pugliese has over 15 years' international language training and management experience
with the British Council, and is currently Chair of English at the Higher Colleges of
Technology in Sharjah (UAE), where she has been working since 2004. She holds a DTEFLA,
an MSc in ELT Management. She is also a CELTA trainer, a DELTA tutor and an IELTS &
UCLES examiner.

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