Design and Evaluation of Training Programs - Week 9 - Organizing your Training Course
Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 9 of the course Design and Evaluation of Teacher Training Programs and Workshops for the Master's in English Teaching at ULACIT Term IIIC 2023. Today we will do several activities to explore the topics of teacher research as a professional development strategy and discuss the design of your teacher training course.
Today's Goals:
- Identify how your values shape the work you do as a teacher and your professional development.
- Share your syllabus outline and potential unit organization with your group members and begin planning the shape of your course.
- Explore the Teacher Research Cycle and textbook evaluation techniques as potential development strategies.
- How do my values influence the work I do as a teacher?
- What organizing principle(s) can I use to sequence my training course?
- How can doing research contribute to teachers' professional development?
Warm Up: What are my Teaching Values?
Teachers are people, and all people are guided in their thoughts and actions by their personal values. In this activity we will explore some of the values that are important to us and reflect on how they impact the work that we do as teachers. Click your group link and follow the instructions.
- Group 1: CLICK HERE
- Group 2: CLICK HERE
- Group 3: CLICK HERE
Task 1: Reading Response
Last week you read Chapter 7 "Organizing the Course" in Graves (2000) Designing Language Courses and completed a study guide as well as an outline of your syllabus and unit structure. This is the final reading we will do from this book so now it is time to think seriously about how you plan to organize the content, activities, and assessments in your course proposal.
- Group 1: CLICK HERE
- Group 2: CLICK HERE
- Group 3: CLICK HERE
Before we move on, let's consider the guidelines for your next assignment and a sample training proposal from a previous student in this course:
- Assignment Guidelines: CLICK HERE
- Sample Training Proposal: CLICK HERE
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 8. 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.
- Develop Research Skills
- Learn how to review a textbook
- Carry out action research
- Try a replication study
- Take part in lesson-study
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Task 2: Teachers as Researchers
In your reading this week from Richards (2017), the author suggests developing resarch skills for professional development.
- What do you think of when you hear the term "research"?
- What forms can research take?
- We tend to associate research with scientists and university students, what are some ways that teaachers can become researchers?
- What benefits can teacher research have for individual teachers and their institution?
Doing Teacher Research
Donald Freeman's (1998) book "Doing Teacher Research: From Inquiry to Understanding" offers a practical framework for classroom-based research projects for teachers. Click your group link below to explore the Teacher Research Cycle.
- Group 1: CLICK HERE
- Group 2: CLICK HERE
- Group 3: CLICK HERE
Evaluating Textbooks
Teachers can use a variety of didactic materials in their classes, but nowadays nearly all language courses in the world are based on or supported by the use of commercial textbooks. McGrath (2016) in his book "Materials Evaluation and Design for Language Teaching" stresses the importance of teachers developing a critical or questioning mindset regarding the materials they use.
- Can you think of a time as a teacher, learner, or adminsitrator when you looked at the materials you were using critically?
- In your experience, what factors determine if a textbook is good or appropriate for a given course?
- How might you (and your teachers) go about analyzing and evaluating a textbook?
- What purposes might a project like this serve?
McGrath presents a framework for analyzing, evaluating, and selecting coursebooks which begins by clearly analyzing and defining student learning needs and contextual factors in which the materials will be used. He futher suggests the development of checklists and other data collection instruments to be used to analyze and evaluate potential materials in a systematic way.
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A professional development workshop for teachers could involve them suggesting checklist criteria to create a data collection instrument and then use the instrument to review a textbook and report on their findings. You could also have teachers use other frameworks for textbook analysis such as the ones below.
Click to see full sized image.
References:
Graves, K. (2000). Designing Language Courses. National Geographic Learning.
Kirkpatrick, D. (2020). The Kirkpatrick Model. Kirkpatrick Partners. https://www.kirkpatrickpartners.com/Our-Philosophy/The-Kirkpatrick-Model
McGrath, I. (2016). Materials Evaluation and Design for Language Teaching (2nd ed.). Edinburgh University Press.
Richards, J. (2017). Jack C Richard's 50 Tips for Teacher Development. Cambridge University Press.
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