The aim of this article is to discuss the reasons why thesis writing can be seen as a means to enhance professional development in English Language Teaching (ELT). It presents the concept of professional development as an ongoing process in which research—especially when linked to the production of a dissertation—may lead to professional growth. This article first examines professional development and then discusses the reasons why thesis writing in ELT may lead to professional development based on the findings of Tapia (2010, 2012).

TRAINING VS. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Traditionally, the professional development of teachers has been thought of as something that is done by others for teachers, such as courses, professional workshops, and seminars. Guskey (1995) and Bailey, Curtis, and Nunan (2001) analyze professional development by suggesting new paradigms and practices to pursue professional development. Alternative professional development structures nowadays suggest that professional development may also occur as a result of self-directed, collaborative inquiry–based learning that is directly relevant to the teacher. This view sees social and professional networks, including teachers’ own classrooms, as areas for professional learning (Johnson, 2009). It is this last view that I present in this study.

Woodward (1997) compares training with professional development. This scholar sees training as a mandatory process, focused on the development of teaching skills, techniques, and competences with a short-term impact. It is a product-oriented—with a final work—process, having an external agenda and guided by experts. According to Deng (2004), training is directed toward the development of competence in a particular practice with extrinsic and instrumental worth and with short-term goals. Professional development, on the other hand, is described by Woodward as a voluntary, holistic, continuous process-oriented, and long-term process that possesses an internal agenda analyzed with a reflective approach guided by advisors.

THESIS WRITING

A thesis is a research report that is written to obtain a degree (Criollo, 2003). Writing a thesis usually takes place after doing research/studies. In most countries it is associated with graduate work (Tapia, 2010). Thus, most research in this field has been found analyzing issues of graduate supervision (Aspland, Edwards, O’ Leary, & Ryan, 1999). Thesis writing is seen as a challenging task that integrates content knowledge, academic writing, research skills, and the arguments of the writer to express his or her position (Bitchener & Basturkmen, 2006). I see thesis writing as a process that enhances professional development as described by Woodward (1997), helping the ELT teacher move toward an ongoing growth that emerges from an internal agenda but this time analyzed in the dissertation. The writing process usually produces a change in the beliefs of the teacher writing his or her thesis. In my experience, I have seen that thesis writing can be a means to enhance professional development at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Thesis Writing as a Means to Enhance Professional Development

This section discusses the reasons why thesis writing can be considered as one way to generate professional development. This is based on a previous study done as part of my doctoral dissertation and published in a book chapter (Tapia, 2010). The discussion is guided by the main findings of this study, which was conducted “...to identify the beliefs that pre-service teachers hold about thesis writing and professional development after finishing their BA theses in two consecutive courses in an EFL [English as a foreign language] teacher education program in a public university in central Mexico” (p. 209). This study was a survey study that used the Thesis and Professional Development Questionnaire (TAPDQ) designed by the researcher.

Professional Development Beliefs

The main findings for this area can be summarized in the following two statements:

1. Participants believed that developing professionally requires reflection, knowledge, and skills.
2. They also thought that successful teachers have developed professionally and can make a difference in the lives of their learners (Tapia, 2010).

Thus, according to the participants of this study, professional development is a result of reflection, knowledge, and skills. They believed that successful teachers have experienced professional development and, as a result, they can make students’ lives better, and they can help students learn and grow as persons, as suggested by Burns, Lamm, and Lewis (1999). These scholars suggest that thesis writing can enhance professional and personal development.

Thesis Writing and Professional Development Beliefs

The main findings for this area can be summarized in the following two statements:

1. Participants believed that thesis writing requires a positive attitude, reflection, knowledge, skills, commitment, and reflection; they said that the thesis writing process is better done through interaction with others and that it leads to autonomy.
2. They also stated that the lives of successful thesis writers have changed after writing a thesis, that is, they have developed professionally (Tapia, 2010).

The participants of this study believed that writing a thesis is a result of attitude, reflection, knowledge, skills, and commitment; they believed that it is better done through interaction with other people, and it helps them become more autonomous. They also believed that writing a thesis makes a change in the life of the writer due to the fact that it makes him or her develop professionally. It is by writing a thesis that EFL teachers can study a problem they face in their classrooms or as professionals and use this opportunity to study this problem in more depth and express their voice as professionals (Olmos, 2010).

