Newcastle University

Background

Cheryl Mackay joined the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences in September 1997 as Lecturer in MFL Education. Prior to her appointment she was at St Martin’s College, Lancaster, for four years as full time tutor on the secondary MFL PGCE course. Before moving into Initial Teacher Education, she taught German and French in three different schools and gained three years experience as Head of Department.

Roles and Responsibilities

Her main repsonsibities within the School include Course Tutor for the Secondary MFL PGCE course and co-ordinator of new mentor training for the Secondary ITTE programme.

Research Interests

The value of teaching thinking skills in the MFL classroom
Teacher talk in the MFL classroom and how it relates to learning to talk and talking to learn
Issues and dilemmas surrounding lesson planning in Initial Teacher Education
Formative assessment and the development of masters level writing – ongoing action research with MFL PGCE students

Developing thinking skills through language learning.
I have been involved with local teachers in researching the value of thinking skills in language lessons. This work is based on an infusion model of teaching thinking: the teaching of ‘thinking skills’ lessons following a model originally used in geography. This work is published in Thinking Through Modern Foreign Languages (Lin and Mackay, 2004).

Current Work

Lesson planning.
In collaboration with Professor Vivienne Baumfield (Glasgow University) I am currently writing up some research we have done into the issues and dilemmas surrounding lesson planning in Initial Teacher Education, and with particular reference to MFL and RE. The areas we are investigating include:
• The scale involved when planning for learning
• The content – what is focused on
• The purpose of lesson plans
• How lesson plans are used
• Planning as an individual and collective process
• The relationship between different levels of planning
• Subject specific differences

Projects

• Pedagogical Analysis of A Level Syllabi
  Project Leader(s): Jill Clark, Elaine Hall

Postgraduate Teaching

Thinking Through Teaching in the MFL Classroom
Professional Learning in Context

• Lin M, Mackay C. Thinking Through Modern Foreign Languages. Cambridge: Chris Kington Publishing, 2004.
• Mackay C. title. Francophonie 2012. In Press.
• Cotterill SJ, Lowing K, Cain K, Lofthouse R, Mackay C, McShane J, Stancliffe D, Wright D. Blogs and e-Portfolios: can they support reflection, evidencing and dialogue in teacher training?. London, UK: Association for Learning Development in Higher Education, 2010. Available at: http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/ojs/index.php?journal=jldhe&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=97&path%5B%5D=51.
• Mackay C. Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll- it’s not that grim up North!. Francophonie 2009, 40, 9-14.