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Summary Background There is a paucity of evidence to support safe and effective management of patients with acute severe ulcerative colitis during the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to identify alterations to established conventional evidence-based management of acute severe ulcerative colitis during the early COVID-19 pandemic, the effect on outcomes, and any associations with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and severe COVID-19 outcomes. Methods The PROTECT-ASUC study was a multicentre, observational, case-control study in 60 acute secondary care hospitals throughout the UK. We included adults (≥18 years) with either ulcerative colitis or inflammatory bowel disease unclassified, who presented with acute severe ulcerative colitis and fulfilled the Truelove and Witts criteria. Cases and controls were identified as either admitted or managed in emergency ambulatory care settings between March 1, 2020, and June 30, 2020 (COVID-19 pandemic period cohort), or between Jan 1, 2019, and June 30, 2019 (historical control cohort), respectively. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with acute severe ulcerative colitis receiving rescue therapy (including primary induction) or colectomy. The study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT04411784 . Findings We included 782 patients (398 in the pandemic period cohort and 384 in the historical control cohort) who met the Truelove and Witts criteria for acute severe ulcerative colitis. The proportion of patients receiving rescue therapy (including primary induction) or surgery was higher during the pandemic period than in the historical period (217 [55%] of 393 patients vs 159 [42%] of 380 patients; p=0·00024) and the time to rescue therapy was shorter in the pandemic cohort than in the historical cohort (p=0·0026). This difference was driven by a greater use of rescue and primary induction therapies with biologicals, ciclosporin, or tofacitinib in the COVID-19 pandemic period cohort than in the historical control period cohort (177 [46%] of 387 patients in the COVID-19 cohort vs 134 [36%] of 373 patients in the historical cohort; p=0·0064). During the pandemic, more patients received ambulatory (outpatient) intravenous steroids (51 [13%] of 385 patients vs 19 [5%] of 360 patients; p=0·00023). Fewer patients received thiopurines (29 [7%] of 398 patients vs 46 [12%] of 384; p=0·029) and 5-aminosalicylic acids (67 [17%] of 398 patients vs 98 [26%] of 384; p=0·0037) during the pandemic than in the historical control period. Colectomy rates were similar between the pandemic and historical control groups (64 [16%] of 389 vs 50 [13%] of 375; p=0·26); however, laparoscopic surgery was less frequently performed during the pandemic period (34 [53%] of 64] vs 38 [76%] of 50; p=0·018). Five (2%) of 253 patients tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during hospital treatment. Two (2%) of 103 patients re-tested for SARS-CoV-2 during the 3-month follow-up were positive 5 days and 12 days, respectively, after discharge from index admission. Both recovered without serious outcomes. Interpretation The COVID-19 pandemic altered practice patterns of gastroenterologists and colorectal surgeons in the management of acute severe ulcerative colitis but was associated with similar outcomes to a historical cohort. Despite continued use of high-dose corticosteroids and biologicals, the incidence of COVID-19 within 3 months was low and not associated with adverse COVID-19 outcomes. Funding None.

