Review of Exploratory Practice for Continuing Professional Development (Slimani-Rolls & Kiely, 2019)

This book review on how Exploratory Practice can be employed for Continuing Professional Development is strongly tied to the reviewer’s own experience of exploring the opportunities that book review writing by teacher-researchers and teacher-research mentors can create for their professional learning and advancement. In this review, first, a detailed account of the Language Teacher Research project featured in Slimani-Rolls and Kiely’s volume is provided. This account focuses on six case studies that put learner development at the heart of the project. Drawing on the work carried out by these classroom practitioners who, with the help of the two editors, ventured into publication, the review identifies three key elements - the principles of EP, research design, and personal encouragement and confidence building - which the reviewer then relates to her own experiences and practices with mentoring book review writing as a process of co-designing authentic learning materials in a “virtual classroom.” In the second part of this practice-related review the reviewer provides a concise report on how book review writing can be mentored in such a way that the review writer’s mentees are supported continually in their writing and publishing efforts. The process is treated as a novel way of facilitating the creation of learner-generated materials and supporting the Continuous Professional Development of participants in the learning communities that evolve organically during the writing of book reviews. この書評では、教員研究者や教員リサーチ・メンターによる書評執筆が継続的な専門能力開発にどのように貢献できるか、著者自身の経験をもとに探究する。はじめに、言語教員研究プロジェクトに関するSlimani-RollsとKiely’sの章を紹介する。この章は、学習者の成長を主軸にした6つのケーススタディに焦点を当てている。編集者の支援を受けながら出版を目指したこれらの教育実践者の取り組みを、書評では3つの要素—探索的実践の原則、研究デザイン、個人的な奨励と自信の構築—に分類し、著者自身の書評執筆指導の経験と「バーチャル・クラスルーム」での参加型学習教材デザインの過程に関連付ける。実践的書評の後半では、書評執筆のメンタリングがどのように行われ、メンティーが執筆・出版活動において継続的な支援を受けられるかについて言及する。このプロセスは、学習者参加型の教材作成を促進し、書評執筆を通じて自然発生的に形成される学習コミュニティ内のメンバーが継続的専門能力開発できるよう支援する新しい手法である。