Professional Inquiry as a Strategy for Language Teacher Development

Three projects at the Language Centre at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (2022-2023

Abstract

Between October 2022 and March 2023, the Language Centre (Zentrum für Fremdsprachenausbildung: ZFA) at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum organised a professional inquiry programme for its teachers. This introductory article introduces professional inquiry as a strategy for teacher development and describes the principles behind it and the ZFA project. An overview of the three professional inquiry projects completed by teachers at ZFA is also included here, together with comments on the both the benefits of the project for the teachers as well as challenges they faced. Following this opening piece, the full reports written by the participating teachers are presented. These reports show how systematic pedagogical classroom investigations by teachers can support their understandings of teaching and learning. Based on the experiences of this project at ZFA, professional inquiry is recommended as a feasible approach to the development of university language teachers.