Background Ustekinumab was approved by NICE in 2016 for adults with moderate to severe CD. Real world data are required to establish effectiveness of therapy where restrictive inclusion and exclusion criteria from trials are not routinely applied. Methods This retrospective audit of clinical data included all patients treated with Ustekinumab for CD at 8 North West England and Yorkshire hospitals that form the Cross Pennine IBD Initiative. The dataset included medical history, treatment history, phenotype and disease activity (at 3 and 12 months). Remission was defined as Physician Global Assessment (PGA) of 0 and response by PGA of 1. Results The cohort comprised of 259 patients (160 females, mean age 39.99, mean disease duration 11.78 years) with active Crohn’s Disease. The majority (n=137) had ileocolonic, 65 colonic and 57 ileal disease distribution. Eighty six (33.2%) had inflammatory, 78 (30.1%) stricturing and 95 (36.7%) penetrating disease behaviour. Perianal disease was noted in 32.1% and 46% had had a previous bowel resection. Previous treatment history included Infliximab in 73%, Adalimumab in 80.7% and Vedolizumab in 30.1% with 35.5% having been exposed to 1, 40.5% to 2 and 22.4% to 3 previous biologics. Steroid exposure at baseline was 36.7%. At 3 months 89 (34.4%) had achieved remission and 84 (32.4%) had a clinical response. By 12 months 65 (25%) patients had discontinued Ustekinumab, 63 (24.3%) were in remission and 34 (13.1%) in response (outcomes not available for 37.6%). Bowel resections were required in 20 and perianal surgery in 6 cases. 84% of patients were given 8-weekly sc ustekinumab. Adverse events included headaches (8), joint pains/arthralgia (8), body rashes/urticaria (6) and flu type symptoms (5). Serious adverse events included hospitalisations with infection (17), gastrointestinal operations (26), CD flare (46), abdominal pain (6), medical admissions (8). There was one death from a pre-existing primary malignant melanoma, 3 cases of newly diagnosed cancers (1 small bowel adenocarcinoma, 1 breast cancer, 1 hepatocellular carcinoma), and 2 recurrences of previous known cancers (1 basal cell carcinoma of the skin, 1 bladder transitional cell carcinoma). Conclusion In this large real-world study of patients with long disease duration and highly refractory CD we found that Ustekinumab was clinically effective and safe in line with expectations from clinical trials. Further analysis of predictors of response may help clinicians’ decision making on biologic choices for CD.

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are increasingly prevalent, relapsing and remitting inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) with variable disease courses and complications. Their aetiology remains unclear but current evidence shows an increasingly complex pathophysiology broadly centring on the genome, exposome, microbiome and immunome. Our increased understanding of disease pathogenesis is providing an ever-expanding arsenal of therapeutic options, but these can be expensive and patients can lose response or never respond to certain therapies. Therefore, there is now a growing need to personalise therapies on the basis of the underlying disease biology and a desire to shift our approach from “reactive” management driven by disease complications to “proactive” care with an aim to prevent disease sequelae. Precision medicine is the tailoring of medical treatment to the individual patient, encompassing a multitude of data-driven (and multi-omic) approaches to foster accurate clinical decision-making. In IBD, precision medicine would have significant benefits, enabling timely therapy that is both effective and appropriate for the individual. In this review, we summarise some of the key areas of progress towards precision medicine, including predicting disease susceptibility and its course, personalising therapies in IBD and monitoring response to therapy. We also highlight some of the challenges to be overcome in order to deliver this approach.

Professional development is central to teacher competence and, with particular attention to larger-scale, structured and formal professional development interventions (PDIs), this article discusses how the impact of professional development can be conceptualized and evaluated. Various kinds of impacts on teachers, organizations and systems, and students that PDIs can have are considered, and examples from actual PDIs in the field of English language teaching (ELT) are used to illustrate how such impacts can be assessed. Throughout, various challenges that arise in trying to demonstrate that PDIs make a difference are noted, and the article concludes by suggesting some criteria that can be used to guide the development of impact evaluation frameworks on PDIs.

Highlights • National two-year project to develop teacher educator competence in Myanmar. • English language, teaching knowledge, confidence, teaching and reflective skills targeted. • Several baseline and exit measures collected from 1647 teacher educators. • Impact of the project on teacher educator competence was varied but overall positive. • Project's evaluation tools critically examined Abstract As part of Myanmar's current educational reforms, the EfECT project aimed to improve the competence of pre-service teacher educators in Education Colleges across the country. Drawing on baseline and exit measures collected through questionnaires, tests, observations, interviews and written reflections, this paper examines the impact of the two-year project on 1647 teacher educators' propositional knowledge of teaching methodology, practical teaching skills, reflective abilities and professional confidence. Overall, but not exclusively, the outcomes of the project in relation to these issues were positive, and these results are analysed critically with particular attention to the tools used to measure project impact.

