Peter Ilic and Stuart D. Warrington
Center for English Language Education (CELE) at Asia University, Tokyo

Assessing and Measuring Japanese English Language Teachers’ Priorities for Professional Development

The task of properly assessing the professional development of Japanese English language teaching staff has remained a difficult endeavour for administrators at the university and college level. If there is no accurate means of assessment, one cannot fully monitor, measure, nor properly evaluate the professional development of such teachers. In this session, a survey known as 'The Annual Activities Survey for Language Teachers' (AASLT) (Warrington & Ilic, 2006) will be presented to show how the professional development of language teachers at the tertiary level can be monitored, and assessed.

This will be followed by the introduction of a professional development weighting scale (Ilic & Warrington, 2007) and an explanation of how this measure can be used to calculate and apply weights to items on the AASLT. Then, an example of how this weighting scale was used with Japanese English language teachers working at tertiary institutions in Japan will be examined to show how these teachers rated and weighed survey items. Finally, a discussion of the ratings and weights will be undertaken to reveal the professional development priorities these teachers hold in Japan and how administrators can use this information to motivate and increase their teachers' professional growth.

Presenters
Peter Ilic has taught EFL in Japan for over 11 years. He is currently a Visiting Faculty Lecturer and the Computer Committee Chair at the Center for English Language Education (CELE) at Asia University, Tokyo, Japan. His research interests include computer-assisted language learning (CALL), professional development, M-Learning and testing.

Stuart D. Warrington has taught EFL in South Korea and Japan for over 9 years and ESL in Canada for 2 years. He is currently a Visiting Faculty Lecturer and the Professional Development Chair at the Center for English Language Education (CELE) at Asia University, Tokyo, Japan. His research interests include professional development in TEFL, teacher evaluation and needs assessment.