Annie Thomson (IATEFL 2026): on 7–8-week intensives, the PDA’s reflection and action stages got rushed. Six timetable changes fixed most of it. Time is the binding constraint.
Six changes
- Hold the PDA input session after the diagnostic lessons.
- Session time on action vs data collection; SMART actions.
- Colleagues as data collectors and models; peer observation and plan feedback.
- A curated reading set for the key stage.
- Deliberately planned developmental (observed, unassessed) lessons with a clear feedback focus.
- Timetabled in-class writing time for the reflection and action write-ups (30–45 min, with reflection prompts).
What trainees valued
Peer feedback and colleague observation helped most. Smaller, actionable focus areas worked better. Data-tool design and analysis still needed support.
Caveats
One tutor’s context; small follow-up data (2 of 5 trainees did further action research). Conference notes.
Apply in my context (Claude)
- If you take DELTA M2 part-time while teaching at Rahimov School, the bottleneck shifts from time to observers. Arrange a peer-observation partner from the Akademik Rivojlanish group before the course starts.