This week's reading focused on postmethod pedagogy and how we can expand and build on what was taught through method-based pedagogy. Both chapters really help explain and look into the postmethod idea, and how it can be helpful to language learners and teachers.
Kumar, in chapter two starts off by defining the word "method". Kumar states that method refers to not what teachers do in the classroom but "established methods conceptualized and constructed by experts in the field" (24). There is definitely an unclear number of methods that are in use around the world today, but the most commonly known ones are the ones we discussed a couple weeks ago. Kumar's chapter then goes on to explain in further detail what each method entails and breaks them down into three different categories. The Language-Centered Methods, the Learner-Centered Methods, and the Learning-Centered Methods. I believe that as each category focusing mainly on a certain aspect of the learning processes, it's important to considering involving all of them in the classroom.
I really like a statement that was made in Brown's third chapter also regarding the postmethod era. "Your approach of to language pedagogy is not just a set of static principles 'set in stone.' It is in fact a dynamic composite of energies within you that change, or should change, with your experiences in your learning and teaching." I believe that this statement is a bold one. It is important to understand that although your approach and way of teaching may work for one group of students or even a particular lesson, it may not work for your next group or next lesson, and that it then will require changing. Taking risks and improving the dynamic between the approach and classroom practice is key. It's important to take all of these into consideration and use. Being able to implement such approaches and interpreting the feedback you get from them will help give teachers new insight to the future of the classroom.
This is where postmethod comes into play. Postmethod condition offers three interrelated attributes in which to take into consideration. These three are: an alternative to method, teacher autonomy, and principled pragmatism. The first empowers educators to theorize on their own practice. The second, gives teachers the opportunity to act autonomously in the classroom. The third, focuses on the abilities teachers have to develop off of self-reflection in order to get their desired outcomes in the classroom which leads to this concept proposed by Prabhu, the "sense of plausibility." Postmethod, gives educators the ability to look beyond the method-based pedogy. There are three parameters to the postmethod pedagogy; particularity, practicality, and possibility. The three parameters overlap and interact with each other as the boundaries are not clear. There is only so much we can do as educators to help maximize the teaching profession beyond the limitations of the method-based pedagogy. The macrostrategies provided to help utilize the postmethod pedagogy to its full potential.
I believe that the concept of postmethod pedagogy gives educators the oppotunity to expand their approaches to different parts of language teaching and learning. Educators are then not tied down and limited to what the method-based pedagogy follows. The freedom that postmethod pedagogy offers helps educators self-reflect on their on pedagogy and then change what needs to be changed in order to lead effective teaching and learning. Theory and practice play a role, but they are both used simultaneously to a point where the teacher is able to work flexibly and comfortably, while also being critical of themselves.
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