Background The best choice of biological agents after failure to an anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF)α agent in patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) is yet to be defined. Real-world data dealing with this issue are still emerging. Methods This is a multicentre retrospective study including eight UK hospitals (August 2014-April 2020). We retrospectively collected data of patients treated with ustekinumab. Clinical response and remission at 14 and 52 weeks evaluated through Physician Global Assessment (PGA) and adverse events were recorded. Predictors of clinical response were examined, and a propensity score-matched analysis with a cohort of patients treated with vedolizumab was performed. Results Overall, 282 patients (mean age 40±15, F:M ratio 1.7:1) treated with ustekinumab were included. Clinical response or remission was reached by 200/282 patients (70.9%) at 14 weeks, and by 162/259 patients (62.5%) at 52 weeks. The most common reason for discontinuation was either primary failure or loss of response, followed by the occurrence of adverse events and by the need for surgery. The rate of non-adherence was rather low (1.4%). Current smoking (OR 2.48, 95% CI 1.13-5.44; p=0.02), baseline PGA (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.55-3.69, p Conclusion Ustekinumab was effective and well tolerated in this real-world cohort. While ustekinumab proved more effective at 14-week follow-up, we found no statistically significant differences in outcomes at 52 weeks.

This questionnaire study examined the beliefs, practices and constraints related to learner autonomy reported by 359 teachers (mainly expatriate) working on an English Preparatory Year Programme (P...

Introduction Research, quality improvement and audit are essential parts of effective personal and professional development. Increasing clinical demands and the proposed shortening of training time may limit trainees’ involvement in clinical research. Trainee led research and improvement networks (TLRINs) allow us to develop large, cost-effective, multi-site quality improvement and research projects without necessitating time out of programme. They also provide opportunities for tailored input dependent on personal clinical interest. Aims To assess the feasibility of a new TLRIN, GasTRIN NoW, within Health Education England North West, by conducting a multi-site clinical audit. We aimed to recruit trainee members from 75% of 16 potential hospital sites, and from these obtain 75% complete data. Methods Membership was offered to all gastroenterology specialty trainees in the North West Deanery. All consultants were offered honorary membership. We replicated an audit proforma from the West Midlands TLRIN (GARnet) to assess the management of acute upper gastrointestinal bleeds, collecting prospective data over a one month period. Members were required to sign a constitution to ensure fair acknowledgment of work. Video conferencing enabled regular committee meetings with additional updates to members at regional gastroenterology teaching days. Results Led by a committee of 6 trainee members, 27 trainees, supported by 25 consultants, from 13 sites (81%) were recruited to GasTRIN NoW. Complete audit data were received from 10 sites (77%). Conclusion The need for and utilisation of TLRINs is increasing in gastroenterology. TLRINs offer trainees the opportunity to experience research and quality improvement in a peer-supported environment alongside clinical work. This will allow them to achieve competencies required for successful attainment of CCT and become more rounded consultants of the future. TLRINs provide a cost effective approach to answer questions of clinical importance and provide innovative change in a coordinated manner. Continuity for data collection and project structure exists even when trainees rotate hospital placements. Our current model has produced encouraging results, building a comprehensive and comparable picture of practice throughout the region with no financial requirements in initial set up.

In the context of increasing global interest in teacher evaluation, this article describes the development of a self-assessment tool (SAT) for teachers of English and analyses responses to it by 1,716 teachers from around the world. One feature of respondents’ self-assessments was that they were mostly positive, and this issue is discussed in relation to concerns about the accuracy of self-assessed competence more generally. Teachers also provided feedback on the tool itself and their comments on its relevance, clarity, coverage and value were mostly positive too. The teachers did, though, suggest ways in which the SAT could be developed further, and a number of design enhancements are discussed. Two particular challenges highlighted by the results of this study are also considered: the feasibility of developing a self-assessment tool that teachers of English in all contexts can use, and the extent to which teachers are able to assess their competence without reference to the specific circumstances in which they work. The potential for further research around the SAT is also noted, particularly in terms of how it can be combined with classroom observations to provide a more robust overall picture of what teachers are able to do.

