ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the logic that is ignited when responsive mediation becomes a psychological tool for L2 teacher educators, teachers, and researchers to both examines and inform their own pedagogy. It proposes responsive mediation as an academic concept that "develops dynamically through use, to be learned over time and formed through a process of synthesis and analysis while moving repeatedly between engagement in activity and abstract reasoning". The chapter explains that teacher educators can, as they identify what they do in their pedagogy and why, engage in a similar process of thinking through concepts more intentionally and responsively with the goal of cultivating teacher development. It discusses Vygotsky's idea that properly organized formal education is the exemplary activity to achieving a deeper understanding of the object of study, and thus argues that L2 teacher education can be that compelling force in teacher professional development.
