Adjusting the Control: Management of the Teaching and Learning Process

This was the title of the second presentation of the recent Cambridge Day I attended. The speaker was Stuart Vinnie and what follows is a summary of his workshop.

'Teachers open the door. You go through it by yourself.'

Chinese proverb.

This was the focus of the session: teachers as facilitators, encouraging learning through motivating both their students and themselves. A learner-centred classroom doesn't mean that learners are running the show, but rather considers the interaction between the learners, their interests and their needs, and the teacher. It allows learners to contribute, share and take an active role in the learning process. Likewise, a teacher-centred classroom doesn't necessarily mean that the teacher always leads; a teacher needs to behave in different ways throughout the lesson in order to successfully engage their learners. The key is in finding the middle ground.

Here are some of the roles that teachers adopt:

                                                                                                                                                              

Role	The teacher….
PLANNER	prepares and reflects on the lesson before teaching, anticipates problems and selects, designs and adapts materials.
MANAGER	organises the learning space, makes sure everything in the classroom is running smoothly and sets up rules and routines (i.e. things which are done regularly) for behaviour and interaction.
MONITOR/OBSERVER	goes around the class during individual, pair and group work activities, checking learning and providing support as necessary.
FACILITATOR	provides opportunities for learning, helps learners to access resources and develop learner autonomy.
DIAGNOSTICIAN	works out the cause of learners’ difficulties.
LANGUAGE RESOURCE	can be used by the learners for help and advice about language.
ASSESSOR	evaluates the language level and attitudes of the learners by using different means of informal and formal assessment.
RAPPORT BUILDER	tries to create a good relationship with and between learners.
REFLECTOR	thinks about the class after it has ended.
ACTION RESEARCHER	finds out why something worked or didn’t work.
SHARER/ CONTRIBUTOR	uses PLNs through, for example, Twitter and Facebook to share ideas with other teachers throughout the world.

The key to managing both the teaching and the learning process is in understanding these roles and recognising when and how they should be used in different parts of a lesson. It is important to analyse and reflect on activities we use in class in order to improve them for future use. A pro-forma like this is very useful:

Skills used?	Language focus?
Teacher’s role?	Learner’s role?
Enjoyable?	Adaptable?;

Let's take a question and answer activity as an example. Give students a picture of a famous person or cartoon character (David Beckham, Harry Potter, Minnie Mouse, etc.) and tell them to imagine that they are a journalist going to meet this person for the first time. They have to think of ten pertinent and interesting questions to ask. A second student is given the same picture and they have to imagine that they are the famous person. A role-play follows between the journalist and the celebrity.

If we analyse this activity:

Skills used? Listening Speaking	Language focus? Question formation Tenses
Teacher’s role? Supervisor Motivator Facilitator	Learner’s role? Thinker Imaginer Pretender
Enjoyable? Yes	Adaptable? Change roles Use different pictures

We also need to think about the interaction patterns of each activity and consider whether traditional patterns can be changed to put the onus more on the learner than the teacher. We need to encourage student collaboration and student autonomy as much as possible.

Some activity ideas:

1.   Pyramid discussion - start with students talking about a topic in pairs. Then the pairs join with another pair to discuss the same question in a group of four. Then these groups join with another group to share their ideas.

2.   Dictation exercise - students work in small groups. The teacher dictates a sentence. The students write the sentence on a piece of paper and then pass their paper to the person on their left. The students look at the sentence written on their paper and circle any errors. The teacher reads the second sentence. The student writes this sentence down and then passes on the paper again. Every time a student gets a new piece of paper, he or she looks at the sentences already written on it and circles the errors before writing the new sentence. At the end of the activity, the collaborative error correction is consolidated so that all students know the correct sentences.

3.   Homework choice - allow students to choose their own homework. For example, they could pick four exercises from two pages of a workbook, or seven questions from an exercise of ten.

Quotations

'Students can't be taught - they can only be helped to learn ...... our role is to help and encourage students to develop their skills, but without relinquishing our more traditional role as a source of information, advice and knowledge. Together our role is to make sure everyone benefits from the lesson and supports one another.'

Leo Jones, 'The Student-Centred Classroom' (CUP 2007)

'....everyone has a unique perspective on the world and their place within it. Each of us will approach language learning tasks in a different way as a result of this. Thus, the teacher must seek ways of enabling their learners to take control of their learning. By empowering them in this way, we can help learners to become truly autonomous.'