Endoscopy within 24 h of admission (early endoscopy) is a quality standard in acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding (AUGIB). We aimed to audit time to endoscopy outcomes and identify factors affecting delayed endoscopy (24 h of admission).This prospective multicentre audit enrolled patients admitted with AUGIB who underwent inpatient endoscopy between November and December 2017. Analyses were performed to identify factors associated with delayed endoscopy, and to compare patient outcomes, including length of stay and mortality rates, between early and delayed endoscopy groups.Across 348 patients from 20 centres, the median time to endoscopy was 21.2 h (IQR 12.0-35.7), comprising median admission to referral and referral to endoscopy times of 8.1 h (IQR 3.7-18.1) and 6.7 h (IQR 3.0-23.1), respectively. Early endoscopy was achieved in 58.9%, although this varied by centre (range: 31.0-87.5%, p = 0.002). On multivariable analysis, lower Glasgow-Blatchford score, delayed referral, admissions between 7:00 and 19:00 hours or via the emergency department were independent predictors of delayed endoscopy. Early endoscopy was associated with reduced length of stay (median difference 1 d; p = 0.004), but not 30-d mortality (p = 0.344).The majority of centres did not meet national standards for time to endoscopy. Strategic initiatives involving acute care services may be necessary to improve this outcome.

Thousands of ELT professionals attend conferences around the world each year and such activity is assumed to make a positive contribution to these individuals’ professional development and work. Evidence of what exactly those benefits are is, though, scarce, and this article reports a study seeking to identify, from delegates’ own perspectives, the impact that attending conferences has. Overall, the evidence presented here is positive, highlighting a range of benefits that delegates report as a result of conferences. Ways in which the impact of attending conferences can be even further enhanced are also identified and discussed in this article.

Background: Interaction of stem cells with extracellular matrix (ECM) controls their fate. Results: MS reveals interacting ECM networks produced by human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and their feeders; supportive and unsupportive hESC substrates comprise distinct ECM compositions. Conclusion: Several ECM molecules maintain hESC self-renewal. Significance: Better understanding of hESC self-renewal has applications in understanding development, generating cell therapies, and modeling diseases., Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are pluripotent cells that have indefinite replicative potential and the ability to differentiate into derivatives of all three germ layers. hESCs are conventionally grown on mitotically inactivated mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) or feeder cells of human origin. In addition, feeder-free culture systems can be used to support hESCs, in which the adhesive substrate plays a key role in the regulation of stem cell self-renewal or differentiation. Extracellular matrix (ECM) components define the microenvironment of the niche for many types of stem cells, but their role in the maintenance of hESCs remains poorly understood. We used a proteomic approach to characterize in detail the composition and interaction networks of ECMs that support the growth of self-renewing hESCs. Whereas many ECM components were produced by supportive and unsupportive MEF and human placental stromal fibroblast feeder cells, some proteins were only expressed in supportive ECM, suggestive of a role in the maintenance of pluripotency. We show that identified candidate molecules can support attachment and self-renewal of hESCs alone (fibrillin-1) or in combination with fibronectin (perlecan, fibulin-2), in the absence of feeder cells. Together, these data highlight the importance of specific ECM interactions in the regulation of hESC phenotype and provide a resource for future studies of hESC self-renewal.

This mixed methods study adds to a growing international literature on the nature of language teachers' engagement with and in research by examining such engagement in the context of college English teaching in China. Questionnaire responses from 725 college English teachers and interviews with 20 of these teachers indicate that, although they were expected to be research-active, their reported levels of reading and doing research were moderate. An analysis of the factors behind this level of engagement reveals unproductive linear and instrumental conceptions among teachers of the relationship between research knowledge and classroom practice. A perceived discrepancy was also found between teachers' views about the research activity expected of them and the support they received from their institutions to facilitate such work. The uncertainty teachers experienced in relation to research engagement was also shaped by tensions between their views of research and its purpose and the criteria for recognizing research employed by their institutions. This study problematizes the notion of teacher as researcher by highlighting many interactive personal, interpersonal, and institutional factors which shape the extent to which teachers can be research-engaged. The article concludes by suggesting key questions that language teaching organizations wanting to promote teacher research engagement must ask.

