Improvement of students’ oral communicative competence through a reflective and collaborative teachers’ development programme

Multilingualism in educational contexts is both a reality and a challenge that must be taken advantage of to contribute to reflection on oral communicative competence (OCC) development and its improvement in classrooms. The objective of the study is to analyse changes in classes and in students’ OCC during and at the end of teachers’ participation in a reflective and collaborative professional development program (PDP) to generate more participatory classes that facilitate the development of students’ OCC. Participants were 14 teachers of different subjects and 348 secondary education students. The PDP includes the use of a digital tool (EVALOE-DSS) to promote teachers’ reflection on the OCC in classroom practices, meetings for reflective collaboration, a questionnaire to assess the students’ OCC and a questionnaire to students evaluate their classes. The results showed significant changes after teachers’ participation in the PDP in their strategies and in the dynamics of the classes, which were more interactive and self-managed by the students.