Marion Williams & Robert Burden, 'Psychology for Language Teachers' (CUP 1997)

Introducing CPD to Dinosaurs - an #eltchat summary

This is a summary of the #eltchat which took place at 12 noon BST on Wednesday 2nd May, 2012. The full title of the chat was:

Practical ideas to introduce workshops on CPD to dinosaurs :-) - what is important and how to go about setting up a programme.

The chat was lively and thought-provoking as usual and was expertly moderated by @Marisa_C and @rliberni.


What is CPD?

Continuous or continuing professional development.

What is a 'dinosaur'?

For the purposes of this chat, we were using the term 'dinosaur' to mean those 'difficult' colleagues who resist any kind of CPD; the kind of person who asks these questions:

1. Am I getting paid for it?
2. What do I get out of it?
3. Are you telling me I have to do this?
4. I've been doing this for years - what is there to learn?

The dinosaur is recognisable by his or her:

• reluctance to embrace new ideas, especially if they are proposed by colleagues who are younger and less experienced than they are.
• smugness.
• pity for colleagues who care about their CPD ('Why bother?'  'Why are you papering your walls with certificates?').
• lack of passion for teaching.
• fear of anything beyond their comfort zone.
• stubborness.
• 'know-it-all' attitude or, alternatively, 'couldn't care less' attitude.
• conviction that technology (or anything new!) has nothing to add and is just a load of hype.
• blinkers and earplugs! (This was my somewhat flippant remark, but it seemed to resonate with several of the #eltchatters and prompted @Marisa_C to ask if anyone could draw this 'dinosaur' we were all describing! Unfortunately, at the time of writing, I have seen no such artwork!)

Perhaps we shouldn't be so hard on such people, though.  As @teflerinha said, 'dinosaurs' are often quite insecure and fearful of being found out, of being exposed as not being good enough.  Their prejudice against CPD is probably based on their fear of stepping into the unknown.  Alternatively, as @reasons4 suggested, their attitude may stem from years of being chronically underpaid, stupidly overworked and neglected.

Other colleagues who are reluctant to embrace CPD may not be 'dinosaurs' at all.  They may, as @JoshSRound said, simply see teaching as the day job and have no interest whatsoever in developing their skills.

Why should we care if colleagues embrace CPD?

What's the point in teachers being forced to attend CPD sessions if they're not engaged?  There are interested teachers and those who are there because they have to be.  Why don't we just concentrate on those teachers who want to develop and leave the 'dinosaurs' to their own devices? 

The consensus in answer to these questions seemed to be that we want to work for professional institutions that implement good, effective CPD programmes.  We don't want to work in organisations that tolerate lazy practitioners persisting with fossilized teaching methods.  CPD prevents burnout and motivates teachers.  You can't teach if you don't learn!!

How do we encourage 'dinosaurs' to take part in CPD?

• @teflerinha tells us to use the carrot rather than the stick.  She believes that the key is in understanding their fear and then helping them to see CPD as a perk, not a pain - something that they can get out of the job that will improve the quality of their working life.  All teachers need to feel valued.
• @timjulian60 thinks schools need to have a written internal agreement that states explicitly that teachers are expected to take PD seriously.
• Make it part of the contract.  @harrisonmike gave us the example of UK FE contracts which oblige full-time teachers to do 30 hours of CPD in each academic year.  @cioccas told us of a similar scheme operating in Australia (36 hours a year).
• Where CPD is NOT a requirement, it should be promoted by management.
• Make CPD sessions relevant and interesting.  @teflgeek told us that he resents having to go to sessions where he knows the topic well.  I and @NikkiFortova were surprised that anyone could feel that there was nothing left to learn, but, if that's the case, then why not share your knowledge with less experienced colleagues?  Surely, part of effective CPD is passing on your expertise to others?
• Have a wide range of CPD options available and allow teachers to select what they want to do (but don't give them the possibility to choose nothing!!).
• Make CPD hours self-directed and give teachers some autonomy in how they develop.
• CPD is best when it comes from within, such as teachers forming their own co-operative development groups (suggested by @teacherphili).
• Allow CPD to happen organically - for example, teachers meeting informally in groups to talk about classes and share tips (suggested by @harrisonmike).
• CPD needs to be challenging according to @teflgeek in order to keep teachers motivated, a sentiment shared by many #eltchatters.
• Encourage peer observations so that everyone can learn from each other.  After doing an observation, teachers can be encouraged to fill in a reflective practice questionnaire.
• Ask teachers why they are against CPD - perhaps bad experiences in the past have put them off.
• Introduce some kind of reward system for teachers who take part in CPD.  @timjulian60, for example, told us that in his institution, teachers are paid double the hourly teaching rate if they lead a PD session.
• Link CPD opportunities to the conditions of pay rises or contract renewals. 
• Get teachers who have benefitted from CPD to share their experiences with their colleagues.
• Not every teacher needs to do the same PD - they can do different things and then share their learning back at school so that everyone benefits.
• Have teachers make up a community of practice (see link below) to pool resources and brainstorm ideas (via @jankenb2).
• Use guile - ask the 'dinosaurs' for help with your class! (via @AlexandraKouk).
• Don't overwhelm them.  Introduce CPD little by little - in manageable chunks.
• Be there for your colleagues in the same way as you are for your students!
• Don't call them 'dinosaurs'!!

