Taiwanese elementary school English teachers' learning through collaborative lesson planning for contextualised language instruction

Collaborative lesson planning has been demonstrated to enhance teachers' curricular knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and contextual understanding of both school environments and learners (Zeng and Day, 2019). This study investigated the professional learning experiences of 34 Taiwanese elementary school English teachers engaged in collaborative lesson planning during a summer intensive program. Through a descriptive analysis of pre- and post-test data, alongside thematic analysis of interviews, peer feedback, and lesson plans, two key findings emerged. Firstly, collaborative lesson planning was found to significantly support participants' development of curriculum knowledge and pedagogical strategies tailored to contextualised language instruction. Furthermore, effective teamwork during the collaborative planning process was attributed to participants' active sharing of ideas, constructive discussions, equitable task distribution, and mutual respect. Based on these findings, some recommendations are proposed to facilitate the successful implementation of collaborative lesson planning among elementary school English teachers.