An approach to redesigning the course Didáctica del Inglés for future Pre-primary teachers

Abstract

This paper details the views and perspectives of the teachers on the new design of the course Didáctica del Inglés for Pre-Primary Education. These teachers were invited to participate on interviews as it was essential to understand their point of view on the changes made to the course and to explore interesting areas for further changes and/or possible research. An unstructured interview was chosen as it can be particularly useful for getting the story behind a participant’s experiences and it allows the interviewer to pursue in-depth information around the topic. (Clandinin & Murphy, 2009; McNamara,1999). These interviews were meant to be qualitative research interviews that sought to cover both the facts and meaning behind the words used by the participants (Brinkman, 2018; Atkins & Wallace, 2012). The programme AQUAD was used for data collection and treatment. The interviews showed a divide in general between the two professors of the four morning groups and the three professors of the three afternoon groups on the issues of methodologies, class materials and assignments and assessment. It became clear that in many cases, other underlying issues were at the heart of this divide such as student language proficiency and student characteristics: younger vs. older, and professional profile vs. student profile. The results show a need to continue modifying aspects of the course Didáctica del Inglés to facilitate the teaching-learning processes for all students.