This paper examines university teacher educators’ engagement with and in educational research. Survey results collected from eighty-two teacher educators at a leading university in Saudi Arabia pointed to modest levels of research activity and also suggested that these individuals held largely technical views of what research is. Their assessments of their institutional research culture also signalled a perceived gap between the research productivity expected of them and the support they received from their university. The implications of these findings for promoting research activity among university teacher educators, where this is considered desirable, are discussed.

Current thinking in language teacher education emphasises the importance of the development of teachers' practical knowledge. However, while several studies have focused on describing practical knowledge in different contexts, there has been less research conducted into the manner in which practical knowledge develops in the context of in-service teacher education and into the factors that influence such development. These issues are addressed in this paper, which explores how three teachers of English on an in-service BA Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages programme in the Middle East grew in practical knowledge, specifically with regard to the design and use of communicative tasks. Using qualitative data, the article charts their development over 3 years, examining changes in their ideas and practices. Implications for in-service language teacher education are discussed.

This paper describes a project about the beliefs and practices regarding learner autonomy (LA) held by English language teachers in a university language centre. A distinctive feature of this project was the manner in which professional development workshops for the teachers were informed by prior research about these teachers� perspectives on LA. Following a brief rationale for the project, we outline its research component before illustrating how this shaped the teacher workshops. The model for relating research and professional development we illustrate here is one that we believe can be applied more generally in supporting teacher development and institutional change in ELT.

This qualitative longitudinal study examines the impact of an intensive eight-week in-service teacher education programme in the UK on the beliefs of six English language teachers. Drawing on a substantial database of semi-structured interviews, coursework and tutor feedback, the study suggests that the programme had a considerable, if variable, impact on the teachers’ beliefs. The course allowed teachers to think more explicitly about, become aware of, and articulate their beliefs, to extend and consolidate beliefs they were initially – and sometimes tacitly – positively disposed to, and to focus on ways of developing classroom practices which reflected their beliefs. Teachers also experienced shifts in prior beliefs they held about aspects of language teaching and learning. Nonetheless, despite this evidence of impact, the data also suggest that the in-service course studied here could have engaged teachers in a more productive and sustained examination of their beliefs. Several factors relevant to such engagement are analyzed and recommendations for enhancing the impact of in-service teacher education on language teachers’ beliefs are made.

This article analyses the process of supervision by teacher educators and its influence on English language student teachers during a practicum in Kenya. The student teachers were enrolled in a four-year Bachelor of Education course for teaching English at secondary school level. Drawing on the perspectives of teacher educators, co-operating teachers and student teachers, this analysis suggests that supervision was brief and un-coordinated and that the feedback student teachers received was mainly evaluative, directive and focused on general, rather than subject-specific pedagogy. Student teachers’ concerns during the practicum were related largely to pleasing their supervisors and obtaining a pass mark, and this limited the extent to which student teachers developed the pedagogical reasoning that is considered to be the main goal of teaching practice by both the Kenya government and current literature in the field of language teacher education (LTE). This study has implications for the conduct of teaching practice on pre-service language teacher education courses in Kenya and more generally.

