Teaching a Specialist Subject free essay sample

City and Guilds 7305 Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector Levels 4/5 Optional Unit: level 4: Teaching a Specialist Subject This assignment ‘teaching a specialist subject’ will refer to teaching ESOL in the lifelong learning sector. Preceding 2001 no regulations were in place to ensure that teachers in further education were trained in the skills of teaching. Therefore the further education teachers were a mixture of skilled professionals with or without a qualification in their subject. There was no national system and there were no standards for teaching to which the qualifications could be mapped. Many of the courses offered in further education colleges were vocational, and many of the teaching staff were appointed on the basis of their own professional skills, knowledge and experience. (LSIS) http://www. lsis. org. uk/sites/www. lsis. org. uk/files/LSIS-TQR-Findings-Report-Jan2013. pdf Not the one It wasn’t until 1998, in the Green Paper The Learning Age, that the government first put forward the idea of a requirement for professional teaching qualifications for teachers who were working outside the schools sector. Thus the Further Education National Training Organisation (FENTO) came into being, and by 1999 had published the Standards for initial teacher training in England and Wales, and by 2001 the first statute passed by parliament that made a teacher training qualification a legal requirement for a full time teacher in a college of further education in England (Statutory instrument 2001). The 2001 regulations set out clearly the requirement that a new teacher working full time in a college of further education must gain the full teaching qualification New qualification requirements for teaching in the lifelong learning sector (LLLS) were introduced in 2007. Two teaching roles were defined, associate teaching and full teaching role. ’ The associate role having fewer teaching responsibilities than a full teaching role. New teachers are required to undertake an introductory programme which would give them a threshold licence to teach. This is a City and Guilds accredited Level 3 or 4 Award in . Preparing to teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS). This initial qualification equips new teachers with the minimum skills and knowledge they need to start teaching, and forms the first part of their initial teacher training programme. Full teaching qualification programmes: These qualifications cover the PTTLS requirements as part of the course: Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector (DTLLS) PGCE or Certificate in Education. For Skills for Life teachers there will be three routes to becoming fully qualified for both a full teaching role and in their subject specialism: An integrated subject specific programme which will cover both full teaching and subject specific requirements †¢A generic Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector (DTLLS) and a subject specific diploma †¢A subject specific diploma for teachers of literacy, numeracy or ESOL (for those already holding a generic teaching qualification) http://www. skillsforlifenetwork. com/? atk=876 As Gravels (2010 :8) suggests ‘Whatever has made you decide to teach, you will need a specialist subject. My specialist subject is ESOL, I completed a joint PTLLS/Cert TESOL in 2008. My awarding body for PTLLS was City and Guilds and Cert TESOl was Trinity College, this was the initial stage for training in my specialist subject. After volunteering as an ESOL tutor, I decided to pursue the route to the full teaching qualification and become an ESOL subject specialist. At present, I am close to the end of my DTLLS training and will then move on to a subject specific diploma for ESOL. I am a part time ESOL Tutor at XXXXXXXXXXXX(XXX), I teach in the Community Learning and Skills Development. The group I teach meet every Saturday morning for two hours. This is a basic beginners group and is a mix of middle-aged and older learners with varied learning styles, who come from different cultural and social backgrounds. The purpose of the ESOL provision at WAES is to meet the differing needs of learners and to responding to the changing needs of individuals, local partners as well as government priorities. By improving people’s skills and enabling them to gain accreditation and reach their individual goals, this provision will help build a stronger job market, improve individual job prospects, facilitate progression on to further learning opportunities and contribute towards a more independent and fully functioning society. The key aims of Community Learning and Skills Development within (XXXX) are to: Enhance people’s quality of life by improving their functional English (ESOL) ICT and maths skills and raising their self confidence †¢provide progression routes for adults within the Community Learning and Skills †¢improve adults’ job prospects by developing their numeracy and language skills and offer accredited learning programmes through which they can gain nationally recognised qualifications To emphasise the key aims of my subject specialism, I borrow the words of John Denham Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills (May 2009) ‘The ability to speak English is critical for everyone living and working in the UK. It underpins employability and gives people the ability to support themselves and their families, engage more fully with the wider community and access necessary services’ People learn English for many and extremely varied reasons. Taking these reasons, as well as language acquisition needs, into consideration, planning is crucial for a successful learning experience. For my ESOL course this begins with the syllabus. As pointed out by Gravels A, (2010:37) ‘Whatever your specialist subject, your organisation should supply you with a relevant syllabus or guide. If one is not available, you may need to develop your own course content based around the subject to be delivered. ’ Once the aims of the learning programme have been decided, and the learners’ language levels and aspirations identified, I use the ESOL curriculum to draw up a syllabus and a scheme of work by selecting relevant level descriptors and component skills from the Adult ESOL Core Curriculum When designing the syllabus, I break down the course aims into skills, e. g. : Course aim: to improve speaking and listening skills at Entry 1 Negotiated topics: Giving/asking Personal Information; Family relations, Expressing likes and Dislikes. Asking Directions Skills: Give personal information; ask others about themselves; express likes and dislikes talk about my family, ask/give directions Greet others and introduce yourself Sc/E1. 1a; Sd/E1. 1a; Lr/E1. 1d Give information about yourself Sc/E1. 4b; Lr/E1. 2b Ask others about themselves Sc/E1. 3a; Lr/E1. 2b Ask for something you need Sc/E1.2a; Lr/E1. 