Design and Evaluation of Training Programs - Week 6 - Conceptualizing Training Content

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 6 of the course Design and Evaluation of Teacher Training Programs and Workshops for the Master's in English Teaching at ULACIT. In this class we will do several activities to explore the topics of conceptualizing training content, exploring the use of questions as a teacher professional development strategy, and work with our group members to share our progress with our course project so far. 

Today's Goals:

• Explore the role of teacher questions in the learning process and reflect on our own use of questions in the classroom. 
• Discuss strategies for conceptualizing content for a teacher training course.
• Share updates on your course project with your group members and discuss possible areas of exploration related to content, input strategies, tasks, and evaluation.

Guiding Questions:

• What kinds of questions do I use in the classroom and for what purposes?
• What is the role of questions in the process of guiding and supporing the development of teachers?
• What content do I intend to cover in my training course proposal?

Warm Up: How do you say,...uh....muletilla?

We all have them, those little fillers, words and phrases that we use all the time which come to characterize the way we speak. Teachers have fillers too. Discuss the following questions with a partner.

• Think of a memorable teacher that you had (good or bad). What were some of that teacher's fillers and typical phrases or questions? 
• What are some of your teacher fillers? 
• How do you know you have them? 
• Why do you think you use them?
• Do you think they are helpful, harmful, or neutral for students?
• What strategies can teachers use to become more aware of the language they use in class?

Task 1: Sharing your PD Journal

Let's take a moment to share one of the entries you made in your PD Journal in Week 5. As you share your highlight, let's think about how this tip connects to how we as individual teachers can develop in our practice and how we as trainers can use these techniques to support teacher growth with teachers we work with.

• Review the Language you Use in Teaching
• Observe how you use questions
• Observe how you give feedback
• Use lesson transcripts to explore classroom language

Click to view full size image.

Task 2: Awareness of Teacher Questions

Richards (2017) discusses the importance of observing how you use questions in the classroom in Chapter 5. Let's look at the topic of questions more closely completing the follwing activities.

• Group 1: CLICK HERE
• Group 2: CLICK HERE

 

Task 3: Reading Response

Last week you read chapter 4 in Graves (2000) called Conceptualizing Content. Discuss the following questions with your partners.

• What difficulties have you had in trying to conceptualize the training course you want to propose for your assignments in this course?
• Have you found it challenging to think of the goals, general categories of concepts and skills to be addressed, or to identify specific content details?
• Have you given thought to how you want to organize all the pieces of your course into a coherent whole?
• What other concerns do you have?

Figure 4.1 on page 38 outlines six questions that guide conceptualizing content. Which of these questions have you already given some thought to? Which have you not yet considered?

Click to view full sized version.

Graves devotes a large section of the chapter outlining the kinds of content that can be included in a langauge course which she separates into three major categories: 

• focus on language
• focus on learning and the learner
• focus on social context 

Now, think from your perspective as a designer of a teacher training course and answer these questions.

• Which of those content areas overlap well with potential content areas for teacher training?
• What additional category(ies) would you suggest could be used to conceptualize teacher training content?

Task 4: Project Check-In

Take the remainder of class time to share your progress, ideas, and concerns about the project for this course. Share your ideas from the content brainstorming activity. 

• What parts of your training are more solidly addressed?
• Which areas need more work?

Click to see full sized image.

You were also asked to begin organizing your brainstormed ideas into a mind map to begin thinking about how you might structure the course, how the pieces relate, and identify areas that still need to be elaborated. Take a moment to share your mindmap and give comments to your peers. 

References:

Darn, S. (2017). Asking Questions. ESOL Nexus. British Council. Retrieved from: https://esol.britishcouncil.org/content/teachers/staff-room/teaching-articles/asking-questions

Graves, K. (2000). Designing Language Courses. National Geographic Learning.

Richards, J. (2017). Jack C Richard's 50 Tips for Teacher Development. Cambridge University Press.

Teach Thought. 25 Question Stems Framed Around Bloom's Taxonomy. Retrieved from: https://www.teachthought.com/technology/25-question-stems-framed-around-blooms-taxonomy/