The aim of this review is to provide a critical analysis of language teacher research engagement. The term ‘research engagement’ here covers both engagement in teacher research (i.e. by doing it) as well as engagement with research (i.e. by reading and using it). Research engagement is commonly recommended to language teachers as a potentially productive form of professional development and a source of improved professional practice; empirical accounts of teachers’ practices and experiences in doing teacher research and reading research, and of the benefits that accrue to them from such activities are, however, limited and diffuse. This review examines the available evidence on research engagement in language teaching and discusses this in relation to the educational literature more broadly. The analysis presented here highlights both the benefits and the challenges that are associated with teacher research engagement, and sheds light on why teacher research remains largely a minority activity in the field of language teaching. It also illustrates the complex relationship between research knowledge and what teachers do, and considers the implications of this relationship for the contribution that reading research can make to teachers’ professional activities. The paper concludes by outlining a number of conditions which facilitate teachers’ attempts to engage both in and with research. An awareness of these conditions is fundamental to the success of initiatives which aim to promote language teacher research engagement.

This study examines tensions in the grammar teaching beliefs and practices of three practising teachers of English working in Turkey. The teachers were observed and interviewed over a period of 18 months; the observations provided insights into how they taught grammar, while the interviews explored the beliefs underpinning the teachers' classroom practices. Drawing on the distinction between core and peripheral beliefs, the analysis indicated that, while at one level teachers' practices in teaching grammar were at odds with specific beliefs about language learning, at another level, these same practices were consistent with a more generic set of beliefs about learning. The latter, it is hypothesized, constituted the teachers' core beliefs and it was these, rather than the more peripheral beliefs about language learning, that were most influential in shaping teachers' instructional decisions. It is argued that attention to the relative influence of core and peripheral beliefs on teachers' practices allows for more complex understandings of tensions in teachers' work. Claims are also made here for the benefits of grounding the study of tensions between stated beliefs and classroom behaviours in the qualitative analyses of teachers' actual classroom practices. Some implications of this study for language teacher education are also discussed. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper examines three teachers’ implementation of a new communicative English language curriculum in Libyan secondary schools. The teachers were observed for two weeks teaching a unit of material from this curriculum and subsequently interviewed to examine the rationales for their classroom practices. The analysis highlighted considerable differences between the intentions of the curriculum and the instruction observed. In articulating the bases of their teaching, the teachers provided evidence of the ways in which their prior beliefs about language teaching and learning interacted with elements of their educational context to filter the planned curriculum. The manner in which they delivered the curriculum thus reflected their views of what was feasible in the light of their understandings of themselves as teachers, of their students, and of the demands of the system more generally, particularly in relation to assessment. Overall, this study provides evidence of the manner in which the uptake of an educational innovation can be limited when it is not congruent with and does not take into consideration the cognitive and contextual realities of teachers’ work. This work thus has clear implications for the manner in which the link between intended reforms and teachers’ actual practices can be strengthened.

This article examines the conceptions of research held by 505 teachers of English from 13 countries around the world. Questionnaire responses supplemented by follow-up written and interview data were analyzed to understand teachers’ views on what research is and how often they read and do it (and why or why not in each case). An understanding of these issues is central to the development of informed policies for promoting teacher research engagement, but relevant systematic evidence is lacking in the field of English language teaching (ELT). The study shows that the teachers held conceptions of research aligned with conventional scientific notions of inquiry. The teachers also reported moderate to low levels of reading and doing research, with a lack of time, knowledge, and access to material emerging as key factors which teachers felt limited their ability to be research-engaged. Teachers engaged in research reported being driven largely by practical and professional concerns rather than external drivers such as employers or promotion. Overall, the findings of this study point to a number of attitudinal, conceptual, procedural, and institutional barriers to teacher research engagement. Understanding these, it is argued here, is an essential part of the broader process of trying to address them and hence to make teacher research engagement a more feasible activity in ELT.

