Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Design and Evaluation of Training Programs - Week 10 - Training All Kinds of People

 Design and Evaluation of Training Programs - Week 10 - Training All Kinds of People




Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 10 of the course Design and Evaluation of Teacher Training Programs and Workshops for the Master's in English Teaching at ULACIT. Today we will do several activities to explore the topics of loop input, the experiential learning cycle, and personality profiles of trainees.

Today's Goals:
  • Experience an example of loop input and explore its benefits and challenges for teacher training.
  • Discuss the personality characteristics of trainees and propose strategies to incorporate all trainees into the workshop activities.
  • Review a sample Teacher Training Proposal that fullfills all of the requirements of the assignment.
Guiding Questions:
  • How can the experiential learning cycle and the concept of loop input be applied in the context of a teacher training workshop?
  • How do personality facotrs influence the development of a workshop?
  • What strategies can I use to make my training inclusive for everyone?





Warm UpMy Teacher Personality
In this activity you will explore the Big 5 Personality Model, a well established model of five personality characteristics from the field of psychology. One partner should share the screen and then click the three dots at the bottom of the presentation to enter full-screen mode. Follow the instructions in the presentation.

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Task 1Sharing your PD Journal
Let's take a moment to share one of the entries you made in your PD Journal in Week 9. 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.
  • Expand Your Teaching Skills
    • Experience classroom activities
    • Watch videos of teaching
    • Use wikis for collaborative teacher development
    • Take part in micro-teaching
    • Be creative

Click to view full size image.









Task 2Experiential Learning Cycle and Looped Input
In your reading this week from Richards (2017), the author suggests several tips for professional development that allow the teacher to have a learning "experience". Discuss the following questions.
  • What comes to mind when you read the phrases "experiential learning" or "learning through experience"?
  • What kinds of experiences provide meaningful learning opportunities for teachers?
  • What are the benefits of thanking and "experiential" approach to teacher training?

Click to view full sized image.


One way to give teachers a powerful learning experience is to do a "demo" teaching activity or lesson in which trainee teachers play the role of language learners and the trainer acts as the teacher. After the demo lesson, the trainees take off their "student hats" and consider the activity from a teacher perspective before creating their own activity or lesson based on the previous model.
  • What experience have you had using demo lessons and activities as a trainer or as a trainee?
  • Was the experience successful?
  • What was challenging about it? 
  • Does this technique have any limitations?

Click to view full sized image.

Let's try a variation on the demo activity using a technique called "loop input". Click the link below and follow the teacher's instructions.


Click to view full sized image.

Training involves "content" (what is to be learned) and "process" (how it is to be learned). According to Tessa Woodward, the creator of loop input, this technique is "a specific type of experiential teacher training process that involves an alignment of the process and content of learning" (Woodward, 2003, p. 301). This means that the content of the demonstration activity is related to the specific teaching technique to be learned. In this example, a demonstration of a dictation activity included a text about how to give dictations. This concept can be applied to many other teaching techniques that you may want to train your teachers on. 

As Woodward (2003) says, "the advantages of loop input are that it is multi-sensory, in just the same ways as experiential learning, but with the added advantage of involving self-descriptivity and recursion...[and]...some participants thus learn more deeply as a result of this reverberation between process and content" (p. 303). 

What are some ways that you might teach the following techniques to a group of trainee teachers using a loop input technique?
  • PPP - Presentation, Practice, Production
  • Pre-While-Post activities for listening or reading
  • Flipped Learning
  • Jigsaw Reading/Listening
  • Use of some particular educational technology
  • Other training topics
Does loop input have its limitations? What might they be?











Task 3The Personality Parade - Training All Kinds of People
This week you read a chapter from Jolles (2005) about 8 personality types that you are likely to encounter as a trainer. Many of these personality types will be familar to you already from your experience working with students over the years. Click the gtroup worksheet below and follow the instructions.








Task 4Project Check-in
Your Training Program Proposal is due next week. To prepare for this assignment, it will be helpful for you to review a sample project from a pervious academic term that completely fulfilled the requirements. This will give you a good idea of what is expected of you.


References:

Huges, J. (2010, May 28). Do you still use loop input? John Hughes ELT. 

Jolles, R. (2005). How to Run Seminars and Workshops (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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

Woodward, T. (2003). Loop Input. ELT Journal 57(3), 301-304.

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