Some more thoughts...

Following the post I made on the 24th, I had another opportunity to work with experienced teachers, this time high school teachers. Actually, I have been working with many of these teachers over the past 8 years on a series of projects. This time we were discussing a new curriculum that is being built and implemented at the school where they teach. It is quite different than a standard EFL curriculum, which is usually focused on language acquisition. This new curriculum is more humanities based and the emphasis is on personal growth in students as much as it is on English language skills and their acquisition.

One thought that occurred to me in the midst of one of our normal brain-storming sessions- two or three hours without any breaks because everyone is so into our discussions that no one notices how much time has passed- was something that much of the literature on teaching expertise, e.g., Bell, 1997; Varrella, 2000; Schempp et al., 2002; Tsui, 2009, points out: Expert teachers challenge themselves by taking on tasks that stretch and push their limits, and these challenges often lead to new areas of expertise.

The new curriculum being discussed has been proposed by the teachers at the school and all are rising to meet that new challenge. Though they are still experiencing a bit of uncertainty as to how it will turn out, they are all focused on its potential and what they can do to make it successful.

As usual, there were no breaks in our meeting, and when we finished, I and another colleague who works at the same university I do (both of us are consultants for the project) commented to each other that we wished all of the meetings we have to attend could be as stimulating as these. Both of us agreed it would be a better world if time at all meetings passed by as quickly as it seems to do at these!