2a The aims of this course at Entry 1 are to allow candidates to provide evidence of: †¢their ability to communicate effectively in English, in day to day situational exchanges, and social and cultural dialogue and activities, at the appropriate level in the ESOL Core Curriculum †¢their grasp of the social and cultural structures that underpin successful integration into UK society The objectives of the course are that: By the end of the course a learner will be able to: †¢Give/ask personal information orally †¢Fill out personal information e. g. for doctors/children’s schools. Identify 5 likes and 5 dislikes †¢Identify with good pronunciation 5 family members †¢meet the assessment targets to progress to the next level The scheme of work (SOW)sets out in more detail what will be covered in each week of the learning course, based on the syllabus. I structure the scheme of work so that learners can successfully build on language they have already learnt. It is also very important that my SOW reflects any reviews with my learners and assessment. How do I plan and organize my lessons? Based on my SOW I then set out my lesson plan for each lesson covered. The lesson plan is very detailed, outing time, resources, act What is the level of the class I will be teaching? The California Department of Education publishes the Model Standards for Adult Education Programs: ESL. How do I assess my students’ needs? RARPA How do I track students’ goals and outcomes? What is the core curriculum and what books and materials will be available to my students and me? Your site supervisor or ESL Coordinator most likely will provide you with the core curriculum for the class you will be teaching The target groups include: Anyone, 19+, whose first language is not English and who does not have a level 2 qualification in English (i. e. GCSE grade A-C equivalent). They should also be is eligible for SFL funded provision according to SFL residency criteria. The course is open to learners who are 19+ and eligible according to SFL residency criteria The course is not accredited and do not lead to a qualification. Regular attendance is very important if learners are to achieve and an attendance of at least 80% is expected. . I provide a range of appropriate resources for the course, mapped to the ESOL curriculum. Learners will be able to discuss their own learning aims with me and set these as personal targets in their Individual Learning Plan. Targets are then reviewed and re-negotiated throughout the course. WAES has a learner support department every effort is made to provide specific support or equipment to meet individual learning needs. Anyone joining a course is encouraged to make known if support may be needed. Some of the support provided includes one-to-one help during the course and adaptive equipment. We aim to make our courses welcoming and easy to access. Community Learning and Skills Development do not accept any discrimination. Everyone is expected to accept responsibility for upholding equality and showing respect to others. Product model The product model is based on the idea that there are certain skills to master and facts to know. The idea of this model is that knowledge is similar to a product that is manufactured. The assumption is that generally one starts knowing nothing, they are then taught and then one transmits that knowledge to action. The product model consists of a series of steps leading to the product that allows the curriculum to be designed accordingly. The steps are: Step 1: Diagnosis of need Step 2: Formulation of objectives Step 3: Selection of content Step 4: Organization of content Step 5: Selection of learning experiences Step 6: Organization of learning experiences Step 7: Determination of what to evaluate, and the ways and means of doing it. (infed. org:2010) Although the model organises learning quite neatly it is very Pedagogic and Behaviourist. Using this model teaching follows a pre-specified program allowing little thought for individual student needs and discourages creativity for learner and teacher. ‘The behaviourist approach is deterministic: it believes that people’s behaviour is assumed to be entirely controlled by their environment and their prior learning, so they do not play any part in choosing their own actions. ’ (psychlotron. org. uk:2008) Process model In contrast the process model takes learners as individuals, not as objects to be acted upon. They have a clear voice in the way the sessions evolve. The focus of this model is on the interactions that shift the attention from the teaching to the learning, (pedagogy to andragogy). The process model is about the interaction of students, teachers and knowledge. It is about what happens in the classroom and what people do to prepare and evaluate. This model is both constructivist and humanistic. Lawrence Stenhouse (1975) suggested that a curriculum is rather like a recipe in cookery. A curriculum, like the recipe for a dish, is first imagined as a possibility, then the subject of experiment. The recipe offered publicly is in a sense a report on the experiment. Similarly, a curriculum should be grounded in practice. It is an attempt to describe the work observed in classrooms. Finally, within limits, a recipe can be varied according to taste so can a curriculum. So as Stenhouse says a recipe can be varied according to taste, just as a lesson can be varied according to individual’s needs, making it humanistic. Also by the recipe being an experiment you can try something out and then build on the knowledge of how well it worked to improve it, making it constructivist. This model is about interaction and feedback, again two humanistic traits. 6. 1 The obstacles cited by potential ESOL students as preventing them from participating in learning are similar to those mentioned by other adult non-learners. These include insufficient time as a result of family or work commitments, inadequate information, poor advice and guidance, the potential cost of study, a lack of suitable flexible provision locally, inadequate transport or lack of affordable childcare. ESOL learners are then often further hampered because of ineffective assessment and support and by the lack of a consistent approach across the country. In some areas there is little tutor expertise in rigorous ESOL assessment and few suitably robust and reliable ESOL diagnostic tests. Inadequate pre-course advice and guidance results from insufficient knowledge about the range of opportunities available and lack of understanding of the equivalence between overseas and British qualifications. This is in sharp contrast with some other European countries, such as France, where there are well developed and fully funded qualification recognition services. 6. 3 Long waiting lists often result in large classes which may not allow for sufficient student interaction and oral practice or which include too wide a range of language levels. Many students want to learn quickly for substantial numbers of hours a week but this intensive provision is not always available. In rural and other areas where there are few ESOL learners there is often either a complete lack of suitable provision or a tendency to put ESOL learners and basic skills learners in the same class, even though their needs are very different. 6. 4 Moreover, for refugee ESOL learners, these barriers are all too often compounded by cultural dislocation, emotional distress and trauma at being resettled in a strange country. Lack of money prevents some from travelling to classes.