Developing a 'feedback cycle' in teacher training: local networking in English education at Keiwa College

摘要

Keiwa College, a small liberal arts college in Niigata, Japan, has developed a number of on-campus and community-based teacher training programmes to benefit our students in the teacher education course in the Department of English and Communication and in-service English teachers in the area. These programmes provide students with opportunities to observe classes and acquire real classroom experiences both on campus and at local schools before they start the teaching practice. Local English teachers are also offered some practical workshops to enhance their English proficiency as well as their teaching skills. The authors call these interactions between the college and the community the 'feedback cycle'. This paper introduces some of the programmes they have developed for the feedback cycle over the years.