Conference Agenda

Research shows that continuous professional development is important for the quality of teaching as it is recognized that teachers should engage in such development throughout their careers. This development should be situated within a learning community with effective pedagogical leadership. Teacher professional development can take many forms, and correspondingly, the quality of teaching can be evaluated using a range of diverse methods. Video recordings have proven to be an effective tool for teachers’ professional development, with the aim of enhancing the quality of teaching and for enabling teachers to examine and reflect on their own practices (Xu et.al., 2019).

The research project Sustainable Professional Learning: Improving the Quality of Classroom Practice through Classroom Videos (SAEG) was developed with the aim of promoting critical and professional development among Icelandic primary school teachers through the purposeful use of classroom video recordings. The study is based on the PLATO (Protocol for language arts teaching observation) analytical framework. Participants focused their attention on specific aspects of their teaching, corresponding to the analytical criteria of the PLATO framework, and the use of video recordings allowed them to examine elements that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. In this way, teachers can identify, reflect on, improve, and develop particular aspects of their teaching and by doing so improve their overall quality.

This presentation looks at the quality of the teaching of literature, especially student-teacher discussion and feedback within the classroom. Research indicates that both the purposeful use of discussion and feedback as teaching methods in Icelandic primary schools, as well as their use as tools for students’ cognitive challenge, are lacking (Svanbjörnsdóttir et al., 2025; Gísladóttir et al., 2025).

Here, the focus is on what has been called “missed opportunities” (Griffith et al., 2015; Tengeberg et al., 2022) in relation to feedback and dialogue. Missed opportunities are instances or critical moments when teachers do not provide meaningful feedback or engage students in dialogue and opportunities for scaffolding or support for student learning is available but not utilized. Also for discussion are underlying reasons for this, as well as how the quality of teaching could be improved my noticing, and acting upon, the missed opportunities.

The focus of this paper is to investigate a unified instructional content and its implementation within CLIL-based teaching of EFL and Biology curriculum in Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) in Kazakhstan. The study was conducted with 47 eighth-grade students with intermediate (B1 in accordance with the CEFR) English proficiency to facilitate the implementation of CLIL-based Biology instruction, with 16 students assigned to the experimental group and 31 to the control group. By utilizing scaffolding techniques and differentiation theories, the instructional framework can adopt a more integrated approach, ameliorating learners’ conceptual understanding of biological content while enabling the simultaneous development of EFL competencies. This paper will aim to answer these three questions:

1. How can CLIL-based instructional content integrating Biology and EFL be designed to simultaneously support subject knowledge acquisition and language development?

2. To what extent do scaffolding techniques and differentiation strategies enhance learners’ comprehension of biological concepts in a CLIL-based EFL context?

3. What pedagogical challenges and affordances emerge in the implementation of differentiated CLIL instruction for Biology in EFL classrooms?

Through scaffolding techniques such as visual diagrams, sentence frames, and guided questioning, the teacher can provide support in alignment with the students’ language proficiency, enabling them to articulate complex biological concepts and gradually internalize both content knowledge and language structures (Gerns P, 2023).

The Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) is, therefore, another significant theoretical concept in CLIL-based interdisciplinary instruction. CLT posits that learners have a limited working memory capacity, which can be overloaded when simultaneously processing complex subject content and a foreign language. In the context of integrating biology content into EFL instruction, scaffolding techniques—such as visual aids, graphic organizers, simplified input, and stepwise explanations—serve to manage intrinsic and strenuous cognitive load, allowing students to focus on germane cognitive processes related to understanding scientific concepts (Sweller et al., 2019). Recent studies in CLIL science classrooms demonstrate that carefully designed scaffolds reduce cognitive overload and enhance both content comprehension and academic language use, enabling students to engage in higher-order thinking, such as forming hypotheses and constructing evidence-based explanations in a second language (Cammarata & Tedick, 2012). This perspective complements Vygotsky’s ZPD by highlighting not only the social mediation of learning but also the cognitive architecture that constrains and guides effective scaffolding in bilingual education.

To address the third question of the paper The affective filter hypothesis can be proposed. Originally proposed in second language acquisition research, this concept emphasizes that emotional and motivational variables—such as anxiety, self‑confidence, and attitudes toward the language of instruction—can facilitate or inhibit learners’ ability to process and internalize new language input, particularly when content and language demands are high. In CLIL biology classrooms, students often face dual cognitive demands: comprehending complex scientific concepts while simultaneously navigating academic English vocabulary and structures. Instructional approaches that reduce learners’ affective barriers, such as integrating subject‑specific vocabulary lists and contextualized science tasks, can lower learners’ affective filter and create a more supportive environment for both language and content learning. A recent mixed‑methods study by Kruawong and Phoocharoensil (2024) demonstrated that teaching with English Science Textbook Word Lists (ESTWL) within a CLIL framework significantly improved Thai EFL students’ science vocabulary and content knowledge, and students reported positive perceptions of the instructional approach—suggesting that such affect‑aware design elements can enhance engagement and comprehension in interdisciplinary CLIL settings.