Personal Development and Thesis Writing Beliefs

The main findings for this area can be summarized in the following two statements:

1. Participants said they were committed to writing their thesis, and as a result of writing their thesis they had learned to value peer feedback more and they had become more autonomous and better students.
2. After writing their thesis, they reported having acquired knowledge, skills, and improvement in their attitude, that is, they had grown both as students and as persons (Tapia, 2010).

The beliefs of the participants of this study regarding personal development and thesis writing are the following: Writing their thesis helped them acquire knowledge and skills as well as improve their attitude, so they recognized that after writing their thesis they grew as professionals and as persons (Burns et al., 1999). This growth may also be due to the fact that the teaching methodology, used in the two consecutive courses where they learned how to write their thesis, was a constructivist one. As a teacher of those courses I decided to center the writing process on the students and included collaborative work and reflection (Tapia, 2012).

CONCLUSION

This article presented a definition of professional development as an ongoing process in which teachers get involved in a reflective, voluntary, holistic, continuous process oriented to a long-term change, addressing an internal agenda, and guided by advisors. This is how I think thesis writing should be done, following an internal agenda whereby learners should write their thesis studying a topic they are interested in and want to explore. This would generate intrinsic motivation and engage them in the writing process in which an internal transformation can occur. As Crawford (2010) states, in the writing process we have the opportunity to investigate how we construct the world and how we construct others and ourselves. The findings discussed in this article present evidence of how thesis writing might lead to acquiring knowledge and skills, to improving one’s attitude, to valuing peer feedback more, and to becoming a more autonomous learner. To sum up, in my view, writing a thesis in ELT and in any field of study can be done to pursue professional and personal development.

References

Aspland, T., Edwards, H., O’Leary, J., & Ryan, Y. (1999). Tracking new directions in the evaluation of postgraduate supervision. Innovative Higher Education, 24(2), 127–147.

Bailey, K. M., Curtis, A., & Nunan, D. (2001). Pursuing professional development: The self as a source. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.

Bitchener, J., & Basturkmen, H. (2006). Perceptions of the difficulties of postgraduate L2 thesis students writing the discussion section. English for Academic Purposes, 5, 4–18.

Burns, R., Lamm, R., & Lewis, R. (1999). Orientations to higher degree supervision: A study of supervisors and students in education. In A. Holbrook & S. Johnston (Eds.), Supervision of postgraduate research in education , RARE, 5, 55–74.

Crawford, T. (2010). ESL writing in the University of Guanajuato: The struggle to enter a discourse community. Guanajuato, Mexico: Autonomous University of Guanajuato.

Criollo, R. (2003). The ultimate guide to writing a thesis in TESOL/AL. Puebla, Mexico: ACD.

Deng, Z. (2004). Beyond teacher training: Singaporean teacher preparation in the era of new educational initiatives. Teaching Education, 15(2), 159–173.

Guskey, T. R. (1995). Professional development in education: In search of the optional mix. In T. R. Guskey & M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms and practices (pp. 114–133). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Johnson, K. E. (2009). Trends in second language teacher education. In A. Burns & J. C. Richards (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (pp. 20-29). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Olmos, P. (2010). Voice expression in EFL undergraduate thesis writing. In S. Santos (Ed.), EFL writing in Mexican universities: Research and experience (pp. 148–180). Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico: Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit.

Tapia, R. E. (2010). Thesis writing and professional development beliefs. In S. Santos (Ed.), EFL writing in Mexican universities: Research and experience (pp. 209–238). Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico: Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit.

Tapia, R. E. (2012). Evaluating a constructivist methodology in thesis writing. In C. Contijoch & K. Lusnia (Eds.), Investigación y enseñanza de lenguas: Andanzas y reflexiones (pp. 217–232). México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Woodward, T. (1997). Models and metaphors in language teacher training. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Rebeca Elena Tapia Carlín holds a doctorate in applied linguistics from Macquarie University, in New South Wales, Australia. Her doctoral thesis studies preservice teacher beliefs about thesis writing and professional development in a Mexican teacher education program. She is an experienced teacher educator and researcher from the Autonomous University of Puebla, Mexico.