ChatGPT for Self-Regulated Teacher Professional Development: An Autoethnography in an EFL Teacher Development Course

Jepri Ali Saiful (Department of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surabaya)

Journal of Teaching and Learning English Issues
Vol 9, No 1 (2026): June

Revealing a course instructor’s perspective on ChatGPT in English teacher education offers valuable insider insight into how English pre-service teachers learn about the teaching profession. However, this perspective remains underexplored. This autoethnography explores my experiences of integrating ChatGPT as a self-regulated learning partner in an EFL Teacher Development course for nineteen third-semester English Education students (September 2024–January 2025). Through critical reflections on my instructional decisions and interactions, I traced how my pedagogy evolved while students engaged in weekly ChatGPT conversations about the ELT profession. I implemented four key strategies: providing orientation on pedagogical AI use and prompting, requiring weekly ChatGPT engagement, fostering reflection through journals and video documentation, and connecting AI-based learning with classroom discussions. Despite challenges related to technology access and uneven digital literacy, I found ChatGPT to be valuable teaching partner to use in English teacher education to support English pre-service teachers to learn ELT profession.