The aim of this presentation is to contribute with a small-case study to the reflection on how to support teacher and student teacher development towards a pedagogy for autonomy.
In this last period, higher education institutions have faced significant challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The fact of moving online courses that were previously taught face to face or in a blended delivery mode, has forced both teachers and students to reorganise their work, their time, and their way of experiencing teaching and learning on the whole. A few months ago, I started teaching my very first MA blended course, Instructional Design for language education. It was a new course so I could not count on a former syllabus or course materials from other colleagues. Besides letting student teachers acquire knowledge and understanding in the field of Instructional Design (curriculum design, materials design, lesson design) also according to different target audiences, learning contexts, delivery modes, etc., I decided that that was the ideal opportunity to allow my student teachers to develop their learner and teacher autonomy at the same time. For this purpose, I recursively integrated reflective inputs and self-assessment activities in a learning-by-doing teaching process, and provided continuous feedback to their course design proposals.
Data deriving from student teachers' teaching proposals and self-assessment, and from my own field notes will be here discussed with the aim of understanding to what extent the inputs and activities proposed have affected my student teacher professional development as well as their ability to promote autonomy in their future students. In addition, some considerations will be shared on how my attempt to develop my students' autonomy has turned out to be highly influential in my own teaching and professional development.