This paper examines the beliefs and practices about the integration of grammar and skills teaching reported by 176 English language teachers from 18 countries. Teachers completed a questionnaire which elicited beliefs about grammar teaching generally as well as specific beliefs and reported practices about the integration of grammar and skills teaching. Teachers expressed strong beliefs in the need to avoid teaching grammar in isolation and reported high levels of integration of grammar in their practices. This study also examines how teachers conceptualize integration and the sources of evidence they draw on in assessing the effectiveness of their instructional practices in teaching grammar. The major findings for this paper stem from an analysis of these two issues. A range of ways in which teachers understood integration are identified and classified into two broad orientations which we label temporal and contextual. An analysis of the evidence which teachers cited in making judgements about the effectiveness of their grammar teaching practices showed that it was overwhelmingly practical and experiential and did not refer in any explicit way to second language acquisition theory. Given the volume of available theory about L2 grammar teaching generally and integration specifically, the lack of direct reference to such evidence in teachers’ accounts is noteworthy.

IATEFL is the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (www.iatefl.org). This report outlines research papers which have appeared in recent IATEFL publications. Four publications are discussed in turn. Three of these were published by the IATEFL Research Special Interest Group (SIG), while the fourth was published by the Young Learners SIG. The range of research reported here reflects the international nature of IATEFL's activities and its commitment to supporting and promoting research within the association. The publications reviewed are available for purchase from IATEFL.

Despite the substantial amount of work which has been conducted into teachers’ research engagement in mainstream education, this topic has been awarded scant attention in the field of English language teaching. This paper presents the results of a survey representing the first stage of multi-method investigation of research engagement in ELT. Moderate levels of reading and doing research were reported by the sample studied here, and this level of research engagement is analysed in relation to two key factors also examined in the survey: teacher's conceptions of research and their perceptions of the institutional research culture.

This chapter identifies and discusses key issues in the contemporary literature on teacher research in language teaching and our purpose here is to outline the broader theoretical framework within which the individual chapters which follow are situated. Teacher research in education generally has a long history (see, for example, Noffke 2002; Olson 1990) and is characterized by a substantial body of literature; we will not attempt to provide a comprehensive analysis of this here but rather our focus will be on selected salient themes. After dealing with definitional matters we focus on methodological and practical issues in the conduct of teacher research. We then consider teacher research from the perspective of those who facilitate it, and outline some observations on both the benefits of teacher research and criticisms of it. We conclude with a brief overview of the structure of the book.

This chapter examines key contemporary themes in the field of language teacher education (henceforth LTE), focusing specifically on the initial preparation and continuing professional development of second (L2) and foreign language (FL) teachers. My scope is broad, and the analysis that follows is not determined by a concern for particular languages, types of teachers and learners, teacher education programmes or geographical contexts. In fact, highlighting the diverse global scope of LTE – and the need for greater connections among its various sectors – is one of my goals here.

1. Key Issues in Doing and Supporting Language Teacher Research Simon Borg and Hugo Santiago Sanchez 2. Toward New Understandings: Reflections on an Action Research Project with Japanese University Students Gerald Talandis Jr. and Michael Stout 3. Action Research as a Means of Stepping Out of the Teaching Comfort Zone Megan Yucel and Vicki Bos 4. Learning to Do Teacher Research Independently: Challenges and Solutions J?anme? X?e 5. Teacher Research in Video-Based Online Classrooms Paula Charbonneau-Gowdy 6. Border Crossings: Researching across Contexts for Teacher Professional Development Patsy Vinogradov 7. Participative Investigation: Narratives in Critical Research in the EFL Classroom Gerrard Mugford 8. Facilitating Teacher Research: Course Design, Implementation and Evaluation Simon Borg 9. Supporting Teacher Research through a Practical In-Service Course Anisa Saleh Al-Maskari 10. Action Research as a Professional Development Strategy Servet Celik and Kenan Dikilita? 11. Practices and Principles of Pre-Service Action Research Maureen Rajuan 12. Teacher Research in the English Language Teacher Development Project Rachel Bowden 13. Encouraging Teacher Research through In-House Activities: The Approach of a Finnish University Language Centre Tuula Lehtonen, Kari K. Pitkanen and Johanna Vaattovaara 14. Teacher Research: Looking Back and Moving Forward Hugo Santiago Sanchez and Simon Borg