The Power of Peer Support

 A little over 18 months ago something wonderful happened. At the time I had no idea that it would change the trajectory of my teaching and the consequent positive ripple effect it would have in my life. It was a simple, unremarkable thing-a colleague reached out and asked if I was interested in taking a German TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) online class. We had connected sporadically online and met once at a conference, but I was far more familiar with her profile pic than her IRL persona. But I was starting some action research on the Self Determination Theory and was keen to put myself into my (beginning language) student’s shoes so I signed up.

And so it began. We started meeting weekly online for our German classes and soon after, scheduled study sessions to read the co-created stories together and unpack our learning. Back in our classrooms, we began trialing some of the teaching strategies and techniques we were experiencing in the German classes. We shared our successes and supported one another on the ‘bad’ days when we came out of class frustrated or disappointed. We would debrief, problem solve and trouble shoot. We built up a level of trust that allowed us to share ‘warts and all’ class footage and be open to peer feedback. It was the most impactful and rewarding professional development I have undertaken. 

After our German classes finished, still thirsty for more language acquisition and hungry for learning, we started a short Russian course, then an intensive 5 week Spanish course. We started a shared drive, shared resources, shared presentations so we could share our learnings with others. So much sharing. Self reflection became a common practice. A lovely addition to this partnership has been a fellow Japanese language teacher who joined us for our TPRS Spanish classes. Once again, the regular online reading/debrief sessions have encouraged and supported each of us. We value this process so much so that after the Spanish course ended we have continued the weekly Zoom catch ups which we affectionately call our ‘Volleyball’ sessions. (You can read more about this in another post) We use this time to demo techniques like circling, using resources such as picture talk and clip chat or discuss class created story ideas. 

Simultaneously, through my action research I was becoming aware of the 3 core principles which impact intrinsic motivation:

1.) Autonomy: giving choice, ownership and self-direction

2.) Competence: perceptions about one’s ability to succeed

3.) Relatedness: a sense of belonging, support, inclusion and connectedness.

Thanks to our mutual peer support, our ‘Hola Amigos’ group members are all experiencing relatedness, competency and autonomy which has ignited our intrinsic motivation match. 

Humphrey Bogarts’ character in the classic film ‘Casablanca’ famously states at the end of the film, ‘I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”. In my case, I couldn’t agree more.

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