What is the significance of dystopian texts in the L1 classroom and for young people’s life worlds? Dystopian texts have enduring significance in the L1 classroom, and around the globe [Goodwyn et al, 2016]. In the 21^st century dystopian texts are increasingly prevalent across all media, fiction, graphic novels, film, television series and computer games and hugely popular [Claeys, 2010]. Simultaneously there is much concern about the ‘anxious generation’, those post covid, social media saturated young adults surrounded by a world with many real characteristics of dystopian imaginings [Haidt, 2024]. In a case study of High School L1 teachers in England, the paper reports on qualitative research with twenty high school teachers, all advocates that current adolescents benefit significantly from encountering dystopian texts in a safe classroom.

Is there an essential place for the dystopian in the ELA classroom, as an important experience for students, one that needs to be affective and even fearful, in order to generate discussion and reflection about developing humane and hopeful societies? The classroom is framed as a discursive, not narrowly moralistic space that examines human behaviour and morality in literature, enabling students to test out their attitudes and opinions. Many texts have been used in the ELA classroom from a range of countries and cultures, to introduce the idea of the dystopian e.g. The Pedestrian, The Hunger Games, The Machine Stops, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, 1984, A Handmaid’s Tale.

There is a substantial tradition of including dystopian texts in ELA teaching, especially from literature and film [Marks, P., Wagner-Lawlor, J. &, Vieira, F, 2022]. One important rationale for engaging with the dystopian is because it is a form of social critique and illustrates the importance of the emancipatory and of social justice by imagining their complete absence from human existence. There is also a significant complementary genre in what can be called the post-apocalyptic which features prominently on television and in computer games [The Road, The Last of Us]. The current study draws together theoretical threads from Critical Realism, Phenomenology and Marxism [Goodwyn, 2024]. The dystopian is also considered in relation to the tragic which is a fundamental and permanent element in the English classroom, notably in Shakespeare.

The research treats dystopian texts from a phenomenological perspective as within the broad body of literature, they have characteristics of novelty, distinctiveness and epistemological impact. Teachers adopt them as an outstanding element within the broad literary experience of students. This is a limited study of self selecting participants and within the schooling context of England. However, the evidence is clear of the conviction of the value of teaching dystopian texts to adolescents as part of their entitlement to a full literary experience. The study reveals the determination of experienced teachers to demonstrate to adolescents that literature is powerful and speaks to their contemporary lives and that the literature of the past continues to offer them insights about humanity and its social models. It evidences the vital importance of the classroom as a safe space but one where difficult matters can, and should be, discussed and where ranges of views can be heard and where the restrictions of parental and other prejudices should be excluded. It is reasonable to suggest these findings offer inspiration and consolation to teachers of L1 around the world, not just England.

Reading comprehension is a fundamental competence for academic success and for the development of autonomous, reflective, and responsible citizenship. Its cognitive and motivational components are closely connected to the transversal competence of Learning to Learn (L2L) (Council of the European Union, 2018), which supports learners in developing self-regulation, strategic awareness, monitoring of cognitive processes, motivation, and well‑being throughout lifelong learning (Caena & Stringher, 2020; Mannion & Mercer, 2016; James et al., 2006). Within this perspective, the learning journal has gained importance both as a formative assessment tool and as a structured space to promote metacognitive reflection (Hooks, 2020; James et al., 2006). In the literature, learning journals are conceptualized as powerful tools for Learning to Learn, as they promote the active construction of knowledge by using writing or drawing as mediational processes through which learners externalize, organize, and conceptualize their thinking; they foster autonomy and metacognition by encouraging systematic reflection on one’s learning strategies, challenges, and progress, thus supporting the development of self‑regulatory competences; they enable the valorization of error, positioning hypotheses, misunderstandings, and subsequent reformulations as integral components of the learning process; they illuminate emotional and identity‑related dimensions, with linguistic and reflective diaries revealing learners’ perceptions, motivations, and evolving sense of self as learners; and they contribute to inclusion, offering a flexible and multimodal space that can support participation and expression for students with diverse needs, including those who experience difficulties in more traditional forms of learning engagement.

This study, conducted within the EU‑funded project “Fostering Text Comprehension as a Way to Make Learning and Thinking Visible”, investigates the potential of the learning journal to increase primary school pupils’ awareness of their reading processes in both paper and digital formats.

The broader project implemented a didactic intervention in fourth-grade classrooms across twelve weekly sessions. Each session involved reading complex narrative texts accompanied by high‑level inferential tasks, followed by whole‑class discussions aimed at fostering shared reasoning, dialogic meaning-making, and collaborative knowledge construction (Cardarello & Pintus, 2018). At the end of each session, students completed a learning journal consisting of eight reflective prompts addressing learning outcomes, difficulties encountered, strategies used, and emotional or relational aspects of the activity.

The wider research experimentally supported inference-making and reading comprehension using print‑based, digital‑based, and game‑based instructional protocols in mixed‑ability classrooms that included pupils with diverse special educational needs. Whole‑class discussions provided opportunities for socially constructed meaning and shared reasoning . To ensure inclusion, researchers adapted the texts according to the disabilities present, reducing complexity and adjusting questions.

A key component of the intervention was the emphasis on peer discussion and collaboration, which enabled students to make their thinking visible, compare strategies, and build shared meanings. From this viewpoint, dialogic activity served as a common space for inquiry, a stimulus for inferential reasoning, and an opportunity for rereading and argumentation. Beyond strengthening inferential skills, the instructional protocol aimed to foster reading motivation, engage learners as active readers, and increase their awareness of their own reasoning processes.