Can 'dinosaurs' be converted?

The consensus seemed to be that they can, but that the metamorphosis from dinosaur to passionate educator is a very slow process with lots of resistance to overcome along the way.  @NikkiFortova said that she had met a few converts, but the key was that they had wanted to change and saw that the process wasn't hard or painful.  I myself have a 'work in progress', but don't want to go into detail just in case my encouragement so far means that he is now reading my blog!! :-)

At the end of the day, if the culture of an organisation encourages CPD, then teachers will embrace that culture or leave of their own accord!

Links

Differentiating Professional Development: The Principal's Role - a book highly recommended by @cioccas.
A cross-curricular activity on dinosaurs!
A sharing blitz for CPD via @cybraryman1
A questionnaire for teachers to suggest workshops via @Marisa_C
Plenty of ideas on different forms of CPD via @AlexandraKouk
My CPD page by @cybraryman1
Communities of Practice via @jankenb2
Co-operative development via @teacherphili
The Peter Principle via @esolcourses

How to Memorise Things

This is a snippet from a recent talk given by Tim Murphey which you can read about here.

Five ways to help us remember:

1.   Chunking from back to front; that is, taking a sentence you have to remember and splitting it into short chunks which you then build up from the end back to the beginning.

For example:

“I’m afraid he’s not here at the moment.”

                                     at the moment.

                        not here at the moment.

                 he’s not here at the moment.

 I’m afraid he’s not here at the moment.

2.   Using rhythm – marking a beat by tapping on the palm of your hand or stamping your foot or touching your head.  The actions help you to remember the words.

3.   Putting words into song tunes – we all remember learning the alphabet as children by singing it – in fact, I’m sure a lot of us still remember the tune!  This is an extension of that.

4.   Shadowing – repeating in your head everything that you hear.  Studies have shown that this is even more effective if you move your lips whilst you do it!

5.   Use it or lose it! – practise all the time!!

I’m sure that we can all think of ways to apply these memory techniques in the language classroom.  I welcome your comments.

The Thrill of Student Agency in Classroom Management

This was the title of the first presentation of the recent Cambridge Day I attended.  The speaker was Tim Murphey and what follows is a summary of his workshop.

Tim began by defining his terms and explained that, in this context, ‘agency’ meant ‘control’ or ‘choice’.  He went on to hypothesize that:

                   agency        +        altruism     =        thrill

In other words, giving people the choice and the control to be able to help others is thrilling, exciting and, ultimately, fulfilling.  If we can pass on this thrill to our students, then they will be helping themselves and each other.

As an example of this, Tim gave us a speed dictation which, in a language classroom, would be too difficult for an individual student to write down by themselves.  The aim, therefore, is to get students to collaborate, both before the activity by deciding what each of them is listening for, and after, by helping each other to fill in what they’ve missed.

The main thrust of Tim’s presentation was the importance of student curiosity to keep them engaged and make them want to learn.  He suggested using split stories, beginning the lesson with a story, but leaving the punch line until the very end of the session.  Pique the students’ interest and then leave them wondering until the dying moments of the lesson. 

As an alternative to a story, you could ask a philosophical question at the beginning of the lesson and answer it at the end.  The example Tim gave was, ‘Why is a turtle trying to fly more beautiful than a bird sitting in a tree?’  The answer – because the turtle is striving for something beyond its present capabilities.  This is what we are trying to inspire our students to do!

When students are asked questions, it makes them curious; just giving them information is like water washing over rocks – it doesn’t sink in!  (I love this analogy!)  It’s imperative that we, as teachers, cultivate curiosity in our students.  This idea is supported by anthropological study.  Consider this question:

Why did we stand up 6,000,000 years ago?

a)    To reach more food.

b)   To reduce the body’s exposure to the sun.

c)    Because we were curious and wanted to see further.

