The Postmethod Era

The post method pedagogy is based on three main parameters:

Particularity: The parameter of particularity is related to a specific kind of teacher, a specific kind of student, a specific kind of goals in a specific context of use and environment. It involves a critical awareness of local conditions of learning and teaching. Therefore, it establishes that teachers must observe their teaching acts, evaluate their outcomes, identify problems, find solutions, and try them out to see what works and what doesn’t.

Practicality: related to theory and practice, in which the teacher should use the classroom to find out if the theory proposed is coherent with the reality.

Possibility: individual identity of teacher and student must be detached; the life experience brought to classroom is very important. This way, it is possible to assume that this parameter is concerned with “the importance of acknowledging and highlighting students’ and teachers’ individual identity”.

I would like to comment that the freedom this new way of teaching brings to the teaching and learning theories consists in a very remarkable event. Teachers may decide which activities to bring to class, according to his/her students' identity, pace of learning, areas of interest, etc. It surely improves learning, since the content aimed to be covered is still covered, but in a much more interesting way!

'Post Method' on the Internet:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/methods-post-method-métodos

http://revistas.um.es/ijes/article/view/48161

Bibliographical Sources:

A NEW CHALLENGE TO METHODOLOGY IN THE POST METHOD ERA, in

www.jlls.org/Issues/Volume%205/No.2/cbtosun.pdf

TEACHER COMPETENCIES IN THE POST METHOD LANDSCAPE. in

www.ameprc.mq.edu.au/docs/prospect...24_no.../JillMurray.pdf

Kumaravadivelu, B. Understanding language teaching: from method to postmethod. Mahwah, New Jersey;London: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2006.