All three possibilities have some truth to them, but the third seems to carry the most weight with anthropologists.  Humans are curious by nature and because of this curiosity altruism came to the fore.

Let me explain.  As a result of us standing up, the birth canal in females became narrower provoking earlier birthings – at nine months instead of thirteen.  Babies were born, and still are, prematurely.  Caretakers, therefore, had a longer and harder job in that they had to spend more time with their babies.  There were positive consequences of this, however:

Ø  There was increased emotional bonding between babies and caretakers.

Ø  There was increased communication – the beginning of real language came out of parental babbling.

Ø  There was a more rapid development of cultures and communities – the advent of slings, babysitting and the beginning of mutual aid in the form of midwives.

So, this was the beginning of altruism and we already know that humans have innate curiosity.  Now, Robert Sapolsky, a neuroscientist, added to our knowledge with his ‘signal – task – reward’ theory.  He argued that humans respond to a signal to fulfil a task in the expectation of getting a reward.  This reward doesn’t need to be a physical prize.  Merely fulfilling the task is reward enough because it triggers a dopamine rush to our brains.  If challenge is added to the equation, then it is even more motivating – it is exciting; there is an element of risk.

So, how do we use this to advantage in our classrooms?  Well, by changing activities frequently – every five minutes for young learners and lower levels.  This increases the number of times students can expect to get the dopamine rush and so it keeps them highly motivated.

This is all very well, but we need to remember Maslow’s hierarchy:

                       

In other words, people’s basic needs of food, water and shelter are paramount and need to be satisfied long before they can self-actualise or learn.  Two billion people still live in the bottom level and if we can’t lift them out of poverty, then they can’t learn.  We need to help these people so that we can help ourselves for the good of mankind.  A noble thought and not one that necessarily has practical application in our daily lives, but, nevertheless, something to bear in mind as we teach.

So, what gets students motivated and keeps them motivated?  Motivation triggers neurons in the brain:

•   Most nerual firing - DOING IT!!
•   Next – WATCHING a person doing it.
•   Next – SEEING a thing and imagining doing it.
•   Next – HEARING the word.
•    Next – THINKING about it on your own (random association).
•    Finally – AUTOMATIC FIRING (neural obsession, like love).

    We produce mirror neurons; that is, to understand what other people do, we imagine ourselves doing it. These are empathy neurons. In the classroom, therefore, near peer role modelling (learning from people most similar to ourselves) is really effective.

    Darwinism talked about collaboration, and even cross species collaboration, as having a bonding effect. It put forward the idea of ‘social capital’ – people of like minds working together – and of ‘bridging social capital’ where different types of people work together. In the language classroom, this manifests as cross-age or cross-level teaching.

    Social evolution, therefore, can be summed up as:

    CURIOSITY > CARETAKING > COMMUNITY > AGENCY > ALTRUISM

    Examples of this in the real world are:

· Wikipedia – the online collaborative encyclopedia

· The increasing number of NGOsoperating globally

· The growth of micro-financing

    In the classroom, we need to encourage students to help each other. We can ask them to write their ‘language learning histories’ and publish them for others to read. By giving each other hints and tips we give all of our students agency which, when combined with altruism, gives them the thrill of learning leading to effective, measurable outcomes for students and teachers alike. We provide value added education!

    For further information, see Tim Murphey’s videos here.

Cambridge Day, Vietnam - 21st March, 2012

I recently attended Cambridge Day, Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, a free seminar for teachers organised by Cambridge University Press in conjunction with Fahasa, Ho Chi Minh’s biggest English-language bookseller.  It was held in the plush surroundings of the Kim Do Hotel in District 1.

Tim Murphey

It was a full day made up of four presentations, two given by each of the two speakers.  These speakers were:

Tim Murphey – a researcher from Kanda University of International Studies in Japan.  He is the co-author of ‘Group Dynamics in the Language Classroom’ and his current research is into Vygotskian socio-cultural theory with an emphasis on community, play and music.



Stuart Vinnie

Stuart Vinnie – the Senior ELT Training Consultant for Cambridge University Press in South-East Asia.  His background is as a teacher, examiner, teacher-trainer and coordinator.

All four presentations/workshops were participatory, interesting and thought-provoking and I and my colleagues came away with lots of ideas to apply in our classrooms.  You can read about each presentation in separate blogposts.